Private Rogue

Chapter 77

Floyd and I dragged Rick outside to the Airbus H125 helicopter that stood in a clearing just behind the bar. Justine was waiting beside the aircraft. She didn’t like wet work, but knew it was a necessary part of the job. In this particular case, when a mother and children’s lives were at stake, I could tell she was prepared to overlook some excesses. There was no sympathy in her eyes as we dragged Rick into the aircraft.

“Where to now?” Justine asked.

“I need to go to the Catskills,” Floyd said, and Justine and I exchanged surprised glances. “I think I might know what they’re after. It has something to do with a mission I carried out in Belarus.”

“What?” I asked.

He pursed his lips and shook his head. “I can’t talk about it.”

I sighed. I respected his commitment to the oath of secrecy he’d taken, but his family’s lives were at stake. There was little I could do, though, short of taking him into the bar for interrogation.

“We need to make a stop first,” I said. “Drop off the trash.” I nodded at Rick.

I produced my phone and made a call that was answered within three rings.

“Hello?” a voice said.

“Secretary Carver, please,” I replied.

“And you are?”

“Jack Morgan.”

“Hold, please,” the voice said, and the line fell silent.

“Jack Morgan,” Eli Carver said a few moments later. “What earns me the privilege of two calls in a week?”

“I found your mole, Mr. Secretary,” I said.

I couldn’t see him, but I knew I now had the Secretary of State’s full attention.

“A DARPA program manager called Rick Ferguson,” I revealed.

“I know that guy,” Carver replied with a touch of irritation in his voice. “You got proof?”

“A taped confession. It won’t hold up in court, but it will give him nowhere to go when your people get to work,” I said. We’d had a Dictaphone recording the whole time.

“You going to bring him in?”

“No, Mr. Secretary,” I replied. “Where there is one mole, there might be others.”

“So what’s your plan?”

“We’re heading for Denville. Call the local police department and tell them we’ll be dropping off a high-value suspect. We’ll deliver Ferguson and the recording of his confession. They can hold him until your people are able to collect him.”

“And you?”

“It’s better you don’t know, Mr. Secretary,” I replied. “I can tell you we recovered Joshua Floyd. When the time comes, he’ll have some interesting testimony.”

“Are you planning trouble, Jack?” Carver asked.

I hesitated. “Like I say, it’s better you don’t know, Mr. Secretary.”

“Is this going to be one of those conversations I need to deny ever having had?”

I stayed silent.

“Well, thank you anyway, Jack,” he said.

“We’ll speak soon, Mr. Secretary,” I responded before hanging up.

“Denville?” Justine asked.

“It’s a small police department. I don’t think Carver will ask them to try to hold us, but just in case he does, I picked somewhere the odds would be in our favor.”

“And I thought I was paranoid,” Floyd observed.

“The word you’re looking for is careful,” I replied with a smile.

We climbed into the chopper and within minutes the ground was falling away as I took us skyward.