Chapter 7
The week feels like it will never end and it's only Tuesday evening. After GEH's winning the bid on Park MicroVentures we all breathed a sigh of relief. I knew Rami's intervention in the KMA bid wouldn't come to light, mainly because KMA's IT team had been neck deep in GEH's servers. All of the security measures Welch, Barney and I had put into place over the past years meant nothing as we went up against what exactly – an unnamed government secret agency? I knew from my time in the military that all governments had these agencies. Yet, I really wanted to believe that our government was above sinking to underhanded tactics. I know it was naïve of me to think that way and deep down I knew better. It's just not something you want to believe.
My thoughts wander through everything as I set up the new laptop and hooking it to a new state of the art smart board – Luke, Rami, KMA, and Africa, my new mantra as ran through the data. The linchpin is Grey or GEH. I'm around Grey all day as his head of security to know his interactions in Africa – feeding the poor, healthcare, schools, and his precious telecommunications project. It's the latter that to me is the only logical choice as the potential linchpin. His life's work to date has been finding ways to feed people in Africa by circumventing the corruption. It's a cause Luke was trying to be involved with by providing a polymer for the case. That, coupled with Rami's actions, of interfering with the Park MicroVentures bid, was a clear indicator of the odds on favorite for the linchpin – the phones.
"Taylor!"
My thoughts are interrupted by Grey's shouts as he arrives at our secure location with Welch. We had an hour to review the thumb drive contents before the others arrived in luxury bus, shuttled by Reynolds.
"Are we set up?" Grey asks.
I nod as Grey hands me the thumb drive. After plugging it into the laptop we see there are two files on the drive – a video and a picture. With a quick click the picture comes up on both the laptop screen and the monitor. All it is an almost blank organizational chart. The one cell filled in is the one at the top labeled: GREY/GEH but the normal org chart black lines are replaced by thin yellow brick roads. Nice to see Luke kept his sense of humor.
"Follow the linchpin impact," Welch mutters "and maybe the wizard will provide answers."
I can see by the look on both Welch's and Grey's faces, they were hoping that GEH wouldn't be the actual linchpin, but rather a step in the process that wouldn't be significant. Denial is a strong emotion. As of last night, I had no doubt, if we built a chart, GEH was the first domino. All indicators pointed in that direction.
"The video, Taylor," Grey ordered unhappily.
With a click the video icon on the laptop, and the smart board image was now of Luke Sawyer staring into the camera. Before we click to play the video, I examine his surroundings. It looks like a regular office or library. He's sitting at a large desk with multiple pieces of computer equipment around him. Behind him is a massive book case filled to the brim with books on language, culture, politics, and the sciences. The one thing that strikes me is the image of Luke himself. As a CPO, Luke was always impeccably dressed – never a button undone or tie knot loosened. His face was always the picture of one of three things: calmness, mirth, or anger depending on the situation. In this picture, he was in an expensive suit, but buttons were undone and the normally perfect knot in his tie was loose and hanging. No matter how many hours Luke put in as a CPO he never really appeared tired. Yet, looking at the screen, he appeared exhausted, like the weight of the world was weighing heavily on him. There was no missing how different this version of Luke was when compared to the man we knew as a CPO and the carefree image he exuded at the gala just a few days ago. Oddly enough, the video timestamp indicates this was recorded the morning of the gala.
Reluctantly, I started the video and the image of Luke immediately tapped the framed picture on the book case behind him before addressing us.
"Well Mr. Grey, if you're watching this then my contingency protocol went into effect. Simply stated, I'm either dead or hooked up to a life support system with no expectation of recovery," Sawyer began and then laughed. "It definitely feels weird saying that. It's like something out of a bad spy novel. Don't feel bad for me. This is a life I've chosen. You don't do what I do for a living without the expectation of dying young and hopefully leaving a half-way decent looking corpse. It's the nature of the beast.
"I went into this business with my eyes open as a fifteen year old. Yes, they recruit young, then educate the heck out of you, but let's be real – I wasn't the average teenager. Neither was my mother, her brother, or their forbearers." He pointed to the framed black and white picture behind him of a teenage man and woman.
"It's hard to say no when you are a multi-generational legacy. My uncle was the only one that said no in the past hundred and fifty years. He walked away from the agency my family founded in 1864 and never looked back. Can't say I blame him. I mean, power corrupts and we're talking about the ultimate power here on a global scale. Imagine being able to impact events worldwide with a single decision and watch the game play out from the sideline like an FC Barcelona tiki taka soccer game.
"Mr. Grey – fuck it – Christian. Roll your eyes all you want – I'm dead, so you can't give me the old Grey glare for using your first name." Luke smirked. "I was assigned the task of building a dossier on GEH and more specifically – on you by the agency just over four years ago. It started as another mundane assignment, but the more I dug, the more my eyes were opened. I'd be lying if I said I didn't know all of your secrets – I do." Luke smirked again. "Have I told you I was a bit OCD when I was alive? The OCD made me thorough – ridiculously thorough." He paused with a smile. "Let's just say we have a few things in common. If you're lucky, I'll haunt you and we can compare notes."
Welch and I glanced over at Mr. Grey. He was clearly uncomfortable with where this was going.
"I acquired information that would make your head spin – connections no one else had made and I validated those connections. I know you can relate to being a control freak. My inner freak was running on overdrive as the pieces fell into place. Hell, one night I sat at this very desk, stared at the screen, then probably said fuck a hundred times over." He laughed. "In my line of work, you're not easily shocked. There is no such thing as coincidence. If someone tells you there is, just smack the crap out of them and move on. Coincidence doesn't exist. I can't stress that enough."
He smiles, then glances to the right of the screen and continues. "Taylor, I know you're probably standing to Grey's right, so take this as a fucking clue – coincidence is a clue. Don't use coincidence as a fall back point."
I can't help but smile at Luke's image. "Can't be more direct than that."
Luke continued returning his attention to Mr. Grey. "Coincidences are hard work to pull off. I mean, it just about blew my mind when I discovered that Jack Hyde was intentionally placed in your path. For me, it was a turning point. I mean, at the agency, I was charged with the African continent. I wasn't a just a run of the mill agent. This information was kept from me. It was a like a switch went off in my head, killing any doubt I may have had. By the way, Hyde had a little aneurysm in prison and is a vegetable. He won't be able to harm anyone ever again – coincidence? I think not. They'd left someone alive and in prison, which is where they fished him out of in the first place, ready, willing and able to come after your family. It was time for a coincidence and dammit if I don't look good dressed in orange.
"I've seen it all in my career – war, rape as a weapon, murder, genocide, discrimination, and other senseless horrors inflicted on the innocent, but you also see the good – the families and their will to not only survive it all, but to succeed regardless. You've seen it on your trips to the Continent, just as I've seen it. I know you have. It got into your soul, as it did in mine. We're a great deal alike. No insult intended either way."
After a chuckle, he continued more seriously, "Africa is a continent full of natural resources. Each government corrupt in its own way. Tribal violence is rampant in some regions. In many ways, most governments there don't think globally. This trait has led many leaders over time to their downfall. Well, that and just plain greed. As you know, in many countries they punish the populace to exert control, crushing them in some of the most inhumane ways possible – starvation, ethnic cleansing, sexual violence, mutilation, and such. This ongoing turmoil doesn't allow the leaders of each country to think globally. They spend all their time trying to destroy the will of the people and line their own pockets. This leaves them ripe for manipulation by foreign governments for their own gain. I know all too well, as I've been a vital cog in that manipulative machine for nearly two decades dedicated to Africa.
"In my field, there are two types of operatives – those that get the job done at any cost, and those that get the right job done for the right reason. These are two factions that generally don't see eye-to-eye and struggle for control of the agency; thereby dictating the actions of said agency. It's heartbreaking to watch an agency that was built on the blood of your forbearers become something that is ethically unrecognizable."
We watch as Luke gets up from the desk and pulls a file from a cabinet to his left before returning front and center. He pulls a picture from the file and points it toward the camera. It's familiar from the gala – the crash scene photo from the wreck that killed his mother and step-father.
"The wreck that took my mother's life, along with her husband, and injured my sister wasn't an accident at all. It was intentional, meant to shift the momentum of the agency toward the side with loose ethics. At the time, I was young and an up and comer in the agency, but apparently on their radar and it was part of their plan to sway me toward a less than righteous path. I was moving up the ranks too quickly and it made waves. My sister's survival changed the course of my life, inadvertently giving them free reign as it pulled me away with enough distance from the day-to-day agency activities, to not interfere with their plans. I spent quite a bit of time working at the pentagon over the next decade while I raised my sister. That doesn't mean I didn't keep digging on my own though. Sometimes OCD is a wonderful thing. I found that my uncle too was murdered by the agency years before when they tried and failed to sway him back to the family business but on their side. He was a nineteen year old college student in Chicago just trying to live his life."
We watched as Luke grabbed the picture behind him and pointed to the young teen that was his uncle. He looked somewhat familiar, but we couldn't quite place him – dark wavy hair, dark eyes, tall with a muscular build. There was no missing the intelligence in his eyes, but his simmering youthful exuberance as well.
"The message I'm trying to convey is simple: these assholes are dangerous. A human life isn't important if it accomplishes their mission. They believe in acceptable losses and casualties. If I'm dead, then there are few left of my mother's line – Abby and my soon to be born son. I've assured their safety with my contingency plan. So far I've managed to keep the agency away from them throughout this process. Abby has no idea of the family history. I've kept it that way so she couldn't get sucked in. Sue me, I'm over-protective. I'm hoping this will be enough to keep them away from her, but one thing I've learned over the last two decades is even if she's not involved, they will consider her a liability – genetics after all. My uncle was out and it didn't stop them. I'm trusting Rami to watch over them. Now that I'm gone, he's their last line of defense.
"I know it probably seems like I'm rambling. Yes I probably am. Three days without sleep will do that to a person. Christian - I need you to go into this with your eyes wide open because I'm not around to cover your ass any more. In the years you, Taylor, and your family have known me the one thing you didn't realize is I never did anything without a reason. Did I say never? Every step, smirk, remark, glance, and action were calculated to a million decimal points. It was the only way to leave the information behind that you will require moving forward. Unfortunately, I spent the bulk of my time with Ana, Gail, and Taylor, so you will have no choice but to pick their brains. You will need to go back through all of your odd encounters with me over the years and re-evaluate them versus the person I truly am in order to find the clues. I had to leave them in this fashion in order to carefully tuck them away from the agencies prying eyes. So every time you noticed something I did out of character is where you dig for more as you pull the puzzle board together.
"Trust no one. Everyone has a price even if they aren't aware they do. For most it's financial, but for others it can be family, mankind in general, their government, or even feeding their own personal neurosis. Right vs. wrong; good vs. evil; black vs. white – so cut and dry, yet life rarely is so. For me, it's family first, mankind second. I'm well aware the order should be reversed, but when you've spent more than half your life living in the grey, a certain amount of murkiness sets in and you grasp what makes you feel human, which for me is family. Oddly enough, a blood link plays only a small part in my family – you don't choose your blood family – you do however, choose your true family. Me? Well, I'm the pit bull that protects my family unit. Mess with one of them and I push back ten times as hard. Outwardly my family unit appears small even insignificant, but it's not. There are members of my family that are completely unaware of their tie to me. These are people, when I was alive I protected." He chuckles again. "It still feels weird to say 'when I was alive'. I'm probably rotting away smelling awful by now."
We watched as Luke paused yet again and sighed. The cool façade cracked slightly as he reached into his desk drawer and pulled out a photograph and pointed it toward the camera.
"This is my son – my world, along with Hannah, Abby and Javi," he began as he struggled to keep the emotion from his voice. "He won't know me other than what people tell him as he grows up. Hannah knows some of my family history but not enough to put her in the line of fire. One day, when my boy is approaching adulthood, I'm relying on you to let him know the truth about me. Abby can't do it, as she's flying blinder than Hannah is with regard to my life. There's no one left other than Rami and he'll never talk – he's a secrets to the grave type of fellow and with me out of the way, the agency will make sure he doesn't survive much longer.
Once Luke returns the picture to the drawer, he pulls a shot glass and a small bottle of single malt scotch from his desk. After pouring himself a shot and downing it, he continues.
"Let's cut to the chase, shall we? Enough of my emotional crap. First – Christian you were originally targeted by the agency in part because of your scores on IQ tests back in high school. There was a point in time when they wanted to recruit you but they found you to be too independent, volatile and unpredictable." Luke laughed. "That one family trait saved you, but it made you the man you are today, which again, placed you in the bulls-eye of the dartboard that is the agency. Your compassion for humanity, coupled with your innovative way of thinking has left you front and center in this potential cluster-fuck.
"I know you well enough to know, I can't tell you how to think and I wouldn't presume to try. All I can do is give you some advice – figure out the linchpin, pull a team of your most trusted together and determine what the potential fall-out would be both ways - if you continued on your current trajectory or pulled the plug on the project. Before you make any decisions, you need to follow each fork in the road to the inevitable end before you make any decision. I know which fork I would follow, but it's not my place to lead you there. I can only provide the nudge. Trust me, it's taking all of my self-control for that nudge to not be a kick in your ass in my preferred direction.
"Why am I not telling you what I would prefer you to do? Because I told you to trust no one and that includes me. It's pretty fucked up, right? After all, not trusting me, well that's only fair. I'm smart enough to know that my views can be jaded given what I do for a living and the reality is, I was raised in this life. You weren't, so I'm counting on you to look at it from a different perspective and make the right decision. There are so many nuanced shades of grey here – fucking ironic, I know."
He stopped talking enough to down another shot of whiskey. "It probably feels like I'm talking circles here and it's intentional. I've hidden the pieces so only you and your will have access to the resources to pull them together. I'm asking you to take the word of a fallen agent – me. Yes I went rogue. I don't deny it. Yes, I pulled my network in Africa from the agency. I did it with my conscience clear. I have nothing to gain from this personally. I'm not a zealot or a psychopath. At least not officially diagnosed anyway."
Again, he laughs. "All I am is a person attempting to fulfill the original role of the agency as it was originally chartered. I've pissed many people off over the past twenty-four months within the agency. I won't deny that, but when the good of the agency or one government supersedes the good of humanity, it's like drawing a line in the sand before me. I had to act. My actions were over three years in the planning. As I said at the beginning of this video confessional, the more I dug, the more my head spun. It became clear to me that once I officially went rogue that I'd be dead within a year, so I had to make the time I had left count. All I can hope for is that the steps I took are enough to right the ship.
"Elliot built all of our facilities and homes except one. He doesn't have enough information to be in any danger, especially since I've kept him too busy to even think of digging. He will be handy in a pinch though as he knows every security feature and passageway of each build. Now Kate has been a thorn in my side. She's going to get her ass killed if she keeps digging. You need to find a way to make her stop. I'll be lucky not to have gotten my ass killed trying to keep her safe. She's a lot like you Grey, once she wants something, she stops at nothing to get it. You need to stop her or she'll end up dead. She's too smart for her own good. She knows it's the story of her career but she needs to be reminded she won't have a career if she's cremated. I trust you will find a way to convey the message."
Luke sat back in his chair and took another shot of whiskey. By the hesitant look on his face, we couldn't help but feel the worst was coming.
"I've taken every precaution possible to keep you and your family safe. My security team has infiltrated GEH, Grey Publishing, KMA, your father's law firm, the hospital where your mother works, Kavanagh Media, and so on. Most have been in place for years, while KMA is more recent. You can have Taylor run all the background checks in the world, but you'll never find my operatives, but when you need them, they will be there for you. Their orders are to keep you safe and not to interfere with any decision you make on the linchpin.
"As part of my contingency plan Rami has been instructed to upgrade your surveillance equipment but only if you opt to do so. Again, the choice is yours and will not be forced upon you. Within forty-eight hours of my official time of death, you will receive the polymer research signed over to GEH for you to do with as you please. First stop Grey, the patent office. I will say though, if I were alive today, between the polymer and the latest development in surveillance technology my company developed, I'd be as rich as you are. Not too shabby for a former bratty, toe-head from Baltimore. Good luck and good conscience Grey."
We watched as Luke leaned forward toward the keyboard. Once again, he smiled and continued. "One more thing Grey – Mubarek at KMA is fundamentally unstable. Her taste in décor is something Barney might find fascinating, though she'd eat him alive. As I said – she's unstable. She needs a doctor. The key to managing surveillance on her is: don't blink."
Welch, Mr. Grey and I look at each other for a moment after the video ends.
"Luke Sawyer – CPO, Spy, and enigma," Welch stated flatly. "We've got a hell of a lot of ground to cover if we're going to review every time Luke acted out of character."
Mr. Grey ran his fingers through his hair. I knew what he was going to say before he said it, but I let him voice what we were all thinking – "I can't believe this agency placed Jack Hyde as an operative in their –"
"Cluster fuck Mr. Grey," Welch finished his sentence. "I'm glad Luke can pull off an orange jump suit. I wouldn't want a repeat performance by Jack Hyde."
