"I have to apologize, Mr. President. The heinous act clouded my judgment. I lost thirteen agents in that blast, and there's a good chance that a few more might not survive the night. The investigation has been torpedoed, and I want to kill the son-of-a-bitch responsible. I didn't intend to put you in an untenable situation."
"I'm sorry to hear about your agents. I know you assigned the most talented agents to that task force. The results achieved so far reflect this. This is a heinous act, Frederick, and I've assured General Sanderson that if I find him to be responsible, we will sever all ties with him."
"You've spoken with him?"
"He contacted my chief of staff within an hour of the bombing, demanding to know why his agents had been arrested in Brooklyn. We didn't have an answer for him. When we finally figured out what you had done, I called him personally. I didn't apologize or make excuses. I told him we had reason to believe one of his people was involved and that his unconditional pardon didn't cover him beyond the day of the failed helicopter raid. Surprisingly, he agreed and said that he understood our actions. He disavowed any involvement with True America," the president said.
"Of course he did."
"He never made a threat or suggest that he would renege on our deal. I didn't get the impression that he was lying."
"He's a slippery character, Mr. President. I wouldn't trust anything he says. I have video evidence and a witness from the blast site that put Callie Stewart's hands on the detonator. This is a difficult fact to ignore."
"I don't intend to ignore it, but for now we need to move the investigation forward. We can build a stronger case against Sanderson along the way. Where do we stand?"
"In a pile of rubble, mostly. Our headquarters' technical division is collecting data from the mobile computers and the Newark field office. The NCTC team processed and analyzed field data collected. This information was stored in the NCTC servers. They formed conclusions and shaped the investigation with this data and parsed it back out to the mobile teams as requested. Unfortunately, it was a fairly compartmentalized operation. Most of the data was lost in the blast, along with the agents who could explain any new leads or theories in development."
"Nobody survived?" The president shook his head with a look of sorrow.
"Ryan Sharpe, the task force leader survived, but he's severely injured and remains unconscious. He was partly inside his office when the bomb detonated and got lucky. Only one of the other agents survived, but she's in worse shape than Sharpe. Video shows Special Agent Eric Hesterman purposely shielding Special Agent Dana O'Reilly from the blast. She was spared any lethal fragmentation, but suffered from massive internal injuries due to the pressure effects of the bomb. Hesterman was nearly vaporized."
The president swallowed hard and exhaled deeply. "I'm sorry…I can see why you put the hammer down on Sanderson. Can any of the surviving NCTC analysts help?"
"Special Agent Kathryn Moriarty is on her way back to D.C. with a dozen agents. She'll direct all efforts to rebuild the task force from the ground up. That will be one of her first priorities. Most of the analytical work was done by the FBI, but there was considerable collaboration with permanent NCTC personnel. We can piece the investigation back together, but it will take time," Shelby said.
"Time is running out. Do we have any more active field operations planned?"
"No. We're still collecting evidence from Hacker Valley and the Fort Meade site. I do have something to suggest, but it falls under the Sanderson category," Shelby said.
"As long as it doesn't involve another raid in Argentina, I'm open to suggestions."
Shelby wasn't sure if that was meant as a zinger or it was just the president's way of saying that Sanderson himself was off limits. Either way, he didn't appreciate the comment.
"At least three, but possibly four of Sanderson's operatives landed at the Wilkes Barre/Scranton International Airport early this evening. Both of the Petroviches and Jeffrey Munoz are confirmed to have arrived, along with an unidentified Hispanic man," Shelby said.
Jacob Remy interjected for the first time during the meeting. "They were directly involved in Sanderson's 2005 fiasco regarding the Black Flag program files."
"I remember the names now. That seems like an odd place for Sanderson's inner core to surface," the president said.
"I agree, which is why I'd like to deploy a significantly large investigative team to figure out why they chose Pennsylvania for their corporate getaway."
"How significant?" Remy asked.
"I'd deploy every agent on the east coast if I could, but given the circumstances, I'll settle for Task Force Scorpion's mobile team. Forty agents. Tactical and investigative. I'd be happy to take whatever assets the Philadelphia field office could spare," Shelby said.
"You mean they're not already en route?" the president said.
"The task force or agents from Philadelphia?" Shelby asked.
"I figured as much. Get whatever you need up to Scranton. I want to know what they are doing up there. I don't want things to get messy with Sanderson, but if he's responsible for the bombing or in any way connected to True America's plot…he's a dead man."
Chapter 53
Daniel Petrovich sat in the front passenger seat of the Jeep Grand Cherokee, tensing for the next pothole in the road. Munoz seemed unable to avoid them. They had driven along these roads for the past forty minutes, each turn depositing them onto a smaller, less comfortable stretch of isolated, tree-covered dirt road. Fortunately, they were moving along slowly to accommodate the Ford Transit van following them.
The windowless white van carried the electronic warfare team, which had already proven themselves to be invaluable. Graves and Gupta, two wisecracking cyber geniuses, had swept through Honesdale Construction's unsophisticated computer network and found payments linked to the five million dollars Benjamin Young had shifted to the company's account. The company had multiple projects, both small and large, ongoing and scheduled around the time of the deposit, so they went to work digging. Most of the projects appeared to be legitimate and included several town-awarded contracts along with a dozen or more commercial business expansions.
One project drew their attention, simply because it lacked a physical location. The other projects listed either an address or town grid lot number, but this one lacked any geographic reference. A little more electronic snooping uncovered a list of drivers used for the project, which is how Harry Welsh ended up sitting crammed between Jessica and Melendez in the back seat. Welsh, age thirty-two, had worked as a heavy vehicle driver at Honesdale Construction for nearly six years. He'd listed his mother as next of kin on the company's record sheet, and his recorded address in Pittston put him nearly eighty miles from his mother's address in Middletown, New York. They assumed he was unmarried, which suited their purposes. The last thing they needed when they knocked on his door at 6:00 AM, posing as FBI agents, was a headstrong wife demanding to verify their identities with children crying in the background.
Karl Berg had provided them with six sets of forged credentials matched to Sanderson's operatives, complete with badges and picture identification. Daniel had never really seen an FBI identification case up close, but these looked real and felt authentic. If anyone had questions, they would be happy to pass along accompanying business cards with the Philadelphia field office number, which would be answered by someone in the inconspicuous white van that followed them from a distance.