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Blue Man closed the door behind him.
THEDOUGLASS. GEORGEDefense Complex was buzzing.
As Decker and Jamison drove there in their new rental SUV, they saw the line of vehicles heading in and some heading out. A line of choppers was coming in and a small jet was taking off. They passed the oil rig nearest the facility, the All-American Energy Company, and found workers standing there staring at all the activity going on with their neighbor. They also spotted several members of the Brothers riding on farm equipment in their fields doing the very same thing.
They were here because Robie had called Decker and told him to come here as fast as possible.
Someone had obviously authorized their clearance into the facility because they were passed swiftly through after presenting their creds.
Robie and Reel came out to meet them as they pulled to a stop in front of the building where they had initially met with Colonel Mark Sumter.
They followed the pair down the hall and entered a small room where Blue Man sat at the head of a small, battered conference table. He motioned for them to sit, then spent the next twenty or so minutes filling them in on recent developments including his confrontation with Patrick McIntosh back in Washington.
“Your agency is taking the lead on the law enforcement side, and the DOJ will of course deal with the prosecutions.”
“So itwasprisoners, as we suspected?” said Decker.
“Yes. Some in positions of power and who should have known better deemed it a worthy project to restart what was done at Abu Ghraib prison and other locations, despite the complete debacle that turned out to be. I am cheered by the fact that my agency had learned its lesson and was not party to a second go-round with this sort of thing.”
“How many prisoners died?” asked Jamison.
“At least a dozen, if not more. Information is still coming in. It will take a while to dig through it all.”
“The locals are certainly curious about what’s going on here,” said Jamison.
“It will all be hushed up in due time,” said Blue Man. “This show of force is really for those out there who might have information. Or for those who are as yet unknown to us but are involved and will now panic and attempt to flee. Your director likened it to sending hunting dogs into the brush to flush out the quail.”
“But the truth will come out?” said Jamison.
“Not in the press, no. It would cause more trouble than is warranted. People need to have faith in their government.”
Decker said, “Well, maybe the government might want to consider earning that faith.”
“I’m utterly in agreement with you. But now we must move on.”
Decker gave him an appraising look. “This case is closed, but this was not the ticking time bomb. Purdy was gone before the prison became active. And I’m convinced this has to do with something that happened a long time ago.”
“Which is why I requested your presence here, in addition to wanting to fill you in on what had happened here. How can we assist you?”
“I’m surprised that you’re not packing up to go home,” said Decker.
“Let me explain it this way. If an international presence exists on American soil for a purpose to do harm to America and its citizens, then we can very clearly justify our continued presence in this matter. I don’t know about you, but I do not want a second 9/11 to happen because we got caught up in a bureaucratic tussle.”
“Okay, I need to see Ben Purdy’s service record.”
“What do you hope to find in it?”
“A lead, because right now we don’t have one.”
* * *
Decker put down his third cup of coffee, glanced at the remains of a largely uneaten meal, and settled back in his chair in the hotel restaurant. He opened the email he’d just gotten on his phone and did likewise with the email’s attachment.
It was Ben Purdy’s service record. He had joined the Air Force straight out of high school and had spent the next dozen years in uniform. Decker went methodically through screen after screen. Purdy had covered a lot of ground in his career and had sought a great many educational and training opportunities that the Air Force had offered. He’d even attended conferences overseas in England, Germany, Qatar, and India. By all accounts he was a brilliant techie, though he had grown up in modest circumstances and had not been able to afford to go to college. He had risen to the rank of technical sergeant, which the document said was a very difficult rank to achieve, and Purdy had done it in record time. He had been on pace to make master sergeant when he had disappeared.
Decker sipped his coffee and then focused on actions that Purdy had taken in the last sixteen months, figuring that whatever ticking time bomb he had come across would have dated from more recent times. Purdy had briefly left London AFS during that time to take a class offered in DC on the latest types of communication technology available, and also what might be coming in the future. That made sense for a specialist like Purdy. After that, he had taken other offered courses in a variety of specialties, none of which could reasonably lead Decker to a ticking time bomb.
His phone buzzed. It was Bogart.
