Black Flagged Apex

Chapter 32





2:14 PM

National Counterterrorism Center

McLean, Virginia



Sharpe had just sat down in his office when his mobile phone rang. He had been looking forward to possibly closing his eyes for a few minutes. The call originated from the daytime NCTC watch floor supervisor, Jason Volk.

"Mr. Volk. How can I help you?" he answered.

"My analysts just picked up some police traffic that might be related. You should take a look at this. I can send it to your computer."

"No. I'll be right out."

He headed out of his office and turned left, making his way to the front of the watch floor. The immense projection screen dominating the front of the room showed a detailed satellite map of the northeast United States. A red marker blinked near Baltimore, Maryland. As he approached Jason Volk at one of the forward-most workstations, the map zoomed in on the mark, centering on a location between Laurel, Maryland and Fort Meade.

"That's only a few miles from the National Security Agency," Sharpe said.

"Exactly. Our filters picked up an emergency police bulletin requesting HAZMAT and EMT support at this location, in addition to Anne Arundel County SWAT assets. Not in that order. There is an officer down, along with multiple suspects. Laurel Police Department dispatch initiated the request. Everyone is responding."

"Get me a line to the Laurel chief of police or whoever is in charge over there. Good work on this," Sharpe said.

"Right away. I'll patch it through to your mobile phone," Volk said.

Sharpe nodded, already on his way to O'Reilly's station. Before he could say a word, she turned to face him.

"I'm notifying the Baltimore field office," she said. "They can coordinate a response with the D.C. field office if they need additional resources. HAZMAT and SWAT?"

"Don't get too excited. The entire nation is on edge right now. This could be anything," Sharpe cautioned her.

"That's what I thought, but the nearest pump station is four miles away."

"I'm beginning to wonder if my presence is necessary any longer," Sharpe said.

"We've been wondering that for the last year," O'Reilly replied.

"He does have a connection to the director. That helps," Hesterman said.

"Does it?" she said.

"Is this what the two of you do all day?" Sharpe asked.

"Pretty much. Along with connecting all of the dots for you. Take a quick look at this," O'Reilly said.

She enlarged one of the windows on her flat-screen monitor, which showed a complicated chart. He could see that the x-axis represented calendar weeks for the past three years. The y-axis contained names. He recognized several of them. Miguel Estrada, Julius Grimes and John Galick were the most prominent. The others had been added over the course of the day as his team had identified them.

"We've identified eleven of the seventeen terrorists involved in the market attack. Seven have former military experience. All except Galick were dishonorably discharged from the service. I found evidence of anti-government cyber space rants from nine of the eleven, but nothing within the last year. We managed to develop a background for nine of them, including recent employer data. Some of the employers were kind enough to provide schedule information. Six out of the eleven."

"Looks like this crew vacations together," Sharpe said.

"Either that, or it's one hell of a coincidence going back two years. Six different vacation periods align, but here's the scary part: they're all scheduled for two solid weeks of vacation starting next week, in addition to the days they've taken this week. Estrada quit his job in Seattle a month ago," O'Reilly said.

"Jesus. This is not a good sign. I have a feeling they aren't headed to the Caribbean," Sharpe said.

"Historically, two weeks is the longest period of time that has coincided. Given everything else we've seen this week, I'd say they have something big planned," O'Reilly said.

"How long ago did they submit their vacation schedules?"

"Three of the employers confirmed that the vacations went on the books months ago," Hesterman said.

"It sounds like this was True America's plan all along," Sharpe said.

"I thought we weren't allowed to say this is the work of True America," O'Reilly said.

"My apologies. Politics trumps common sense. What I was trying to say, is that this timeline calls into question the assumption that Al Qaeda's shipments were a last minute reaction to Anatoly Reznikov's poisoning of Monchegorsk. If these vacations were planned months ago, then Tru—the domestic terror network in question knew ahead of time that the canisters would be shipped earlier this week. I don't think Al Qaeda ever intended to target cities in Europe. I think the U.S. had always been their primary target, and True America knew it."

"You did it again," O'Reilly said.

"Did what?"

"Said True America," Hesterman added.

"Sorry. Let's just pretend I never said that."

Sharpe's mobile phone rang, causing his hand to shoot down to his belt. He looked up and saw Jason Volk give him a thumbs-up. He pressed a button on the phone's screen and was connected with Laurel's chief of police. Less than a minute later, he disconnected the call.

"They found digging equipment in a forest area a few miles south of Fort Meade. City engineers confirmed that one of the water supply mains from the Laurel pump station heads through that area and connects with a pump station in Fort Meade. Three men armed with automatic rifles were killed by police officers at the dig site. One of the police officers was killed in the shootout. They called HAZMAT because of a canister they found on the scene," he told them.

"Canister?" O'Reilly said.

"The description matches canisters recovered from the Mount Arlington pump station. We have an even bigger problem on our hands," Sharpe said.

"There's no way we can protect thousands of miles of water supply pipes," Hesterman said.

"Hundreds of thousands, Agent Hesterman. There could be over 5,000 miles of water main located in Anne Arundel County alone. There's absolutely no way to protect it all. The only option is to stop drinking water from public supplies," Sharpe said.

"Or we put an end to the domestic terrorist network in question," O'Reilly said.

"I need to speak with the director. They need to take down that compound in West Virginia immediately. Start running profiles on the three men killed at the site and prioritize testing of the canister's contents. Push everything to the White House situation room, including your assessment of the link between suspects killed or captured in the market raid. I'll be back to brief the entire floor in five minutes," Sharpe said.

He walked back to his office, locking eyes with Callie Stewart, who was standing next to Admiral DeSantos on the catwalk with her arms folded on the railing. Things were definitely about to heat up around here.