Age of Blood

35

Laws and Holmes were already engaged in a heated conversation when Walker entered the twenty-by-twenty room. Pete Musso and two other techs Walker didn’t know where working furiously on a bank of computers. Jen held a pair of tablets, and she passed one to Walker as he came in and the other to Laws, who grabbed it without looking.

“We should cut him loose right now,” Laws said. Although he was sitting, his body was coiled like a spring.

“I shouldn’t have to tell you about old Chinese proverbs,” Holmes said. He was standing by a window, occasionally looking out at the throngs filling the streets. Even after midnight, the celebration of the Virgin was in full swing.

“Ji Xi Nan Gai,” Laws said dramatically. “You want a Chinese proverb, try that one on for size.”

Holmes sighed. “What’s it mean?”

“Ji Xi Nan Gai. A leopard can’t change its spots.”

Holmes turned from the window and nodded. “I agree. Wholeheartedly. But I’m thinking of another Chinese proverb. Keep your friends close and your enemies closer.”

Laws shook his head.

“What? You don’t agree?” Holmes’s eyes were wide with surprise.

“I agree with the sentiment, but there’s no evidence that it’s a Chinese proverb. It’s often attributed to Sun-Tzu, who said, ‘Know your enemy and know yourself and you will always be victorious.’ But it was Michael Corleone in The Godfather who said, ‘My father taught me many things here.’” Laws switched into an admirable imitation of Al Pacino. “‘He taught me in this room. He taught me—keep your friends close but your enemies closer.’ The character in the movie attributed it to Machiavelli, but there’s no evidence of that either. If one wanted to attribute it at all, then I’d either choose Mario Puzo, the writer, or Francis Ford Coppola, the director.”

“I can always tell you’re pissed off when you began spewing Hollywood trivia,” Holmes said. “Keep that. Stay pissed. And if there comes a time we need to take care of Ramon, then let it fly. But until then…”

Laws frowned but nodded. “I know, I know.”

Holmes noticed Walker. “Good. You’re here. How’s YaYa?”

“Good as can be expected. He seems like himself again.”

“Excellent. We’ll give him some rest, then see if he can join us for the rest of the mission.” He turned to Jen. “The floor is yours.”

She stepped forward. “Walker, if you can share your tablet with Yank, and Laws, yours with Holmes, we can begin. I’ve synced them to mine so that you can follow during the brief. Let’s start with the BLUF—Bottom Line Up Front. Emily Withers is still missing. We don’t have a solid lead on her. We do have a tenuous connection with the Zetas. We also have a connection with Los Desollados, which we can trace back to her abduction. Regarding that, there’s been a development.” She toggled an image they all knew well. A still from Emily’s capture showing the sea monster grasping her in its mouth.

“Don’t tell me,” Holmes said.

“Sorry, but I have to. The picture and video are fakes.”

Everyone sat forward and stared at their tablets as if they could discern this with the naked eye.

“The whole thing?” Yank asked. “Even the girl? Does that mean she wasn’t taken?”

“No, Emily Withers was taken. This we know. Given the time, we were able to pierce the sophisticated masking algorithm and the result was this.” Jen toggled a picture into view that showed two men in full scuba gear aboard a DSRV, one with his hands around her waist, the other driving the machine at high speed.

“What the hell?” Laws sat forward. “And we’re just now breaking through?”

“Couldn’t be helped. We pierced the algorithm as fast as we could. Thank Musso for even seeing that there was an issue.”

As if on cue, Musso, a thin, geeky young man with a Star Trek emblem on the collar of his jacket, left his workstation and joined them. He took the tablet from Jen and began to scroll, which made the other two tablets do the same.

“As you can see, looking at the raw view of the image, I noticed a slightly larger size of the image than should have been noted. Now, normally the size will be dramatically larger if an image had been superimposed. I’ve become used to looking for such things. In fact, I almost disregarded this except for my gut feeling.”

“Hooray for Musso’s gut,” Laws said dryly.

Musso didn’t respond. “What they did here was create an algorithm that reassigned quadrants of color. The increase in file size was due to the algorithm. The creation of the monster to replace the two divers was free of charge and apparently took no additional size value. Basically, they used colors already present in the original picture to create the creature. This is about as sophisticated as they come.”

“Who could do such a thing?” Holmes asked.

“Pretty much anyone with algorithmic capabilities and a laptop. These days, this kind of thing is being taught in community colleges.”

“I thought you said it was sophisticated?” Holmes asked.

“I should have probably used the term ‘elegant.’ Although there are a lot of folks out there who could do it, doing it this way, with almost no footprint, was elegant. And to answer your question, no, I don’t know who made this.” Musso handed the tablet back to Jen. She nodded at him and he returned to his computer.

“Comments?” she asked.

The room was silent for a moment. Then Laws spoke. “Remember the mission to Myanmar? Remember how it was all a lure? I’m getting that same feeling.”

“I am, too,” Holmes said. “People are giving us a reason to press forward, but I don’t know to what end.”

“It doesn’t have to be complicated,” Walker said. “It could be as straightforward as ‘let’s get rid of the world’s toughest group of men so we can have open season on the United States.’ Ramon might be full of shit on some levels, but when he briefed us about the cartels, I got a lot out of it. Nothing more important than each of them has a reason to be pissed off at America and would do pretty much anything they could to make our lives miserable. What if several of them have banded together?”

“What if all of them banded together?” Yank added.

Everyone turned to the new SEAL.

Holmes let out a slow whistle. “I don’t even want to think about such a thing, but it could be possible. Perhaps the cartels held a Star Chamber meeting and decided to work together just this once.” He turned to Jen. “Okay, let’s try this. Have your techs get with counterparts at the Drug Enforcement Agency and Central Intelligence Agency and see if we can do link analysis on calls. I want to know who’s talking to whom outside the cartels. My guess is we already have such a capability; we just need to be included in the conversation.”

“Done. What next?”

“Any results from the beeper?”

“It’s on Highway 150, heading south at high speed.”

“What’s south on 150?”

“A hundred small towns and villages.”

“Is Mexico City one of them?” he asked.

“It eventually leads there,” she said.

“Can we get eyes on? I can have GAFE standing by.”

Jen shook her head. “It’s not like a smart phone that constantly communicates with nearby cell towers as it changes position. This is a dead device that only comes alive when called.”

“What if we plot the route of travel and try and predict the location, then have someone in the air call and coordinate contact?” Walker asked.

“Nice. Let’s do that,” Holmes said. “But if we call the beeper too much it might get destroyed by whoever’s carrying it. That they still have it supports the idea that it’s still going to be used, so we need to be careful. They could have the senator’s daughter with them.”

“Done. What next?” Jen asked.

“What do we have on Mexico City?” Holmes asked.

“I can tell you what’s not in Mexico City, and that’s a lot of Zetas,” Jen told them. “We’ve been trying to make a connection with the Zetas and it just isn’t working. I understand what Ramon said, but it doesn’t jibe with what we have thus far.”

“So what’s in Mexico City?” Laws asked.

“What’s under Mexico City is the newly excavated capital of Aztec civilization, Tenochtitlán.”

Yank and Walker exchanged a look. “Now we’re back to the lepers.”

Jen offered Walker a professional smile. “Among many other buildings, a temple created for the worship of Xipe Totec was uncovered as part of the excavation. Archeologists have found more than eighteen hundred bones and fifty skulls at the site, all dating back to the fifteen hundreds.”

“So that’s it, then. We’re off to Mexico City.”

“Even if they want us going there? Even if it might be a trap?” Laws noted.

“Even so,” Holmes said. “Knowing in advance that it might be a trap puts us at a significant advantage, unlike in Myanmar. Everyone be ready to go by seven. I’m arranging transportation. Stay inside, please, and watch where you step.” Seeing the questioning looks on the faces of the others, he added, “These Knights have their own secrets. We can leave them alone. Let’s respect their privacy. So that means no going into the catacombs. Got that, Laws?”

“Yes. Got it.”

“Okay. Dismissed. I’ll be down shortly.”

Laws gave Yank and Walker a perplexed look, then headed out. Walker and Yank followed, knowing that the rest of their time would probably be spent recovering the equipment from the last mission.