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The Senator stood and rubbed the back of his neck. “Thanks, Rachel.” He took a step then turned his head to take in her and Gavin, seated close enough to touch. “But I still regret all the injury you both have had.” He walked out then, presumably to the little solarium, to resume his role in the puzzle.
Rachel,now dressed in a borrowed sleeveless tank and her jeans, joined Gavin and the Senator in the solarium to read the transcripts. Gavin had shown the Senator the program that tagged the keywords in speech, the speech-to-text program that provided the transcripts, and the enhancement program they used to clarify the videos. When Mitchell expressed his amazement, Gavin quickly admitted not all of the programs were of his development, but accepted the praise when Rachel pointed out the ones he’d built.
Dallas joined them briefly to redo Rachel's bandage and Gavin got a closer look at the wound. It was several inches long and had plowed through her skin, almost bisecting her arm. She'd have a scar, hopefully a faint one, but one still. He wondered if she'd thought of that when she signed on to be a Shadow Ops agent.
They worked companionably as they had in the office building. Gavin checked in with Swede during the day, getting an update. He’d had one period where he thought he had the thing cracked only to find he’d miscalculated. When Swede admitted to the same thing, they agreed, this code was a tough one. “You want to get together and work on it?” Swede asked over the receiver. Gavin studied his monitor for a second before agreeing. “Let’s do it. Maybe we can get more traction if we can talk it through.”
“Okay. What program are you using? I’ll get a copy and install it.” Swede said and Gavin grimaced.
“I’m using my own.”
“Great. Send it to me and I’ll plug it in. Maybe it’ll be more successful than the government one I’ve been using.”
“Hacked?” Gavin grinned.
“Nah, borrowed,” Swede returned and mentioned a time for the virtual meeting. Gavin agreed and disconnected, then sent a copy of his program to Swede.
He spent the time before the meeting working with Rachel and Senator Mitchell on the communication transcripts. They finally narrowed the conversations down to three, which they went through again and again. Rachel threw her copy down after the third time and stood. “That’s it. We have to question all three of them.”
Mitchell grinned. "You gonna be the good cop or the bad cop?" When she glared at him he sobered. "We can't just call them into my office and accuse them of being a drug ring mole, Rachel. One, it's a lawsuit waiting to happen and most of these people have more lawyers in their families than beans. Second, if we let them know we suspect them, the guilty one will go aground or find some way to destroy evidence. And three, we don't want to alert the drug ring we know there's probably a mole in our midst."
She grimaced. “You’re right. So, what do we do?”
Gavin grinned, “We set a trap.”
CHAPTER10
Rachel sat behind Senator Mitchell,Gavin at her side, as he committed political suicide. The Armed Services Committee meeting, while usually dull, was always carried by at least one of the news channels. If anything interesting popped up, then the other outlets glommed onto the topic and ran with it. Today, there would be a rush.
The Senator waited for the majority of business to be covered before he asked to be recognized. When the senior senator reluctantly did so, Rachel realized he knew something was up.
Senator Mitchell didn't act nervous or unsure of himself at all. He waited the millisecond necessary for a dramatic entrance, military-style, then commenced.
"In our country, we pride ourselves on having the best and the most efficiently trained military personnel protecting our borders, our interests around the world, and representing our nation. In recent history, we've had the opportunities to demonstrate those principles. However, it's come to my attention that there is an insidious force threatening our personnel from within."
As he went on to describe the drug distribution ring and the efforts to try to quell the influx of drugs, as well as the investigation that the DEA, at least, was conducting, Rachel saw the reactions around the room. The senior senator, of course, knew about the situation, as he’d been the one to shoot Mitchell down when he asked for the problem to be addressed. However, other members of the subcommittee appeared disturbed, angry and even a bit frightened at the possibility that the military could be so damaged.
Discussion commenced with various suggestions flying around the room, from closing the supply depots down to having every member of the armed forces drug tested on a daily basis. While they watched, Gavin and Rachel made notes on the speakers, their demeanors, and, especially, that of their staff members, the invisible army behind the main deck.
Three hours later, they emerged to a host of reporters, flashing cameras and microphones or recorders being thrust into their faces. Rachel noted that the senior senator had way fewer news personnel clamoring for his opinion. Instead, the majority wanted Senator Mitchell's quotes. Gavin and she flanked him, close enough to catch a bullet, yet giving him breathing room. Calm and focused, he answered a couple of questions before making his way through the mob and toward the corridor to the office building.
Even then, they had company. Senators, representatives, and staff members crowded around, trying to get more information, some influence, or just to have a little of the power he emanated rub off on them. Still, they moved forward, ready for the next stage of the plan.
When the three of them gained the entrance of Mitchell’s office, Rachel waited as Gavin scoped it out. He waved them in but took out a small field receiver and checked for simple bugs before nodding. “We’re good so far.” Rachel and the Senator sat in their chairs while Gavin made a call to confirm no taps from the outside. “Okay.”
Rachel heaved a sigh, realizing it was the first deep breath she’d had in almost four hours. When both of the men did the same thing, she chuckled. “Normally, I’d make coffee, but I don’t need any stimulant right now. You?”
Both shook their heads and Gavin leaned back. “Time to compare notes.”
She noticed he'd made notes on his phone, as opposed to her paper version, and smiled. She'd caught the tech bug but still loved her pen and paper. "I found three people who were busy with their phones during the discussion. To the point, they didn't take notice of anything else."
“Who?” Senator Mitchell asked. When she named them, he discounted two. “Fields is working on a book, thinks he’s going to be the next Woodward. As for Rodriguez, she’s deep in with a Senator who’s not on the committee but wants all the news so he can get a scoop on everyone. She was probably texting him every word we uttered. The other one, Pool, I don’t know. Maybe. He’s a quiet one, doesn’t show a lot of initiative or insert himself into situations much.”
Rachel nodded and made notes. Gavin reviewed his observations and the three of them tried to narrow down anyone who'd shown odd behavior during the meeting or, to the other extreme, appeared detached. Finally, they came up with two people and one of them was Pritchard. "The commonality," Gavin muttered with a smile. But not a smile Rachel had ever seen before. This one was cold and calculating, the smile of a predator.
“You think he’s the infiltrator?” she asked, closing her notebook.
“Not an infiltrator. I think he’s on a payroll.” Gavin flicked his phone and brought up another page. He’d copied the videos of Gold and Pritchard and played them for her and the Senator again. “He’s our connecting piece.”
