Page 45 of Flash and Bang
Thayne swung his chair to face his computer. “Go call your friends in high places, ass.”
Jarrett was still chuckling when he picked up his cell phone and walked out of the office.
****
Even though it was after three in the afternoon, it was still beastly hot when Jarrett stepped out of the ATF’s Glendale offices to make his call. He found a shady tree away from anyone who might overhear his conversation and dialed the number he’d so long ago memorized. He had to wait almost a minute as the call was routed through several secure switching stations to connect to its intended recipient. When the ring tone finally began, it was picked up by a man with a graveled voice. “Jensen.”
“Fox? Nice to hear your voice.”
A chuckle came over the phone almost immediately. “Well, as I live and breathe, I was wonderin’ when you was gonna call me,” the man drawled. “It’s been a while since I heard that name, boy. Heard ya almost bought it down at the California border, Hawk. When did you join the ATF?”
Jarrett chuckled at the use of a nickname he hadn’t heard in a while. “You heard about that, Declan? That was fuckin’ quick,” Jarrett said.
“I keep my ear to the ground, Evans. You know that already or ya wouldn’t be callin’, boy.”
“So tell me what I need to know. Who built the bomb? Was it our friend?”
The voice chuckled again. “Don’t be naive, Evans. When he comes at ya, you’ll never see it comin’. I tried to tell Mossad that but them idiots only listen to us half the time anyway. Think they got the best intelligence on the planet, which just proves they don’t know what the hell they’re talkin’ about, jes like I always told ya.”
“I know,” Jarrett said, hesitantly. “Declan, tell me who it was then.”
“Could be anyone, boy,” the old man said. “He didn’t sign it, did he?”
“I guess you already know that, but look. Someone took a shot at me in the barn before blowin’ up my damn Jeep. It may have been the same person. I got a glimpse of the guy and he looked like a guy I did some wet work with a long time ago, but I never knew the guy’s name. A CIA asset, I think. He was very nearly successful taking me out too,” Jarrett said.
“I’d tell ya if I knew who is after you exactly. All I know is whoever is trying to kill you is most probably a member of a rogue cell controlled by someone very high up. They would have access to the blueprint for the Middle East bomb builder and try to pin it on them.”
“So, why didn’t he sign it? We know the bombbuilder used his style but he didn’t sign it the way our friend does. That’s what’s confusing. These bastards always leave a signature ‘cause they’re narcissists. That means he’s a copycat.”
“Yer right, boy, but I know it ain’t anybody I know, Jarrett. Last thing I wanna see is you takin’ a bullet or gettin’ your ass blown up. We always got along jes fine. You made a great Marine and the rest of what ya done after, even if it weren’t so damned legal. I can tell you this. Virgil wasn’t the only one huntin’ you and if ya think it was your boyfriend he was after, that was only part of it. His contract would have been doubled if he took ya both out.”
“What the fuck?” Jarrett asked. He’d been surprised by what Virgil had told him as he lay dying on the asphalt in Turlock after trying to kill him, but he really hadn’t believed it. “Why, Fox? Why is someone after me?”
“Hell, Jarrett. I wasn’t kiddin’ when I told ya this one goes way the fuck up the flagpole. I’m talkin’ so high up, you’re gonna get a nosebleed if ya try and climb it, Evans.”
Declan Jensen had always been straight with Jarrett. That’s why he’d called him. He was about as highly placed in the Intelligence Operations Center as anyone could ever be and he’d just basically toldJarrett that someone very high up in the government with some serious contacts was trying to kill him. He was calling Jensen on a secure line but that didn’t mean his old friend didn’t have eyes and ears on him and Jarrett could only pray that he hadn’t put his life in grave danger simply by making this phone call to him. The fucking CIA watched their own people even closer than the bad guys.
Even though Jarrett had wracked his brain, he still had no idea what he’d done to warrant a death sentence. In the past, yeah, he might have believed it, but not now. He wasn’t into anything that should earn him a bullet, at the moment anyway. Not only that, if the guns used by the Freedom Brigade down in San Diego turned out to have a connection to Mills Lang, that meant the arms dealer might also be tied up in all of this somehow. He still didn’t believe Lang’s jury hadn’t been tampered with. If he was connected high up, hell, someone wanted him freed where they could keep the tap of illegal weapons cranked all the way open and flowing like bathwater.
The whole thing was giving Jarrett a headache and he didn’t want to believe that Virgil had been telling the truth as he lay dying. The very troubling thing now was trying to figure out who in the hell wanted him dead and why. It sucked big time and the phone call had raised infinitely more questions than ithad answered. He and Thayne were apparently both still in danger.
“There’s nothin’ at all you can tell me about it, Fox?”
“No, Jarrett. There’s not a damned thing I know other than what I jes told ya.”
“Okay,” Jarrett said, dejectedly.
Jensen’s voice paused for a very long time. “Jarrett. You be careful, boy.” He was silent for a few moments before Jarrett heard the old man sigh. “I know how ya feel about yer daddy, Jarrett, but your deathwouldhurt him immensely.”
Jarrett went cold. “Please don’t bring him up, Jensen. He and my brothers are dead to me. I know you and daddy are close, but not a single one of ‘em called me back when they heard about my injuries after the last time.”
“Try to understand who they are and where they’re comin’ from, boy. It’s hard for yer daddy to deal with havin’ a gay son even though he should ‘a known ‘bout it for a long time, especially knowin’ what he knows and who he is.”
Jarrett felt the pain lance through his chest, settling in his stomach like a large rock. He hadn’t been home since his father kicked him out and hisbrothers certainly hadn’t done anything to get in touch with him or try to make him feel welcome back home since he’d walked out years before. “They’re the ones who turned their damned backs on me,” he said, hearing his voice crack. He cleared his throat, swallowing down on the hurt that always rose in his heart when he talked about people who were supposed to love and support him.
“Look, Declan, just try and find somethin’ out. Do it quietly and don’t go to my daddy. You have to promise me. You could be in terrible danger if they know you’re snoopin’ around. Be careful. If I’m being targeted, you can count on them doing the same to you. They have to know we’re close.”
“They do. Just keep yer damn head down and I’ll call ya if I learn something.”