The Aegis Conspiracy Read online

  Abdul ran a line of duct tape around Gigi’s head, sealing her mouth. By the time she fully recovered her senses, her hands were taped together and she was taped to a chair. She didn’t know Abdul. He was a stranger. She immediately recognized Jake Jacobson. He was replacing a pistol into the holster beneath his coat.

  He nodded at her and smiled. It was a thin, self-satisfied smile. Jake smiled because he knew Abdul would make her tell where Den Clark was hiding. Then he would kill her. Then he would find Den Clark and Abdul would put a bullet in his head. Finally, he would get the revenge he sought. Both Den and Gigi would be dead.

  Abdul did not plan a simple bullet-in-the-head execution. The deaths of the woman called “Gigi’” and the man called “Ten” were tests, set up by the CIA to see if he was capable of killing. Now he would show Jacobson just how capable he was. He would leave no doubt about his ability to kill. He would also leave no doubt about his ability to extract information from people who didn’t want to talk.

  Abdul grabbed Gigi’s hair and pulled her head up. Then, calmly, he began to speak. “I want you to tell me where I can find your friend, Ten, but it would be a waste of my time to question you right now. You wouldn’t tell me where he is. I’d ask again and you still wouldn’t tell me. Even if you did tell me, it would be a lie. Then I would have to” … he paused to make sure she understood his threat… “convince you to tell me the truth.

  “I’m going to skip the first steps,” he said and moved his face within inches of hers. “It will save time for both of us. I won’t question you and you won’t have to lie to me. We’ll go directly to the next step. I’ll start to convince you to tell me the truth and when I’m finished, you will want to tell me the truth.”

  Abdul let go of Gigi’s hair and took the knife from its scabbard beneath his coat. He ran his thumb across the sharp edge of the knife to test is sharpness and continued to talk to her.

  “I’m going to remove your little finger. I’ll take the one on your right hand. When that’s done, I’ll cut off your ear.” He ripped open her blouse and tore her brassier apart. “Then I’ll ask you where he is. If I don’t like your answer, I’ll start with your tits. That’s what you call them, isn’t it?”

  By the time Abdul finished taping Gigi to the chair, Den had entered the bedroom. He heard Abdul’s threats to mutilate her. He pulled the revolver from his belt. In the living room, Jake didn’t have the stomach for Abdul’s bloody method of interrogation. He didn’t want to see it. He didn’t want to be a part of it. He feared the business would make him physically sick.

  He quickly walked to Gigi’s bedroom to get away from what he knew was going to happen in Gigi’s living room. As he opened the door, he saw Den coming toward him with a revolver in his hand. Jake jumped back and dodged away from Den’s line of sight. He rushed past a startled Abdul. He ran through the kitchen, out of the building and directly to Abdul’s parked car. In seconds, the key was in the ignition.

  Den had no interest in chasing him. His concern was the man who stood beside Gigi with a knife in his hand. He entered the living room with his .357 revolver raised and pointed at Abdul. Abdul, confused by Jake’s rapid departure, didn’t have time to draw his Beretta. His only alternative was to hold his knife to Gigi’s throat and bargain for his escape. He again grabbed her by the hair and was moving the knife toward her throat when Den fired.

  The bullet hit him in the center of his chest. The knife dropped from his hand and he fell to the floor. His body made a few involuntary jerks. Then it stopped moving and blood from Abdul’s shattered chest stained a larger and larger part of his shirt.

  Den was removing the tape that bound Gigi to the chair when he heard the screech of tires as Abdul’s car careened out of McCord Court and onto Central Boulevard. As soon as she was free, feeling both terror and relief, Gigi threw her arms around him. Den felt her body shaking against him. He held her as she gasped for air. He picked her up and carried her into the kitchen, away from the corpse of her tormentor. “Sit down and drink this,” he told her. She sipped from the glass of water and her breathing began to return to normal.

  “It didn’t take long for Jacobson and one of his Aegis goons to find me,” Den thought. “My God, why did I put Gigi into the middle of this? Now they’ll go after her, too. We’ve got to get out of here and find a safe place.”

  Den retrieved his luggage from the hedge and returned to the bedroom. He grabbed slacks and a couple of Gigi’s blouses from the closet, took stockings and underclothing from a dresser drawer and crammed them into her overnight bag.

  He went to Abdul’s body. He could see his shoulder holster and the butt of his Beretta. He also saw a bulge in his inside coat pocket. A passport, an envelope and a letter carrier type wallet made the bulge. The envelope and the wallet were crammed with hundred dollar bills, some of them being colored with Abdul’s blood. Den took the money and, after checking the Jordanian passport, returned it and the empty wallet to the jacket’s breast pocket.

  When Den returned to the kitchen, the water glass was empty and Gigi, still shaken, was writing a note. She showed it to him. It said “The man in the living room tried to kill me.” Den nodded his approval. They left the note on the kitchen table.

  Gigi had endured a number of shocks. Her secretary had been shot as she stood in the doorway of her law office. Gigi had been pistol whipped and threatened with terrifying mutilation by an Aegis murderer. She knew Jacobson and the dead man in her living room were Aegis instruments. She knew Jacobson and the man who threatened her were the ones who murdered Charlotte.

  Gigi had experienced the reality of an Aegis attempt to kill. She shuddered when she realized they would send someone else to kill her as well as Den. The frightful, naked fact of the danger she and Den faced struck her with full force.

  Den led her to the truck and helped her enter it. He threw his suitcase and her overnight bag in the pick-up box and drove from the apartment building. Den had no destination in mind. He knew they had to get out of McCord Court.

  He knew most of Gigi’s neighbors would be home and waiting for their dinners. They would have seen the squad car. They would have heard the shot that killed Abdul and Jake’s tire squealing escape. One or more of them would have called 911. The police were on their way and he and Gigi had to be gone before they arrived.

  When they heard the sirens and watched the police cars converging into McCord Court, Gigi’s neighbors were of two minds. Some of them couldn’t help but go into the street in the hope of satisfying their curiosity and learning the cause of all the excitement. Most of them did not want to get involved. They were content to watch from their windows. They’d get the details from their more inquisitive neighbors or from the television news.

  By the time the policeman and the detective who questioned Gigi had returned to her apartment, the scene had been photographed and Abdul’s body was ready for removal to the morgue. Later, the detective sat at the kitchen table and reviewed his notes.

  One of the policemen in the squad car that answered the 911 call saw a body through the living room window. He cautiously entered the apartment through the kitchen entrance while his partner guarded the front door. The place was empty. The dead man carried a Jordanian passport. It contained a recent Mexican Migración “entrada” stamp showing he entered that country less than a week earlier.

  Some of the neighbors said they heard a single shot and then the squeal of tires. One of them said he saw a pick-up truck leave the driveway minutes after the sound of the departure of the first automobile.

  The detective didn’t criticize the uniformed policeman who drove him to the apartment earlier in the day. What was done was done. He would, however, privately tell him he should have jotted down the license number of the pick-up. At least, he had some information to include in his report. It was a Chev truck - four or five years old.

  The detective began to develop a scenario to explain what must have happened. The dead man probably made the ten
o’clock appointment with the attorney. The purpose of the appointment was to be assured that Ms Grant would be waiting for him in her office, but he did not appear at ten o’clock.

  He waited until noon when the likelihood of the presence of other clients was minimal. He meant to kill the attorney, but murdered her secretary by mistake. Discovering that mistake, he attempted to correct it by killing Grant in her home.

  The passport showed the dead man was a Jordanian and nothing to indicate he had entered the United States legally. Did the dead man know the attorney? Probably not. Did Grant know him? Doubtful. If Grant knew him, the detective guessed, the note on the kitchen table would probably have given more information.

  The Jordanian was probably a hired gun, imported to kill her. The detective wondered who hired the Jordanian. He wondered about the motive behind the attempt to murder the lawyer. He leaned back in the chair and again read the note Gigi had left. She must have been afraid of another attempt on her life - so afraid that she ran.

  The detective shook his head. His scenario was logical but it was incomplete. One question had not been considered. Who killed the Jordanian? The duct tape that bound someone - probably attorney Grant - to a chair had been cut. Bits and pieces of it contained strands of long honey blonde hair. He would be surprised if it wasn’t hers. A hired killer wouldn’t tape his victim to a chair and then free her and allow her to get access to a gun and shoot him.

  There had to be a third person involved. Someone killed the Jordanian and then freed the lawyer and drove away with her. Then the detective again amended his thinking. If the neighbor’s recollection was right, there had to be a fourth person present. Someone drove away immediately after the shot was fired, but before the pick-up left the scene. He snapped his small notebook shut and thought this was going to be an interesting case. It would be easier if he could find the attorney and get all of the answers he needed.

  Chapter 23

  Den drove his truck from McCord Court onto Central Boulevard and headed south. His immediate purpose was to take Gigi to a quiet place where she could regain her composure and they could decide on what they were going to do. By the time he reached the southern outskirts of Tucson he had a plan. It would protect her.

  He would expose Jake and Teddy and Aegis. He would contact newspaper and television journalists as well as Senators and members of the House of Representatives. He’d tell them everything he knew about Aegis. The truth would be disclosed. Once that information had been made public, neither his death nor the death of Gigi would hide that truth. There would be no reason for Aegis to pursue him or Gigi and she would be safe.

  Den knew his plan would not give him protection. He would run the risk of being returned to Latin America for crimes committed in Guatemala, Bolivia and Chile. The ever-present undercurrent of anti-gringo and anti-CIA sentiments in Latin America would probably fuel demands that he be extradited to one or more of those countries.

  He also knew the Belt Line government administrators and politicians would find a way to bring felony charges against him in Washington - conspiracy to commit murder came to mind. He knew he would probably face prison in the United States or, if he was returned to a Latin American venue, death by a firing squad.

  When he went public and as soon as it became evident extradition or criminal charges were in the offing, Den would have to run. By going public, he would replace the necessity of hiding from Aegis with the necessity of hiding from felony charges or extradition proceedings.

  Where would he go? Chile might be a safe haven. The killer of Humberto del Valle might find a refuge there. Canada’s extradition policies might make it an attractive sanctuary. Den would become a fugitive, living somewhere in a self-imposed exile. Gigi could lead a normal life in Arizona. That was the most important thing.

  On the far south side of Tucson, a small and tired neon sign fluttered “Vacancy” at irregular intervals. It also tried to proclaim “Sunset Motel” but succeeded only partially. “Suns t Mot l” was as close as it could get. The sign needed attention. So did the motel.

  The Sunset Motel needed paint. Weeds grew alongside the edges of the building and in those places where they were able to get a foothold through the cracks in the parking lot black top. It was the kind of motel where the management sometimes changed sheets twice a night and insisted its customers pay for their rooms in cash and in advance.

  Den registered at the motel. He signed in as Ernest Adams, the name appearing on his Pennsylvania driver’s license. The rooms were reasonably clean and the plumbing worked. While Gigi soaked in the tub, Den paced and once more considered his decision to expose Aegis. He reconfirmed it. It was the best way to assure Gigi’s safety.

  It was time to tell Gigi what he was going to do. When she had dressed and returned to the room, Den sat on the bed next to her and explained what he had in mind. His last words were: “I’m sorry I got you into this, hon. I damn near got you killed. Now I’m going to get you out of it.”

  Beneath the stereotypical façade assigned to the female of the species, Gigi Grant concealed an iron structure. Most women have it. Their grasp on reality is more firm than their male counterparts. Their ability to survive is extraordinary. Gigi had left the snug security of a position in a large law firm to step into the unknown terrain of service in the Central Intelligence Agency.

  She survived the disappointments that followed and didn’t hesitate to leave the Agency and accept the risks of starting a solo law practice in a place where she was friendless and unknown. She had the brains and the ability and the courage to make decisions. When Den first told her of the danger he faced and his plan to disappear to a place where Aegis could not find him, Gigi was willing to hide him in her apartment. Now she made another decision - quickly and firmly.

  “What do you mean, ‘get me out of it’? Don’t you mean: ‘get us out of it’?” she said with some emphasis. “Get rid of that ‘noble, noble’ nonsense, Denver Clark. Do you think you can spend the rest of your life hiding, or in some Guatemalan prison, or worse, just so I can spend every day of my life knowing I was the reason for it?

  “No, Den. We’re in this together. I know what I’m getting into. My God, Den. I’ve just seen it. I was there. I heard the threats and I saw the knife. If we live, we’ll live together and if we go, we’ll go together.”

  From their first meeting in the cafeteria at the Sherman Kent School, Den knew Gigi was an independent woman. Perhaps, he should have expected her reaction. In truth, he was not unhappy with it. He did not want to vanish from her life.

  “You’d have to give up a lot, hon.”

  “I know. You’re giving up a lot, too.”

  “Being on the run isn’t easy. You can’t let your guard down. You have to keep looking over your shoulder. You have to be ready to run again.”

  “I know, Den. I know. It will be fun.”

  “Fun?”

  “We’ll be together and that will be fun. Den, listen to me. You know what I’ve gone through today. I know the danger, but I’d rather live one year with you, fully alive, than ten years away from you, wondering where you were and how you were. Don’t worry about me.”

  Den thought about it. Ten years just being alive? One year with Gigi? He quickly revamped his plan to disappear. This time, Gigi would be with him. Her determination to stick with him trumped his decision to go public.

  It was Gigi who found a different way to keep their pursuers at bay. The men in Aegis, she argued, wanted to kill them because they feared exposure. That same fear could protect them. The threat of exposure would be as effective as exposure itself.

  “What would happen,” she asked, “if someone inside Aegis - Teddy Smith, for example - was told harm to either of us would automatically cause everything you know about them to be broadcast to the world? Do you think Aegis might have a good reason to see to it that nothing ever happened to us?”

  Up until that moment, Den had been on the defensive. He couldn’t find a way to attac
k Aegis because, except for Teddy and Jake, he couldn’t identify any of them. Gigi’s plan didn’t depend upon identifying any of them. Den could write his exposé of Aegis and send it to a friend - no, to a number of trustworthy friends - with instructions to make it public if he or Gigi didn’t contact them periodically.

  When this threat to expose Aegis was explained to Teddy, Den guessed his immediate reaction would be to tell Jake to stop all attempts to kill them. He’d call Jake back to Langley within fifteen minutes of Den’s phone call to him. He couldn’t afford the risk of letting Jake trigger the mailings of the exposés. Gigi’s plan could convince Aegis to terminate all attempts to kill them, but they both knew it might not produce that result. It was not an unqualified insurance policy.

  At the very least, Teddy and his Aegis friends would pause to study Den’s threat. As far as the danger posed by Jake was concerned, they could only speculate. Jake might not give a damn about what happened to Aegis. On his own, he might look for another assassin.

  Den and Gigi also agreed the threat to expose the conspiracy did not guarantee their protection from the Aegis network. Teddy or Jacobson or some other unknown man might find a way for Aegis to survive the publicity that would result if Den’s story was made public.

  The possibility that their threat might not produce the results they wanted was balanced by the possibility that it would work. The use of the threat might help them. It couldn’t hurt them. Den and Gigi made their plans. Den would phone Teddy.

  He would tell him he had written his history of Aegis. Den would tell him copies of the report of Aegis activity had sent to a number of trustworthy friends. He might even hint at sealed documents held in trust by attorneys inside and outside of the United States. Den would threaten Teddy and his Aegis friends with automatic and unavoidable exposure if harm came to either of them.