Guardian Program Ch. 31

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Guardian Program Ch. 31

A novel by R.C.PeterGabriel, all rights reserved.

I started my search by asking Hal to show all the files from the last six weeks that included the words; Smith, Smith's family, Toni, Jessie, kidnap, eliminate, kill, forcibly detain, abduct, remove, Poison Montana, coerce, leverage, and Guardian Program.'

Hal blanked my screen and flashed the word 'searching'. I had never seen that response from him before. I found myself shocked and I raised an eyebrow. It was just over a quarter second before Hal asked which of over fifty-two trillion files, I wanted to view.

I glanced at Sam who was gaping at the screen, then made eye contact with me and shrugged.

I asked Hal to narrow the search to only those that included two or more of the trace words. I was rewarded with a reduction in the number of files by slightly under eighty-seven billion. Still way too large a group, so I narrowed the search again by requiring three or more words. That left me a little over sixty million and four words left me with just under four hundred thousand. Unfortunately, I thought I was getting somewhere when I required five words and was left with only six dozen files.

Two hours later we had viewed all of them and had gotten nowhere. Most of the files turned out to be technical articles on the elimination of poisons that could kill. The files noted removal procedures that were invariably invented or altered by someone with the name Smith who either had to leverage the equity from their homes for startup capital, or in two cases had a first name of Jessie.

Some of the articles were over a hundred years old, but for some reason had been updated within the last six weeks. These were quickly passed over.

One video file that was nearly twenty minutes long involved a section of the Pentagon's hallway where almost all of the words were used multiple times. Unfortunately, they were used singularly or in sentences involving a couple of trigger words each but had been spoken by a dozen people having a dozen separate conversations, none of which had anything to do with me.

Several video files involved police investigative interviews of an English couple visiting Los Angeles, whose seven-year-old daughter, Toni Smith had been kidnapped and later returned after a ten-thousand-dollar ransom was paid. Tragically she died two days later from the poison the kidnappers had given her.

I ordered Hal to send the file to the FBI's file reader, Arleen Helf, in hopes of catching the sick bastards that could do such a thing.

Afterward, I sat staring at the monitor completely filled with rage. It went blank after Sam ordered Hal to shut it off. I knew at that moment that was true, everyone is capable of killing. I could kill easily and from a distance and I wouldn't even leave a trace. However, I could do something much worse, and I knew if something happened to my women, I would use that ability.

Sam had to say my name several times before I looked at her. I didn't see her at first though, I was only seeing red. She took hold of both sides of my face and kissed me. It was a desperate kiss, filled with need. Not for sex, but a need to connect. I have no idea how long it took her to make me realize what she was doing, but when I did, I broke the kiss and looked into her eyes. Her touching me, and my looking into her eyes allowed me to quiet my rage.

"We need to take a break," she suggested.

"Perhaps you're right," I agreed, then asked Hal for our location. I was told we were over the Tyrrhenian Sea, two-hundred-eleven point seven miles due west of Cagliari.

"Que va faire," I responded quietly.

Sam's brow furrowed, and her head tilted slightly to the side in a cute expression of confusion. "Quand avez-vous appris le Français?" She asked in a sexy blend of French and southern accents, while her expression changed to challenging.

I had to ponder her question for a moment. "I think you asked me 'When did I learn French'. The truth is, I'm just trying to learn, and wouldn't consider myself a French speaker yet."

"Are you trying to learn for me?" Sam asked with a hopeful grin and a childlike bounce. "It would be nice to speak French again. I love the sound of it."

I had to smile back at her. Taking her hand, I led us to the cockpit and strapped her in.

"I didn't mean to slip into French," I explained while seating myself in the pilot's seat. "It was going to be a surprise, part of your wedding present."

Sam's expression slipped from joy to crestfallen. "You said I couldn't get you a wedding present. Why do you get to give me one, if I can't?"

I reached over and took her hand. "Sam ... for one thing, it isn't like you've had time to shop for anything, but mostly, you have to realize that because of you, my life is complete. I have no need for trinkets."

"Would it be pleasing, if I helped teach you? I could try to speak only French. That could be my present to us."

"That would be very nice, Mon Amour. But, you'll have to be patient with me. It took me almost two months to learn Russian. Granted, I didn't have much call to speak it in conversation, so, it took a little longer. Give me at least a couple of days before you grumble about syntax."

Sam was gaping at me, with her mouth slightly open. After about a minute she shook her head. "It took me almost six years! If I hadn't had a next-door neighbor who spoke it to me all the time, I probably never would have learned it to fluency. Not to mention the four years of high school study. "Is everything that easy for you?" she asked with an obvious pout of jealousy.

"Sam, you know I have a highly superior eidetic memory. I also have a mega computer that can translate anything I hear into a language I understand and repeat it back during the conversation. I try not to use Hal unless I can't deduce a word's meaning, but it helps during business conversations if you speak the language of whomever you're working with."

"Well Mr. Smith, thank you for confirming that you do in fact have an eidetic memory. I had only suspected it."

"Was that Julie I just saw peek out at me? I may have to spank her for listening in."

"I'll let her know you're upset and arrange a meeting at your first convenience, Sir."

I met her eyes. "Not until after we find Jessie and Toni." I reminded her, then put the plane into a steep descent, and turned three degrees north. "I'm going to show you where I was going to take us for our honeymoon. We can't stop, but you should get a decent look. Let me know if you like it. If not, I can change it."

I descended to five hundred feet. Then asked Hal to plot a course putting us directly over the honeymoon house. We corrected again, this time banking in a slow port side turn of about two degrees per minute. Once the coast came into view I slowed us down to just above takeoff speed and pointed straight ahead.

Sam leaned forward to take in the view, as we zipped over a yacht and several speed boats. The hillside that rose from the shore was planted in grapes and formed the lawn for a huge villa that topped the two-hundred-foot hill. As we got closer you could see a small secluded beach on the shore below the villa, and as we passed over we could briefly see down into the home's courtyard before the back side of the hill opened out to the town of Banyuls-Sur-Mer.

"If you don't recognize the coastline, we're just north of the Spanish border, in the South of France."

"It's beautiful! Do they make wine there?"

"Yes. The property has a winery, a fifty-foot by twenty-five-foot swimming pool, a private beach, eight bedrooms, quarters for staff, and about six hundred acres of vineyard. Plus slightly over thirteen hundred acres of property altogether. It's around four miles to the marina, but we can have a private one built if you like, that way we'll have a place for the boats. Unfortunately, it's about twenty-five miles to the airport."

"Did you say boats as in plural? What do we need with more than one boat on our honeymoon?"

I was about to answer when she asked, "Wait, have a private marina built?"

I smiled. "Did you like it?"

"As I said, it's beautiful. But what did you mean by 'have a marina built'?"

"I never want our honeymoon to end, Sam. The villa has your name first on the deed."

"You bought me a house ... um, a plantation, as a wedding present?"

"Not a new concept, I built the house in Poison for Toni. She always wanted to live in Montana. I got the idea for your house when you told your handler I had a huge place right on the water, and you said you wanted to honeymoon there. As you mentioned, I tried to find a place east of Nice, but I couldn't find anything suitable. Anyway, you can look around virtually. I had Black Knights installed to saturation levels around the house and grounds."

I accelerated to maximum, began ascending, and told Hal to take over. I then had Sam tap an icon on her control panel that changed it to a display like any other monitor. Hal, display Samantha's property in France."

I unbuckled and gave Sam a deep kiss. "I hope you like your present. I'm going to go back to work though. Let me know when you want me to unbuckle you."

I moved back to the lounge and sat down. I pondered what search words I should use for several moments, then suddenly realized someone could give the order to kidnap Toni and Jessie without ever using words I would recognize as targeting them, but just in case I had Hal search using the previous keywords but limited it to files that included Guardian Program members only.

Only one was found. The file I had sent to Arleen Helf. Since random keyword searching wasn't going to work, I decided to look for a phrase. I started with Lieber presumably stating, he didn't want anyone to move on me.

Once I had that file, I rewound it until I had a point of reference to get a time frame. It turned out that I was that point of reference.

I was about to watch the file to completion when I decided to ask Hal whether or not Lieber ever rescinded that order. I was informed that he had not, so I had a text sent to his phone, explaining that I could confirm that he had in fact, given the order in question.

I did point out that just because he had given the order, didn't mean that he or one of his men hadn't ignored it and that I would continue to investigate.

I watched the file from the point I left the room until the meeting broke up. CIA director Brennen had suggested they move on my family, putting him at the top of my list. No one else suggested anything similar, but I had Hal analyze everyone's reaction to Lieber's order, to see if anyone could have decided to ignore it.

Strangely enough, Brennen's reaction seemed to be one of acceptance, while four others' responses indicated disagreement with it. I knew I was going to have to scan through every second of all five of their lives for several days.

Several hours later, I felt the plane touch down in Cork, and Sam paged me forward only a moment later with a request to be released from her restraints. When I reached her, her display was showing the normal aeronautics configuration that she preferred.

I started to unbuckle her but stopped myself. "Why do you want to be released?" I asked while leaning over her. "Have you given up on being my sub already?"

She looked horrified at my question. "Of course not! I do however need the restroom, and have needed it since we started our descent! Please, Sir, let me up."

I smiled knowing she had held it as long as she could, to avoid either of us walking around when the plane wasn't level, so I hit the quick release and physically hoisted her from the seat. I spun her around and set her down facing the aft of the plane, and watched as she trotted off at a desperate pace.

I had Hal arrange for fuel, then followed Sam. She had been in too big a hurry to bother with closing the door and had just stood back up. She was facing away from me, and I watched as her shorts slid up her legs and over her cute butt. After flushing, she washed her hands and while reaching for a towel, she caught sight of me in the mirror. She smiled her brilliant smile at me, but her eyes held concern.

"You must have been examining every grape. What did you think?"

She looked at my face for several moments, and I was beginning to worry that she may not like the house, because her expression still held concern. She turned around to face me and when she answered, she spoke quietly, almost reverently.

"The house is beyond perfect, the grounds are as beautiful as I could ever dream, and the location ... well, it's perfect too, even the town is perfect."

It was my turn to examine her face. I knew in my soul that she meant every word she had just said. But, she had something painful on her mind. I almost ordered her to tell me, but I also knew that she really didn't want to say.

We stared into each other's eyes for so long that the plane came to a stop and moments later I could hear the fuel truck hooking up. Sam finally reached up and put her hand gently over my heart. "Please, don't ask."

Her touch told me everything. I felt the blood drain from my body, and I staggered back a step trying to sit on the bed but missed. I found myself slumping to the floor where I sat for several minutes.

Sam knelt beside me not saying anything, simply letting me know she was there.

I needed to know but didn't have the guts to come out and ask the real question.

"You found them?"

After about a minute when I had the strength to look up and meet her eyes, she answered. "No, but I did find a clue. I passed it on to Mr. Scott. I hope you won't get mad at me, but I asked him not to report his findings until we get to Poison."

"Why would you do that? I need to find them, to know what happened!"

"Robert, I've told you, I think you're on the verge of a psychotic break. I don't want you to stress any more than you have to by having false hopes or exaggerated worries. Because the last time you lost someone you tried to get yourself killed, and I couldn't bear the thought of you doing something rash, especially since we're on a plane.

"I love you and don't want to lose you, too. Also, I know that the information I passed on will only lead us to more clues, but didn't provide any definitive answers. Please, just trust me."

I sat silently for a few minutes, processing what she said, then took her hand. This time her touch was full of comfort, and reassurance.

"What did I miss?"

"I followed the phones from the last time we talked"

I closed my eyes to berate myself. How could I have missed such an obvious clue? The phones were privacy-protected like the house but were still monitored for location. I rose to my feet and headed forward.

"Would you like some real food, or are you okay with the shakes?" I asked over my shoulder. "The fueling will take about fifteen more minutes; I can run into the terminal and grab something without losing much time."

"No thank you, the shakes will be fine. Besides, we'll need the better nutrition anyway because of all the stress."

I sat at the monitor and noted, "Wise point. In that case, I'm going back to work. Go upfront and take my seat. When they're done refueling us and you've made sure they filled the extra tank, have Hal start us for Poison. After that, make us some shakes, and then you can join me."

Sam paused long enough on her way forward for me to take her hand and kiss her fingers. We both said "I love you," at the same time, then she continued on her way.

I picked up where I left off, scanning through the life of suspect number four: Allen McKinney. I was almost up to where I had left off with the others, Sam's last debriefing in Washington, but it was arduous at best. Not only did I have to listen to every word he spoke, but examine every keystroke as well.

His job gave him access to hundreds of documents a day that had to be reviewed, possibly altered, and then passed on to the right people. I was beginning to think I should kill the guy just to put him out of his misery, but some of the information moving across his desk couldn't be ignored.

My factory in Puducherry India, which assembles Black Knights for the Chinese, had been put on a watch list. However, McKinney didn't seem to notice what was being manufactured. Most likely because the agent making the watch list request, didn't understand what he had discovered. In an amazing coincidence, all the files connected to that paperwork somehow got lost.

My study of McKinney lasted about thirty minutes after Sam handed me a shake and sat down. Next, I moved on to SECNAV Martin.

Fortunately, Martin was being entertained by the 'USS Dwight D. Eisenhower's Captain, the evening after the meeting in question, and spent the entire next day inspecting the ship.

After that, he spent his time with a twenty-five-year-old lieutenant whom he had met on board. She seemed quite willing to earn rank by playing hide the submarine. They played several times. Needless to say, his file didn't take very long to scan.

End of chapter 31, I hope you enjoyed it and all of my work.

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