Read Online The Cyclops Initiative by David Wellington - Free Book Online Page A

Blinked a few times. Then he looked at Chapel and Wilkes and took a deep breath. “No point in hiding things now. That’s Angel’s identifier. Angel is the hijacker.”
    FORT MEADE, MD: MARCH 21, 12:18
    â€œNo,” Chapel said. “No. No way it’s her. She wouldn’t do this.”
    â€œSon, I don’t want to believe it either,” Hollingshead told him, reaching for his arm. “But we have to at least entertain the possibility—­”
    Chapel brushed off the director’s hand. “After all she’s done for you. Everything she’s done for her country. You won’t even give her the benefit of the doubt?”
    â€œThat’s exactly what I want to do,” Hollingshead said. He sighed deeply and looked around him. Every eye in the room was watching him. “We’ll have to bring her in. Today.”
    Chapel shook his head. He couldn’t believe what he was hearing. Hollingshead was going to arrest Angel just because the NSA claimed she was a traitor? It was unthinkable.
    â€œShe can tell us her side of the story,” Hollingshead went on.
    â€œSomebody’s framing her,” Chapel insisted.
    It was Moulton who responded to that. “If they are, they’re doing an incredible job of it. It took every resource we had to trace her. If this was a frame-­up, you’d think the false evidence would be easier to find.”
    Chapel glared at the man. “You don’t know her.”
    â€œLooks like maybe you don’t, either,” Moulton pointed out.
    Chapel took a step toward him, ready to drag him out of his chair and beat the smug smile off the analyst’s face. Before he could get there, however, Holman stepped in and cleared her throat.
    Two decades, half of Chapel’s life, had been spent learning to respect his superior officers. It had become just a reflex—­if a colonel cleared her throat, you shut up and listened to what she had to say.
    â€œNone of us likes this, Captain,” she told him. “None of us wants to believe the hijacker was one of us, a member of the intelligence community. And right now we don’t have to. Until we have more information we don’t have to make any decisions.”
    â€œMy analysis is sound,” Moulton insisted.
    â€œPaul, be quiet,” Holman said. She looked over at Hollingshead. “How do you want to proceed?” she asked.
    The director looked down at the floor. He shoved his hands deep into his pockets. “Wilkes, go and get her. Head north. I’ll send you the coordinates for her location once you’re on the road.”
    â€œWhat?” Chapel said.
    Hollingshead looked up at him and those genial professorial eyes that twinkled so effectively behind his spectacles were gone. They’d been replaced by the eyes of a rear admiral of the navy, a man who had sent men knowingly to their deaths. A man who had never shirked from a hard decision. “Do you have something to say?”
    Chapel bit down his first reaction. Tried desperately to get a handle on his feelings. “Sir. With all due respect. Angel and I have worked together for a very long time. Let me do this.”
    â€œI’m afraid I can’t allow it,” Hollingshead told him. “You and Angel have a . . . complicated relationship. No, son. You’re the wrong man for the job.”
    Holman coughed politely into her hand. “Should it really be anyone from DIA? There might be a conflict of interests here. Maybe we should contact FBI. They’re trained for this sort of thing.”
    â€œI appreciate your input,” Hollingshead told her. “But if I can’t send Chapel to fetch her, I won’t send a complete stranger, either. Wilkes is our man.” He turned to the marine. “Go on, son. Your country needs you to do this.”
    Wilkes straightened up into a salute. “Sir, yes, sir,” he said. Then with one quick glance