Still Alive Pt. 02

JONATO Base, Doha, Qatar
Tuesday, August 18, 2015, 3:30 PM

Colonel Bragg made a call to the base's communications center. He asked the technician who answered to connect him to the stateside number of Jeff Wesson he was given during their conversation the day before. "If he answers, tell him Colonel Richard Bragg is calling with information he'll find useful."

"Wesson speaking," said the man a number of minutes later.

"It's Bragg," the colonel said. "I have news about Wright."

"Give me a minute, then you'll have my full attention."

The line went quiet for two. Ashley Martel joined her GM in his office when he summoned her.

"What do you know? Did your guy go AWOL?" she asked.

"He's a Marine, ma'am, not my guy , and pardon, but who the hell are you?"

"My name is Ashley Martel."

"She's one of my logistics managers," Jeff Wesson added. "Perhaps the most talented I have. Give her the benefit of any doubt and continue."

"Very well. I don't believe he's AWOL. It'd be unlike him. The man loves his job and is very good at it. I reported his absence to the base MPs last night, but they're not terribly interested. All they did was review security camera footage where they saw him meet someone outside the main gates. He got into a commercial work vehicle. Other than him not signing out, it all appears completely benign."

"What are your plans?"

"I don't have any yet. Base security's SOP doesn't allow them to expend resources trying to track him down unless he misses a unit movement, none of which are scheduled, or until he is absent for more than seven days. Budget shit, you know?"

"I do, but is that all you have?" Jeff asked. "It's not much to go on. What do you want us to do?"

"I have a few pictures from perimeter security. One shows the van he got into. It's from an elevator company called Korke, spelled kilo, oscar, romeo, kilo, echo. Ever heard of them?"

"I have. They're a massive international conglomerate."

"So I've been told. The only thing else I have is the license plate."

"Care to share?" Jeff calmly probed.

"All I have are glossies. I asked base security to email me digital copies. Should get them later today."

"They may be helpful, but I'm asking about the plate. What's its number?"

The colonel recited it.

"Thank you for your time. Let me see what we can do," Wesson said. "I know it's a lot to ask but call me again if you learn anything new."

"If I can," Bragg responded before he disconnected.

Arlington, VA
Tuesday, August 18, 2015, 9:30 AM EDT

"Isn't Korke the elevator company?" Ashley asked.

He nodded. "They're on contract with us."

"Call them!" she yelped.

"Hey! Remember who works for who," Wesson demanded, pointing his finger at his chin.

"Whom, Jeff. Who works for whom ."

"Ashley, I swear, now's not the time for your⁠—"

The phone on Jeff's desk rang.

"Wesson," he answered.

"Major General Gonzales. Do you have a few minutes?" he asked. "Belay that and make a few."

"What can I do for you?"

"Get my guy back."

Sensing she'd shove words in the general's face, Wesson raised a palm mere inches from Ashley's mouth. "Major Wright?"

"Who else?" the man on the phone answered.

"The DoD is sanctioning us for an extraction?"

"I'm operating under the guise that it's easier to ask for forgiveness after than permission before."

"With the US government? No way."

"That isn't your concern."

"The hell it's not. If we wade into a shitstorm and everything goes south, we won't have any cover. That's what happened when the numbskulls at Graygear went off-book and shit hit the fan in Congress."

The two men argued for several minutes before the general convinced Wesson he could proceed and assured him he would have official sanction prior to any operation.

Martel and Wesson stared at each other for several moments. The latter nodded clearly.

Ashley saw a figure glance through the door as he walked past. She snapped her fingers loudly to get Dozer's attention.

"Go find Gleek," she mouthed. He nodded.

"Let me make sure I'm understanding you clearly. Your people can't do anything?" Wesson asked.

"Rules of Engagement are in the way."

"Understood. I'll be one of the first you call if the situation changes, or Wright is accounted for."

The LED next to an outside line button on the phone extinguished.

Keel appeared. "You asked for me?"

Ashley's eyes went to her supervisor's. "I need Sanjay's team, too, Jeff," referring to her peer to whom Dozer reported.

"Approved," Wesson said with a nod. "I'll smooth it over with him later."

"Gleek, Dozer, get your teams together in the main conference room for a briefing in ten," Ashley requested.

"On it," Grady responded. Dozer followed him out.

"Time to contact Korke," Wesson said. "It's late in Finland, and this is about to be a hell of a call someone's going to be awakened for."

He opened a database application and searched for the client information. He familiarized himself with the terms of the contract, turning his screen so Ashley could read the salient points herself.

"Will they even care? Their coverage only extends to senior vice presidents and higher. The guy we're interested in is as low on the org chart as they go."

"If we manage to recover him or any other people, they'll surely be appreciative, but keep in mind, Wright is the only asset we've been tasked with extracting."

"Meaning if they're collateral …"

"Additional headcount complicates things exponentially, but I won't risk any of my employees for people we're not contracted to recover."

Jeff clicked icons on his screen to connect the call. He put his IP phone on speaker.

"Korke. Mikä on hätätilanteen luonne ?" said the man who answered.

"Might you speak English?" Jeff asked.

"Yes. What is the emergency?"

"My name is Jeff Wesson. I am the general manager of Wolfram Resources, calling from Washington, DC in the United States. I need to speak with Olavi Vertanen, your vice president of worldwide security."

Jeff could hear the man typing on the other end of the line.

"I do see Korke personnel department has a contract with Wolfram. Will you explain why you are calling? Our security team is not aware of any executives requiring the assistance of your company."

"It is a matter involving the safety of one of your employees based in Doha, Qatar. We believe he has been abducted. I have a license plate from what appears to be a Korke work vehicle, and I'd like all the information on it I can get my hands on."

"Would you please provide me the numbers?"

Wesson complied.

"It may take some time to contact Mr. Vertanen. How should he reach you if he chooses? I can only confirm the vehicle is a Korke asset."

"He should call me on my mobile. I cannot overstate the urgency. It is a possible matter of life and death," Wesson pressed, then passed along his cell number.

"I will try, Mr. Wesson."

"I hope so," he said and disconnected.

"What do you think he'll tell us?" Martel asked.

"I'm hoping they can at least determine who that van is checked out to."

"I assume we're being dispatched. What's the task?" Gleek asked when he entered the large conference room.

"Let me guess. Some exec got conned by a curd'n'turd," one of Dozer's specialists said.

"A what?" Wesson asked.

"A woman who comes on to a man of high stature and lures him into some happy time. When he gets her pants off⁠—"

"Knock it off!" Dozer barked. "You can talk like that all you want in the field, but not here in the office, capisce ?"

"Ashley, give them the rundown," said Wesson.

She began by presenting some graphics and images she had collected or created from her data.

"The objective isn't set in stone yet because the circumstances aren't either. It may involve the recovery of a US Marine, a Major Mark Wright, assigned to the Joint Ops NATO base outside Doha, Qatar. His MOS lists him as an EMSOP, or electromagnetic spectrum operations planner. It means he's a whiz when it comes to all things dealing with radio frequencies including communications, jamming, and whatnot.

"He's been UA for several days, last seen by base perimeter security sentries Sunday when he entered a work vehicle confirmed to be owned by the Korke Corporation of Espoo, Finland. They⁠—"

"The freaking elevator people?" another man asked.

"Yes, and they're on contract with us. I'm waiting for their vice president of security to call me back," Wesson said. "This will go a lot faster if questions wait until the end."

Martel continued. "Wright's commanding officer, a Colonel Richard Bragg, as well as a one- and two-star general have vouched for the unlikelihood of him going AWOL and have asked us to recover him if he's been abducted. Wolfram has every reason to believe that the major is a high-value target in the area, and has been snatched, possibly by a faction or cadre of the infighters in the region.

"What I'm about to show you is strictly confidential. I trust everyone in this room to keep it compartmentalized."

She displayed the worksheet she had compiled which correlated a number of unexplained events and how they all connected to their target.

"So … you were right about what we discussed a couple of weeks ago?" Dozer asked.

"It's looking like it. Only a hope at this point, and the context you provided added a lot of strength, but it's not one hundred percent by any means."

"Good enough for me," he said. "What do you need?"

"Gleek, Dozer, I need your teams in Qatar."

"Like now ?"

"Everyone needs to go to hot standby, at least."

Jeff Wesson stepped out of the room when his phone displayed an incoming call bearing a Finnish country code.

"What can you tell us about Wright?" Gleek asked.

"This is only my opinion, but the guy is smart. I won't go into any details about what gives me that impression, because I've never met him. I've only seen the outcomes of various engagements he's … perhaps been involved in."

"He's special ops?"

"No. His commendations and promotions were commensurate with his time in service before he was nominated by one of the senators of his home state to attend Officer Candidate School."

"Purple Hearts?"

"One. He earned it early in his service. An IED killed one member of his unit and injured three, including him."

"How'd he promote so fast?"

Ashley considered several answers and chose the safest for the circumstances. "I haven't been able to gain access to his full record yet, so I don't know, but the fact that he has sort of adds to his color."

"Why isn't MARSOC recovering him?" asked one of Gleek's men.

"I can give you two reasons. Their rules of engagement prohibit it unless it's absolutely certain he was abducted by opposing entities. The second is related in that they're not convinced. Some higher-ups apparently suspect he's gone off the grid and won't declare him AWOL until he's been absent for a week. Then, it becomes more like an arrest instead of a rescue, and the tactics wouldn't involve being aggressive with outsiders.

"To Wolfram, it doesn't matter. We, or more specifically, he , doesn't have the time. I personally believe he's in grave danger."

Dozer fidgeted in his seat. The math wasn't working for him. "Burner, what aren't you telling us?

"Things you don't need to know right now. I'm sorry I have to be so cagey. It's because, if I'm wrong, our very actions could end his career in a less-than-ideal fashion for reasons based purely on my hypotheses. I wouldn't want to see that happen. If things go sideways, the less you know about this man's background, the better. If it all works out and we get him back, we'll see where we go next," Martel concluded as Wesson returned to the room.

"I was just speaking to the VP of Korke security. At first, he was very reluctant to give us any help because the person we're interested in is far from an executive, but I convinced him that it wasn't going to cost his company anything but a few man-hours; that we're doing this pro bono."

"You're sending us out there for free?" Gleek asked.

"No charge to Korke. The DoD is going to foot the bill," said Wesson.

"Wait a freaking minute. I'm confused. What the hell does Korke have to do with the DoD?"

Martel answered. "The utility van Mark Wright got into is one of theirs. My working theory is that he knew the driver. It's reasonable to think he wouldn't have if he didn't."

"And?"

"Their security department is able to track it," Jeff said.

"You have to be joking," Dozer said.

Wesson shook his head. "Gear up. I want everyone on their way to BWI within the hour. I'll have the flight department spool up the GL5. It'll be tight seating, but should work."

"Do we need to pack raingear?" Gleek asked in a voice mixed with a rare blend of anticipation and anxiety.

Jeff deferred to Ashley.

"Given the slim time margin, everyone needs to prepare for a deluge," she said. "Boss, see if you can secure clearance for your jet to land at the JONATO base. If we have to enter Qatar at Hamad, it'll seriously hit the fan if we try to clear customs without prior authorization of our cargo. I doubt that could be arranged nearly as fast."

"Okay. And … we ?" he asked. "You're going with them?"

"Is that a problem? I'm sure Sanjay would want to go, too, but having two sprained ankles would slow him down anyway."

"You've always coordinated remotely."

"It's not like I'll be dressing out in body armor. I'll coordinate from wherever we set up shop."

"Fine. Keep me posted. I want updates every eight hours or less after you arrive. I've got plenty of prep to do here. As always, I'll do everything I can to have everyone's backs and provide as much cover as I can."

Everyone began to file out of the room and turned in the direction of secure storage. When Ashley pivoted to follow, Jeff placed a hand on her shoulder. "Hang back a second."

After Gleek and Dozer's teams had exited, he shut the door.

"What's wrong?" she asked.

"Still a weird feeling. Now that we know what we know, it's easing up, but there's something …"

"As soon as you figure it out, you'll tell me, won't you?"

"Yeah, but I'm also saying I want you to be alert. I know you always are, but just keep your eyes and ears extra open. What makes you so valuable to my enterprise is that you're the kind of person who has a certain instinct. I'm willing to bet that, when you plug in a USB cable, it's the right direction every time."

She chuckled and placed her hand to the side of his shoulder and smiled at the praise. "Thank you, Jeff."

"Yeah. Get moving."

Place: Unknown.
Time: Unknown.

Wright's mind stirred furiously through equations for which he didn't know the calculus. His mouth was dry. The scent of goat feces and urine gave him the vague impression he was somewhere outside the urban complex of Doha. He knew some specific detail such as the fact that, though less than one percent of Qatar's population was rural, ninety percent of the land mass was. Those facts were variables which seemed trivial to him, if not completely irrelevant.

One was far from trivial, however, and it echoed in his brain for what felt like hours. It was something his captor had stated before he was left in solitude.

You deserve no such mercies. You deserve no such mercies. You deserve no such mercies.

"His phrasing ," Wright whispered so quietly only his own ears would hear. "Oh fuck-fuck-fuck … why does it seem familiar?"

The question bounced incessantly in his head until he heard the very same voice approaching the room in which he was held captive.

"Hello, Mr. Wright," the man said as he stepped through the door. The light he turned on blinded him.

"Wright. Major. 2109410121."

"Yes. This much I know already," he said, stepping less than a meter in front of his captive.

Wright tried to clamp his knees together to block another assault between them, but his bindings prevented him from doing so.

"Tsst !" the man admonished, wagging a finger as he knelt to the floor to run swabs across the concrete.

"Urine is to be expected, of course," Wright's captor observed as the reagents impregnating the first swab changed color.

He then held the other against a graduated color scale on its container and said, "It contains a significant amount of blood."

"Wright. Major. 2109410121."

"Of course."

"I need more food and water. The Geneva Conventions prohibit you from denying⁠—"

"Do you believe I am concerned with such things?" Wright's interrogator asked. "As far as the east is from the west, so far am I removed from such affiliations."

A memory flashed into Wright's head which still held rudiments of a spiritual conversation he'd had with Jassim Kahn many years before.

"You have misquoted a psalm of David in the Zabur ."

"You will not lecture me, fool!"

Wright smiled, but only in his mind. "Did you release the others?"

"I have not. I do not yet know if I shall choose to let the woman free. I enjoyed her for a time. Her body is exquisite, having not been damaged by … by expelling an infant."

Mark knew he had to sequester his anger lest the torture be resumed.

"I will ask you again. Were you responsible for the destruction of an airplane on twenty-one July?"

"Wright. Major. 2109410⁠—"

The jab to his face separated cartilage from bone. Blood, again, began to flow.

"Fool!" the man yelled, rattling his wrist and flexing his fingers in and out. He stormed out of the room.

Manises, Spain
Wednesday, August 19, 2015, 1:30 AM CET

The Gulfstream V parked at Valencia International Airport in Spain for forty-five minutes to refuel. No one was permitted to disembark during the brief stopover after flying for more than eight hours. Ashley Martel's pulse began to quicken when a small car marked Vigilancia Aduanera rolled up alongside their plane.

The cargo compartment was laden with items which would give cause for every one of the thirteen passengers and three crew to be taken into custody if it were to be examined. Anyone on the plane setting foot on the ground could prompt such an inspection.

Instead, the inspectors only observed and monitored as the cabin attendant lowered the airstairs and invited one of the marshals aboard. He handed her a clipboard. She examined and signed some documents. Along with the paperwork she gave to the ramp agent, she included a debit card to pay for fuel and lavatory service. Mere minutes later, the plane was sealed and began taxiing for their second and final leg.

Ashley received a secure message on her phone from Jeff Wesson as the gear retracted.

There having trouble in Finland getting us real-time access to there asset tracking system. IT people don't want to poke a hole in the firewalls for us until the application people can figure out a way to limit access to only the one vehicle we want.

It was neither the time nor place to question the GM's spelling and grammar as she replied, Has the vehicle been mobile? Or is it sitting somewhere?

They say its been moving a lot. No patterns yet.

Ask them if their IT department would be so cautious if it was their CIO needing help.

Not going to burn those bridges but I will if I have to
BTW tell your flight crew that the plane has clearance to land at the base instead of the main airport. That gonzales guy apparently has some pull. The check phrase for the day is RESOLUTE RECALL.