He looked up at Steel and Foster. These boys had an agenda all right.
‘They work for Jarvis,’ he replied. ‘They’re his primary agents.’
William Steel nodded and leaned back in his seat, folding his hands in his lap as he spoke.
‘You are aware of the joint Pentagon and NASA operation down at Cape Canaveral, Project Watchman?’
Mitchell nodded. Watchman was a major defense initiative launched by the National Reconnaissance Office that used orbiting KH-11 Keyhole Satellites and immense super-computers to record events on earth in real time and compress the data into a virtual world through which operatives could move. The project had been running for over ten years now, and represented for the intelligence community the ability to do what no other government agency on earth could do — effectively look back in time, anywhere on earth.
‘Watchman is something that the DIA has a close relationship with,’ he confirmed.
‘Too close,’ Steel replied. ‘Your man Jarvis recently allowed both Ethan Warner and his partner, Nicola Lopez, into the facility. Not only that, but he allowed them to actually use the program themselves.’
‘They were involved in an investigation that ultimately saved thousands, if not millions of lives,’ Mitchell said. ‘Their exposure to sensitive programs is more than justified by their success in utilising the information obtained.’
‘That would be true,’ Steel said, ‘were Warner and Lopez not civilian contractors. It’s not in the interest of our intelligence services to bring unqualified risks to our work.’
Mitchell leveled Steel with a stony gaze.
‘More than half the workforce of the CIA’s most important directorate, the National Clandestine Service, is outsourced, so don’t come in here telling me that my outfit is jeopardizing national security. Warner and Lopez are only given cases that the rest of the intelligence community has already rejected as unworkable, and their resulting investigations have been unqualified success stories. Perhaps you should ask yourself why it was that the Pentagon have turned away from at least three major investigations that presented clear and present dangers to both American security and the lives of our citizens?’
‘This isn’t about blame,’ Foster intervened. ‘We’re being asked to ensure that the security of our most sensitive operations cannot be blown by two people over whom we have no control. This program that you’re running represents a very weak link in a long chain of carefully orchestrated security measures. I can’t just go back to the Secretary of Defense and tell him that, hey, everything’s just fine, chill out. If Watchman or a comparable program were exposed to the public, all of our careers would be on the line.’
Mitchell remained impassive.
‘Who sent you, exactly?’ Neither Foster nor Steel replied, which pretty much was an answer in itself. Mitchell let a bitter little smile curl from one corner of his mouth. ‘So, nobody sent you. The spooks at the CIA have finally taken an interest in what Doug’s achieved down here.’ He glanced at Steel. ‘Let me guess: Warner and Lopez have done what you guys couldn’t, you’ve gotten all upset about it, so now you’re looking to take over the operation.’
‘This is about security,’ Steel replied in a crisp tone. ‘Nothing more.’
‘Of course it is,’ Mitchell replied without losing the smile. ‘So much so that you want me to breach my own agency’s security protocols and tell you everything about one of our programs.’ He let the smile slip. ‘Not going to happen.’
‘We’re on the same side here, Abe,’ Foster said, trying to keep the mood cordial. ‘We just need to keep everybody’s borders tight is all. If this program is such a big deal then maybe you could run it through the NRO and cut Warner and Lopez loose. That way it’s all internal and we’re not farming work out to people like that.’
Foster gestured loosely to the images of Lopez and Warner.
‘People like what?’ Mitchell rumbled.
‘A convicted felon and an amateur gumshoe,’ Foster almost chuckled in response. ‘Come on, we’ve got much better people available for this kind of work who won’t set off alarm bells in DC.’
Mitchell’s fists balled of their own accord.
‘If you’d bothered to look into the history of these two investigators, instead of just sucking up the crap that the CIA is obviously feeding you, you’d know that Ethan Warner is a decorated former United States Marine, as is Doug Jarvis, and that Nicola Lopez is a former DC police detective. Neither of them is amateur at anything.’
‘They’re both liabilities,’ Steel snapped. ‘Ethan Warner has a reputation for opposing and directly disobeying authority and Lopez is known to be a short fuse at the best of times. Yet they’re both wandering around the country with access to all manner of classified materials. Jarvis has twice used assets of our Navy and Air Force to achieve his aims in support of these investigations, which have often led to extreme exposure events such as exploding civilian apartment buildings, violent incidents in allied countries such as Israel and repeated firearms violations in public areas throughout the country. Our business, sir, is both covert and classified. These two…’ Steel gestured at the photographs. ‘They’re a danger to national security, not an asset to it.’
Mitchell leaned across the desk, his dark eyes glowering into Steel’s.
‘Left to you, none of those cases would ever have been investigated, let alone solved. The Pentagon has acquired extraordinary technology as a direct result of these investigations and I’ll be damned if I’ll let the CIA kick the door down now.’
Foster sighed heavily as Steel bolted upright from his seat and stalked out of the office. Mitchell waited until the door had closed behind him before he looked at Foster. The soldier’s expression said it all.
‘Are you really in bed with the CIA?’ Mitchell asked.
‘Transferred out of the army for medical reasons,’ Foster explained. ‘My knees gave in. I’m too damned old to learn the intelligence game and all that computerized crap, so they attach me to field agents instead for mutual training.’
‘Watch your back,’ Mitchell warned. ‘The CIA has a long history of self-preservation at the expense of its agents.’
‘Don’t worry, I’ve got myself covered,’ Foster said as he stood. ‘But they’ll get what they want in the end.’
He was right, Mitchell knew. That was just the way of things. He knew that Jarvis had hoped to have cracked a few more cases before the Pentagon really started taking notice, which would have given him more information and evidence to defend Warner and Lopez. Jarvis had a lot of time for Ethan Warner, and to his surprise Mitchell had also been quietly impressed with the man’s tenacity and success.
‘I know. Just going to try to hold them off for a while longer, is all.’
‘Don’t try too hard. There’s too much at stake, for all three of us now that we’re involved, and for your man Jarvis,’ Foster warned him. ‘It’s better for you all if you handle their investigations directly through this office and keep us in the loop.’
‘Why’s that?’ Mitchell asked.
‘Because I’m only here due to Warner’s military history,’ Foster replied. ‘Truth is, Abe, I’ve got very little control over what CIA might try to do. I’m consulting, not controlling.’
‘Steel’s in charge of this?’ Mitchell asked in surprise. Foster nodded. ‘Under whose mandate?’ Mitchell pressed.
‘It went past the Director of National Intelligence,’ Foster replied.
‘Which means an executive order,’ Mitchell rumbled unhappily. ‘Jesus, what are they trying to keep under the carpet now?’
‘I don’t know,’ Foster admitted, ‘and I don’t want to know. Last I heard there’s another Congressional investigation running, looking into CIA projects that haven’t been seen by Congress. If Steel’s gotten himself knee-deep in something, he’ll want to clear the decks and tie up loose ends before Congress gets hold of anything solid.’