Chapter Forty Nine
No Evil Shall Escape My Sight
Lanie Parrish' Office
OCME 6:30 AM
Lanie Parrish was about to slide her key into the lock of her office when she noticed that the light was on. She hadn't wanted to leave the hospital while Kate was still in a coma, but there was little left to do but wait and see if she would wake up.
The surgeon, Dr. Corday had told them that she had gotten all of the bullet fragments out and repaired most of the damage, but now the rest was up to Kate Beckett. She then told them that they should all try to get some rest themselves. After reading Kate's chart for the fifth time, she realized she needed to do something, needed to keep busy or she would explode.
Kevin told her he would call as soon as there were any changes, and looking at Rodgers' cold dead eyes in the waiting room was seriously starting to creep her out. The man hadn't spoken a word since trying to console her when Kate had been wheeled away, and she he hadn't seen the look that was in his eyes since she had zipped his little girl into a body bag nearly a decade ago and she was ashamed to admit that it was starting to get to her.
The door to her office was slightly ajar, and the light was on. She knew she had locked up and turned off all of the lights the night before Captain Montgomery's funeral. Nobody should be in there. Javi had tried to warn her that there might be a leak in her office but she hadn't wanted to believe him. She had been rather indignant about it actually, but now she could hear somebody rummaging through her office. She quietly called security on her cell phone, then pushed her office door open.
Her new "intern" was standing over her disassembled office phone as if looking for something. When she coughed and the young woman looked up, her expression hardened, as she rose from her handiwork.
"Dr. Parrish...this isn't what it looks like..." she tried to stammer
"The hell it isn't." Lanie replied angrily as the young woman rounded her desk, a small blackjack appearing menacingly in her hand.
"This is a lot bigger than you Dr. Parrish, you really should have left well enough..."
The woman's reply was cut off as Lanie clocked her with a single punch to the face.
"Leave well enough alone? You really don't know me very well, bitch." Lanie replied darkly to the unconscious young woman lying crumpled on her office floor as she dialed Javi who was still waiting in the car outside to run her home.
"Javi, get in here! I think I just plugged your leak."
….
Martha Rodgers was seriously beginning to worry about her son. He hadn't spoken a word, or moved and he hardly blinked since sitting down in the waiting room. She hadn't seen him like this since after Alexis' funeral and she had hoped to never see him this way again. She could only see one option open to her to help him. She excused herself and headed to the ladies room, the small burner phone already in her hand as she pushed the door open and stepped inside, calling the one person who might understand, and be able to do something.
….
"I know you're worried about him, Martha." Richard Webb said, trying to console her as best he could, "So am I. I'm taking steps to deal with this, so he won't have to. I don't want him to turn into what I became any more than you do."
"Richard, whatever you're doing, please hurry, I can see him slipping away" Martha pleaded over the other end of the line in a voice that told him she must be in tears and it broke his heart.
"I'll do what I can, Martha, the rest is up to him. I'll be there as soon as I can."
"Thank you, Richard." she replied before she closed the line.
Richard Webb knew what he had to do. It had been a long time coming, and he hadn't anticipated having to do this to a man he had once bounced on his knee as a boy, his own Godson, but as his Godfather he had had a responsibility to help teach him right from wrong and he had obviously not properly fulfilled that part of his obligation. It was long past time to remedy that lapse in Billy Bracken's education.
After once again reading the files that Michael Smith had sent him. The ones his best friend since Vietnam had been taken from his home, tortured and murdered for, he opened his desk, produced a burner phone, turned it on and dialed a number from memory. When the line picked up, he was asked for a code number, which he also recited from memory. When asked for his authorization code phrase he said in a clear voice "Nemesis Rising."
He was then automatically routed to the line he was truly after. When the man on the other end picked up he uttered a simple command.
"Execute ops plan Instant Karma, target: Senator William Bracken" and promptly hung up. He disassembled the burner cell, removed the battery and the sim card, which he snapped in half, threw the battery onto his desk and dropped the phone and sim card into the incinerator chute on his way out the door. He had a helicopter to catch.
Within moments, coded text messages went out and nearly a hundred sleeper agents around the globe were roused from their slumber of mundane jobs and lives. The scattered remnants of Project Archangel rose from the ashes and answered the call, immediately swinging into action.
Over the next day, records of all of Senator William Bracken's past misdeeds, every last skeleton in his closet had been transmitted to the Justice Department. All of his international accounts were frozen or rendered inaccessible. Every illegally gained and hidden asset would be identified, tracked and locked down before the ink on the federal arrest warrant against him was dry.
His bank accounts in Switzerland and the Cayman Islands were hit with Trojan horse programs dispensing a worm virus that targeted and froze out those specific accounts. By the time the Swiss and Cayman Islands banking authorities would be able to do anything, it would be too late. They would be as if they had never existed.
There would be no more hired mercenaries or paid assassins to come to his aid and nowhere for him to run. Those who were already bought and paid for would be targeted and eliminated. Including the one in the hospital where Kate Beckett was being cared for. Richard Webb dragged the woman disguised as a nurse into a nearby men's room and applied the silenced double tap to her head personally. The cleaner would be in shortly to take care of her remains. It would be weeks before anyone noticed the extra Jane Doe in the hospital morgue.
The final phase of ops plan "Instant Karma" would be placed in the hands of his son within the next forty eight hours.
….
Detective Sydney Bristow was unofficially in charge of the precinct, given the fact that everyone else was either dead, in the hospital, or out of the office, when an older, dark skinned woman she had never laid eyes on before walked into the 12th Precinct walked briskly up to her and flashed a shiny new NYPD Captain's shield.
"I am Captain Victoria Gates, I have been sent to take over here, Detective."
"Welcome to the 12th Precinct, Captain," Sydney said, barely concealing her contempt, "I was just about to go off shift, Officer Velasquez would be happy to show you around."
"I'm told that one of my detectives is in the hospital." Gates replied.
"Yes, she is, your lead detective, Kate Beckett actually, I'm heading out now to go see her." Sydney replied back to her.
"Keep me informed as to her condition while I get up to speed here." Gates ordered.
"Yes ma'am." Sydney replied, to which Gates seemed to bristle.
"If my mother comes to the precinct you can call her ma'am, call me either 'Sir', or 'Captain' from now on." Gates stated imperiously
"Yes sir," Sydney replied before heading for the elevator with an apologetic nod to Officer Velasquez on her way out.
She had received a coded priority message on her cell phone which told her that she had received her change of orders and she was to check in on her secure server in her apartment. Things were about to get interesting.
