The Hermetrius Conspiracy Read online

  Jack climbed into his truck, hit the garage door controller, and headed up the hill with Tom 20 feet behind him.

  #

  By 8 a.m. they had reached the town of Pittston, a coal mining town with old, dirty stores flanking main street, and half of them for sale or boarded up. They continued out of town on Route 10 and after another half an hour arrived in an even smaller town named Combs Junction. Jack found the local convenience store – actually it was the only store and gas station in town – and pulled up at the gas pump. “Rick, will you fill us up with gas while I go in to meet the rental agent.”

  Jack explained his plan. “I’m going in there looking and talking like a good ole West Virginia mountain boy. I want him, and anyone else who might be in there, to think that we’re one of them. These mountain folk don’t take kindly to outsiders, and I want the locals on our side if we need them. Everyone in these parts distrusts the Government, so if we’re one of them, they won’t tell any easterners that we’ve been here. Lynn, if you can go along with the act hop out and let’s go.”

  They both slipped into the slow, relaxed style of walk they remembered from their early life and went inside. There were several people in the store, and they all turned around to look. “I’m lookin fer Jake Grimes who rents places.”

  The man behind the counter spoke through his gray beard, “That’d be me. I run the store, rent out vacant houses around here, and check out strangers. I’m also the Constable and Justice of the Peace. Hell, I’d be mayor is we was big enough to qualify for one. What can I do fer ya?”

  “I’m Cecil Blair. This here’s my wife, Hazel. My brother-in-law, that’s him out there puttin’ gas in the Jeep, he called about renting the Porter place up Hinson holler?”

  “Yep. What about it?”

  “We’d like to check it out, and if we like it, I’d like to rent it for a couple months.”

  Grimes eyed him suspiciously. “Just what do y’all plan to be doin’ up there? We know people like you who rent a place, set up a meth lab, and if they don’t burn the place down they leave it such a mess that it’s no good fer livin’ in anymore. Unless you can convince me that’s not yer intentions, y’all can just head back down the road to Pittston right now.”

  Jack was ready for the question. “No sir, that’s nothing we’re into. My wife here writes books about how the Gov’mint cheats it’s citizens. She’s fixin’ to do a book on what the President’s freeze on coal mining has done to the local people and towns. We want to spend some time in the coal mining towns around here, takin’ pictures and talkin’ to people about how much worse their lives are now.”

  Grimes thought a bit. “If what yer sayin is true, show me your cameras.”

  “Come on out to the Jeep and I’ll show ya.”

  Before they left Jack knew they would need a cover story, so he took a couple of professional-looking cameras out of his truck and put them in the back of the Jeep. When they got outside, Jack raised the tailgate, moved a couple of things, and showed him the cameras.

  “Them’s some fancy cameras you got there, Cecil. Y’all go up and have a look, then you come on back down and we’ll reach an agreement. Lemme git the key fer ya.” Jack knew he was in when Grimes used his first name. He was now an honorary local.

  “Here, let me pay you fer the gas first.”

  “You can settle up when you come back. I trust ya. Besides, I know where ya live.” Jack got back in the truck as Grimes laughed at his own joke.

  #

  It took another fifteen minutes for them to get up to the double-wide mobile home. The place was well kept – someone had been mowing the lawn and cutting the weeds back to the tree line. When they got out Jack pulled them together and whispered his cover story to them. They would all have to be in character from now on because these are nosey folks and they could expect some snooping. The inside smelled musty and needed a good dusting, but it would work for them. Jack pulled out his cell phone to make sure the 4G coverage was solid and told the others to unload the truck and trailer while he went back to the store to close the deal.

  “Lynn, you come with me. If they hear you talk and joke with them, they will be even more relaxed about us. Our background story is we grew up over the mountain in Madison, met in high school, and got married when we graduated because I knocked you up. And don’t forget your name is Hazel and my name is Cecil.”

  “That’s a story I can remember.”

  Jack and Lynn drove back down the holler to the store and went inside. The same few guys were still hanging around.

  “Well, what’d ya think?”

  “It’ll do just fine, Jake. I’d like to rent it for three months and maybe add a month or two if we’re not done with our work.”

  “Sorry, the shortest you can rent it fer is four months. An’ it’s $400 a month.”

  Jack knew a local would never settle for the first price offered. “That’s a little more than we got, Jake. I was planning to give you three months rent, cash, up front, if you can see yer way to lettin’ us have it for $350 a month.”

  “Cash in advance, ya say?”

  “That’s right, I got it right here. Other than a little left over for food and beer, that will about clean me out. Have you got any money on ya, sweetheart?”

  Lynn picked right up on Jack’s cue. “I spent all mine on gas getting us here, Cecil. I got nothin’. The company that’s gonna print my book says they’ll send me a $500 advance once I got some pictures to show ‘em, but that will take me a bit. And when that comes in, we’ll need it fer food an’ gas money. I suppose I could do table dances at the Coal Dust Inn we saw back down the road.” Lynn said with a big stage wink.

  Jack answered, “Well, yer pretty enough to bring in some good money doin’ that, but then I’d hafta whup all those guys fer givin’ you the eye.”

  Everyone laughed at that.

  “I gotta keep my eye on this woman. She’s hard to keep satisfied, if ya know what I mean.”

  Lynn added another line. “Well, maybe if ya knew how to satisfy a woman, I wouldn’t be lookin’ around.” That brought a roar of laughter at the way she put Jack down, and Jack joined in to let them know that it wasn’t really an issue.”

  Jack turned back to Grimes. “So what about it. Can I have the place for three months at $350 a month?”

  “Make it $375 and ya got a deal.”

  Jack shook his head and peeled the money off the roll in his pocket. “You drive a hard bargain Jake, but I wouldn’t respect ya if ya didn’t.” They both laughed at that.

  “Hey, there’s an old station wagon in the garage. You can move it out in the yard if ya want to put both yer trucks in there. Heck, you can even drive it if ya want to.

  “I’ll need some stuff to take up to the house. Toilet paper, paper towels, some cereal, milk, bread and lunch meat. Let me round it up.”

  Lynn pitched in “Don’t ferget the beer, darlin’. Jake, y’all got any Corona back there in the cooler?”

  “Sure enough. How much ya want?”

  “Let’s start with three six packs. I’ll come back for more when that’s gone. And throw in a pouch of Red Man for Cecil.”

  Jack and Lynn shopped for stuff they really didn’t need, but picked up what a couple from around here might buy and laid it on the counter. Jake totaled it up and said “With the gas that’ll be $73.74, Missus Blair.”

  “Ferget the Missus Blair stuff. I’m Hazel. Cecil you heard the man. Pay ‘im.”

  Jack peeled off another $80 and let Jake see that the roll was almost gone. They loaded the bags into the truck and headed back up the holler.

  “I’m having fun slipping back into the old West Virginia ways, Jack. How about you?”

  “Yeah, it’s like riding a bike. You never forget how.”

  “Now . . . let’s talk about you knocking me up. When is that going to happen?”

  “You’re way past that, aren’t you?”

  “Of course I am. But it would be fun to pret
end we’re back in high school getting all hot and bothered.”

  “That would be fun, but I’m not flexible enough to do it in the back seat of this truck.”

  “Maybe when we get back to the double wide we can pretend the bed is the back seat of the truck.”

  “I think you’re trying to get me all hot and bothered, dear.”

  “Did I?”

  “Oh yeah!”

  They both enjoyed this kind of racy banter and understood it would stay at the verbal level for now.

  #

  Jack woke up just as the sun was coming up. He looked down at Lynn’s face and felt a tenderness in his heart that he hadn’t felt in years. He tried to get his arm out from under her head without waking her up, but she grabbed it and said “Oh no you don’t. We have at least thirty more minutes before the others get up. Let’s just lay here and enjoy it.”

  They lay like that for several minutes, enjoying the feel of the other’s body. Then Lynn said “Last night was wonderful, Jack, even though all we did was neck.”

  “Yeah, when you can focus on the necking and not where you hope it’s going to go, it’s really pleasurable. Helen and I did a lot of necking for several years before we finally got married.” Jack gave her a long kiss and said “We better get out of bed before we attack each other,” as he got up and headed for the bathroom.

  Lynn added “And when do you think that will be, Jack?”

  Jack stopped and turned around. “I want it to be something special, Lynn. I want us to be where all we are focused on is our love for each other. With all that’s going on, we can’t totally clear our minds.”

  Lynn sighed as Jack closed the bathroom door, and got up to take O’Malley for his morning walk.

  Chapter 47

  They all shared a relaxed breakfast at their new hideaway. They decided to call the place Double Wide. If someone picked up on any of their communications, they would never figure out what that meant.

  After an hour, Jack broke into the conversations. “I hate to say it, but it’s time to get back to work. It’s already the third week in November and we don’t have anything solid we can use to expose Herman’s conspiracy. The so-called Super Tuesday, the day when twelve states have their primaries on the same day, is the first week of March, and the conspiracy candidate will have to jump into the Republican race at least three weeks before that if he wants to gain enough momentum to win some primaries. If he can win most of them, he probably has a lock on the nomination. We have to get to the root of this before then, or we will have a steep uphill battle to expose something before the Presidential election.”

  Rick spoke up. “I think a key to identifying who is behind this, or at least who is funding it, will be to go into all the elections that the right-wing candidates have won in the past six years. We already have some of the information from Harriet’s work about why certain candidates won and their opponents crashed and burned. I would like to work with Harriet to dig into the financials of every one of those races and try to identify where the money came from.”

  His wife added “That’s what was going through my mind when I put the data together on elections won by extreme conservatives. I don’t have the expertise to chase the money, but Rick does. With a little help from Jack on some specialized hacking software, I think we can trace the money back to a single source.”

  “Then those are your marching orders.”

  Tom asked “What else should we be pursuing, Jack?”

  “Well, I’ve been doing some thinking about the email from Hermetrius, and I think I have an approach to meeting with him that will minimize the risk.”

  Lynn knew this was coming, but she had to choke back a sob anyway. She couldn’t lose him now. Not after how close they had gotten.

  “Here’s what I have in mind. It will need some refinement along the way, but I think it will help us learn all we can about Herman.

  First of all, I don’t believe for a minute that the Big Man would actually take the chance of meeting me. For all he knows, I could shoot him on sight and run. So that means he will send an underling, but it will be someone who knows enough about the conspiracy to answer my questions.”

  Tom thought for a second. “I think you’re right on with that assessment, Jack. But where can you meet him that provides you with a high probability of escaping their trap. And you know they will set a trap.”

  “Here’s what I have come up with. I’ll meet him at the City Center Mall in downtown Washington . . . on Black Friday . . . at lunch hour. The huge crowds will give me all the cover I need to get in and out. I’ll drive from here in the old station wagon to the FedEx office in Vienna. There will be a stripper’s Santa suit ordered ahead of time there for me to pickup. The stripper version is so I can rip it off quickly to change my appearance in the Mall. I’ll put the Santa suit on in the Vienna Metro station and catch the Red Line to The City Center Mall in downtown D.C. No one will pay any attention to someone in a Santa suit on Black Friday.”

  Lynn broke in, “Save the Santa suit. I want a private strip show afterwards.”

  “Sorry dear, I’ll have to leave that in the trash at the mall.”

  “So how will you meet up with Herman, or whoever they send?”

  Jack went on to describe the details of his plan. The others suggested a couple of improvements, but in the end they all agreed that it was the best option. Then he went to his computer and composed an email to Hermetrius.

  Hermetrius,

  I will meet with you but only under the conditions I specify. If you deviate from them, I won’t show up. I will have my people watching. Come alone. If you bring anyone with you, I won’t show up. If we see anything suspicious, my crew and I will leave immediately.

  We will meet at the City Center Mall in D.C.

  You will wear a brown suit, a white and purple striped tie, and sneakers.

  You will not carry a weapon of any kind. We will frisk you when you arrive.

  You will go in the main entrance between 11:55 a.m. and 12:05 p.m.

  Walk to the fountain at the center of the mall, then take a right turn and walk to the far end of the East shopping concourse.

  Sit on the bench in front of the Radio Shack store and wait for me.

  If I see anything suspicious, my crew and I will leave immediately. I’m looking forward to hearing about your plans to make America great again.

  Jack Preston

  #

  A week later, with tears streaming down her face, Lynn kissed Jack goodbye and he climbed into the station wagon. He got to Vienna by 9 a.m., picked up the Santa suit, and put it on before getting on the Metro train to City Center. Other than a couple of kids smiling at him shyly, no one noticed him. He walked from the Metro station directly into the mall just after 11 o’clock and checked out the scenario at the main entrance. The bench was where he expected it to be – twenty feet inside the doors. There was also a Christmas tree right behind the bench. ‘Perfect,’ Jack thought. ‘I can stand beside it and greet people as they come in while I’m looking for the man in the brown suit and sneakers.’

  Jack went back to the south entrance, where he came in from the Metro station, and found the restroom he saw on the online store map. He went inside and looked around. Then he pulled out an OUT OF ORDER sign he printed from his computer and stuck it on the door of the last stall. As he came out, he stuck up another sign on the entrance door that said CLOSED FOR REPAIRS. Then he sat on a bench nearby and waited until 11:45.

  Chapter 48

  Hermetrius read Jack Preston’s email one more time out loud. “What do you think, Norton? How do we want to play this?”

  “The plan we have been working on will assure your safety and give us a good possibility of catching Preston this time, sir.”

  “Assure my safety. I will not be the one meeting with Preston. You will.”

  Norton gulped. “Me sir? Why can’t it be Alexei or one of his men?”

  “Because they all have Russian acce
nts, idiot. He would never believe a Russian was smart enough to think up this kind of plan. No, it will be you, Norton.”

  “Will we have a discussion or will Alexei’s men grab him right away?”

  “No, I want to dangle what we have in mind for the new Government in front of him and see how he reacts. Not the details, of course, but the broad framework. He may want to join us eventually. When you two finish your discussion, then we’ll grab him.”

  Jim didn’t respond right away. He was thinking through his own options for getting out of this assignment. Winston broke into his thoughts. “What’s the matter. Cat got your tongue? Or maybe you can’t think of a way out of this.”

  “No sir. I’ll do it. Just give me the specific points I can reveal to him. Will I be wearing a wire so his responses can be recorded?”

  “Of course. You don’t think I would let you go in there and tell him whatever you want to. I’ll be in the parking lot with Alexei listening to everything you both say. Any deviation from the script and I’ll have Alexei’s security agents grab you both. You got that?”

  “Yes sir.”

  “Now I want to hear what you have in mind for capturing him.”

  “Alexei will have a dozen of his best agents in the mall thirty minutes before the meeting. They will walk through the crowd looking for Preston. He will have a facial disguise, of course, but Alexei has an answer for that; a computer program that uses photos of the subject’s face to create images of what the subject looks like with the most likely disguises. My men will have a collection of these images to look at as they stroll through the mall. As the meeting time gets near, they will concentrate on the east concourse since that’s where the meeting will be. If they spot him before the meeting they will keep him under surveillance until I leave.”

  “That sounds reasonable, but with all the shoppers crowding the place I want twenty men from Alexei there. How will your men get him out of the mall once they grab him?”

  “There will be a van waiting at the East concourse exit. They will escort him out the door and into the van, and then take him to a secure place for questioning.”