The Hermetrius Conspiracy Read online

  Cramer called right after lunch. “Here’s Foreman’s cell phone number and address. You ready to write?” Jack dialed Forman’s cell number. It rang eight times and went to voice mail, so Jack left his call-back number and asked Foreman to call him back ASAP.

  He was still at a dead end with Hermetrius. Who could he be? Or she? Or was it a “they,” an organization. There has to be some record somewhere. There were hundreds of search engines, each with access to their own set of databases. If he could just find the right one that would have something on Hermetrius. Jack made a list of families of databases – political, criminal, news stories, public figures, movie and music personalities – none of those seemed likely. If this person or organization is involved in organized crime, there might be something in the federal law enforcement files – the FBI. Or, what about the drug trade? That would be in DEA records. If they’re into arms dealing the ATF might have something.

  But to search these databases Jack would have to hack into all three of the agencies. Their computer systems were among the most secure in the world, but Jack thought he might be able to get into them. It would be extremely risky, though, and he didn’t want to do it using Lynn’s server. If they found a way to trace it back he didn’t want to get Lynn arrested. His answer to that was to run the hacking attacks through his main computer back at his cabin. He had his server set up to bounce internet links around the world a few times before connecting to the end target. If he limited his attacks to a few minutes each time, their counter attacks couldn’t get through all those paths in time to get back to his cabin computer. But he would have to write some more custom software, and that would take a few days at least. Maybe he could get some help from his contacts on the Blacknet. He needed more time to think about that, but his thoughts were interrupted by his phone ringtone. “Hello”

  The man at the other end asked “A call from this phone was received by Jim Foreman’s cell phone earlier today. Who am I speaking with, please.”

  “I’m a colleague of Jim’s from work. Is he available?”

  “And what is your name, sir?”

  “Alan Richardson.” Without time to think Jack gave the name of the dead FRA agent.

  “And where do you live, Mr. Richardson?”

  “Bethesda, Maryland. What are all these questions about. And who am I speaking to?”

  “This is Lt. Xavier Rolle of the Nassau, Bahamas Police Department. Mr. Foreman died yesterday in a boating accident.”’

  Jack played the role of a shocked friend. “Oh, no! Was his wife with him?”

  “No, she was still at the hotel. Mr. Richardson went out in a small sailboat alone.”

  “How is his wife taking it? Will she be coming back home soon?”

  “No, she will have to stay here for several days until the coroner is finished with his examination and the body is released.”

  “Thank you, Lt. Rolle. Please give my condolences to Mrs. Foreman.” That put a whole new twist in Jack’s investigation. Now he had no way to find the account number from the file Foreman planted. It wasn’t a major setback, but it left another hole in the list of targets this conspiracy was after.

  Jack heard the new email signal and saw one from Lynn. She was downstairs. Why would she send an email?

  Hi Jack,

  Since I am having trouble getting much time with you in person I thought I’d fall back on our original form of communication. With all the time you’re spending upstairs, you must be into some really interesting consulting stuff. It would be nice to know more about your work, but I’ll respect your privacy. But I’m curios as hell, and when I’m stuck in my curious mode, I snack all the time. So if you keep this isolation up, you’ll be responsible for my weight gain and eventually, my early death from heart failure caused by obesity. Can your conscience handle that?

  Maybe if I tell you some of my secrets you’ll open up more. I grew up a tomboy, climbing trees and hoping the boys would look up my skirt so I could have a reason to beat them up … which I did frequently. By the time I was 12 I found myself attracted to a 14-year-old boy and wondered what it would be like to kiss him. When he asked me to go for a walk in the woods I thought ‘here’s my chance.’ The kiss felt nice, but he didn’t want to stop there, so I had to beat him up. I swore off boys after that … until I got to college and they started to look more like men. I dated around in my freshman year but stayed chaste … not an easy task. The summer before my sophomore year I read up on sexual relations between men and women., When school started in the fall I looked for someone to practice on, and met Brad. He not only was easy to please, but knew how to take his time and please a woman. I think he spoiled me. I met my husband the next year, now my one and only ex, and the rest is history. Maybe someday I’ll find another Brad.

  Five years ago I spent two nights in the Denver slammer. A cop pulled me over for a dead tail light and told me to get out of the car. When he tried to hit on me I got him in an arm lock and brought him to the ground. The judge apparently didn’t believe me, so he sent me to jail until he could review the video recordings. Two days later he put the officer on suspension and brought me out to apologize in the hope that I wouldn’t sue the city. I didn’t. But I found out the cop was married, so I sent in a couple dozen catalog request cards for sex toy companies and subscribed to four of the dirtiest sex magazine I could find under his name and address. His wife won’t be speaking to him for quite awhile. Later, I thought I should have sent him gay men’s magazines, but I’ll save that for the next cop who gets fresh with me. Other than that, my record is pretty clean.

  My dad took me deer hunting for the first time when I was 13, and I bagged my first deer the next year. I learned to shoot just about anything – pistols, shotguns, high-powered rifles, assault weapons. And, not to be bragging, but I’m pretty damn good with all of them. I’ve never had the chance to use them in self-defense, but I wouldn’t mind the opportunity … just to see the other guy’s face when I split the seam on his crotch with a shot.

  Maybe I’ve had a couple of drinks too many. I’m holding supper whenever you’re ready.

  Go Coal Creek Catamounts!

  Lynn

  Jack was smiling when he finished reading. It sounds like she needs some company, so I’ll go downstairs for dinner … after I answer this email.

  Sorry I’ve kept myself isolated, Lynn. I’ve been working on some pretty heavy stuff with big consequences if I can’t head it off. I’d like to be able to talk it over with you just to get a different point of view on what I think is happening, but just like the old movie line, “if I told you I’d have to shoot you.”

  I’m on my way down now.

  Jack

  Chapter 19

  “I’m in the middle of making a chef’s salad for supper, but when I heard my computer ding, I couldn’t wait to read your email. Wow! You are definitely not the mild mannered engineer I thought you were. So what do you really do? Tell me just enough so you won’t have to shoot me.”

  “Well … I retired from an unnamed Government agency – no, not the CIA, FBI, or NSA – where I handled certain ‘accounts’ … that’s what I’ll call them for now. I recently found out that one of my accounts from a couple of years ago hasn’t been closed out by the Agency as it should have been when it was completed. I’m trying to figure out why it’s still open. I also found five similar accounts from other account managers that are also still open long after the work was completed. There may be something bigger going on, but I can’t figure out what it is.”

  Lynn looked at me wide eyed and almost choked.

  “You’re putting me on! Just trying to impress me to get me into bed!”

  Jack thought ‘I wish. No cancel that thought. I don’t want to go there. … well, yes I do, but that’s for another time.’

  “It’s the honest-to-God truth, Lynn. And I could use your help trying to figure all this out.”

  “Let’s have dinner while I think about this and get over the sho
ck.”

  #

  They sat out on the deck with their after-dinner coffee and bundled up together under a heavy comforter. Lynn started the conversation.

  “I’ll need to know more before I can offer any good suggestions. Tell me about the other five accounts.”

  “So far, I’ve been able to get some details about three of the others. They were almost mirror images of my account. … Oh, crap! Let me drop the charade. I wasn’t an account manager, I was an agent for the unnamed agency. It was my job to find out what illegal activities certain companies or foreign governments were involved in, and then use behind-the-scenes actions to expose them or shut them down. I’m not James Bond, I don’t assassinate people, and I don’t drive an Aston-Martin sports car with rotating license plates.”

  “Do you carry a Walther PPK pistol?”

  “Damn, you got me there. But only when the mission calls for it.”

  “Holy shit!! Scuse my French. You’re the real deal! I’ve got a real live spy living under my roof.”

  “Those of us in the business prefer ‘Secret Agent Man.’ No, I’m not a spy. I’m more like an investigator.”

  “Right. One who carries a Walther sidearm.”

  “O.K. Time to get back to the problem. I need to figure out how the five unterminated missions are connected.”

  “What were the objectives of your assignment, and the other five?”

  “I’m getting into dangerous territory here. If I tell you, you could be investigated by the Government. Are you sure you want to continue?”

  “Jack, you’ve got me hooked, and now you want me to back out? No way.”

  “Alright, here goes. The missions, at least mine and the others I’ve gotten information about, were to break into major defense contractor’s facilities and exchange a file folder for one already in their contracting files. The inserted file folder contained false information showing transfers of large amounts of money to offshore Caribbean bank accounts.”

  “Whose accounts were they?”

  “That’s the weird part. The three I’ve positively identified so far are leading contenders for the democratic presidential nomination. The implanted files make it look like the candidates accepted kickbacks for getting big contracts awarded to the winning firms. But it was all fiction, very well organized fiction. The amounts of money – millions of dollars in each case – were actually transferred to offshore bank accounts in the Caribbean opened in the name of the democratic candidates.”

  Here’s where Jack wanted to see what conclusions Lynn would draw from these facts. Would she see it from a different point of view than he had come up with?

  Lynn thought for a few minutes. “We need to ask ourselves who could benefit from this information becoming public. At the top of the list is anyone who would want to eliminate these candidates from being nominated, and at the top of that list would be supporters of the only candidate with no incriminating files. Who would that be?”

  “I don’t know yet. I need to find out who the other three files are linked to. But I also have tentative information linking a republican to one of the companies.”

  “So how can you get the information from those other three files?”

  “I’m working on it. I was on the trail of one of them earlier but I was interrupted by an email. I’ll get back to it in the morning.”

  Lynn laughed. “Sorry about that. I was just trying to get your attention.”

  “Yes you were, and you did.”

  “How do you get from an account number to the person who owns the account.”

  “You don’t want to know. If I told you that I would really have to shoot you.”

  “Well, get upstairs and get us another name.”

  “I’m enjoying this too much. The new name can wait until tomorrow.

  “Ohhh, that’s sweet. I’m a little chilly, snuggle closer.”

  They watched the moon come up over the mountain top for awhile. Then Lynn turned her face toward his and asked Jack to kiss her. Jack sorted through the thoughts bouncing around in his mind at light speed – another A.D.D. gift – and turned his face toward her in response.

  It was a brief kiss – long enough to cause some tingle but not so long it got out of hand.

  Jack thought, ‘It wasn’t one of those magic kisses you see in the movies, but it felt very good.’

  Lynn thought, as she felt the warmth rising within her, ‘This is just like the first kiss in a love story! Wow, did that feel good.’ She pulled away and laid her head on his shoulder. She needed a couple of minutes to get her emotions under control.

  They sat there like that for awhile longer. Jack thought ‘I need to get away from this, or my body’s response will lead me into something I’m not ready for.’

  “That was nice, Lynn, but I had better go to bed before my libido takes over.”

  “Would that be a bad thing, Jack?”

  “I’m not ready for anything more right now, Lynn. I hope you understand.”

  #

  Lynn lay in bed thinking about the kiss … and her physical response to it. She had worried whether her body’s sexual feelings would be shut down after such a long draught, but now she knew the answer!

  It took Jack awhile to get to sleep. He was surprised at his response to Lynn’s kiss. After Helen died he lost all desire. It’s like his urges had just crawled into a hole and covered themselves up. They were trying to surface with Lynn this evening, but he wasn’t sure he wanted them to reappear. Somehow it seemed like cheating on Helen. He drifted off to sleep thinking about the highlights of his life with Helen.

  #

  Breakfast was uncomfortable for both of them. They both wanted to talk about last night but neither wanted to be the one to bring it up. After some small talk Jack said “I’m going up to see if I can get the name of another victim of the phony files. I’ll let you know as soon as I have something.”

  #

  Jack thought over what he had so far: three candidates linked to fictitious kickback information, three dead agents, the attempted murder of Harriet Goodman, and a possible connection between a republican candidate and Caspian Industries. Maybe with this new evidence he might get Tom Gutierrez to open up.

  “Tom, it’s Jack Preston again.”

  “I told you not to call again. I’m hanging up.

  “No Tom! Hear me out. Your life might be in danger!”

  “O.K. I’m listening. You have 30 seconds.”

  “Go to encrypted mode. Your phone may be tapped.”

  “…What have you got?”

  Jack explained about the dead agents, the attempt on Harriet Goodman’s life, and about the fake financial records that might be used to frame key presidential candidates. He asked Tom if he had any idea what was in the records he replaced at Energy Resources.

  “No, I just went in, replaced the specified file folder, and got out. I don’t know what was in the records.”

  “Well, be alert. I think someone is trying to eliminate the agents who ran those missions to cover up all links to the files. Have you seen anything suspicious?”

  “Nothing that caught my attention, but I’ll stay on high alert. If I see anything I’ll sneak up on them with my sidearm and scare the crap out of them. Maybe I can get them to talk. I’ll let you know what happens.”

  “Good. But don’t trust the FRA. I think they might be involved.”

  “That’s good to know. Thanks, Jack.”

  With Gutierrez unable to help and Foreman dead Jack couldn’t come up with any other options. It was time to bring Lynn back in to see if she had any ideas. He went downstairs and found her on the sofa reading.

  “Hey, I need another brain on this. Have you got some time?”

  “Your spy stuff is way more interesting than this love story I’m reading. What do you need.”

  “Here’s what I have so far. I have three democratic candidates being set up for something. I have tried to find the account numbers in the three pla
nted files, but I’ve run out of ideas.

  “Which defense companies were involved? Do you have that information?”

  “Yes, and I have the names of the agents who planted those files.”

  “Well, contact them and ask what was in the files they planted.”

  “I’ve tried that and it’s not so simple.”

  “Why isn’t it as simple as it sounds, Jack?”

  “None of us knew what was in the extracted files or the replaced files, so the agents wouldn’t know what we’re after.” Jack was getting a little uncomfortable. He couldn’t tell her what was next.

  “Well, how did you get the information you have now?”

  “Long story, and one you shouldn’t know. But I’ve explored all the options I can think of to get at the other files.”

  “Something seems a little off here, Jack. What aren’t you telling me?”

  “This is serious stuff, Lynn, and if I tell you too much your life could be in danger.”

  “From who? The ones behind this conspiracy? Why should I worry about them?”

  “I can’t tell you that, Lynn.”

  “Now you’re making me mad, Jack! My life might be in danger and you can’t – or won’t – tell me what you know. Let me know when you’re ready to tell me the rest.”

  Lynn stomped off to her room and slammed the door.

  Chapter 20

  Lynn’s response made Jack a little angry himself. He was just trying to protect her, but he couldn’t tell her why or from what. She has no idea that there are people out there looking for me with the intent of eliminating a potential witness to their conspiracy. If I tell her about that, she’ll really freak out. And right now, isolated up here in this mountain valley, it’s the safest place I can be. I’d better see what else I can find out before she says ‘hit the road, Jack.’

  Jack thought it through one more time. ‘What about Hermetrius, who seems to be calling the shots here? But I want to exhaust all my other leads before I stir up that hornet’s nest. There are two files left that I need to see – the file that Jim Foreman planted at MTX Military Systems and the one Tom Gutierrez planted at Energy Resources. Foreman was dead and Tom was a dead end. … or maybe not. What if he and Tom could break into Energy Resources and get the offshore account number. That’s all they would need. Quick in and out. But Tom didn’t seem interested in helping out here. I’ll give him another call and tell him my idea.