Chapter 29 - Commander in Thief

Jack walked in swift stride beside his escort, NSA Lynch, through the underground entrance to the Whitehouse fortress.

“David says you are the best! What happened?”, begged the NSA. “We’ve been briefing POTUS with nothing of substance for the past two hours. You’ve always been an ally to me, you know. …. That’s why I need to warn you Williams is hanging your neck on this one, Jack.”

The brief injection of information that Jack received confirmed his expectations for this upcoming debrief. Jack looked back at Sloan and simply replied, “Got it. Thanks.”

Without breaking pace they turned the corner in silence passing the US Marine sentry post and into SECCOM3. NSA Lynch closed the door behind the two and motioned to the conference room table. 

Seated from the head of the table clockwise were: his boss, DNI David Williams; Secretary of Defense (DEFSEC), Jonathan Eliyah “Jon-E” Gautrachs; and the President of the United States (POTUS) Angel Marion Iglesias – America’s first Hispanic President.

Jack and NSA Lynch took seats opposite the three as if seated for an interrogation. Well, in fact he expected no less. POTUS spoke first.

“What the F*#k kind of operation are you running?,” he bellowed with both a tone of exasperation and an attitude expressly to demonstrate he was in charge. “Williams tells me your operation is operating at full capacity with excessive funding, yet you loose two jurors.”

Jack inhaled slowly calming his heart to better able him to calmly present the situation – but not the facts. Jack is not only being marshaled down the path to scapegoat for the incident at hand, but he was also about to commit perjury by lying to the President and everyone else in the room.

“Mr. President, “ Jack began with confidence. “Here are the facts that I am able to confirm as of 5 minutes ago. Two of the Watchkeeper jurors are missing. All available resources are deployed to relocate them. Both were lost within an hour of each other, here within the Military District of Washington. Sheriff – using Finne’s codename – was lost leaving a retail electronics store in Reston on his way home. We were recording his existence using NRO’s nano-wave capabilities on a dedicated bird in geosynchronous orbit. He departed the playing space defined at the store in his vehicle under our watch to his local watering hole near home. All review of the evidence demonstrates he entered the bar then disappeared – Jack’s first lie and felony. His automobile was recovered and all on-board systems confirm this conclusion. Our staff in the facility never saw him enter the door.”

“Empath – referring to Sarah – was abducted in a downtown nightclub she frequented nightly while under visual and neuropathic surveillance. She no trace of her abduction or whereabouts could be determined until 45 minutes ago. A vehicle was identified via MPD and Secret Service video crossing the Memorial bridge that matched a vehicle and plate parked 2 blocks from the nightclub within the abduction window. Said vehicle was found nearly split in half from bumper to bumper impaled upon a hardwood tree in Great Falls, Virginia. Inside the vehicle four mutilated cadavers were identified. After a scrutinous review of the body parts, we found two arms bearing tattoos of affiliation with local MS13 gang-members and Mexican assassins known to be a branch of the Zeta cartel. Evidence reveals that Empath was present at the time of the impact, but her remains have not been discovered – Jack’s second lie to the group.”

POTUS began to speak but his voice was drowned by the sudden and furious inquiry by DEFSEC Gautrachs. In doing so, Jon-E Got-Rocks – as he was ingloriously known within the administration and with the general public thanks to a tabloid nickname that stuck to him during the President’s re-election campaign two years prior – demonstrated that he was the true authority in the room. And everyone knew it. Gautrachs had total control over POTUS and cared little about how much he expressed it in every manor and in front of all company. His Alpha personality and unsurpassed ego had led the sole heir to America’s largest diamond import family to charge his way through all personal obstacles and political scandals he faced unscathed. His wealth and power was used to bully his enemies into submission and destruction throughout his lifetime. Even the media – both sides - feared him, and as such provided him public cover and spin however he desired. Only the tabloids dared to cross him, though very rarely. One, Camera on America (COA) – a California-based affiliation of independent photo-journalists and internet-millionaires – recently built their existence upon the inquisition into Jon-E Got-Rocks and his affairs, literally. During the prior election cycle, COA shockingly exposed a lengthy and torrid extra-marital affair between DEFSEC and no-less than the Second Lady of the United States, Mrs. Christie Stallworth – Vice President, David Stallworth’s wife of 37 years. COA attacked Got-Rock’s character, values, and decency daily for the final 9 months leading up to the last election in hopes of derailing the incumbent President and with him his most despicable Cabinet member. The nickname Jon-E Got Rocks – referring to both his family diamonds and a jab at the obvious size of the DEFSEC’s balls to be so differential to societal expectations of our nation’s leaders. President Iglesias retracted in his seat in obvious subordinance to the commander of his military.

“The Mexican’s hijacked the girl? And, this is confirmed?”

“Yes,” Jack lied in response.

Jack perceived that his lies and poker-faced delivery may have just provided the thread he needed to pull on to solve the mystery at hand. The DEFSEC hadn’t said it, but his tone and the words he had chosen to ask betrayed him, providing Jack with a clear understanding that the DEFSEC was both surprised by the information he had provided and confused as if he had expected a completely different course of events to have occurred. DEFSEC is a suspect, Jack confirmed in his thoughts.