Becca XXX - Hard Time Ch. 15

He gave me a tiny sarcastic clap.

"You've got it all wrong. I was disavowed and..."

"ENOUGH," he shouted, banging his fist on the table making me jump. "You somehow found out that my daughter was still alive and you used her to get to me - just admit it. Of course you know who I am."

When you're under interrogation, it's fine to stick to your cover story as long as it is getting you somewhere and it's being believed. The secret was to know when you're beaten and when to break cover in order to survive. Maurice had done his homework and because of that, my life was now in danger. There was no point in denying the truth any longer, I had to come clean and look for an opportunity to escape.

"OK. You're Charles Hamilton, head of the Hamilton group," I reeled off the facts I knew about him. "Your business has a legitimate side, but you're also an illegal arms dealer. You are also middle management for a secret organisation known as The Generals. Yes, we used your daughter so I could get close to you and investigate what you're up to and who you are selling weapons to."

I didn't tell him that I was here to kill him for obvious reasons, but if my situation didn't improve soon, I was going to carry out my mission and pray that I got out of it alive.

"At last, the truth prevails," he held his hands up in a hallelujah. "Although I'm a bit upset about being called middle-management?" he let out a laugh. "Is that what he told you?"

Maurice laughed along with him, making the back of my chair vibrate with his guttural chuckle.

"You have no idea what you're involved in, do you?" Charles continued. "You've been doing Ethan's bidding without even questioning it."

"Maybe you should enlighten me," I replied. "How do you know Ethan?"

He paused for a long beat to build the tension and then replied with something I'd always been half-expecting.

"We were in the military together until we both got disillusioned with it all. We wanted to serve our country, but the rules of engagement and all of the bureaucracy got in the way. It made it impossible for us to get the job done so we decided to set up our own organisation to continue our fight against the bad people of this world," he explained.

I didn't like the sound of where this was heading. I'd had my suspicions about Ethan for some time and now they appeared to be coming true.

"You set up The Generals together?" I quizzed.

"Yes. Ethan Green and I were the co-founders," he replied with a wide grin.

My jaw dropped open. Charles wasn't middle-management - he was the one in charge of the whole organisation. He and Ethan had started the whole thing, but it left me with one obvious question.

"Is Ethan still part of your group?" I asked, fearing the answer.

"Far from it," he replied. "He left The Generals shortly after it formed. He said that my methods didn't fit in with his sense of morality. After being tied to so many rules and regulations in the military, I wanted free reign to do whatever was necessary to protect my country. Sadly, military personnel got killed, innocent people got caught in the cross-fire and it didn't sit well with him. I told him that collateral damage was all part of it, but he said I was a psychopath."

I could see his point. Charles was a psychopath, his past history with the missions I'd been involved in told me that.

"Ethan left us and formed his own private military group. For a while we actually worked on very similar projects, albeit separately. He would follow a different set of guide lines to me, but we both had our country's best interests at heart," he continued. "We're on the same side, Becca. I just do things a little differently."

"If we're on the same side, why did you try and carry out a terror attack on your own country?" I asked. "Detonating dirty bombs at motorway junctions to cripple the UK isn't exactly patriotic, is it."

"You're just like Ethan. You never see the bigger picture," he shrugged. "There was a very good reason for it."

"Like what? Crashing the stock market to make more money and then forcing the government's hand to re-join the EU? That's not worth the misery you'd have caused and the innocent lives you'd have taken."

"It was never the intention to detonate all of the bombs. I was just going to do one to begin with, with the possibility of more if my plan didn't work. Crashing the stock market was a bi-product of the plan, it wasn't the main reason. Our country is far weaker now that we are out of the EU, we need to re-join it as soon as possible. The government just needed a wake up call to make them see the light."

He was spouting the same bullshit as The Patriots from the previous night. This guy sounded like a preacher in front of his congregation, only the outcome of his words were far more deadly and far reaching.

"I think the people of the UK voted on that already. They decided to leave and that should be an end to it. Threatening them to make them re-join would never have worked," I stated. "Our country doesn't negotiate with terrorists. You of all people should know that."

"Well, thanks to you and Ethan it never got that far. I know you were involved in killing my men," he spat as though it left a bad taste in his mouth. "But neither of you are seeing the bigger picture. You have no idea what's coming our way. With the UK and EU weakened and at logger heads with each other, it leaves us wide open to attack."

"Attack from who?" I shrugged.

"Russia."

A silence descended on the room like a dark cloak. The pieces started to drop into place, not only about this mission, but also my previous encounters with The Generals.

"Russia?" I gasped. "Why would they attack us? I thought the Cold War ended years ago."

"You stupid girl... it never ended. It's just being fought in a different way. The Soviet Union collapsed in the nineties, but that doesn't mean we're not still fighting Russia. All the peace talks and hand shakes on the news over the years have just been a ruse to keep the world quiet. The war is still ongoing and the Russian President has just been waiting for an opening. Now he has one."

"And you think that us leaving the EU shows enough of a weakness for him to make a move?" I asked, starting to understand where he was coming from.

"It could be the beginning of the end for the EU. Now that we have left, other member states are also making noises about leaving. The same thing happened to the Soviet Union in the nineties and that's what caused it to collapse. The member states wanted independence from Russia and one by one they all left. Ukraine, Belarus, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova," he counted them on his fingers. "Not only did they leave the Soviet Union, some of them joined the EU, further angering the Russians."

If what he was saying was true, I was stuck in the middle of a Cold War between Russia and the West which had never ended. It had just lay dormant as Russia bided its time.

"Why are you getting involved in it? Surely our governments are keeping an eye on things," I pointed out.

"Their idea of keeping an eye on things is to fight wars against Russia in other countries," he replied. "You only need to look at what's been going on in Afghanistan or Syria to figure that out, the list goes on and on. The west backs one side and the Russians supply arms to the other. It's the same war, but without invading each other's countries directly. The victor comes away with oil or mineral rights from that country while pretending that it was all about stamping out terrorism and oppression. Its been going on since the second world war. The problem is that Russia has changed its tactics."

"Changed them how?"

"They've moved on to cyber warfare. They attack our infrastructure without even leaving their office. They can shut down hospitals or power stations. They can even control the outcomes of elections or referendums," he replied.

Something rang an alarm bell with his last comment. I gave an involuntary reaction as I tried to figure out what he was insinuating. I thought back to my mission at Kingsley Manor with Natalie, but my train of thought was interrupted as Charles read my mind.

"That's right... you've just started to figure things out, haven't you Agent Becca," he smirked. "That idiot Tristan almost handed it to the Russians on a plate. If you hadn't stepped in with your slutty little friend, we'd have a fucking Russian spy running the country by now. I told you, we are on the same side."

Tristan had been part of the political campaigns for both Wilson and Hughs during the election of the new prime minister. He had been paid off by both parties to aid their rise to power, but Tristan had had no idea that Hughs was working for the Russians.

"Hughs and Stanislav," I gasped. "If I hadn't killed Stanislav at the embassy, Hughs would have won the election. Tristan had no idea what he was getting into when he took the Russian money."

"You catch on quickly. Russia was trying to rig the vote... just like they did with Brexit. They wanted Hughs in charge of the country in the same way that they wanted us to leave the EU."

"You're saying that Russia rigged the Brexit vote? Do you have proof of that?" I asked.

"No, its just a theory at the moment, but I'm never wrong about this sort of thing. Russia has always wanted to reform the Soviet Union and it now has the perfect opportunity. It's already started with Ukraine, but it won't stop there. Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, he'll keep advancing until he takes them all back. With the EU weakened it will be his for the taking."

I couldn't believe what I was hearing. In a weird way, it actually made sense to me. I knew that the Russians had been involved in trying to rig the election so why wouldn't they have had an influence on Brexit?

"Let's say that what you're saying is true; it still doesn't explain why you'd attack our own country," I said. "Detonating dirty bombs would have turned the whole country against you. They'd have hunted you down for terrorism."

"The attack would never have come back to me. All the evidence would point back to Russia. I made sure that Shaw used Russian detonators for the bombs and that the money trail would lead back to accounts owned by the Kremlin. It would have worked out perfectly and turned our attention, and that of our allies, against Russia once and for all. They need to be stopped before it goes too far."

"You're talking about starting world war three," I gasped. "It could result in a nuclear war."

"Even the Russians aren't crazy enough to do that," he laughed. "The world needs to stand up against them and put them back in their box. My UK plan may have failed, but the gentlemen you entertained last night have a new plan."

"They're terrorists?" I gasped as though in shock.

"No, they are patriots, just as their name suggests."

"What are they planning?"

"I'm glad you asked because I have a proposition for you which will be mutually beneficial to all of us. The Patriots are here to purchase Russian missiles from me in order to carry out an attack on the US. That attack will make it look like it was carried out by the Russians and should spark the Americans to take action against our mutual enemy. Seeing as the UK government won't listen to reason, perhaps our allies across the pond with their gung-ho attitude will stand up and do what needs to be done."

"You're planning a missile attack on America? Are you fucking insane?" I gasped as though I didn't already know.

"No, but the Russians are," he laughed. "At least that's how it will look."

We both went quiet for a moment as he let it sink in. I looked deep in thought as though this information was completely new to me. At least my theory had been correct, but it didn't make it any less terrifying. If what he said about a Russian invasion of Europe was true, there must have been a less extreme way of bringing it to people's attention. Killing innocent Americans and risking a nuclear war certainly wasn't the way to go.

"I fail to see how this is mutually beneficial," I stated. "What's your proposition?"

I glanced down at the letter opener on the table, wishing it was a little closer to me. This guy had now given me enough of a reason to kill him, regardless of how Sasha was going to feel about it.

"I have just found out this morning that The Patriots may have short-changed me with their payment," he explained.

"Short-changed you how? Surely they've just done a bank transfer," I pointed out. "How can they short change you with something like that?"

"They're not paying me with money. They have promised me something far more valuable, but it would appear that it's not what they say it is. I think their group has been infiltrated by an undercover agent similar to yourself and that they have switched the goods," he explained.

"What are they paying you with?" I asked, thinking back to the glass vial that Sasha had shown me that morning.

"Let's go back a year or two first," he replied. "Like I said, you've been a pain in my ass for a number of years with your constant interfering, from closing the G-spot clubs to stopping my terror attack only a few weeks ago. After all the problems you've caused me, one incident in particular sticks in my mind. Do you remember the Eden Project?"

I remembered it very well. I'd been sent to investigate the disappearance of a young girl who had run away from home to join the religious cult. I'd found a lot more going on there than just sexual abuse of women. More pieces of the puzzle dropped into place as I realised what was in the glass vials and what the initials F.E. stood for.

"I remember the abuse of young runaways in order to extract stem cells from pregnant women against their will," I said. "Holy shit, is that what those guys are paying you with - fucking stem cell treatments?"

"I can see why Ethan employs you," he raised his eyebrows at me. "You're certainly more than a pretty face. Since you had the Eden Project shut down and my good friends Peter Tobias and Elijah Freeman eliminated, I've been struggling to find a replacement manufacturer for my stem cells and my stocks are running low. The Patriots told me that they could get the same product in America. It turned out that Elijah Freeman had a US partner who was manufacturing the same thing there. First Element was alive and kicking in the good old US of A and these guys could get a hold of it."

F.E. - First Element was the trade name for Elijah's stem cell treatments. I knew I'd seen those initials somewhere before. The revelations just kept coming.

"No wonder you look so young and vibrant," I complimented him. "You've been using First Element's stem cell treatment."

"Becca, I'm sixty-one years old and this stuff has knocked years off of me. I look and feel like a forty year old thanks to the Eden Project's research. When I found out that these guys could get hold of it, I jumped at the chance. Everything they told me appeared to check out, but I have had their product tested by one of my lab technicians here on the island and it's nothing more than coloured water," he showed his feelings with a snarl of his lips. "I'm guessing at least one of those mother fuckers is working for the American government and must have switched the goods. I need to know who it is."

"Why don't you confront them about it?" I quizzed. "There's no honour among thieves. I'm sure whoever it is will get ratted out by the real members of the group."

"I can't risk it," he said, brushing it away. "There's too much at stake here. I need them to carry out the missile attack and I don't want to jeopardise that. Maurice here has tried to find out who each of those guys are, but it's proving even more difficult than finding out that you worked for Ethan. I need someone to infiltrate their group and route out the prime suspect. I'm sure someone with your skill set will recognise a fellow agent when you see one."

I couldn't believe my ears. Not only was this maniac planning to start world war three, he wanted me to find out who the spy was in his group in order to let it happen. I had to admire his determination if nothing else.

"You're asking me to help you?" I laughed. "Why would I do that?"

"Because we're on the same side here. If we don't do this, Russia will have a foot hold in Europe and we'll never be able to push them back. Put our differences aside and think about the bigger picture for a change. There are already Russian operatives on British soil, positioning themselves to weaken the UK further. We need to act now, for all our sakes."

I put on my thinking face as though I was mulling over his proposal. In actual fact, I was doing the opposite. I saw an opportunity here which might end this once and for all, but I was going to have to be extremely careful. If there really was an American operative working undercover with The Patriots he would be my only ally on the island. I would need to root him out just like Charles had suggested, but I would then team up with him to bring these guys down. Maybe the American would have a back up team standing by or some way of contacting the outside world.

"What do I get out of it?" I asked, breaking a long silence.

"Whatever you want, Becca. I can make you rich or you can just go back to your old life. Who knows, maybe you'll see the light and leave Ethan behind and come and work for me," he snorted.

"And if I don't?" I asked, fearing the worst.

He let out a long sigh and glanced up at the man mountain standing behind me.

"I'll hand you over to Maurice and no one will ever find your body," he said, staring me in the face.

"That's not much of a choice," I sighed.

Charles gestured with his hands as if to say 'it is what it is' without saying the words.

"How do you propose I'm going to find out which one of them it is?" I asked, partially agreeing to it.

"I have no idea. You're the one with the magic pussy. Isn't that what you seductresses do? You fuck your way into a man's mind and work the information out of them without them even realising it. I'm sure you'll find a way."

"Do you think that's the answer to everything when it comes to men? I just open my legs and they tell me their life story? I wish it were that simple."

"It worked with me, didn't it?" he shrugged. "I've just told you everything about what I'm doing and why I'm doing it. Do you think I'd offer a man the same choice that I'm offering you? I seem to have developed a soft spot for you, but don't mistake my kindness for weakness. I'm giving you a chance to redeem yourself and show me that we're on the same page. It's time for you to see sense and do what you do best."

He leaned his elbows back onto the desk and steepled his fingers. That told me that the conversation was over and that it was decision time on my part. I stared back at him as expressionless as stone. My mind was already made up and I knew exactly what I was going to do - this was just for show.

"In that case, it looks like it's time for me to go and get fucked again," I smiled. "I suppose this job has its perks. How long have I got?"

"Is that a yes?"

"It's a yes."

"I knew you'd see sense. They leave tomorrow afternoon with the missiles so this needs to be resolved by the morning. As soon as you find out which one of them is the agent, come and let me know. Don't take matters into your own hands. I need to be the one to expose him," he stated.

"Of course."

"Of course, what?"

"Of course, Mr Hamilton," I corrected myself.

"That's better. Remember your place here. Maurice, please escort Becca to meet the clients and then come back here with Sasha. I need to talk to her about her new identity," he said.

"Yes, Mr Hamilton," the beast behind me moved out of the way so I could push my chair back and stand up.