Rebecca had called Ben as she left the Howard Johnson. There was no link to the terrorists but the cover up of the attempt on the potential presidential candidate was not something she could ignore. The receptionist was not sure but the guy who had checked into the room ‘looked like that handsome Senator, the one that could be President’. As there were only really two contenders, the Vice President and Senator Baker, Rebecca had to assume it was the latter. This revelation, combined with the obvious high level cover up by a senior member of Homeland Security, was intriguing. Two calls to contacts alerted her to even more bizarre goings on earlier in the day and before she knew it, two plus two made a mind blowing political conspiracy. Ben was as interested as she was as to what was going on and promised to get back to her. In the meantime, she was to use all her guile to find Senator Baker and report back if and when she did.
Rebecca had not been to America since the birth of Josh. However, it had been her favorite assignment. She loved America. Everything about it excited her, the vastness, the buildings, the power. The freedom to go wherever you wanted, no checkpoints, no looking over your shoulder, no worrying whether the man who looked Arab had a backpack loaded with explosives and nails or a heavy jacket to cover the explosives strapped around his waist. Freedom. She began to think how Josh would have loved America and before she knew it, the what if crept in. What if she had moved to America to raise Josh and then the why, why had she not…
Her phone rang and interrupted her thoughts. “Hi, the car is where you wanted.”
It was the Sayanim who worked at Hertz. He had secured a car for her, off the books and completely untraceable to her. She ended the call and stepped out from behind the dumpster at the back of the Howard Johnson. The Sayanim had parked the car exactly as instructed; the keys would be under the wheel arch. By the time Rebecca got to the car, the Sayanim was already half way back to the airport terminal. He had delivered many cars in his time and had prided himself on never once bumping into any of the operatives. Deniability was key and if he didn’t see them, he could deny everything about them.
As she arranged her driving position, she switched on one of the extras that most Hertz customers never knew was an option, the police scanner. The other was a Sig Sauer P228, complete with silencer, two spare mags and a box of 9mm shells. Of course, both were an option but only if you happened to work for an Israeli intelligence agency and knew a particular Sayanim. She knew that the Senator had escaped. What she didn’t know was if anybody was in pursuit. With little or no leads, she would just have to work with what she had at her disposal which was very little. She had contacts across America and of course the Sayanim if required but her role was to remain under the radar which is exactly where she planned to be. She pulled out of the lot and headed in the direction the Senator was reported to have gone in, which was left! Nothing to go on would have been an understatement.
The murder of a young couple came over the scanner. It was ten miles away and from what she could glean from the radio chatter, professional and without motive. She had her lead. Rebecca input the address mentioned and accelerated towards Edison, N.J.
“Hello?” she answered her phone on the first ring.
“Hi, it’s Ben,” said Ben unnecessarily. “I’m sending through everything we have on Senator Charles Baker and his brother Sam.”
“Brother?”
“From what we can gather, his brother has become embroiled. In any event, see what you can do. But,” he emphasized. “Finding the nuclear device is the priority, OK?”
“OK.”
Rebecca replaced the phone on the seat next to her and heard the tell tale ping of information being delivered. As soon as she got to Edison, she’d have a look. Something was not sitting right. Ben’s interest, the timing; too many things were happening at once that had major global ramifications. Rebecca had been out of the business for six years but one thing had remained with her above all else, there was no such thing as coincidence. She also knew Ben better than he thought and she knew he was holding back. Call it female intuition, call it experience, call it whatever the hell you wanted, the whole thing stank.
The shootings in Newark were reported as happening less than 30 minutes earlier. Rebecca pushed the accelerator as far as it would go.