‘I don’t know.’
‘What do you mean you don’t know where they are?’ Admiral Griffiths was looking at Jarvis as though he had gone insane.
‘They’re not my assets now,’ Jarvis said defensively. ‘My agents felt that they needed to stay off the grid until they could figure out what the hell was going on. They went dark just as I was removed from my post. I haven’t heard from either Warner or Lopez since.’
‘You don’t have a contact protocol?’ the chief of the army asked.
‘The last I heard from them they were being bombed by the National Guard,’ Jarvis snapped at the chief, ‘your people dropping bombs on American citizens, in case you didn’t know. There wasn’t much time to arrange niceties, and, seeing as I was forcibly retired, how the hell would you expect them to contact me?’
‘Your relationship with Warner was close,’ Mitchell replied. ‘It is reasonable to assume that he might try to contact you.’
‘He hasn’t,’ Jarvis said, and then looked around the room. ‘You all think he’s behind the murders?’
‘As you’ve pointed out, he has a motive,’ Mitchell said. ‘Revenge.’
‘I take it everybody else in this room knows what happened six months ago in Idaho?’ Jarvis asked.
Mitchell nodded. ‘I briefed the Chiefs about the unfortunate turn of events.’
‘Is that what you’re calling betrayal and treason?’ Jarvis asked.
‘What were your people doing in Idaho?’ the chief of the army demanded. ‘There’s nothing there.’
Jarvis let a brittle smile crack across his face.
‘There’s nothing there now,’ he corrected. ‘The CIA had an operation running up there, using National Guard assets to protect it. Warner and Lopez were sent to investigate a series of murders and realized that whatever was killing people wasn’t human. It turned out the CIA had been conducting experiments, for want of a better word, under the banner of a top-secret program called MK-ULTRA, and something got out.’
‘Something?’ the chief of the army echoed.
‘A species not quite like us,’ Jarvis said without elaborating. ‘Ultimately, the entire operation was destroyed in an attempt to remove evidence, and that included removing Ethan and Lopez.’
‘This is ridiculous,’ the chief of the army snapped. ‘I’m aware of no such operation by Guard assets. I’ve served my country for over forty years and I’ve never encountered this kind of conspiracy crap.’
Jarvis glared at DCIA Steel. ‘Will you tell him, or do I have to?’
Steel kept his beady black eyes focused on the table top as he spoke.
‘A paramilitary team from the 24th Special Tactics Squadron was deployed to destroy a CIA facility in Idaho. When the operation failed, the National Guard was deployed to blow the site using A-10 Tankbusters. The strike was recorded as a training exercise, and the aftermath as a gas explosion in an abandoned mine. An exclusion zone remains around the site under the guise of public safety.’
The chief of the army stared at Steel in horror. ‘Jesus Christ, what the hell has been going on here?’
‘The persecution of patriots,’ Jarvis growled, ‘by elements of the CIA trying to cover up abuses of power going back decades.’
‘Warner and Lopez escaped the aerial attack, and now they’re taking their revenge, and killing CIA agents?’ the chief of the Marines presumed.
‘They escaped,’ Mitchell confirmed, ‘and have been on the run ever since. The CIA managed to cover up events in Idaho but was looking to tie up a few loose ends.’
‘Those loose ends,’ Jarvis said, ‘being my two agents. ‘I’ve conducted a six-month investigation into CIA corruption; corruption that has led to the deaths of several US servicemen and civilians.’
Jarvis produced from his jacket pocket the envelope containing his research. He laid it face down on the table, tantalizingly close to each man and yet just beyond their reach.
‘Your investigation is meaningless,’ Steel pointed out, ‘conducted without authority or oversight.’
‘People who have served this agency with distinction are now being forced to live in hiding for fear of assassination attempts,’ Jarvis replied, and looked each of the JCOS in the eye. ‘Patriots, people whom you would be proud to be associated, hounded by operatives who swore to protect them, and not just my people either. At the same time as the events in Idaho, three members of the Government Accountability Office in DC were attacked by CIA assets, two of them fatally.’
A moment passed as the JCOS exchanged glances.
‘What’s the link with Warner and Lopez?’ asked the admiral.
‘Ethan Warner’s sister, Natalie, was one of the GAO targets,’ Jarvis said. ‘Natalie Warner moved departments afterward, but the closing of the investigation removed her as a threat to the CIA, along with her colleague Ben Consiglio, who was also the victim of an attempted homicide. However, what the CIA doesn’t know is that both of these individuals can identify the CIA agents in question, the men responsible for the murders.’
The JCOS looked at each other again and General Steel glared at Jarvis, but it was Director Mitchell who spoke.
‘You’re sure?’ he asked Jarvis. ‘And you’re sure that these individuals can be tied to the murders?’
‘One hundred per cent sure,’ Jarvis replied without hesitation. ‘We were even able to obtain genetic material that can be matched to them should they be brought to trial.’
‘You investigated the site?’ General Steel asked in disgust. ‘You infiltrated a federal crime scene and—’
‘I was on the scene when the murders occurred,’ Jarvis snapped. ‘You don’t think I wouldn’t have taken any useful evidence with me?’
The chief of the army shook his head.
‘There would be utter outrage if this got out,’ he murmured. ‘Our capacity for unhindered intelligence-gathering would be blown out of the water by Congress.’
‘The ensuing court cases,’ Jarvis confirmed, ‘would result in virtually every major defense initiative in this country being hauled out into the open for congressional scrutiny. Our ability to make hard choices to defend our nation would be compromised beyond repair. It would, essentially, be the end of covert intelligence-gathering in the continental United States.’
‘All the more reason,’ Steel insisted, ‘that this remain a closed affair.’
The JCOS remained silent for a long moment, before Admiral Griffiths gestured to Jarvis’s envelope.
‘What’s in there?’ he asked.
Jarvis opened the envelope and let a series of pictures fan out onto Mitchell’s desk.
‘Copies of CCTV footage in Washington, DC, internal cameras at the GAO and several images shot by Natalie Warner from her vehicle traveling in the Capitol. Each shows one or other of the two men responsible for CIA-sanctioned killings of congressional aides and American civilians who were survivors of the original MK-ULTRA program in the 1970s. These images, along with the genetic evidence obtained from the crime scenes, are enough to convict beyond all reasonable doubt those responsible.’
The JCOS leaned forward, examining the pictures, as Jarvis leaned back in his chair and waited. DCIA Steel scowled at him as he gestured to the photographs.
‘They’re nothing,’ he said, ‘pictures taken by amateurs that wouldn’t hold up in any court. They could have been working in unrelated projects in DC.’
‘True,’ Jarvis replied, finally looking at the DCIA. ‘And the blood sample retrieved from the site of the murder of GAO worker Guy Rikard, that will match the blood of a CIA agent and assassin you call Mr. Wilson?’
Steel glared at Jarvis but said nothing. The JCOS stared at the pictures in silence.