Chapter 59

  Jesse arrived at Langley fifteen minutes early. He was dressed in blue jeans, tan deck shoes, a white long-sleeved shirt, and a navy blue blazer fashioned by Brooks Brothers. He had met Tony Clayson many times and was very comfortable around him despite his gruff and often hard, no-nonsense nature. Jesse was escorted to the meeting room, and as soon as he extended his hand, the CIA director did the same. The director gripped his hand firmly, looked into his eyes, and smiled. General Jackson entered the room on time, and after a few more greetings and handshakes, the meeting started.

  They all took their seats at a rectangular conference table polished to a high gloss, and Clayson asked his aide, John Best, to pass out the prepared folders. A minute later, the meeting officially started when each man had a thick folder marked with the usual warning in bold letters.

  “First of all, thank you, gentleman, for coming in on such short notice. I know you both have busy schedules, so I will get to the point and try to get through this as quickly as possible because we have a lot of information to cover. I was hoping to have General Bennett with us on a conference call this morning, but we have been unable to contact him. Major Taylor, I understand that General Jackson has filled you in on everything that transpired in Phuket several days ago and that you’ve had time to review the documents he sent you last night.”

  Jesse cleared his throat and nodded, "Yes, sir, I did. I studied the e-mails last night and was initially very perplexed by what I read. So I called and spoke with Tom Polgar, the CIA Station Chief in Saigon in 75. He was able to clear up a very important fact for me, and I will get to that in a minute. As you know by now, the CIA analyst who was killed at Xuan Loc was Peter Jensen. The key was finding out that the official report of his death hadn't changed. It may not make sense to you now, but it will in a minute."

  For the next fifteen minutes, Jesse informed them about the chance meeting he had with Dave Sanders in his Jeep that last fateful day in Xuan Loc and everything he could remember about their conversation and the letter that was in Sanders's hand that was marked with letters and numbers above each word, and the page that was sticking out of the manila folder that just contained letters and numbers. Jesse told them that he now believed that Shawn Harris had the encrypted copy of that letter and that he had hired Tim Choi to look for Bennett and himself.

  Clayson leaned forward and placed his hand under his chin in thought.

  No one said anything until Clayson straightened up and said, “So you never read this letter, and Sanders told you that it was not signed by anyone and that he believed it was written by Peter Jensen because he found it hidden in his room that was previously occupied by Jensen. Is that correct?”

  “Yes sir…That is correct.”

  “And from what Sanders told you, he said that the letter implicated Jensen’s killer, but he didn’t tell you who it was.”

  “Yes, sir. I asked him who he believed it was, but he would not share that information with me. That is when Sydney and Jeffery pulled up in their Jeep, and Sanders quickly folded the letter, placed it in his pocket, and put the manila envelope in the cargo hold.”

  “And the only other person you shared this information with was Corporal Harris on your last recon mission, where you were wounded and flown back to Saigon for surgery?”

  Jesse nodded and said, “Yes, sir…that is also correct.”

  “Have you spoken with Corporal Harris since that day?” Clayson asked.

  “No sir, I have not.”

  Then Jesse went on to explain Shawn’s troubles with the law and his subsequent disappearance.

  Clayson was silent for a minute, then asked, “Do you believe the official report of Jensen’s death?”

  Jesse took a sip of water to clear his now dry throat and said, “I don’t know of anyone that was stationed there that did, sir.”

  “So, who do you think killed Jensen?” Clayson asked as he leaned forward in his chair.

  At that moment, Jesse wanted to be anywhere but in that room. He didn’t want to answer that question. Thankfully, there was a slight knock on the door, and another one of Clayson’s aides opened it.

  “I’m sorry to disturb you, sir, but this just came in.” Clayson held out his hand, and the man handed him the folder he was carrying. Clayson took the folder, opened it immediately, and motioned for his aide to wait. After two minutes of silence, Clayson let out a sigh.

  “Gentlemen, I’m sorry to say that I have some bad news to share with you. David Choi was taken to a hospital two nights ago after a gun battle in his apartment with two intruders after his shift was over. The two men were waiting for him inside his apartment when he got home. He is in critical condition and may not live.”

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  “And the two men; what happened to them? And is it related to what we are discussing today, or was it unrelated?” Jesse asked.

  “As for the relevance of what we are discussing today…I will get to that in a minute. The details are a little sketchy, but the two men did escape and have not yet been found, or they may have been, and you will see why after I finish up with Mr. Choi. From what I’ve read, Choi is unable to talk at this time. Hopefully, we will know more very soon. We were able to interview Choi’s partner and learned that he intended to meet General Bennett at a park in Laguna Beach the following day. Needless to say, that meeting never took place.”

  Clayson paused to take a drink of water, then continued,

  “Now I’m afraid that I have some more bad news. General Bennett was also in a gun battle with two men carrying sound-suppressed automatic weapons at his townhome last night. Thankfully, he was able to kill both of these men even though both were wearing body armor. Unfortunately, Bennett was wounded in the gun battle, and he’s in critical but stable condition at a hospital in Oceanside, California. Thankfully, he is expected to live. Given this new information, it seems clear that Tim Choi’s e-mail to his grandson and Rakov’s visit to Tim Choi’s office in Phuket are connected. I don’t know if these men were fed this information from someone inside the NSA or if they got it in some other way. But from what I have been told, it is highly unlikely that any other source could have broken the e-mail encryption. Needless to say, it will be looked into. Now, it appears that the warning that Tim Choi gave to his grandson wasn’t an idle threat. It appears that everyone that’s been involved in the correspondence between David and Tim Choi has either been attacked, questioned, or killed.”

  Clayson turned to his aide, who had taken a seat next to him, and told him what he wanted him to do. The man wrote the names down on his tablet and immediately left the room, closing the door quietly as he did.

  This news devasted Jesse. The man who had guided him most of his adult life and was instrumental in helping him pursue his college degree, becoming an Army Officer and one of the first men that he hired to join his newly formed private agency was lying in a hospital bed in critical condition. Jesse fought the urge to get up and leave that instant and fly to California, although that wouldn’t happen. Another man needed his help, a man who had saved his life on more than one occasion. All his training forced him to focus on the task at hand and fight through his emotions. He had a mission to carry out, and nothing was going to stop him.

  Clayson had dealt with Major Taylor and General Jackson long enough to know that these men were very close to General Bennett, and he could see the emotion on their faces. He decided to make a long overdue call and give the men time to reflect on this information. He announced that he had to make a call and left the room, stating that he would return shortly.

  General Jackson was the first to speak. “I know he’ll make it, Jesse; he’s too good a man and too tough of an old bastard to die.”

  Jesse placed his elbow on the table and his left hand on his forehead.

  “Thanks for those encouraging words, General. But unfortunately, even good men have to die sometime. I just pray that it’s not his time yet.”

  The General didn’t answer; he just nodded.

  “By the way… were our assets in Thailand able to find Choi’s cell phone records?”

  Jackson shook his head, “No, not yet, but there are only three providers, and they are checking everyone. I’ll let you know as soon as they find anything.”

  With Clayson gone for the moment, Jesse took the opportunity to call his logistics expert to see what he had put together. After a short conversation, the call ended, and he wasn’t happy with the news.

  Ten minutes later, Clayson returned with a dejected look. He poured himself a cup of coffee from the carafe in the center of the table and sat down. There was no preamble.

  “Jensen’s mother was found dead in her bed by a concerned neighbor three days ago. Her landline was answered by her niece, who was making preparations for her funeral. The autopsy showed the cause of death as a possible heart attack, although now that’s obviously questionable. I’m going to assume at this point that it was a homicide. If Mrs. Jensen’s death was not by natural causes, then there is only one way these men could have found her. Whoever these people are, they would have to know that the CIA analyst who was killed at Xuan Loc was Peter Jensen, and they would either have to have access to his file, or they were given this information by someone who had firsthand knowledge of Jensen’s parents. I can’t begin to tell you how much that troubles me.”

  “And Mr. Jensen?” General Jackson asked.

  “Mrs. Jensen’s niece informed us that Zedekiah Jensen is in a nursing home not far from his home and that he’s been inflicted with Alzheimer’s disease for some time now. She supplied a phone number, and a member of my staff contacted the nursing home and talked with the woman in charge. I was informed that this woman was very cooperative, and she told our investigator that Mr. Jensen was visited by his VA caseworker just three days before Mary’s body was discovered. She stated that she was surprised that the VA caseworker didn’t know that Zedekiah had Alzheimer’s. We contacted his real caseworker, who informed us that he had made no such visit. I am sending someone to interview the staff at the nursing home to follow up on this. Given this new information, it now seems obvious that someone stationed at Xuan Loc in 75 doesn’t want this document to see the light of day. Major Taylor, with your first-hand knowledge, do you have any idea who may be behind this?”

  Jesse stood at the edge of a precipice with nowhere to go. He was no stranger to fear. He had fought men on the battlefield and had taken lives. But he had also saved them. He had lost his wife and best friend to cancer and was helpless to stop it, but nothing he had ever done prior to this point could prepare him for the apprehension that he now faced.

  Jesse’s thoughts somehow drifted to one of his favorite books as a teenager. John Steinbeck’s classic, “Of Mice and Men.” It was a story of hopes and dreams, love and friendship, good men and bad men, and profound tragedy and heartbreak. George Milton and Lennie Small shared their friendship and dreams together, but their dreams of a new life were shattered by a tragic accident that forced George, out of love, to end the life of his friend. Sydney and Jesse, too, had shared their hopes and dreams together all those years ago, and now, tragically, he was in a position to end hers. As Clayson waited for his answer, the analogy was not lost on him.