Bethesda, Maryland

Saturday Night

Prologue

​​​Blind Witness

      The phone’s angry ring caused the man to jump. He grabbed for the device and said, “Yeah, who is this?”
     “We got a problem,” the voice on the other end responded.
  “Okay, what have you guys screwed up this time?” the man responded.
    “It wasn’t us… and what do you mean this time? We got all the goods here, didn’t we?”
    "Okay, I’ll give you that. You guys did your jobs rather well… so what’s the problem?”
      “We got a ringer,” the voice said flatly.
      “A ringer?” the man questioned. “Do you mean we’ve been…”
      “Infiltrated… there’s no other way to say it,” the voice responded.
       “Who is it… and what are we doing about it?” the man demanded.
       “You’d better know first, that ‘The Brain’ is dead.”
      “What do you mean he’s dead? How the hell did that happen? Wait a minute, who does that leave to do the tech part of this project… and did they steal the information?”
      “We got the tech part covered but, yeah, that guy Roger… he used some kind of drug, probably Pentothal on ‘The Brain’, at least that’s the evidence he left behind.”
     “Oh shit, so what are we doing to find Roger and make sure he doesn’t pass on what he found out to anyone else? You understand that the other side can’t get hold of that information, don’t you?”
     “Yeah… and Adam and Eve are on his trail. They’ll find him. He’s headed for Atlanta but don’t worry, they’ll get him and they told me he didn’t have time to pass on what he found out before they were on his ass.”

     The man paused before saying, “You know that Roger’s from the other side, don’t you?”
      “Yeah, that much I heard; who does Roger know in Atlanta?”
     “I don’t know, probably another one from the other side. I’ll check into that.”
     The man nodded and sat back for a moment, fingering the cord on the phone. Finally, he said, “I know who brought Roger in. That idiot won’t do that again… I’ll personally see to that. In fact, when our people pick up Roger, I want them to bring him here, straight to me. I want no more screw ups. And find the idiot and bring him here too. First, we’ll be sure Roger didn’t give out what he knows about us to anybody else… and then I want to have a little fun with both of them. I’m sure you can appreciate that. Hey, you might want to stick around for that, I’ll even let you have a turn with them.”
    “Got it and I’ll keep you posted,” the voice answered as the connection was broken.
     The man leaned back in his chair and looked around. This was a pretty nice place, and it was a shame he would have to be leaving it, but the new place in Boulder, Colorado, was supposed to be even better; after all, he wouldn’t be able to stay here beyond Tuesday and even then, that would be cutting it pretty close. After all, Mogul was due to leave on Wednesday so all the activity had to be completed before then.
     You know, he thought, I really will miss this place. It’s one of the fancier digs we’ve been put up in. He stood up and walked outside to take a long look at the facade for maybe the last time. The man gazed longingly at the Doric columns, at the wide front porch, reminding one of the Parthenon, of the dominating architecture, obviously built in Roman style but, he realized, possibly the most intriguing aspect of the entire villa was the inside, built for a modern life with every electronic device imaginable. There will be nothing like this in Boulder, he thought, but hell, that’s a ski resort. That will bring its own charm. He walked back through the door and into the opulence of modern technology.