Life as a New Hire Ch. 30

"Have you lost your mind?" Baker countered.

"No sir," Javiera sneered. "I do know that I'm going to go on the six o'clock news tonight and tell them that you - by name - are concealing a major outbreak of Anthrax in China. I'll let the political vultures do the rest, Mr. Baker."

"Blabbing about an on-going federal investigation carries stiff penalties, Ms. Castello," he fought back.

"I'll be practicing law long before...you son of a bitch," she suddenly snapped. "You are embarrassed because Havenstone swam beneath your radar until now," she put some pieces together.

"You seem to think that is a reason to cut them some slack, Ms. Castello," Baker reposted.

"Yes, I do," Javiera defended her position. "They reached out to us. We had no case - 15 dead bodies in Chicago and no motive for the crime. We had professional mercenaries on US soil killing US citizens. Mr. Nyilas and Ms. Love gave us multiple leads and they didn't have to."

"They were attacked. Of course they came crawling to us," Baker said. Javiera shook her head.

"Sir, as I put in my report, they are a vengeance-based society. They were more than happy to hunt down those gunmen: BY-THEM-SELVES," the federal prosecutor drilled her point home. "You can't accept that there is a war on the horizon and we need each other as allies.

As insane as their background sounds, the current global situation is bearing out their warnings. You are not only showing them egregious disrespect, Mr. Baker, you are insulting everyone on the team that has interacted with Havenstone. This is something you are going to have to answer for," she finished.

"Ummm," Captain Moe spoke up. "Mr. Nyilas, do you have any technical data on this Anthrax outbreak?" I looked at him yet held silent.

"He can't answer you," Virginia spoke for me. "But I can tell you that thirty-six hours ago, that man charged eleven well-trained Special Forces operators with only one young woman at his side.

Then, after those enemies were killed, he and another combatant charged the end of the attacking column and destroyed the end three vehicles (the two Hummer-types and the last truck), trapping al the rest. I don't think any of you get it. These people are born warriors - every last one of them. They've only surrendered now because they have already planned out their escape.

That's how they think. The security at their outdoor summer camp rivaled that of the NSA. There, kids as young as seven are trained in hand-to-hand combat, archery and knife-fighting. I saw a fifteen year old girl kill a man at thirty yards with a bow by moonlight. They burned over a hundred men alive in pre-prepared traps...and in the middle of all that, I've never felt safer in all my life.

And that's because of how these people think. They're not here for the U.S.!" She was turning red in the face as she yelled at Baker. "I was safe because Cáel vouched for me. Cáel vouched for me because Javiera told him I could be trusted. Their word is their bond. Their code of conduct is that basic. You've just broken Javiera's word and the consequences of the betrayal will be quite severe, I have no doubt."

"Consequences?" Baker mocked.

"Oh yeah, ya Douche," Delilah counter-mocked. "Give 'em time. They are going to kill everyone on your - eh, Katrina and Cáel, please note we Brits are not part of this fiasco." Katrina and I nodded. "Everyone on your taskforce and your families too. You are all dead. Virginia?"

"Pretty much," Virginia agreed.

"Where is Ms. Pile?" Chaz looked around. "Bloody Hell." Pamela was nowhere in sight.

"Don't sweat it," I looked to the two martial Brits. "She likes you both."

While this had been going on, Riki had been busy with her own phone games. "Mr. Baker," she finally spoke up. "Secretary of State Kerry would like to talk to you." Blink. Baker took the phone rather reluctantly. That Cabinet member wanted the information he was supposed to be getting immediately. Once Jonas blithely informed Mr. Kerry that he had placed those individuals under arrest, the conversation took a turn for the worse - for Jonas.

Three quarters through his ass-reaming, his own phone rang.

"Pardon me, Mr. Secretary," Baker looked at his own device and paled even more. That was his boss's boss's boss - the Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security. That guy seemed pretty livid as well.

What none of us knew then was that there had been a massive shootout in downtown London a little more than an hour before our meeting began. It was a sanguinary catastrophe of startling proportions, in and around "All Hallows by the Tower" - one of the oldest churches in England. At the moment, the US intelligence apparatus was dealing with some really bad mojo.

Six factions had shot it out in one of the most famous sites in London in the late afternoon. Among the dead were a senior British Member of Parliament (MP) from the Labour Party and one of Russia's biggest arms dealers. The Deputy Director of Intelligence for the DGSE (the French external intelligence service) was still in surgery, fighting for his life.

He wasn't the only one. There were also nineteen dead and seventeen wounded at the church. The London Metropolitan Police were running around, highly incensed. One of their female constables was dead at the scene. Five more were in serious condition.

For reasons still unknown, former Russian Spetsnaz, active duty French paratroopers, former British Special Forces operatives, personnel of a Dutch security firm, and a large group of professional killers masquerading as Ukrainian immigrant laborers opened fire on one another in the abbey of All Hallows by the Tower.

The Metropolitan Police (the sixth faction), responding to the automatic gunfire and explosions, became involved in the firefight. The Ukrainians fled the scene and the police gave chase. Three more civilians were killed and forty-two wounded during the pursuit and the resulting car crashes as well as the THREE firings of an RPG at police cruisers, which caused two more constable deaths and left seven more officers wounded.

How had that managed to salvage my diplomatic mission? Before passing on, a Ukrainian uttered one small sentence: 'Did we kill the Illuminati Factor?' Through NSA intercepts and cross-Atlantic intelligence exchanges, the US intelligence network revved up into high gear; they punched in the key words - and all fingers pointed to the taskforce. As Homeland Security analysts tossed it upstairs, the State department began to fidget nervously.

What were they nervous about? A crucial individual at Foggy Bottom just happened to know where Riki was, who she was meeting with (the sources that had given the US current information on the Illuminati) and they wanted any information she could pry out of us concerning the goings-on in London. Instead, Riki had just called them first and sent up warning flags about bio-terrorism in China...

Oh, and she informed her boss that the Taskforce head had just shut down that information conduit on the Chinese AND the Illuminati by arresting the individuals that this independent group had sent to discuss security issues with the United States government.

- Charges: Terrorist threats.

-Complications: The FBI and Federal Prosecutor working the case were siding with the assets - codename: Penthasilea.

The authorities were getting two conflicting accounts of our current circumstance. Baker swore he would have us singing in half an hour. Riki Martin claimed Baker had his head up his ass...and there were three British Intelligence operatives watching all of this go down.

All of this DC bullshit was making our NYPD cops antsy. Baker came up with an action plan.

"The first one of you to talk gets blanket immunity," he addressed me and my fellow captives. No one said anything. Delilah responded by laughing richly and loud.

"You wanker," Delilah derided the Fed. "Clean out your damn ears. The Amazons ain't telling you shit. I thought that would be obvious to you by now."

"Ms. Castello, do something," Baker turned on the orchestrator of this meeting.

"I am," she gave him an evil grin. "I'm thinking of what descriptives I'm going to use when I tender my resignation, you presumptuous buffoon."

Baker turned back to us, alternating between threats and promised leniency, to no avail. I was the one to crack, not because of him though. Time meant lives right now - innocent lives.

"May I talk to the Captain in private?" I requested.

"No," Baker barked.

"Fine, can I go to the bathroom?" I asked. Another 'no'. "Can I apply for asylum?" I inquired of Delilah's 'other' boss. He seemed to be mulling that over, not that he could pull that off this very moment.

"Mr. Baker," the Captain stepped up. "I really think I should talk to this man."

"If he has something to say, he can tell both of us," Dirt-bag Baker grumbled.

"Your information could be saving lives, couldn't it?" the Captain looked at me. I looked away which was its own kind of confirmation. "You have got to tell me if lives are at stake," he appealed to my better nature. Good try.

"Agent Maddox made our position perfectly clear," Katrina answer for me. "Cáel cannot answer you because your actions, or lack of action, has revealed your word to be worthless and your motives suspect. He has no guarantee that giving you any knowledge he may possess will be used to save any lives. Personally, I was opposed to this meeting, but Cáel thought you deserved a chance.

You can thank Mr. Baker for proving me right and Cael wrong." Katrina sternly stated.

"Mr. Nyilas," the Captain made one more end run around Katrina.

"He won't answer you," Katrina said after allowing me a chance to not answer. "He is the only one here with Havenstone that feels one iota of guilt for any part of this disaster.

I attribute that to him being a kind-hearted and forgiving individual. He is alone in feeling that way, believe me," she added.

"How bad is this information?" Virginia's eyes welled up.

"I wish I had never come out of that coma," I replied.

If I hadn't, maybe Temujin would have been killed by the Seven Pillars and this wouldn't be happening...except the Earth & Sky had this in place way before Temujin was on the scene. This calamity was inevitable.

"The van for their transport has arrived," Skylar informed Baker.

"Ms. Love and Mr. Nyilas, every single person who expires due to your intransience will be added to your charges and the Federal Government does enforce a death penalty," Jonas pushed it. "Your cohorts will be charged under Federal Firearms statutes. That is a long time in a Federal Maximum security complex for all of you.

And I can still honor a Chinese request for extradition," he tacked on. "They have their own standards of interrogation."

"I can't believe what is coming out of you pie-hole," Delilah snorted. "The only one the Reds will break is Cáel and I bet he doesn't know 'word one' about the technical aspects of this outbreak.

The three people he does know...well, you can't catch the main player and the other two probably don't know jack-all either. I wouldn't worry about the number of murder charges you are going to foist on this group. I'd worry about the number of Homeland agents whose bodies are going to start piling up on your doorstep," Delilah sneered.

"Ms. Faircloth, all your insinuations are doing is digging these so-called Amazons a deeper hole," Baker countered. "Personally, I'm not all that worried about a cult of delusional man-haters."

"You are impossible," Riki grumbled at Baker. "Mr. Nyilas, what do you know about the Illuminati?"

Long gone were the days when I was an open book when confronted with feminine charms. Riki was looking for some sort of reaction. She got something she didn't expect.

"Why don't we talk it over in that bedroom over there?" I propositioned her. What the hell - this was turning out to be a lousy day. I might as well reach for something good.

Nikita twisted my handcuffs tightly.

"Ouch," I complained.

"Behave," Nikita whispered.

"Are you trying to trade sex for information?" Jonas sneered.

"What exactly are you implying, Mr. Nyilas?" Riki kept studying me. "I'm engaged."

"Baker - no. I'm trying to gleam something positive from this moronic encounter. Ms. Martin - Rikki - please call me Cáel and what I am asking you for is a chance to break through this bureaucratic brick wall and establish a personal rapport. As for you being engaged - I don't care.

I've been sleeping with officer Nikita here, and while she's been loads of fun, I'm addicted to beautiful, intelligent and confident women, which you definitely are."

"You've had intercourse with a member of my taskforce?" Baker gobbled.

"None of your damn business," I grinned his way.

"If I go back to that bedroom, will you tell me what I want to know about the Illuminati?" Riki inquired. She had this steamy, sultry look to her. The political crisis had obscured her view of me until now. My body was projecting sex, sex, sex and her body was going yes, yes, yes.

"If we go back there for thirty minutes, I'll definitely consider it," I countered.

"The only place you are going is to an ICE holding facility," Baker seethed.

"Christmas Eve - Empire State Building, Bitch," Desiree looked my way. Oh yeah, if I made it to Christmas we'd go out on a date together. To prevent that abominable date from transpiring, I was taking a header off the top of that building the night before, or so the gag ran.

"Was that some kind of code?" Baker barked. No one said anything. "Take them away," he motioned to the cops. They led us to the elevators, split us up and down we went. The Brits would have to wait a while as there wasn't enough room to squeeze them in safely. This was starting to become the new, worst day in my life ... until we hit the lobby.

There was a wall of people waiting for the cops, and us. Eight of them were SD...the other twenty were with...Deidre, I believed. That sucked big time. I wasn't sure how they'd figured I was in trouble and responded so quickly. It was London again.

"Clear a path," Officer Montero commanded in her best authoritarian tone.

"Who the hell are you people?" Baker demanded. "You are impeding a Federal Investigation."

"Give us Cáel Nyilas and you can pass," Deidre replied calmly.

"Like Hell," Baker grumbled. Deidre handed a packet to one of her security types. In turn, the man walked over and handed the paperwork to the closest Fed - Virginia.

"This documentation affirms Mr. Nyilas' status as a diplomat with the Republic of Ireland's Mission to the United Nations," Deidre informed us. Fuck a Duck - now Ireland owned a piece of me as well as the Host, the US of A and the Khanate. One of these days I was going to emigrate to a political entity I actually wanted to belong to - someplace like Fiji.

Virginia handed the papers to Baker.

"Are you serious?" he looked from the papers to Deidre.

"Very. Give us our envoy and we will depart," she insisted. This was ten kinds of strange. The paperwork must have taken at least a day if they would pass diplomatic muster.

It was a backup plan to wrangle me if things turned ugly - which they had. That didn't explain the muscle in...Illuminati.

"Deidre, what has happened?" I called out. Nikita unlocked my handcuffs.

"You know this woman?" Baker addressed me bitterly.

"If you had read my reports or looked over our video evidence you would know that woman is...I think, Deidre O'Shea. She is Cáel Nyilas' maternal aunt...one of many," Javiera growled.

"How can I accept these papers as authentic?" Baker cast about for an explanation. Riki stepped up, snatched them out of Baker's stunned fingers and reviewed them herself.

"They look legitimate. I'll call one of our European liaisons anyway," she mumbled. All the while, I kept exchanging glances with the rest of the Amazon contingent. This was a solo exit invitation. Aunt Deidre didn't have a way to bring them out with me and wasn't inclined to be helpful to the point of breaking the law at this time. Showing sisterly solidarity was pointless.

In jail, I was actually a detriment to Katrina. I was the one with the information and the big mouth.

"Mr. Nyilas checks out," Riki announced. "He has the proper credentials."

"Mr. Nyilas, you could have mentioned your diplomatic status when this all began," Baker got pissy with me. I ignored him.

"Guns and axes," I demanded. "I want my weaponry back."

"Mr. Nyilas," Baker got in my face. I kept ignoring him. "Fine, I will file a formal protest with our State department and have you expelled from the United States." Captain Moe blanched.

"Do you abuse prescription drugs?" Riki really was becoming more succinct in her approach to Jonas. "Or, are you some crack-whore, meth-head, or someone who shoots up black tar heroin into their tear ducts?"

"Watch yourself, Ms. Martin," he glared at her.

"Blow it out your ass, you half-wit," Riki seethed back. "Does it occur to you the ONLY person you could pin any criminal charges on is about to walk out the door? Even better, knowing he has some level of knowledge of both the Illuminati and the Anthrax outbreak, you are going to have our government put him well beyond our reach," she shook her head.

"Thank you Ms. Martin," Katrina finally spoke. "What exactly are the rest of us being charged with? Our firearms are licensed and I don't recall anyone besides the diplomat from Ireland saying anything remotely like a terrorist threat."

"Release them," Javiera stated. "I'm not going to file any charges I know are unsupportable."

"What about the Arizona fiasco?" Baker was looking flustered. Summer Camp.

"The only people we can tie to that camp are Mr. Nyilas, Ms. Faircloth - a British citizen, and Agent Maddox. Ms. Faircloth was an avowed foreign intelligence operative operating on US soil with our permission. Agent Maddox was sent by us into that camp and didn't break any laws we are aware of," Javiera made her case.

"So, who are you going to call first? The Deputy Secretary (of HS), or the Secretary of State?" Javiera was pushing Baker into a corner. Despite Javiera's order, no one was un-cuffing the Amazons. Baker was still in charge.

"Mr. Nyilas, perhaps we got off on the wrong foot," Baker suggested.

"Mr. Baker, do you love your country?" I asked.

"Yes...of course. Sure, I do," he hesitated, looking for the pitfall.

"Then quit the task force. There is no way my side can work with you anymore. This demand is not a point of negotiation," I told him.

"You had your chance and blew it. We Amazons are not much into forgiveness. Worse, you disrespected your underlings in my presence, refused to own up to your mistakes and failed to put your duty before your personal advancement. You have repudiated all the hallmarks of a good and honest leader. You've failed. Good-bye," I related.

"You don't get to dictate the shape of a US federal investigation, Mr. Nyilas," Baker retorted. My immediate counter was cut off by the arrival of the Brits and the NYPD with our weapons on a cart.

"Delilah, Ms. Martin and Captain Mistriano, would you care to come along with me?" I was back to ignoring Jonas.

I began to re-arm myself ... which the NYPD didn't love.

"Hold on now," Baker violently pulled on my arm. Hallelujah! My fist crashed into his face, breaking his nose and dropping him to the ground. I went back to my business.

"Mumma-fuffa! Awwess hmm," he squawked. That was 'Mother-fucker. Arrest him.'

"Sir, you physically assaulted a diplomat," Vincent responded, "in front of dozens of witnesses. He wasn't doing anything illegal and you had no right to restrain him in an official capacity."

"Really?" I looked at Vincent. He nodded. "I'm filing charges," I chuckled.