The story on Honest Abe’s death quoted his attorney as saying that his client never supported the Taliban or worked with the C.I.A. The attorney admitted that the confusion may have been caused by his client’s work as a consultant to a well-connected military contractor known as Arrowhead.
Arrowhead’s elaborate website said the corporation was a full service risk management company, headquartered in Plano, Texas, with hundreds of employees worldwide, and that it specialized in “Democracy Transition.” Arrowhead operations were broken up into various specialties. Law enforcement. Strategic. Recruitment and Training. Anti-Terrorism. Except for scope and degree, the company was no different from any of the dozens of gun for hire groups that had sprung up around the world over the last couple of decades.
Like many regular soldiers, Sutherland considered military contractors as bottom feeders. Most mercenaries were former military men who earned big salaries for work that the people still working for Uncle Sam did for short money.
Sutherland noticed a link for The Arrowhead Foundation listed in small print on the website and clicked it. The U.S. registered charity had been set up to bring relief to war-torn environments. The list of projects included schools, water tanks, purification systems, generators and other small but important projects for poor communities.
She scrolled through the projects and stopped at one labeled Psychological Care for Children in Conflict. Sutherland had an interest in psychology stemming from her own mental issues so she clicked on the listing. The site carried a number of photos of Iraqi children with men and women who worked for an outfit called World-Wide Youth Counseling Services.
She stared with disbelief at a photo of a man handing a stuffed teddy bear to a child. The photo caption didn’t name the man, just described him as a psychological counselor, but there was no mistaking the gaunt features and puny chin of Dr. Trask, the hated psychologist who had ruined Hawkins and threatened to do the same with her! The attempt at a warm smile could only be described as grotesque.
There were two other armed men in the photo. One was in the background, and the other, standing next to the girl, resembled the same wide-faced man in the photo of Honest Abe coming out of Macy’s. She expanded the search on the foundation, combing the internet for any mention of the Children in Conflict site. She hit pay dirt in an online version of the Holy Cross college alumni magazine under the heading:
Alum Serves in Humanitarian Role
The article had the identical photo as the one on the Arrowhead site. The caption identified Trask only as a child psychologist, but it said the man with the gun was a BC alumni named Terrance A. Murphy. He had joined the Marines after college and served three tours in Iraq before mustering out to go to work for Arrowhead. The clip was a couple of years old and gave no indication of Murphy’s movements since then.
The detail that really caught her eye was Murphy’s home town. South Boston. And his nickname was Southie! She squinted at the screen. Was Murphy the CIA guy Hawkins talked to before going after Honest Abe? If so, his ties to the execrable Dr. Trask were disturbing. She had to know more.
Using the foundation’s charitable registration number from the website, she looked up its IRS 990-PF form listing the names of the foundation’s officers, directors, managers and contractors. She recognized none of the names, but noted them for a further look, then scrolled down to the list of grant recipients.
One of the recipients was World-Wide Youth Counseling Services.
She went back to the photo of Trask and found a strange coincidence. It was taken the year when, according to the alumni magazine article, Murphy was working for Arrowhead at the same time its foundation was awarding a grant to the children’s organization.
When Trask had first come into her life as a hatchet man for the navy, she had prepared a comprehensive dossier on him. She went back and looked into the file. There was no mention of his tie-in to the foundation or the navy. He was described as being in private practice, but this would not prevent him from hiring out as a consultant.
Sutherland was like a hound on the scent of a rabbit. Or in this case, a skunk. She got up from the computer and went out onto the patio to steady her nerves. The desert was unearthly quiet. She had missed the sunset. She breathed in the scent of sagebrush and went into the house for a protein bar and a Diet Coke. Back at her computer, she limbered her plump fingers like a piano virtuoso about to play Chopin’s Minute Waltz, and began to attack the computer keyboard.
She went into every aspect of the Arrowhead website. She dug further into IRS files. She used her far-ranging computer search program and picked up hundreds of references to the company. There were no other direct references linking Murphy or Trask. But she found that aside from a few projects, the organization actually did very little for children.
Sutherland decided to go right to the source, and wrote an email to the foundation director saying she wanted to donate money to the children’s development fund. She included her cell phone number.
Since it was night in Texas, she didn’t expect a reply, but her phone rang after a few minutes. It was the foundation director.
“I didn’t think anyone would be working this late,” Sutherland said.
“We’re 24/7 here,” the director answered. “Thank you for your offer,” she said, “but you might want to donate to other foundation projects. That project ended a couple of years ago, as the situation changed in Iraq.”
“Is there any way to get in touch with Dr. Trask? I saw his name on the website,” she lied. “Maybe he’s doing similar work that I can support.”
“I’ll have to do some research. I’ll get back to you.”
Sutherland thanked her, clicked off and stared into space. Hawkins knew Southie/Murphy. Murphy worked with Trask and went shopping with Honest Abe who ambushed Hawkins. She considered contacting Hawkins, but he was still in the air and she didn’t have enough to go on. She just knew something wasn’t right.
She wrote up a report, but decided to wait until she heard back from the foundation. If she didn’t hear from Arrowhead, she’d get in touch with Hawkins in the morning.
She yawned. It was almost bedtime.
After the call from Sutherland the foundation’s development officer went to the director and told him of the strange request to donate to the children’s charity and the question about Trask.
The director thanked her, closed his door and made a telephone call.
Sweat formed on Dr. Trask’s weak chin as he listened to the voice on the phone. How had Sutherland found him? There was no mention of his name anywhere in the company website. He thanked the director. He was calm and polite on the phone, but the moment the conversation ended, he frantically punched out a telephone number.
The phone chirped in a small, Spartan office in Falls Church, Virginia.
The hard-eyed man sitting behind a desk in the office listened intently, then said, “The 4th Protocol? You’re sure of it?”
There was a verbal blast from the other end.
“I’ll need clearance from upstairs first.”
Trask said, “Stand by,” and hung up.
A minute later, the phone rang again and it was his supervisor, following up on Trask’s panicked call.
“You have the go-ahead to proceed. I’ll be sending you a file. You’re to act on this immediately.”
“I’ll take care of it.”
He hung up and turned to his computer. A minute later he was looking at a photo of a woman in her twenties. The face was plump but pretty. Under the head shot was a note: