The next gen, p.12
The Next Gen, page 12
Yang looked up at him and sighed. “We can’t yet. We only have enough power to shut down what we’ve done so far. You said that DC would be afterwards. If you want us to hold these two regions and DC, then you need to cough up more computing power. I explained this to you when you asked about doing DC too.”
Rayland’s face was purple with fury, his hands in fists, and he was shaking. He drew an arm back as if to punch Yang and Yang just glared up at him, daring him to hit him.
“Do it,” Yang hissed. “Go ahead. Hit me. Kill me. See if you could find anyone else to do this for you.”
Rayland turned away from Yang and moved towards the others, when he heard the decidedly clear sound of a slide being pulled back on a semi-automatic weapon. Slowly, he turned back and saw Yang sitting in his wheelchair, a Glock pointed at Nolan’s chest.
“Touch them, and I put a bullet in you. Come near me again? I’ll put a bullet in you. We work for you, we’re not your punching bags. Get a fucking grip, Nolan. You got what you wanted,” Yang said. “If you want DC on top of this? Without us releasing California? Then you get us more computing power. Otherwise, you release and do DC as originally planned.”
“The President was supposed to buckle. She was supposed to give me what I wanted,” Nolan seethed.
“That was before half of your organization and most of your Congressional connections got scooped up in the FBI raid, right? Now you should be negotiating for a plane to a non-extradition country so you can spend your money outside of a jail cell,” Yang said.
“I’ve lost my DC townhouse, my antiques, my collections, my Georgia and Kentucky properties – all I have left is this warehouse that’s half loft apartment and half a tech hole for you assholes. I can’t afford to buy more computers, not if you want to get paid.”
“Then I suggest you release what we’ve taken, show them we can do it again if we want, then go after DC.”
“That’s actually a decent suggestion, Yang. I’ll consider it. Hold the power for another two hours, then start releasing it in sections. Leave New York for last,” Nolan said as he headed to the elevator. He needed to get away from people, and the only place he felt safe right now was his little apartment at the top of the warehouse. He had some planning Yang watched as Nolan headed up the stairs, then rolled back to his computer. Fuck Nolan. New York was getting released first. It was too cold to be without power for long in that part of the country.
Chapter Sixteen
Major Brooke Ballard, US Army – retired, stood as the President entered the Oval Office. Samantha followed Eleanora and gave the waiting woman a smile.
“At ease, Major,” Eleanora said. “Welcome to Washington. This is my Assistant, Samantha Eagleson. Would you like some coffee or water?”
“No, thank you, Madame President,” Brooke said.
When Eleanora sat on the sofa across from Brooke, only then did Brooke sit down herself. Sam handed Eleanora a folder and leaned back with her tablet to take notes if needed.
“Twenty-five years in the Army, one of the few women to make it through Ranger training, and you still managed to get your Juris Doctorate. Do you have plans on taking the bar exam anywhere?” Eleanora asked.
“No, ma’am. I did at one point, but I’ve been looking at various law enforcement careers.”
“That’s right, you were accepted as a field agent for the FBI but the next year you enlisted in the Army.”
“Yes, ma’am. My brother and his family were killed in the attack on Orlando. I felt I could do more in the military than in the FBI at the time.”
“I’m sorry for your loss.” Eleanora paused. “So, have you decided what law enforcement career you’re best suited for?”
“Not as of yet, Madame President. I’ve applied for several positions, but I’m a Black woman with hybrid enhancements and, while I’ve worked in Army Intelligence after my Ranger days, I haven’t had a long career in law enforcement. Not many agencies are willing to risk the backlash of hiring a hybrid these days, even with all of the positive press you’ve created.”
“Would you consider working for your country as the next Director of the FBI?”
Brooke blinked at the President, looked over to Sam as if waiting to hear she was being teased or something, then turned back to the President. “The…what? Ma’am?”
“I need a Director of the FBI that isn’t a misogynistic male asshole, a criminal in the pocket of a terrorist, or a person who is afraid to say what they mean. I need someone who can clean house and organize our greatest law enforcement tool in the country, and I believe that person is you, Brooke Ballard. You’re still young enough in your forties to have the stamina needed but mature enough to not make knee-jerk decisions. You’ve got the leadership experience and the education this position demands, and you trained to be an agent, even if you only briefly worked as one.”
“I don’t believe I’m fully qualified for the position, Madame President.”
“And that, right there, is why I want you to say yes. If you had said, ‘But of course, I’m your best choice, pick me’, I would’ve said we had to finish vetting you, then figured out a way to find someone else. But you are who I really want in this job. Will you take it?”
“Madame President, you don’t need to beg. I’m honored, and to be rather blunt, blown away by the opportunity. I accept.”
“Congratulations,” Eleanora said as she stood and held out her hand.
Brooke rose as well and shook the offered hand, then grinned. “Well, damn, this is not what I thought I was being called her to discuss. Thank you, ma’am, so very much.”
Eleanora chuckled. “What did you think I called you here for?”
“Honestly? I had no clue. I’ve waffled between excited and terrified for four days now.”
“Aw, Ms. Ballard, I’m so sorry. I have been juggling so many things and I really really didn’t want to leave the keys to the kingdom in Harry Silver’s hands any longer than absolutely necessary. He’s not a bad assistant director, but he lacks some leadership skills and cognitive abilities.”
“She means he can’t make a leap from point A to point C without thoroughly analyzing point B and finding it lacking,” Sam said, and Brooke covered her mouth with her hand as she half-snorted a laugh.
Sam continued as she got up and handed Brooke a leather folder. “Your itinerary for the next three days is in here. Your clearances were continued from your military time and upgraded to the levels needed for the Director. You will need a fresh evaluation in six months, so don’t blow it off when it comes up on the schedule. There are several cases you will need to familiarize yourself with, and your assistant is out in the office foyer, ready to escort you to the Hoover building and get you set up. Good luck, Major…or should I say, Director Ballard.”
Brooke took a breath, squared her shoulders, then shook both ladies’ hands again. “Thank you both. I won’t let you down.”
“I know you won’t,” Eleanora replied as she watched her leave.
“That was a fantastic choice, Auntie,” Sam said after the door shut. “She’s going to be amazing.”
“She will be. I just wish I could see Harry’s face when she walks in and starts shaking up his world.”
Sam burst out into laughter as she followed the President to her working office. “Fly on the wall would be awesome. Y’know, I think she’s single. Think I should introduce her to Uncle Kane?”
It was Eleanora’s turn to laugh.
Yang finished releasing New York City, then he turned to Ken, one of the techs. “You ready?”
Ken nodded and went over to the elevator, called it back down to their floor, then disabled it so it couldn’t go back up. He took a crowbar and industrial glue and tiptoed up the stairs to the one door that led out of the apartment. Carefully, he slid the bar through the brackets installed days ago for just this purpose, then dumped the glue along the bar so it fused to the metal and glued it to the door, frame, and reinforced steel wall. It would take a welding torch to get in there now.
Archie Yang was brilliant, and Nolan was psychotic. Once Archie had learned about Nolan’s other attacks, he started making alternate plans.
“Okay, Jerry, you’re up. Make sure you move equal amounts into each account and then transfer them multiple times until they end up in Switzerland and the Cayman Islands, as we planned,” Yang said and rolled back to his desk, the Glock in his lap. With a few keystrokes, he turned the power back on in California, then sent the whole program to the National Security Agency with a note that it had been paid for by Rayland Nolan.
“Everything moving?” Archie asked.
“Ready to go,” Jerry said.
Yang typed a string of commands, then grabbed his duffel bag, tucked the Glock into his shoulder holster, pulled on his coat and started towards the elevator. Once they were loaded in, Amy pushed the button and the steel cage descended to the garage floor. A van was parked next to Nolan’s sedan, that they’d been using for grocery trips and the rare times they went out for a meal. Jerry and Ken lifted the wheelchair into the back, pushed it into place, and locked the wheels down before Ken got into the driver’s seat and Amy up front beside him while Jerry took the jump seat next to Archie.
“Wait,” Jerry said and got out, went over to the sedan, and after a few seconds, he had the hood up. He pulled something out of his pocket, fastened it down inside the frame of the car, then closed the hood and got back into the van. “Okay, let’s go.”
“What did you do?” Archie asked.
“EMP device to take out the electronics in his car the first time he starts it up,” Jerry replied.
“Slick. Nice work. Okay, all of our plane tickets are to be picked up at the gate, we’ve all got our passports and IDs, right?” Archie said.
Once everyone answered in the affirmative, Ken pulled the van out of the garage and drove away. They were a good five miles down the road when an alarm went off on Archie’s phone.
“Shit, that scared me. What was that for?” Jerry asked.
“Notification that the FBI has received the location of Rayland Nolan, and further notification that the computer systems are no longer functional, thanks to your little destruction boxes. I stuck one on each system and timed them to go off after the message was sent to the feds.”
“Excellent. Now there’s no way they’ll be able to tie any of the work to us. I’d say it’s been a pleasure, but I’m going to be glad to get on those planes and disappear,” Jerry said.
“Amy and I are going separate ways for the first couple of months, then we’re going to get together. But yeah, I don’t ever want to see you two again, no offense,” Ken said.
The four found their flights, got on their planes, and disappeared.
Each one well-compensated with a few million in each of their numbered accounts, leaving Nolan with empty balances across five different banks. Archie doubted it would teach Nolan a lesson, but it would certainly illustrate the risks of treating brilliant hires as if they were disposable lackeys. Then again, he doubted Nolan would need the money where he was going to be spending the rest of his life. He’d heard they didn’t have vending machines at Guantanamo Bay.
Chapter Seventeen
The power outage lasted just shy of ten hours. It took another three hours for California’s grid to come back online as it was a staggered system to avoid overloading it all and having it crash again. New York City came back on almost immediately and the news stations congratulated the President and her team for getting life back to normal.
Director Ballard, within the first five hours of being hired, was back in the President’s office.
“Director Ballard, you have something for me?” Eleanora asked.
“Madame President, at fourteen hundred hours, a message was relayed to us from an unknown location that has since been untraceable – meaning it went offline and we can’t reach them again. It gave us a location of Rayland Nolan and said to bring a welding torch. A team from Quantico went to the location about five miles from the base and found a warehouse owned by a company called Foundation, LLC. A bank of computers had been destroyed, and Rayland Nolan was trapped in the upstairs apartment. They’d used a crowbar and industrial glue on the door, then disabled the elevator. The agents reconnected the elevator panel and got Nolan out that way. He is in custody.”
“That’s excellent work for your first day, Director, and I appreciate the update, but you could’ve called me.”
“I know that, ma’am, but there’s more. The NSA received a data packet stating that the contents had been paid for by Rayland Nolan. Inside was the collection of code that took down California and New York City’s power grids. There was another piece that was designed to take down DC’s power, just like the others.”
“That would’ve been a serious problem,” Eleanora replied. “But the White House is protected.”
“It wouldn’t have been from this. The NSA guys say that at first look, it’s brilliant and unstoppable. It’ll take them a while to break it all down, but I’m here to inform you that it is entirely possible there may still be an attack planned for DC and the White House. We can’t rule out that possibility as of yet.”
“Ah, now I understand why you’re here in person. Well, I’m not going into the bunker yet. If you get more evidence of an imminent, credible threat, then I’ll go down. Otherwise, I have work to do. I understand this is a viable concern, but the NSA has the code, the computers Nolan had have been destroyed, and he’s in custody.”
“Madame President, we’ve also confirmed that Rayland Nolan and George Carver have been in regular communication for the past several months. Phone calls have been recorded at least once a week between them where they seem to speak in code.”
“We need a copy of the recordings of those phone calls,” Sam said.
“I can have the transcripts…” Brooke started to say and Eleanora shook her head.
“No, I know why Sam’s asking. We need the recordings. Her father is Alexander Eagleson, once known as David Carver, George’s son. If there are subtleties and codes in the conversations, Alex will be able to pick them out faster than any of your best agents.” She paused a moment, then added. “That information is, of course, classified.”
“Yes, ma’am. Understood. I’ll get the recordings sent over as soon as possible. If there’s anything else, ma’am?” Brooke asked.
“Thank you for coming to deliver this personally, Director. I appreciate the discretion. Please call me if anything else comes up. You should have your shielded phone by now?” Eleanora asked.
“Yes, ma’am. Sam even made sure your number and hers were entered,” Brooke replied.
“Give it a few days to get yourself settled, then I’d love to have you come to dinner at the Residence. I like to get to know the people I work with beyond just shuffling papers and giving orders. Would that be agreeable to you?”
“I’d be honored, ma’am. Thank you.”
“You can bring your partner too, if you like,” Sam said.
Brooke’s head snapped to the side and her eyes widened as she stared at Sam. “How…?”
Sam chuckled. “I didn’t, for certain, until now. Your thumb rubs your right ring finger as if toying with a ring that’s not there. You wear a necklace tucked into your shirt that’s half of a heart – it fell out when you took your coat off in the foyer office and I caught a glimpse before you pushed it back down.”
“And now you see why she’s my assistant at such a young age,” Eleanora said.
“I would like to bring my partners, plural, if that is acceptable. My husband, Jenson, and my wife, Lillian.”
“I’d love to meet them. How about next Saturday? That gives you a little over a week to settle in and finish unpacking,” Eleanora said.
“Perfect. Thank you, Madame President, Sam,” Brooke said as she turned and left the office.
Once the door shut, Eleanora shook her head and huffed a little.
“You’re making me look bad, girlie. I should’ve known about her partners. Why weren’t they in her dossier?”
“She married Jenson and Lillian in a ceremony at the Smithsonian Castle about four days ago. They cut short their honeymoon when you summoned her here. Lillian works at the Smithsonian in acquisitions and Jenson is a musician at the Kennedy center. Brooke had just moved to DC in time for the wedding after traveling all over the place for interviews after she left service. She’s only been out of the military about six months, and spent much of her time here, in DC, with her betrothed, even though her home address was at Fort Pickett in Virginia.”
“Don’t let her hire you away from me. You’re too valuable, and I love having you around, Samantha,” Eleanora said.
“No worries there, Auntie. So, what are you going to do about Carver?”
“How quickly can you get Alexander to listen to those recordings?”
“When I tell him you want it done, he’ll drop everything and do it right away. Kane will listen, too. He’s also Carver’s son and had been living with him more recently than Pops. Between the two of them, if there is code to decipher, they’ll be able to tell you what it is.”
“Excellent. Let’s get that going as soon as possible. I’m going to want the feds to pick Rayland Nolan’s life apart. I want to know everyone he ever spoke with or spent time around. I want to know what other members of the DC collective were being paid by him. Let’s get white collar on this too, they’re great at following the money and I want to know where Nolan’s came from.”
Sam tapped her stylus on her tablet and sent a couple of messages. “Done. The fact that he was planning an attack on DC means he had help. Lots of it. We need to know who else was in on this.”
“We do. But…there is good news,” Eleanora said with a bright smile.
