Page 36 of Renegade

Mark was still frowning deeply. He ran a big hand over his face before looking back at us. “You do know that she…well,fuck, all of you, can go to jail for that, right? That she’s broken a ton of laws here? That if anyone knew who did this, the Federal government would come after you with all they had?”

I nodded as Miguel replied to him. “Yes, sir. But I felt it best to be completely truthful with you.”

Mark nodded, gaping at us both. He frowned long and hard at Miguel before transferring his intensely angry glare at me. “You two…I swear to God, if it wasn’t for the fact that you came to me with this, I would have demanded that you be taken into custody right now.” He looked at me and waved his hand. “You and your friend, Judy, might find it very uncomfortable sitting in a Federal prison cell for decades, but you—” He eyed up Miguel. “You’d most likely be tried for espionage.”

I gulped. “Miguel didn’t know what Judy was doing,” I blurted. “I don’t even think Judy knew what she was doing. She said she started looking into John Sutter to see what connections he had to people in the Middle East and then she came across an easter egg planted inside Langley’s website. Once she realized that the list of coordinates she found corresponded to CIA operatives on base—”

“Oh, my God!” Mark said. He stood and held out his hand in a stop gesture. “Stop telling me this. I don’t really want to know all the details about the hack, although I really should give the woman a medal for being the dumbest person on the planet.”

“She’s not dumb!” I shouted, shooting to my feet. “Judy is brilliant and kind and would never put America’s security at risk for us or anyone. She loves our country.”

“Raven,” Miguel warned.

I rounded on him. “No! Youknowshe’s kind and decent. She’s one of the best people out there.” I turned back to Mark. “Of course, she knew she was hacking into Langley, sir. But withher skills, she could have done some real evil over the years and she never has. It’s not in her. It took her all afternoon just to hack through your stupid encryptions, but she did it to help Miguel.”

When Mark opened his mouth to respond, I held up my hand. “I’m sorry, sir. I don’t mean to insult you in your own house, but I’m not finished.” I half turned and pointed at Miguel. “Thatman sacrificed everything for his country.” I looked at Mark, on a roll now that I’d built up quite a head of steam. “He has seen men he loved die in action. He has seen the aftereffects from their service, and he has bad dreams of his own. He doesn’t—can’t tell me about why he sometimes wakes up sweaty with panic in the middle of the night or has days when his thoughts are so dark he can barely function. He loves his country, sir. Judy does too.”

I was shaking when strong arms suddenly encircled me. I hadn’t even realized that Miguel had gotten off the couch behind me. He kissed the side of my head, murmuring that he loved me and that I should calm down. His whispered words helped to slow my racing heart and take away some of the blind rage and panic I’d been feeling.

“Raven…Miguel…please sit down,” Mark said, as I watched him slide back into his own chair across from us. We both returned to the couch. “No one is going to jail if I can help it.” He frowned. “I might not be able to protect you if the hack is traced however.”

“Judy made it look like Russia was at fault,” I said, still a little wary about telling him anything more.

Mark stared at me open-mouthed for a few seconds before he looked at his feet, shaking his head. When his shoulders started shaking as well, it took me a few seconds to realize he wasactually laughing. He grinned at me, then Miguel. “You two.” He threw his head back and laughed some more before waving a hand at the air between us. “Okay, tell me the rest. What were the contents of the message Judy found?”

“It read“Sandstorm obtained. Headed to outpost. Will make first contact at 0930,”Miguel replied.

Mark’s eyes widened. He thought for a second before repeating the message out loud. “It sounds like Sandstorm was code for someone and the cadence of the message is definitely one an operative would use.” He cocked his head, thinking. “But we never had an operative called Sandstorm and we never had an outpost near that base.” He looked at Miguel. “Your team leader was reported as missing at 1420 hours correct?”

It was Miguel’s turn to look surprised as he nodded. “Yes, sir. We were sent out before light and pinned down by the sandstorm at about 0830. The storm lasted about twenty minutes and when it let up, John got out to check for damage to the Humvee. Unfortunately, the storm started up again before he could access the vehicle. When it finally ended, we searched for several hours. By the time we radioed into base that he was lost, it was 1420. We were ordered back and were forced to abandon the search.”

“So, you knew about Sutter’s disappearance?” I asked, frowning at Mark.

“Son, it was a very big war, but I got up to the minute updates on all Special Forces troops and all overseas operations. Of course I knew.”

“And there was never an operation you knew of where someone named Sandstorm was ‘obtained’?” Miguel asked, using air quotes.

“No, Miguel. There was no such operation and no such codename that I was made aware of.” Mark sat back and rubbed his face with both hands before looking up at the ceiling. When he sat forward again, he looked sad. “Therewerereports of mysterious troop losses that we couldn’t attribute to known insurgent or enemy activities around that base as I’m sure you’re aware.”

“Yes, sir,” Miguel said. “In at least one case, a forward scouting patrol consisting of three men disappeared. We were—” He glanced over at me before looking at Mark.

Mark nodded. “Go on. That mission is no longer classified.”

Miguel visibly relaxed as he glanced at me. “Our unit was sent out to find them and when we did, they were all dead.” He glanced over at Mark. “There was no evidence of a firefight which we found unusual. Instead, they were lying face down, shot execution style, in the back of the head. It was a very…Western method of execution.” When he finished, he looked like he’d eaten something distasteful. I remembered reading reports of Westerners being beheaded and I shivered in disgust.

Mark sighed. “We suspected someone on base had done it but as you know, it was a very big base. Our operatives were never able to identify who’d done it.”

“So, you’re saying that someone on the base killed our own people?” I asked. “That’s horrible.”

“Yes, it’s murder,” Miguel said gruffly. His features were dark.

“The more you tell me, the more I’m starting to believe your theory about John Sutter. If he saw something, maybe hewastaken by a rogue faction,” Mark said, looking just as haunted as Miguel. “It doesn’t mean they were CIA, but we all know that operatives handled distribution of money to warlords out there.It’s been widely reported in the media that a great deal of it never made it to whom it was intended.”

“So, you’re saying the CIA stole it?” I asked. “That they had some secret outpost set up near the base where they kept what they stole.”

“Possibly,” Mark said. “But it’s just as likely that they gave it to someone with the expectation that they would turn over information, and then were disappointed when those surly individuals didn’t keep their end of the bargain.”

“Maybe they used jewels in some of their transactions?” Miguel said.

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