Chapter 33 - Orchestration Chaos

The Director picked up the ringing cell phone immediately knowing it was the Producer calling and that this would be a difficult, if not abusive, conversation. No sense in angering him further by avoinding the call was the reasoning at the moment.


"Yes?" the Director answered.

"How the f*#k did this thing get so far off script!" yelled the Producer on the other end of the call. "Improvisation was not to be tolerated! This production is FUBAR!!"

The Director hesitated to respond. He was right. Things were FUBAR, and fixing the situation may be impossible at this point.

"Did you green light the Mexicans to make a run at the crackhead instead of taking down the tax man? Is this your f*#king fault? Well? Tell me! Now!!"

"No..no, I didn't.." stamered the Director in reply. "No one was supposed to go off-script. I made that crystal clear. They should not have even known about her. I dont know how they discovered her. "

"They are all dead now, so there is no chance of them performing anymore." the Producer stated with disdain conveyed in his tone and through the obvious result he relayed in his chosen words. "And the girl and tax man are both MIA. Act 2 is unrecoverable! What are you going to do to save this epic... and save yourself too?"

It didnt matter what response could be given. The questions were retorical, at best. At worst, they clarified that blame was focused soley on the Director. With that blame would come a world of pain and personal destruction. The Director knew that pointing the finger at someone, anyone else was the only way out.

"PHOENIX may have something to do with this. He is the only other one that knew about the girl and Act 3. He must be behind the diversion from schedule." replied the Director with enough truth in her words to hopefully sell her lie. PHOENIX did know the schedule for all three Acts, and he knew all of the actors that had been engaged. Maybe, the Director thought, it was his fault. Nevertheless, the script was no longer relevant. It had to be re-written from this point on, and quickly if there would be any chance of completing the story.

I'd hate to be him right now, the Director felt truely about PHOENIX, assuming the Producer's fury had been re-directed.

"Get the writers on this imediately!" the Producer demanded. "I want this script fixed ASAP or I'm shutting this thing down!"

The Director knew what a shut down would entail. Everyone involved and everything associated with the production would be burned to the ground. No traces would be left to be discovered. Many lives depended on a successful recovery, including her own.

Chapter 34 - Up the River

Finne peered through the nearly closed garage doors hoping not to see anyone following their sprinted steps from the boathouse.


"Get in the truck. Look for the keys." he instructed Sarah without turning to see whether she obeyed. "I only saw the one boat approach. It looked like a local. I dont think he was coming for us." Finne relayed lacking confidence in his statements.

"S#!t !! He's headed up the yard right this way." he corrected himself anxiously. Finne pulled his sidearm from his hip holster and cocked it quickly, loading its chamber with a live round. He realized their ability to escape without notice was compromised and feared that their lives were gravely threatened. If there was truely only one man on their tracks, he was confident that he could neutralize him. A gunshot, though, would only bring more attention, especially if the eyes and ears of the military were focused in this direction from above. A single shot might escape being tracked, but a gunfight would not. Finne dropped to one knee and aimed his weapon out the doors steadily targeting the figure that continued toward their location. Wait for it, he thought. Wait to get a clear kill shot.

The man sprinting up the yard from the dock below was tall and stocky, but obviously in strong physical shape given his sprint-like pace up the hill. Upon reaching the clamshell drive extending from the garage at the top of the hill, he extended his right hand outward towards the garage as if he was ready to fire his own weapon at Finne and Sarah.

"Get down, he's got a gun!" Finne shouted at Sarah, no longer worried that he would give up their location with his loud voice.

The man continued forward without breaking pace.

Finne readied himself to shoot. Gently he squeezed the trigger with intent to get the first shot off. Then he quckly relaxed his grip and lowered his gun to the ground. The approaching man did not have a weapon extended, only his hand which was waving furiously to get Finne and Sarah's attention.

"Don't shoot!" the man begged while continuing his sprint. "Jack sent me."

Jack?, Finne questioned himself. How did Jack find them here?

Finne stood keeping his gun extended outward but pointed towards the ground, ready to be raised and fired if needed. He allowed the man to approach the garage, though he was visually scrutinizing everything about him to verify that he was not a threat. No weapons he confirmed. And no fear either, he determined by the fact that the man never slowed his approach, even though he knew shots were about to be fired at him.

"You two get in the back of the truck and cover up." the man insisted. "I'm driving. Its much safer this way. It'll get us out of here without drawing their attention." he finished pointing his finger upwards as if he knew what was likely overhead.

"Drive where?" Finne asked insecurely.

"Back to DC. If they really do know you are in this area, they'll be looking at all vehicles leaving in all directions, except back west. That's why you need to cover up. If we can get clear from this grid being searched, they are likely to continue their hunt eastward. They won't look for you to head back into the lion's den."

True, Finne hoped.

Chapter 35 - High Water Mark

DEFSEC Gautrachs returned the secure satellite phone to his jacket pocket and continued from SECOM3 to the operations war room set up to conduct the search for the missing Watch keeper jurors. Nearly exploding through the doorway on entry, he immediately captured everyone’s undivided attention and fear.

“What have we got?” he commanded with a tone of authority, as always, but the trained ear would have picked up on the true confoundedness of his questions. Likely this was the first time in anyone’s experience when DEFSEC Gautrachs did not only know everything about everything going on.

A square-jawed Marine colonel, the operations watch commander, turned from his workstations centered in the room and began conveying all known facts of the search for the national security persons of interest – none in the room other than the DEFSEC and National Security Advisor had the clearance to know anything about Watch Keeper or the connection to the two missing NSPOIs.

“Sir, it has been determined that there was an identical vehicle to the one SHERRIF was last seen in. It was discovered at the hourly parking lot at Reagan National Airport. A cursory review of all TAO resources is underway. We have several likely scenarios that we are tracing simultaneously. The most likely two both suggest Special Agent Seldnak was alone and passed through the terminal. Not much was found in the video, but a link to a cash airline ticket purchased using an undercover identification associated with Treasury TIGTA led us to a few shots of a man fitting his description. We have agents on the ground at the destination airport ready to secure and control the plane and its passengers upon arrival. A scenario we are pursuing is that Seldnak left the facility via public transportation. We’re searching WMATA’s video for the subway and any video equipped busses that were in the proximity of the airport within a 30 minute window of the likely video sighting. We cannot confirm or deny that scenario at this time. Thirdly, a deep search through the TIGTA undercover files that we performed to link the airline tickets found a connection to a Potomac River marina within walking distance from the airport. Special Agent Seldnak once procured a small vessel there for an undercover operation. We have discovered that his brother has rented a slip for a 32’ sailboat at the same marina for the last ten months – beginning at about the same time as the references but not disclosed vessel in the UC files. The sailboat is not on property, and we have found several witnesses that say they saw the boat pulled from the water yesterday for engine repairs and bottom painting. We have not located the brother to verify its whereabouts. We are performing cursory searches through TAO on both land (trailer) based or water bound departure from the marina in the past 36 hours. Several similar sailboats have been discovered along the Chesapeake waterway within the distance we calculate could be achieved in the timeframe since Special Agent Seldnak was lost from cover. We have deployed twelve reconnaissance drones to sweep the east coast from 5 miles in land to 20 miles off shore. They are one-quarter of the way through the grid now.

At this time, we have no new information about Ms. Simpson. The ATF crime lab is re-doing the tissue and DNA testing performed previously by the FBI without any conclusive results. We expect to have the latest test results from the crash scene seeking to confirm Ms. Simpson’s remains have been found.”

“Every 5 minutes! I want updates!” the DEFSEC shouted then exited the war room.

Proceeding down the underground corridor towards the elevator exit to surface level, DEFSEC Gautrachs engaged the first Secret Service agent he encountered. “Where’s the Vice President right now?” he asked with confidence that he was due the answer without question.

“The Vice President is dining with the visiting Chinese Prime Minister in place of the President at the Chinese embassy. He is due to depart for the Naval Observatory – the home of the Vice President and Second Lady of the United States – in 2 hours. He will arrive on property 22 minutes after departure.” the agent informed.

DEFSEC Gautrachs continued toward the exit. He did not thank the agent nor respond at all. Upon arriving at the surface level, he pulled the secure phone from his jacket and dialed a direct to reach Christine.

“Again, on this number?” was asked upon answer by the woman on the other end of the line.

“No. I am going for dinner. I want you to come. You know where. We have 2 hours.”

“OK.” she replied without hesitation. “I’ll be there soon.”