Her mind wandered back to Jazz. She liked it that she would now be able to call him by his nickname. She pictured the two of them in the back of a limousine returning from a night at the opera.
Oh, Jazz, that was a great evening, thank you.
She imagined Jazz leaning over to kiss her, stoking her breast through her dress as their lips touched.
Then her phone rang.
Damnit, she thought. Don’t forget he’s your suspect!
Elena extracted her phone from he briefcase, “Cruz.”
“You’re going to screw it up aren’t you?”
“Good morning, Cam.”
“Explain to me again how you are going to get this guy. He is a suspect, any decent lawyer will rip you apart on Mirandizing him alone.”
“You know, I have thought some more on that one, Cameron. I’m not going to get him within our justice system. I’m going to get him in his.”
“I don’t follow you.”
“UCMJ, the Uniform Code of Military Justice. We’ll start with treason.”
“Oh?”
“We are still conducting an investigation and are not yet ready to charge anyone. If we find something we’ll say that I’m not questioning a suspect, I’m conducting a sting. The fact that I am acting as an FBI agent is immaterial.”
“Oh, Elena, I do like it. You may be in my good graces after all.”
“I’ll call ya later, Cam.”
At FBI headquarters in Washington, DC Special Agents Cruz and Pucharelli were having a working lunch in the cafeteria. Pooch read over a copy of the case file given to Jazz and Ball. What the two EOD Techs did not realize is that the file contained subtle misinformation throughout. They hoped that Jazz would make a statement outside the investigation or contrary to the case file that was in fact true. Then they would know that he was on the inside of the IED factory connection.
“Elena, this is brilliant, really.”
“Thank you.”
“So if this guy is guilty… if he is connected, how do we think this whole thing proceeded?”
Elena reached into her bag and pulled out a wallet-sized notebook. She flipped the pages, finally stopping and reading a moment.
“Okay, here it goes. First, Jascinski for some reason is a member of a domestic terrorist organization. Part of his role in this organization is to attend a military school where he can learn advanced demolition and subsequently move into a position where he can obtain, to wit, steal military explosives. Likewise he can provide training to his fellow members. Jascinski gets into EOD school, after three tries mind you. The coup de gras is that he will be able to get close to someone while on a Secret Service op.”
Pucharelli was nodding his head. “I’m with you, go on.”
“Okay, Jascinski gets in with the local bad guys in Texas. I don’t think this is a small organization; it is nationwide. He could have been posted anywhere, he merely got in with the local chapter.”
“Right.”
“So they get found out by the dumb luck of some confused older woman who thinks she still owns the house. Sometime en route to the scene, Jascinski is called by his cronies.
“‘Fuck,’ they say, ‘We’ve been found out. What can we do?’ These guys are pretty well organized, so they mobilize.”
“When do you think the call was made?”
“I think before…”
“‘Cause the second guy… Ball… is not involved.”
“Right. He has been around Navy EOD for a while. Nothing to date points to him being involved in anything like this. Also, he was not there for SECSTATE.”
“I thought I remember the name ‘Ball’ from that op. Wasn’t he there?”
“He was on the job, but at a different location. Jascinski was posted at the hotel with a guy named Ashland.”
“That’s right, I remember now. So what about Ashland?”
“Like Ball, good record. He came to Texas from Detachment Norfolk. And he was very new to Ingleside when the incident happened.”
“Okay, continue.”
“So he either places the device for SECSTATE’s visit, or better yet, ensures that it is not located. It could be as simple as searching the location of the device and declaring it safe. Or, as the OIC he probably has influence on how the search proceeds. He probably even has the ability to decide that the team will not search an area.”
“That is correct. They chose to not search the conference hall.”
“See?”
“Got it.”
“Now our two incidents are not merely linked, they are part of the same campaign. In fact they are perpetrated by at least the same group and possibly the same man.”
“So now we get to Albania.”
“Albania, correct. I do believe that Jascinski’s presence there is a coincidence. Obviously he had no part in Kosovo and the Inchon’s subsequent involvement. I also believe however that there is some connection between Albania and Jascinski’s group. Maybe their training is provided by the same source. While he is there, he contacts or is contacted by this group. They ask for his assistance.
“‘Go see what they have on us. Is the stuff still there? What are the defenses like?’
“Jascinski provides them with the intel. How long had we been in those magazines?”
“Couple of weeks I think.”
“And how long after our friend was in there did they get hit?”
“Days… damn, I am starting to believe this more and more.”
“Good. So am I,” Elena glanced at her watch. “Well, it is that time. Let’s take a drive back over the Potomac.”
The two agents sat in the back of the same car that drove Cruz that morning. The traffic was no better at one than it was at ten.
“We need to pursue other avenues on this guy,” said Pucharelli.
“I’ve already covered it. We have looked at phone records, emails and the like. I’ve started watching the house, but we have not come up with anything yet.”
“He’s been gone though.”
“Exactly, the surveillance will be stepped up when Jascinski returns.”
“Still, I recommend that you go back and look again at records during the time surrounding each incident. We need to begin with the night of the incident in San Patricio County, the days surrounding the incident in Rome, and the days around the magazine hit.”
“That is probably a good recommendation. I can have my guy, Kilkenney, and his men look into it again. I think it may have been an unknown cell phone contact or it was a face to face meeting which may be impossible to trace.”
“When was he absent from the command? Oh, damn.”
“What?”
“Elena, he had all the time in the world to meet with someone in Albania. There are hundreds of cats and dogs there. It really was madness. Jascinski would have hours to talk with a foreigner there in plain sight and it would not have drawn any attention.”
“Interesting. Well, we cannot do anything about that right now. We’ll go with your recommendation and start again on emails and phone records.”
Jazz noticed in the material Elena gave him that the FBI had in fact started calling the device the “SANPAT bomb.” What the feds gave them was somewhat confusing. Jazz understood that they were the only living link to all three episodes, but he struggled to imagine exactly how he and T-Ball could provide insight based on the information provided. Much of the case file had nothing to do with the explosives.
Finally, he closed his eyes and thought of West, Martin, De Luca, and Koss. Jazz decided to look at the case not as an EOD Tech, but as an investigator.
He opened his eyes and started with the evidence gathered at the residence in San Patricio. First there was a list of all the explosive and electronic components. Then they had miscellaneous damning material that in the absence of the explosives would seem less incriminating. There were maps of several cities in the Southwest; detailed maps of the downtown areas that tourists use when walking. There were also satellite photos and base maps of the major installations in the state of Texas, including Ingleside.