The Eternity Project Read online

  Mitchell turned his gaze to DCIA Steel. The podgy man, his face glowering with supressed rage, looked at Jarvis.

  ‘We think your people are murdering CIA agents as an act of revenge,’ he said. ‘They’re hunting them down one by one.’

  Jarvis’s jaw dropped. He could have anticipated any number of responses, but that was one he would never have seen coming. ‘How many men are down? When did it happen?’

  ‘Where are they?’ Mitchell asked Jarvis, ignoring his questions. ‘I mean, right now?’

  ‘I don’t know.’

  ‘What do you mean you don’t know where they are?’ Admiral Griffiths was looking at Jarvis as though he had gone insane.

  ‘They’re not my assets now,’ Jarvis said defensively. ‘My agents felt that they needed to stay off the grid until they could figure out what the hell was going on. They went dark just as I was removed from my post. I haven’t heard from either Warner or Lopez since.’

  ‘You don’t have a contact protocol?’ the chief of the army asked.

  ‘The last I heard from them they were being bombed by the National Guard,’ Jarvis snapped at the chief, ‘your people dropping bombs on American citizens, in case you didn’t know. There wasn’t much time to arrange niceties, and, seeing as I was forcibly retired, how the hell would you expect them to contact me?’

  ‘Your relationship with Warner was close,’ Mitchell replied. ‘It is reasonable to assume that he might try to contact you.’

  ‘He hasn’t,’ Jarvis said, and then looked around the room. ‘You all think he’s behind the murders?’

  ‘As you’ve pointed out, he has a motive,’ Mitchell said. ‘Revenge.’

  ‘I take it everybody else in this room knows what happened six months ago in Idaho?’ Jarvis asked.

  Mitchell nodded. ‘I briefed the Chiefs about the unfortunate turn of events.’

  ‘Is that what you’re calling betrayal and treason?’ Jarvis asked.

  ‘What were your people doing in Idaho?’ the chief of the army demanded. ‘There’s nothing there.’

  Jarvis let a brittle smile crack across his face.

  ‘There’s nothing there now,’ he corrected. ‘The CIA had an operation running up there, using National Guard assets to protect it. Warner and Lopez were sent to investigate a series of murders and realized that whatever was killing people wasn’t human. It turned out the CIA had been conducting experiments, for want of a better word, under the banner of a top-secret program called MK-ULTRA, and something got out.’

  ‘Something?’ the chief of the army echoed.

  ‘A species not quite like us,’ Jarvis said without elaborating. ‘Ultimately, the entire operation was destroyed in an attempt to remove evidence, and that included removing Ethan and Lopez.’

  ‘This is ridiculous,’ the chief of the army snapped. ‘I’m aware of no such operation by Guard assets. I’ve served my country for over forty years and I’ve never encountered this kind of conspiracy crap.’

  Jarvis glared at DCIA Steel. ‘Will you tell him, or do I have to?’

  Steel kept his beady black eyes focused on the table top as he spoke.

  ‘A paramilitary team from the 24th Special Tactics Squadron was deployed to destroy a CIA facility in Idaho. When the operation failed, the National Guard was deployed to blow the site using A-10 Tankbusters. The strike was recorded as a training exercise, and the aftermath as a gas explosion in an abandoned mine. An exclusion zone remains around the site under the guise of public safety.’

  The chief of the army stared at Steel in horror. ‘Jesus Christ, what the hell has been going on here?’

  ‘The persecution of patriots,’ Jarvis growled, ‘by elements of the CIA trying to cover up abuses of power going back decades.’

  ‘Warner and Lopez escaped the aerial attack, and now they’re taking their revenge, and killing CIA agents?’ the chief of the Marines presumed.

  ‘They escaped,’ Mitchell confirmed, ‘and have been on the run ever since. The CIA managed to cover up events in Idaho but was looking to tie up a few loose ends.’

  ‘Those loose ends,’ Jarvis said, ‘being my two agents. ‘I’ve conducted a six-month investigation into CIA corruption; corruption that has led to the deaths of several US servicemen and civilians.’

  Jarvis produced from his jacket pocket the envelope containing his research. He laid it face down on the table, tantalizingly close to each man and yet just beyond their reach.

  ‘Your investigation is meaningless,’ Steel pointed out, ‘conducted without authority or oversight.’

  ‘People who have served this agency with distinction are now being forced to live in hiding for fear of assassination attempts,’ Jarvis replied, and looked each of the JCOS in the eye. ‘Patriots, people whom you would be proud to be associated, hounded by operatives who swore to protect them, and not just my people either. At the same time as the events in Idaho, three members of the Government Accountability Office in DC were attacked by CIA assets, two of them fatally.’

  A moment passed as the JCOS exchanged glances.

  ‘What’s the link with Warner and Lopez?’ asked the admiral.

  ‘Ethan Warner’s sister, Natalie, was one of the GAO targets,’ Jarvis said. ‘Natalie Warner moved departments afterward, but the closing of the investigation removed her as a threat to the CIA, along with her colleague Ben Consiglio, who was also the victim of an attempted homicide. However, what the CIA doesn’t know is that both of these individuals can identify the CIA agents in question, the men responsible for the murders.’

  The JCOS looked at each other again and General Steel glared at Jarvis, but it was Director Mitchell who spoke.

  ‘You’re sure?’ he asked Jarvis. ‘And you’re sure that these individuals can be tied to the murders?’

  ‘One hundred per cent sure,’ Jarvis replied without hesitation. ‘We were even able to obtain genetic material that can be matched to them should they be brought to trial.’

  ‘You investigated the site?’ General Steel asked in disgust. ‘You infiltrated a federal crime scene and—’

  ‘I was on the scene when the murders occurred,’ Jarvis snapped. ‘You don’t think I wouldn’t have taken any useful evidence with me?’

  The chief of the army shook his head.

  ‘There would be utter outrage if this got out,’ he murmured. ‘Our capacity for unhindered intelligence-gathering would be blown out of the water by Congress.’

  ‘The ensuing court cases,’ Jarvis confirmed, ‘would result in virtually every major defense initiative in this country being hauled out into the open for congressional scrutiny. Our ability to make hard choices to defend our nation would be compromised beyond repair. It would, essentially, be the end of covert intelligence-gathering in the continental United States.’

  ‘All the more reason,’ Steel insisted, ‘that this remain a closed affair.’

  The JCOS remained silent for a long moment, before Admiral Griffiths gestured to Jarvis’s envelope.

  ‘What’s in there?’ he asked.

  Jarvis opened the envelope and let a series of pictures fan out onto Mitchell’s desk.

  ‘Copies of CCTV footage in Washington, DC, internal cameras at the GAO and several images shot by Natalie Warner from her vehicle traveling in the Capitol. Each shows one or other of the two men responsible for CIA-sanctioned killings of congressional aides and American civilians who were survivors of the original MK-ULTRA program in the 1970s. These images, along with the genetic evidence obtained from the crime scenes, are enough to convict beyond all reasonable doubt those responsible.’

  The JCOS leaned forward, examining the pictures, as Jarvis leaned back in his chair and waited. DCIA Steel scowled at him as he gestured to the photographs.

  ‘They’re nothing,’ he said, ‘pictures taken by amateurs that wouldn’t hold up in any court. They could have been working in unrelated projects in DC.’

  ‘True,’ Jarvis replied, finally looking at the DCIA.
‘And the blood sample retrieved from the site of the murder of GAO worker Guy Rikard, that will match the blood of a CIA agent and assassin you call Mr. Wilson?’

  Steel glared at Jarvis but said nothing. The JCOS stared at the pictures in silence.

  ‘Warner and Lopez are not behind this,’ Jarvis said. ‘They’re both patriots, always have been. They wouldn’t kill: they’d want to apprehend, to see people brought to trial.’ Jarvis glanced at Steel. ‘Especially you.’

  ‘They’re liabilities,’ Steel shot back. ‘Warner is a former Marine officer who was virtually a hobo when Jarvis hired him. Lopez is a former DC detective with known loyalty issues. These people are exactly the kind of rogue agents we all fear.’

  Jarvis peered at Steel with interest. ‘You’re getting quite hot under the collar there, William. Wondering if you’re next, are you?’

  ‘This is ridiculous,’ General Steel raged at the JCOS. ‘All of this is true but all of it’s been twisted to fit this man’s fantasies of a conspiracy. The CIA was cleared of all wrongdoing by an independent Pentagon investigation.’

  ‘Which was guided by the CIA,’ Jarvis growled back at him. ‘I offered my services in order to expose what had really happened but, surprise-surprise, I was removed from my post by your people. That investigation was toothless before it even began.’

  The JCOS all seemed to sit back in their seats as the chief of the Marines cast a glance in Mitchell’s direction.

  ‘How many investigations have Warner and Lopez conducted for the DIA, in total?’

  ‘Four,’ Mitchell replied. ‘All have been spectacularly successful, although major questions have been raised in the past about the exposure of civilians to classified projects during the course of those investigations.’

  Admiral Griffiths looked at Jarvis. ‘Warner and Lopez, can you bring them back in? We need them in custody.’

  ‘You need their help,’ Jarvis countered. ‘They’re not killers.’

  ‘It could be anybody,’ the chief of the army pointed out, ‘given that the CIA has ruffled so many feathers over the years. An escaped prisoner from one of their overseas black prisons, perhaps? But would they have a trail they could follow?’

  Jarvis shook his head. ‘They’ll be in the black budget. There won’t be a paper trail, so it has to be somebody with inside knowledge.’

  Jarvis knew that the United States Department of Defense concealed within its black budget almost $60 billion of funding, a tremendous sum in addition to the annual defense budget. MK-ULTRA’s various experiments and programs were a tiny drop in this vast financial ocean and that was no doubt how the CIA had kept such a perfect veil over its operations: the paper and money trail was so well hidden that finding it would have been like trying to track an animal burrowing underground by sight alone, at night, from the air.

  ‘Do Warner and Lopez know anything about MK-ULTRA?’ asked the chief of the Marines.

  ‘No,’ Jarvis replied, ‘at least they didn’t when I last heard from them.’

  ‘Either way,’ Steel said, ‘this isn’t something that can be resolved through the courts or ever reach the public domain.’

  Admiral Griffiths rubbed his temples wearily.

  ‘We don’t have any other means to properly investigate and expose whoever is responsible for targeting these CIA agents without attracting too much attention.’

  Jarvis smiled. ‘Yes, we do. I can task Warner and Lopez to do it.’

  The JCOS eyes flew wide as one as they stared at Jarvis.

  ‘Are you serious?’ Steel uttered.

  Jarvis gathered his thoughts. ‘There is one person who may have sufficient motivation to actively hunt down a specific set of CIA agents.’

  DCIA Steel sat bolt upright in his seat and pointed a fat finger at Jarvis.

  ‘That’s enough,’ he growled. ‘You’re speculating.’

  ‘Am I?’ Jarvis challenged the director. ‘You know damned well who I’m talking about, don’t you?’

  ‘The CIA is perfectly capable of handling it,’ he blustered.

  ‘Doesn’t seem that way,’ Jarvis mused out loud. ‘Several agents down in just a few days, I’m presuming?’ he said to Mitchell. ‘I last requested a meeting with DDIA Mitchell about ten days ago, and was turned down flat in the usual manner. Now I’m sitting here. These agents must have been killed in quick succession to have got me here at all.’

  The Chairman of the JCOS directed a stern gaze at DCIA Steel. ‘In total, six agents have been killed. Are you aware of who might be responsible for these slayings?’

  Steel slid behind a wall of national security. ‘I am not at liberty to answer that question, sir.’

  The Chairman slapped a hand down on Mitchell’s desk. ‘This is ridiculous. You’ve come here for help and now you’re refusing to supply us with information?’

  DDIA Mitchell spoke softly.

  ‘The individual in question is an American citizen, abducted several years ago,’ he informed them. ‘It would seem likely, given Director Steel’s reticence, that the individual’s disappearance was orchestrated and that they may have suffered at the hands of MK-ULTRA operatives or assets in the field. Her name is Joanna Defoe.’

  Jarvis chose his words with care as he spoke.

  ‘She was Ethan Warner’s fiancée, hence the assumed motive. Disappeared from the Gaza Strip four years ago,’ Jarvis confirmed. ‘The abduction was never solved, but she represented a high-profile critic of government policy overseas and of the unaccountability of the intelligence community. Silencing Joanna and preventing her from investigating the CIA could have both been achieved by abducting her.’

  DCIA Steel squirmed uncomfortably as Jarvis addressed the JCOS.

  ‘What evidence do you have that this individual you refer to could be capable of such acts, or that they’re even on the loose?’ General Steel demanded.

  ‘Footage retrieved from Project Watchman,’ Jarvis explained. ‘Our satellites spotted Joanna during an Israeli incursion into Gaza City. Her abductors were killed but Joanna disappeared.’

  ‘I can see why the CIA disagreed with your policies on civilian exposure to military hardware,’ the chief of the army pointed out. ‘Project Watchman is one of our most prized resources and classified COSMIC.’

  ‘Ethan’s exposure to Watchman resulted in him being able to thwart a serious attempt to enslave our government to the machinations of a powerful corporation,’ Jarvis explained. ‘Believe me, he’s the best man for this job.’

  ‘Which may not be what we want,’ Mitchell rumbled. ‘Ethan Warner has a habit of leaving a trail of destruction behind him. Tenacious does not even begin to describe this guy.’

  Jarvis opened his hands in defense.

  ‘It’s all of you that have put him in this position,’ he said reasonably. ‘If you give me the resources I need then I can set him on a course to resolve the problem. Right now, all I need is for the CIA to pull their people out and let us get started. Can you do that?’

  The JCOS looked at each other in silence and then turned to look at the CIA’s director. Finally, General Steel spoke.

  ‘I can.’

  ‘Good,’ Jarvis replied. ‘All watch-teams, surveillance both human and electronic and flag references in the intelligence database must be removed. Where was the last CIA operative murdered and when?’

  General Steel ground his teeth in his jaw. ‘Two days ago, in New York City. Aaron Lymes, a retired operative who was based near Gaza City at the time of Miss Defoe’s abduction. Police and FBI are on hold until our say-so.’

  Jarvis looked at Mitchell. ‘I’ll need my department back up and running along with all previously revoked security clearances and a four-man field team to accompany me to New York.’ He glanced at Steel with a smile. ‘Just in case.’

  Mitchell nodded slowly. ‘It will be done.’

  Jarvis stood up and straightened his jacket.

  ‘I’ll find a way to locate Ethan and Lopez and get them assigned to th
is. It’s in their interests as well as our own for this situation to be resolved, and, if I know Ethan, he’ll be following the same trail we are. Now, if you’ll excuse me?’

  Jarvis turned for the door but was held back by General Steel’s voice.

  ‘There is just one more thing, Mr. Jarvis?’

  Jarvis turned and looked down at the DCIA, who was staring at him once again with his cruel little eyes.

  ‘In the interests of national security, I insist that if Joanna Defoe is apprehended by your people, that she be immediately passed to the CIA’s custody.’

  Jarvis shook his head. ‘That’s not part of any deal that I—’

  ‘This isn’t a negotiation,’ Steel snapped. ‘You want to keep Ethan Warner and Nicola Lopez free from prosecution for their exposure to classified material then you hand over everything you find to me, or I’ll make sure Joanna Defoe spends the rest of her life rotting in a Supermax facility. Use Warner and Lopez to find her if you must, then make damned sure that she ends up at Langley.’

  Jarvis looked at Mitchell for support, but the DDIA shook his head.

  ‘It’s a trade, Doug,’ he said. ‘Joanna Defoe likely knows far too much about MK-ULTRA and its methods and could expose it at any time. This has to stay out of the public eye. Find Warner and Lopez and keep this all quiet.’

  Jarvis clenched his fists at his sides, but managed a stiff nod before he turned and stalked from the office.

  3

  GRAND CENTRAL STATION, EAST 42ND STREET, NEW YORK CITY

  Crowds.

  Thousands of people rushed to and fro in a miasma of coats, hats, legs and commingled voices that rose up into the soaring ceiling of the station amid shafts of sunlight beaming down through the iconic windows far above. Countless footfalls hammered out a symphony of mankind on the move on the vast polished flags, all on their own personal journey and yet surrounded.

  Ethan Warner had never in his life felt so alone.

  He leaned against a towering pillar on one side of the central atrium, watching the milling crowds. It was a strange sensation, to be a citizen in one’s home country and yet feeling like an imposter no matter where he traveled. Ethan felt as though he were standing in a stranger’s house or in a foreign country without a passport, not inside the main station of one of America’s largest cities.