“I’m six feet under if she was a second later,” added Robie. “Jess and I checked some of the bodies out before we left the scene.”
“They weren’t members of our military,” said Reel. “They weren’t even from this country.”
“Foreigners on domestic soil,” murmured Blue Man.
“Which begs the question of why,” said Reel.
Robie said, “Decker told us about the farmer who saw the man trying to escape. Speaking gibberish?”
“A foreign language, possibly Arabic or perhaps Farsi. I believe Mr. Decker would have already come to a similar conclusion.”
“So it’s a prison, then,” said Robie.
Reel interjected, “It’s no secret that some of the prisoners at Gitmo have been transferred to federal prisons across the country. But that Air Force facility is not a prison, at least not that anyone’s told me.”
“Perhaps they haven’t told anyone,” suggested Blue Man.
“What’s going on with Gitmo now?” asked Robie.
“Past administrations either tried to keep it open or shut it down. The latter turned out to be harder than it looked. It now costs about thirteen million dollars per prisoner. Currently, there are roughly one hundred prisoners there.”
“So one point three billion bucks to house them,” said Reel.
“A steep price,” added Blue Man. “But no one seems to know what to do about it.”
“So you think they transferred some of them up here?” said Robie. “Why?”
“I didn’t say that,” said Blue Man. “These might benewprisoners. We’re still fighting over there, of course. Taliban, Al-Qaeda, ISIS, even Houthian rebels and Iranian operatives, and other groups that are not as well known.”
“So that Air Force station might now be Gitmo Two?” asked Reel.
“And maybe doing things to prisoners there that are no longer allowed at Gitmo One,” mused Blue Man.
“Meaning torture?”
“I used to talk the company line and say, instead, ‘enhanced interrogation techniques,’ but things like waterboarding, well, we need to call them what they are.”
“How in the world could something like that get authorized?” said Reel. “And at a military facility? The DoD has always been against that sort of thing. It violates the Geneva Conventions and opens up American soldiers held as prisoners to the same kind of treatment.”
“It mightnothave been authorized, at least not through the proper channels,” said Blue Man. “I think the politicians have learned their lesson on that one.”
“Which brings us to this,” said Robie. He took out a thumb drive and inserted it into the USB port on his laptop. He brought up the photos he had taken the previous night and turned it toward Blue Man.
“This guy was meeting with Sumter, and whatever they’re doing is definitely not on the up-and-up.”
Blue Man looked at the pictures of the older man.
“Recognize him?” asked Reel.
Blue Man nodded. “Patrick McIntosh, a former, obscure congressman who did little during his time in DC. He has since made his mark, first as the head of a think tank, and now as a formidable lobbyist and kingmaker with a Rolodex that would rival anyone else’s, and a desire to make as much money as possible by any means possible. He is supremely well connected in all the corridors of power that matter.”
“Never heard of him,” said Robie. Reel nodded in agreement.
“Which he would be delighted to hear. McIntosh does what he does from the shadows. The only time he seeks the limelight is when it suits him, usually accepting some honor for philanthropy that he performs only to keep in the good company of people he needs to further his own goals.”
“You sound like you know him well,” said Robie.
“I’ve had my run-ins with him. I found him prepared, methodical, ruthless, shockingly lacking in empathy, and not above lying when it advantaged him in some way. Given that, I have always been surprised he didn’t rise higher in government.”