Chapter 25: Control is an Allusion
"You seriously have to be the dumbest son-of-a-&itch I've ever met," Nacombe growled. "What the f*ck were you thinking?"
"I was thinking that my girlfriend was neck-deep in some serious shit and I wanted to make sure the F-B-f*ckin'-I didn't get her killed."
"And how did that work out for you?"
"That's enough, Nacombe. It's pretty obvious we're getting nowhere with your tactics. Logan, I hope you understand that regardless of how we got here, we're here, and we all want to get Veronica home and home safely," Ford interrupted, hoping to calm the situation.
"And sitting around chatting about all our f*ck-ups is going to accomplish that just how?"
"We have a team in route to the location your people lost contact. We have a computer expert trying to ping her signal. Any information your people can provide will be vital," Ford said calmly.
"They have given you all the information they have. I'm not going to waste their time sitting around this table doing the same useless shit we are when I need them out there doing their job and finding my girlfriend."
"Listen here, you little shit. That is our job. You're band of clowns is the reason she's in this mess to begin with, so don't you dare sit here and pretend that all this isn't your damn fault. So sit there on your high horse acting like you're in control, but know this…it's on you. If Mars ends up dead…you're the one who killed her."
Logan shot up from the chair, overturning the table, and made a beeline for Nacombe. Luckily, Ford anticipated just that and was able to bring him down before he got there.
"Just get the hell out, Nacombe. Go do something productive instead of tormenting Echolls. There's a pretty fair chance he'll be doing enough that himself."
"Fine, Ford, babysit the little f*cker if you want. Get him a tissue. Meanwhile, I'll try to find the Russian mob before the kill his girlfriend."
Logan thrashed on the floor, struggling to free himself of Ford. It was pretty useless. Ford had him by about 20 pounds of solid muscle.
"Now, if I get off you, are you going to calm yourself down?"
"Sure, I'll be calm. The love of my useless life is probably out there somewhere dead and it's all my fault. Yeah, yeah…I'll calm down."
Ford got up and helped Logan on his feet.
"Well, the truth of the matter is, if we'd done our job good enough, we'd have known about your little black ops team before now and we would have taken them out of the equation weeks ago."
"So, are you supposed to be 'good cop'? Don't bother. There really isn't any way you can spin this so it isn't my f*ck-up," Logan smirked. He kicked the turned-over table and sent it slamming into the wall. "F*CK!" he screamed.
"Ok, fine, tear the furniture apart. Knock yourself out. You have your tantrum, and I'm going to try to find Veronica," Ford said, giving up on trying to calm down the kid. He'd read his file. He knew what kind of temper Logan Echolls had, and it was pretty useless to reason with him at this point.
The long and short of the situation was, Logan had reached out to Clarence Weidman, of all people. Weidman had some friends and made some calls. Turns out, the Russians were pretty pissed at Jake Kane for "handling" the Sorokin matter. The real play was Jake Kane. Veronica was just the way to Kane. Sure, it was nice they could bring her down, too, but she was just leverage to get to Jake. Weidman's team knew all about their plan. They would have no trouble taking care of the Russians when it all went down. Unfortunately, the damn FBI stuck their nose in and now it had all gotten f*ed up.
Logan wanted to call Keith, but he had no idea what to say. He didn't know how to tell the man that he was the reason his daughter may or may not still be alive. So many emotions filled Logan's thoughts. He just needed to know Veronica was going to be okay. The thought of something happening to her made him angry, sad, and hopeless. There was no way he could live without Veronica Mars. He didn't want to. And to know it was his fault, made him want to string himself up in the corner. All he could do was wait. Wait and pray. He stumbled into the corner and slid down the way, his head buried in his hands. He prayed that Veronica would make it back. He prayed for a miracle.
"Now, I'd like you three to explain to me which one of you came up with this brilliant plan to 'expose' an unknown surveillance team by faking an abduction of a young girl who is obviously in way over her head with a government agency?"
Agents Ford, Nacombe, and Fuller looked at each other, feeling much too stupid to comment. Neither could make eye contact with the SAC.
"Thankfully, stupid plans are sometimes the best ones," he sighed.
"What?" Nacombe looked up, confused.
"Come one, Nacombe, I know you're smarter than this. What kind of idiot do you think I'd be putting a college kid on an FBI field team hell bent on getting her kidnapped, killed, or worse?"
"Pardon the bluntness, Special Agent, but what the hell are you talking about?" Fuller demanded.
"Do you think I'd honestly let a girl like Veronica Mars come walking into the FBI without knowing every spec and shred of a detail about her and everyone around her? I knew her boyfriend, who's basically a criminal himself, was bound to get caught up in this fiasco somehow. The minute he made his call to an ex-CIA man - I knew. I also knew that Kane software was up to their eyeballs in some big DoD contract and that any run in with the Russian mob could get ugly in a hurry. Since Veronica Mars walked into my office this plan has been in motion. I've known every step you've taken and every move the so-called 'black ops' team Echolls thought he was running has made."
"So there is no secret black op squad?" Ford asked.
"Oh, there is. There definitely is. But they aren't running point through some Hollywood rich kid," SAC Fuller snorted.
"We've been feeding him information," he continued. "His contact tells him what we want to tell him. All this has been heavily orchestrated from the beginning."
"So, why keep us out of the loop?" Agent Fuller asked, slightly angry that she'd been made to play the fool in the whole thing.
"We had to keep everyone in the dark to make this work. I saw the scheme you 3 had cooked up and had to act quickly to pull it all together, but we did. Fortunately, your rather dumb plan worked to my favor. It was the perfect opportunity to make it all click. Otherwise, I never would have let you go through with this madness."
"So why tell us now?" Nacombe huffed.
"The black SUVs did lose contact with Veronica. But on purpose. Like I said, this operation is much bigger than the FBI take-down of some two-bit Russian mobsters. They were after Kane. And somehow the goons had gotten wind of the big project Kane software was working on with the DoD. Even I don't know the full scope, but I would assume that if it had fallen into Russian hands, all hell would have broken loose. As it turns out, they had been on someone's radar for a while. Looks like everyone in some organization or another wanted them for some reason. Money laundering, tax evasion, drugs…you name it, there was an agency trying to bring them down. About a year-and-a-half ago, they managed to infiltrate a CIA black ops agent into the organization. When this teenage-drama crap went down with the kid in college-that was our window. They decided to go after Kane and then everyone went on full alert. They knew they had to shut them down and Mars was our perfect way in."
"So she is just a pawn in all this?" Agent Fuller asked, a little sad to know that they had just been planning Veronica as bait all this time.
"Yes and no. I think Mars will make a great agent someday. A few more summers training in Quantico and then a few years hard at it after she graduates, and we just might make something out of her. She hasn't played the pivotal role in all this you believed, but I have no doubt that even as we speak, she's proving her worth. The truth is. I stuck my neck out on the line to have her this involved. The brass wanted her as bait and nothing more. I convinced them that she could be useful, and she's proven to be. I have no doubt that when this is all over, we'll find out just how right I was."
"What do you mean?" Nacombe questioned.
"One thing about Mars that will make her invaluable to further endeavors is her ability to talk the pants of a snake-oil salesman. She's way smarter than any of the goons in the Sorokin organization. She'll figure out a way to get them to sing like canaries. And we'll have it all on tape."
"How? Her molar cap only transmits her voice and we lost the signal." Fuller asked, only realizing the answer as soon as the words were out of her mouth.
"You put a different bug on her?" she asked.
"Of course. We've been picking up every word from the time she was grabbed. Unfortunately, she was knocked out. Probably chloroform. But she's conscious now."
"She's okay? You're hearing everything?" Ford asked, relieved.
"What about our two agents?" Agent Fuller, asked, worried that everyone had forgotten about two possible casualties in all this.
"Agents Weston and Sutter were drugged. We had eyes on the whole thing. The two goons that were sent to abduct Veronica aren't the brightest, fortunately, and they really don't like to get their hands dirty. They dumped them after they "lost" the SUVs. We picked them up moments later. They are now safe and sound, recovering from the stupor of a propfofol injection. Now, I'm going to let Echolls off the hook. While there is still no doubt he's a complete dumb ss, there's no reason to make him suffer any further. You three suit up and get ready to roll out. There's a warehouse near the docks that's about to be lit up by every government agency with a field office in California. And everyone else is converged on Chicago. We're go in ten."
"So, you mean, Veronica isn't in any real danger?"
"I didn't say that. The truth is she's in very real danger. It's just that we didn't lose track of her. We know exactly where she is and I have people in position. We are monitoring her very closely. If things reach a boiling point she'll be extracted quickly."
"So all of this was an elaborate scheme? My contact…"
"Agent Thompson was telling you exactly what we wanted you to know. You're involvement did give us information we needed. Every little threat those idiot Russians sent you was another piece in the puzzle. While I still think you are a complete dumb ss who's in way over his head - I am glad you made the wise decision to reach out to Mr Weidman. He does still have some powerful friends in important places. His contacts triggered the cascade. If not for that, we probably wouldn't be about to close this case. It would've still happened, it would have just taken longer. And we couldn't have protected Ms Mars as well as we are now. Things could have gotten very ugly. As it is, we have the situation quite well managed."
"So, basically you just called me a dumb ss then pointed out my smart thinking handed you this case? I see why Veronica fits in so well with the FBI."
Special Agent Fuller chuckled at that.
"And Mr Echolls, I see now what she sees in you. The witty banter between you two must be nauseating."
Logan huffed.
"Come, I'll show you to a more comfortable place to wait. As soon as we have Ms Mars secured, we will let you know. She will need to be debriefed, as will you and her father…"
"Damn, Keith. I need to call him…"
"We have it all handled, Mr Echolls. He's actually in route now. We'll have someone debrief the both of you and as soon as we have the situation managed, you'll be free to go. But in the meantime, I'm afraid you'll be sequestered here. For your own safety."
"I thought you said you had everything under control," Logan smirked.
"Control is an allusion, Mr Echolls. It isn't real. I said we had the situation managed. There is a difference."