Chapter 26

It was Wednesday evening and the four remaining members of the leadership of the Intelligence 100 were gathered at the Bethesda Hospital. Although the need to hold the meetings there had ended, they kept the meeting spot. They were talking about how to protect the handful of analysts of foreign origin that remained within the Intelligence Agencies.

Although Mike’s conversation with Sanjay had triggered his interest in the topic, the real reason it was brought to the table was that another analyst, Amid abd Al-Jabbar, had been killed by a man who had lost his family in a terrorist bombing. Amid’s job had been to wade through e-mail intercepts to identify the ones that were actually coded messages to operatives. He had been very good at it and his death was a significant setback.

Mike looked across the table at Jack and said, “We have to do something to protect them.”

“What can we do? We sure as hell can’t assign them bodyguards,” Jack said.

“All of our analysts are located in one part of the country,” Mike said.

Tim looked at Mike and asked, “Are you suggesting that we spread out a little, and move our agents to different locations around the country?”

“Yes, I am,” Mike answered.

He had given the matter a lot of thought and knew that in a densely populated region of the country that Sanjay wasn’t safe. Sanjay would be a stranger to just about everyone around him and there were too many people who wanted nothing more than to take out a terrorist.

“How will that protect them?” Jack asked.

“We send them and their families to small towns where they will be known by the locals,” Mike answered.

Tim looked at Mike surprised by the suggestion and then laughed. Shaking his head in amusement at Mike’s audacity, he said, “I like the idea. They say that small towns look after their own. They’ll get to know them and watch out for them.”

“Exactly,” Mike answered.

“It’s not a bad idea. It could protect all of us,” John said.

Taking a deep breath, Jack said, “I’ll pitch the idea to the President.”

“What is the next order of business?” Mike asked.

Jack looked across the table at John and sighed. John said, “The last item on the agenda is to discuss disbanding the Intelligence 100. We’ve met the conditions of our charter and it’s time to end it. The foreigners influencing our policies have been eliminated and the intelligence agencies are providing assessments that are no longer politically influenced.”

This day had been a long time in coming, but its arrival was bittersweet. Jack said, “I agree.”

Tim said, “I agree.”

“I guess it’s unanimous,” Mike said with a sigh. He wondered what he would do with his free Wednesdays and decided that he could spend them hunting down more terrorists.

Tim said, “We should continue to meet monthly to monitor the situation. I’m still not pleased with our solution to prevent excesses on the part of the agencies.”

“I agree,” Mike said.

The first meeting of the oversight committee had been filled with arguments about every little item on the agenda. It had started before the meeting with the men disagreeing over the seating arrangements.

Jack nodded his head and said, “I’ll let the rest of the Intelligence 100 know that it’s being retired.”

Sanjay parked his car at the far end of the parking lot at the diner where he was supposed to meet Mike for lunch. Walking along, he was thinking about what a surprise it had been when Mike had called him and suggested that they meet.

He was about halfway to the entrance of the diner when he heard, “Sanjay, get in the car.”

Looking around, it took Sanjay a moment to realize that it was Mike calling him from one of the parked cars. He went over and asked, “What’s up Mike?”

“Get in the car, Sanjay,” Mike said watching the rear view mirror like a hawk.

Hearing the tension in Mike’s voice, Sanjay got into the car through the passenger side door. Once he had closed the door, he asked, “What’s the matter?”

“I was pulling into the parking lot when I spotted someone I thought I recognized getting out of a car across the street at the Chinese Buffet,” Mike answered.

Sanjay turned to look out the back window of the car. He said, “I don’t see anyone. Who was it?”

“I’d swear it was Chang,” Mike answered. He patted his pistol to make sure that it was there.

“Chang? What would Chang be doing here?” Sanjay asked wide eyed. The last person he expected to see in that area was Chang.

“I don’t know,” Mike answered. His intellect told him that he was wrong, but his gut was telling him that he was right. He trusted his gut more than his intellect. He said, “I intend to wait here until he comes out and then follow him.”

“Good plan,” Sanjay said. He reached into his coat and pulled out his gun. After checking it, he slipped it back into his holster.

Mike’s stomach growled and he said, “I hope I’m wrong. I was really looking forward to having lunch with you.”

“Same here,” Sanjay said.

The men waited in the car for twenty minutes before an Asian man left the buffet carrying a package. Mike asked, “Is that Chang?”

“If it isn’t, then it’s his twin brother,” Sanjay answered feeling his palms start to sweat. He could still hear Chang threatening to kill him.

Mike started his car and put it into gear. Four minutes later he was following Chang’s car down the street. The traffic was pretty bad and Mike nearly lost him several times. He swore and said, “We can carry a gun into work, but we can’t take a cell phone.”

“I know. I would give anything for a cell phone right now,” Sanjay said. He noticed Chang pull into a parking lot and said, “Drive past him. I know where we are.”

“Where?” Mike asked just in time to spot one of the converted Internet Cafes.

“This is one of my locations,” Sanjay said feeling a chill go down his spine. He stared at the parking lot where Chang was parked almost directly across the street from the office. Looking at Mike, he asked, “Do you think he is here to kill me?”

“I’m not sure. He might be here to take out the whole place,” Mike answered pulling into the parking lot of a tire company. With a sick feeling in the pit of his stomach, he said, “He might not be the only one here. What’s happening in China?”

“Things are not going well. The American market has dried up and they are having problems buying oil. A number of their research programs have run into significant problems,” Sanjay answered.

The problems in China ran deep. The experimental foray into capitalism was failing because of a drop in the demand for consumer products and high energy costs.

He added, “The only market they have left is the weapons market and the Middle East is their primary customer. Although we initially thought that all of the missiles that were used to destroy the Israeli defenses came from Iran, we just discovered that they were of Chinese origin and had been shipped through Iran.”

“You might not be aware of this, but China was paid a hundred million dollars in oil to kill Donald and a couple of other CIA agents,” Mike said. There was a rumor that it was a Chinese spy who had disabled the Israeli nukes, but Mike didn’t have any confirmation of it.

Sanjay was silent for a moment and then said, “Let’s take that bastard down.”

“It looks like he’s not alone. Let’s warn our people that an attack is imminent,” Mike said looking over at Sanjay.

Sanjay followed Mike into the tire store. Mike didn’t waste any time with niceties. Holding up his ID, he approached the counter saying, “Hang up that phone, right now.”

“Yes, Sir,” the poor kid at the counter said.

“Sanjay, call your office and get out the word,” Mike said putting up his badge and pulling out his pistol. While Sanjay called his office, Mike watched the parking lot where Chang was meeting with a group of men. Without looking at Sanjay, Mike called out, “Let them know there are about a dozen of them across the street. Pass the word to every site.”

Sanjay didn’t bother to answer. He was busy providing the details to the Marine in charge of security. The kid at the counter was listening with wide-eyes and an open mouth.

When Sanjay hung up the phone, he pulled out his ID and said, “Don’t let anyone out of the store for the next thirty minutes.”

The kid nodded his head and ran into the garage to spread the word. It took two minutes for everyone who worked in the tire store to gather in front of the store window in the hope that they could see what was happening. Sanjay said, “Get away from the window. You don’t want to get killed, do you?”

Mike said, “It looks like they are about ready to make their move. It’s a mixture of Muslim and Chinese.”

Sanjay looked over in the parking lot in time to watch a Muslim man get into a car. He said, “This looks like the attack on the White House. They will drive the car into the office and then the rest of them will attack the survivors.”

“I think you’re right,” Mike said.

“We have to stop them,” Sanjay said. His voice had suddenly gotten very hard and businesslike. Chang was going to kill the men who worked for him unless he could prevent it.

“We aren’t going to stop them from here,” Mike said glancing over at Sanjay. He was pleased to see the determined look on Sanjay’s face.

“Let’s get in the car. We’ll ram the bastards,” Sanjay said.

It seemed like no time had passed before Mike and Sanjay were driving straight for the car headed towards the building. They managed to intercept the front of driver’s side of the car at the gate leading into the parking lot of the Internet Café. The collision was spectacular. Mike had the accelerator pushed to the floor and didn’t even dare try to slow down. The driver of the other car was taken completely by surprise. The air bags exploded to cushion them, but Mike and Sanjay were already trying to get out of the car before it stopped spinning.

Gunfire erupted from both sides of the street with Mike and Sanjay in the middle. Mike crawled out of his side of the car feeling a little dizzy. Without even hesitating, he shot the driver of the other car. Sanjay made his way out of the car on Mike’s side and opened fire on the group that had already started across the street. He spotted Chang and emptied his pistol at the man.

The car they had struck exploded. The explosion blew Mike and Sanjay twenty feet away. Fortunately for them, their car was between them and the explosion. That was the last that they could remember of the event until waking up in a hospital hours later.

Wheelchairs are fun for about one minute and then they grow old. Mike, seated in his wheelchair, looked very agitated. He couldn’t even move around on his own, but had to depend on someone to push him. There were bandages around his left leg where they had removed some shrapnel.

Sanjay, seated in his wheelchair, was looking over at Mike taking in the fact that his left hand was once again in a bandage. He commented, “Your left hand seems to be in a bandage most of the time.”