“That was a blast!” Harry Dodd exclaimed. “I thought that damned bar was going to slice my head off, but hooking your arms on it like you said worked perfectly!”
“It might work better if the bar snagged us on our chests instead of our arms and hands,” Jason surmised. “We just need to lower the bar down a couple feet. Make a note of that, will you, Ari?” No response. “Stronghold, this is One. How copy?” Still no response. “TALON, this is One. How copy?”
“Loud and clear, One,” Bruno Watts responded. He had dismounted from the CV-22 as it was being refueled on the ramp at Cannon Air Force Base and was now driving back to the task force’s headquarters east of the base. “Let me try to raise Stronghold. Break. Stronghold, this is TALON.”
“TALON, this is Delta,” U.S. Marine Corps First Lieutenant Jennifer McCracken, TALON’s deputy commander for operations, responded. “I’m here at the mobile ops center. The place is empty. I was listening in on the exercise and came out here when I didn’t hear Charlie reply.”
“Find her, Delta,” Watts ordered. “I’ll be there in fifteen.”
“We’ll be there in ten,” Jason said.
Jennifer was waiting for them out on the short airstrip outside TALON’s headquarters buildings when the CV-22 touched down a short time later. “She took a CID unit, a grenade launcher backpack, two pilots, and the C-21, sir,” she said as soon as Jason stepped off the cargo ramp. The C-21, the military version of the Learjet 20 bizjet, was Task Force TALON’s rapid airlift aircraft. McCracken handed Richter a note. “Here’s the message she left with the crew chief.”
Jason read the note. “Jennifer, find out what airlift we have available the quickest for three CID units and get it out to Cannon. We’re taking these three CID units airborne. Load up weapon backpacks. Go.” She hurried off, her secure cell phone already in her hands. Jason had his own phone open seconds later. “Sergeant Major, I’ve got a situation…”
“I just heard it myself, Jason. Jesus, I’m sorry. No one here got any heads-up at all from him at all.”
“What in hell is going on, Sergeant Major? Heads-up from whom?”
“Bob O’Rourke,” Jefferson said. “Apparently the guy ‘outed’ Ariadna as an illegal alien on his radio show less than an hour ago.”
“He did what?” Jason exploded. “An illegal alien? That’s crazy! I’ve known her for years! She has a top-secret clearance, same as mine…”
“We don’t have any hard facts yet, Major, but O’Rourke says he has documentation, including a Mexican birth certificate and apparently falsified American birth records. We’re checking with Los Angeles County and the State Department to get her records from Mexico, but I need Ariadna secure before the press descends on her. I suggest you confine her to quarters before ICE or the FBI…”
“She grabbed a jet and a CID unit and headed to southern California,” Jason said.
“Oh, Jesus,” Jefferson exclaimed. “Where is she headed?”
“Northridge, Thousand Oaks…southern California, somewhere,” Jason said. “Her dad’s a college professor; her mother works with him, I think. I’ll have to check the records.” He paused for a moment, then interjected, “If Zakharov is still alive and still in southern California, he may try to kidnap the parents to get to Ariadna. I’m on my way…”
“I’ll get the Los Angeles FBI office over there right away and bring in her parents. They may need to bring their Hostage Rescue Team. Send me whatever docs you have on her and her family.”
“What do you mean, docs on ‘her?’” Jason asked. “Why do you need docs on Ari? You have everything you need on her.”
“Apparently not.”
“Don’t give me that shit, Sergeant Major!” Jason exploded. “Don’t even think about making Ari a target just because of what that flakeoid O’Rourke has to say!”
“Sir, the White House has already called for an investigation,” Jefferson said. “The FBI and Army Criminal Investigation Command have already been directed to bring Ari in and do a complete background…”
“She is not going to be arrested, Sergeant Major—I guarantee that!” Jason cried. “I’ll bust the head of any federal agent who tries to lay a hand on her! She’s a hero, for God’s sake! She’s been injured and almost killed in the line of duty!”
“Jason, the best place for her is with the FBI. Director DeLaine knows her—I’m sure she’ll handle her case personally.”
“No way! She’s not a criminal! Tell the FBI to back off, Sergeant Major!”
“I’m not going to do that, sir,” Jefferson said. “If she broke the law, she has to come in. The longer she stays out, the more she’ll be suspected of being a spy. She’ll have to—”
“A spy?” Jason retorted. “Are you insane? No way in hell is she going to go down as a spy! I’ll kill anyone who tries to charge her with that, I swear to God…!”
“Major Richter, shut up, sir, now,” Ray Jefferson said. “Listen to me, sir: Dr. Vega will get all the protection and legal help we can offer her…but not if you or she tries something crazy. Get her back on base and keep her there.”
“Sergeant Major, under my authority as deputy commander of this unit—”
“You’ve been relieved as deputy commander of TALON, Major. Director Watts is in charge—”
“—I am directing elements of Task Force TALON to immediately deploy to southern California to set up surveillance on Dr. Vega’s family, who I believe will be the target of an assassination or kidnapping attempt by the Consortium,” Jason said. “I am requesting that you notify the FBI and Justice Department of my orders and have them contact me through my headquarters so we can coordinate our efforts, but you can advise them that I am fully prepared to take whatever steps I feel necessary to accomplish my mission. Unless I receive valid countermanding orders, my unit is in target pursuit mode. TALON out.”
Jason saw a truck pull up to the CV-22 Osprey, and crews started loading Cybernetic Infantry Unit backpacks and weapon canisters aboard the tilt-rotor aircraft. At the same time an Air Force Suburban roared up the taxiway and screeched to a halt in front of him, and Bruno Watts jumped out. “I just got a call from the National Security Adviser, ordering me to keep you on the ground!” he shouted over the roar of the Osprey’s massive turboshaft engines. “What is going on? Where the hell do you think you’re going?”
“I’ll submit my ops plan in the air,” Jason shouted back.
“Like hell you will, Major!” Watts snapped. “This equipment is not your personal property! I am in command of this unit! Until I get clearance from Washington, I’m ordering you…”
“Excuse me, sir,” Jennifer McCracken said, stepping up to Watts. “I’d like a word with you.”
“Not now, Lieutenant.” Then, with surprising speed, Watts grabbed Jason’s left wrist with his left hand and lifted his sleeve with his other hand, revealing the remote control wrist keypad for the CID units. “And don’t even think of trying to summon one of your robots to grab me, Major,” he growled. “Sergeant Major Jefferson warned me about you. He said you’re not above doing anything to get your…”
With equally surprising speed, Jennifer McCracken swatted away Watts’s grasp on Jason, twisted his arm upward and backward, rotated her hips, and flipped Watts back over her right leg and down onto the tarmac. With one leg on his left arm and his other arm twisted behind him in a come-along hold, Watts was immediately immobilized. “What in hell do you think you’re doing?” Watts shouted. “Let me up, McCracken, now!”