“To this level of information?”
“Oh, hell no. We stole the log in IDs from other field operatives with higher clearances.” Steve shot him a lopsided grin. “I have a stack of logins from all sorts of characters.”
“But they can still trace it back to you, can’t they?” Bobby swallowed nervously.
Steve chuckled and shook his head. “Besides maintaining our personal servers overseas, we use redirects out the ass. We’d be pinged as soon as they attempted a trace and we could shut down, redirect, and log right back in.” He pointed to the small open window at the top of his monitor. “Nobody is looking for us. If they were, we’d know it.”
“Relax, Bridger.” Jay patted his shoulder reassuringly. “Believe it or not, we know what we’re doing.”
“Bobby, when did you buy a bunch of chemicals from Indiana?” Gregg asked.
“I didn’t.”
He pointed to his screen and nodded. “According to this, you placed an online order three weeks ago.” He hit a few keystrokes and saved a copy in his own records. “And they were delivered just prior to your taking off on your Middle Eastern vacation.”
“To where?”
Gregg ran his finger along the manufactured receipt and gave him a solemn stare. “Your house.”
“I didn’t even have internet until just a few…” Bobby trailed off. “They’re trying to make an airtight case against me.”
“I can’t even pronounce most of this stuff you bought.” Gregg squinted at the screen as his mouth tried to form the words.
“I didn’t buy it, dammit.”
“Oh, I know. I’m just saying…” Gregg shook his head as he read through the chemicals on the bill of lading. “Guys, we’re going to need a PhD in Chemistry to tell us what this crap is. Much less what it does.”
“My guess would be some sort of explosive.” Jay stretched his neck and tried to imagine what possible target our elusive intelligence agencies might choose. “But what the hell is in Pakistan that would be a high value target?”
Jim shook his head. “Who says it has to be high value?” The rest of the group turned and stared at him expectantly. “I mean, who says he has to blow up something important? All they need is a madman they can pin something on. A trigger event, if you will.”
The rest weren’t quite following so Jim tried another tactic. “Look at it this way. Say they can prove that an American, one who has anti-government sentiments, traveled overseas and blew up a school, a mosque, a hospital or hell, maybe even one of our own consulates? It would have to be some kind of target that sent a message, wouldn’t it?”
Jay shrugged. “I guess, yeah. But why Bobby?”
“Think about it,” Jim continued, “he’s had the training and he’s paranoid.”
“For good reason,” Bobby interjected.
“True. But they need a patsy.” Jim began to pace slowly. “So let’s try to twist our minds like theirs is. What purpose does it serve?”
Deric stood slowly and gave the others a wide eyed stare. “What if they’re looking for a way to tag all ex-operators as possible threats?”
“Or veterans,” Steve added.
“Let’s not get ahead of ourselves.” Jay held his hands up, quelling the conjecture. “Right now, we can only go on the information we have at hand. Let’s sit tight until we hear back from Roger and see what he may have found. With any luck, we can reverse engineer this little plot before it gets fully implemented.”
Bobby sat down hard and turned soulful eyes to Jay. “What if they’ve already implemented it?” He swallowed hard and looked to the rest of the group. “What if they’re blowing shit up as we speak. In my name?”
Langley, VA
DARREN CHESTERFIELD SAT at his computer and stared at the grainy images that he had been sent. He smiled to himself as he watched his scapegoat exit the country and return. “I think this will work just fine.” He knew that when it came to railroading a suspect that “everybody” knew was guilty, neither the media nor the courts dug deep enough to find any real inconsistencies. Besides, knowing Bridger’s past history and state of mind, he doubted the man would be taken alive.
He studied the printout from the chemical supply house and nodded. The ingredients list wouldn’t create the compound they had used, but specific markers that would be found in any ash residue would. They only needed a few more key pieces to be put into play for their part to be completed.
He opened a new window and checked for feedback from the field agents in play. The group that was to enter Bridger’s home and plant the airline tickets, the baggage claim receipts and other sundries hadn’t checked in yet. He had not doubt that they would complete their tasks in a timely manner. They knew what was at stake and they were some of his best operatives.
Darren divided his attention between the constant news reports for the region and the evidence trail they were creating that would lead straight to Bridger. He only hoped that the FBI put on the case were able to see the clues right in front of their faces.
Darren clicked to a new screen and pulled up the chat rooms where he had discovered BoBriger. He entered his password and a quick popup welcomed GabrielsButler_72 back to the website. He scanned the early afternoon traffic and chuckled to himself as he logged out as GabrielsButler_72 and used the stolen password to log in as BoBriger.
“Very soon patriot brothers and sisters, you will bear witness to the wrath of god upon the savages that defile that glorious banner of all that is right.”
Darren leaned back in his chair and watched as those that he considered domestic terrorists all clamored to discover what the infamous BoBriger alluded to.
“Lemmings.” He logged out of the website and left them all hanging, their imaginations free to run wild.
