Viral

“I couldn’t comment, Charlie. I wish I could. But, as I say, it’s not your concern anymore. You’re no longer involved. You’re going to have to accept that.” He sighed. “And let’s put our cards on the table. There are some people who think you can be indicted and imprisoned for passing along classified information. I’m not one of them, but I’m just telling you the score.”

“Don’t bluff me, Richard. This isn’t about what I told my brother.”

“It’s a story that can’t come out,” Franklin said, shifting his tone. Glancing quickly at the Potomac River. “Okay? It’s too dangerous. For a variety of reasons.”

“Why did you really want Isaak Priest taken out?” Mallory said, ignoring him.

“You know why. Look at what he was preparing to do. I mean, we had to stop that—”

“No. I don’t think that’s it, Richard. I think you needed him to set this up. But once it was operational, you needed him taken out because you wanted to weaken his hold. And to weaken his partner. Landon Pine’s partner.”

Franklin suddenly seemed trapped. He wasn’t going to deny this; he was going to steer the conversation elsewhere. And Charlie began to imagine a different end game: Why couldn’t the government just step in now and take over? What had Pine said? “I’m the target they gave you, aren’t I?”

“There are things you don’t know about, Charlie. Okay?”

“Really.”

“Yes. And things that I can’t talk about. But if I could, I’m sure you would agree they make perfect sense.”

“You think so.”

“Yes, I do. You would appreciate these things, if I was able to explain them to you. With your government and military background.”

“Like Covenant Division?”

His eyes froze for an instant. “What would you know about that?”

“These days, there are few real secrets anymore. I’m surprised Covenant has remained a secret this long.”

Franklin shook his head once. He said nothing.

“Was Priest a product of Covenant Division?”

“You’re fishing, Charlie.”

“Wasn’t he created by Covenant Division to expand American interests into the developing world? A wealthy, generous but unscrupulous African businessman, with control over a Third World banking network. Owner of a huge construction conglomerate and an import/export business. Who could go into these poor, troubled nations and buy up property and influence.”

“No.”

Charlie was fishing, making it up as he went along, but he kept going, waiting to be corrected. “It would be easy to justify, wouldn’t it? Just imagine a worst-case scenario—jihadists are already looking to infiltrate some of Africa’s most troubled countries, and to gain a foothold. To use them as a base, as training grounds for all sorts of atrocities. Atrocities ten times worse than 9/11. There’s a big fear about that right now in Washington, isn’t there? And the fact is, Americans can’t get in. Priest provided a different route. Your plan could have worked. It still might work.”

Franklin made a scoffing sound, but his face had paled.

“The trials in Sundiata were the first step,” Mallory said, “to see if it could be contained in a region. The government knew all about that. Mancala was to be next—”

“You’re fishing, Charlie,” Franklin said again, raising his voice to cut him off. “You’ve got a lot of theories, and I’m not going to comment on them because I can’t. But your basic premise is wrong. The government didn’t create Isaak Priest. He’d already been created. He already existed.”

Mallory heard in the tenor of his voice something new. A truth he desperately wanted to convey. Something Charlie didn’t know.

“When did the United States government become a part of it, then?” Charlie slowly lifted his gun and aimed it at Franklin.

“When we didn’t have a choice.”

Charlie watched his onetime mentor, considering Franklin’s words carefully. “What are you saying, that the government was forced to go along with this?”

“I’d rather not put it so crudely,” he said. “It was in motion before the government found out about it. And then we were given a choice. An opportunity.”

“It came to Covenant Division.”

He nodded very slightly. “It became an opportunity,” he said. “Become a part of it or let it go somewhere else. If it got away from us, it would be a threat to everyone. To world stability. Okay? We couldn’t be excluded and we couldn’t ignore it. On the other hand, we saw an incredible opportunity—the chance to create a new model that would eventually lift up the Third World. I’m sure you can appreciate that.”

So Gardner, in effect, blackmailed the United States government with this project, Charlie thought. Hostile takeover. Not of a corporation, but a government. A nation.

They fight different wars. What Isaak Priest said.

“In other words, Gardner came to you with this proposition. You brought him in because you felt you didn’t have a choice. But you didn’t want him in control. That’s not how the government does things. You wanted me to get Priest as a way to strip power from Gardner. Priest had already set this up, through Gardner. It was operational. It’s really a power struggle over control of Covenant Division now, isn’t it? You hired me to bring down Priest— Landon Pine—to diminish his partner, Perry Gardner. That’s what this really is.”

“Charlie. I’m not going to talk about that.”

“Isn’t that what Covenant Division does? Identify potential threats against the United States and then eliminate them? Demographics is the coming war. The invisible war. That’s what my father thought. That’s why he was killed.”

“Charlie, you’re not wrong. But I can’t talk about it, okay? Don’t you understand? Perry Gardner’s firm is a threat. Because technology is a threat. The technology his company has developed could make the United States technologically obsolete if we let it. So we chose to bring him in, rather than bring him down. That’s our mission. It’s a win-win.” Franklin looked at the gun. “What are you going to do, shoot me?”

“Probably not. I’m not sure yet.” He stared into Franklin’s steady hazel eyes. “Where’s Gardner right now?”

“How would I know?”

“You have to know. You must’ve met with him yesterday.”

“Don’t do this, Charlie.”

“Why not?”

“Listen to me.” For a moment, he closed his eyes and grimaced. “This goes way beyond you and me, Charlie. You can’t put it out there as a story. Stopping the event is one thing. Putting it out as a story is another.”

“How can this not come out as a story?”

Franklin sighed, and Charlie saw a new calm in his face. “Which story are we talking about, now?” Franklin said.

“What they were planning to do. What they have in place. What you have in place. In Africa.”

“That’s one story,” he said. “Okay? There are others, too. Other, better stories that, frankly, contradict it.”

“I know. Like Trent. Olduvai. Deceptions.”

So were those, too, created by the government?

“Look, Charlie.” Mallory set the gun on his leg, sensing that Franklin wanted to tell him the truth. “What would happen if the story you are referring to came out and was believed? In Europe. In Africa. In the Middle East. What would that do to our country, do you think?”

Charlie watched him, beginning to understand.