Chapter 77

  Within hours of leaving the green cornfields of Minnesota behind and despite the lateness of the hour, Jesse was personally met by the FBI director as his plane taxied to a stop inside a private hanger at Dulles International Airport. Just before he boarded his plane at the Joint Air Reserve Station at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport, Jesse had gotten a call from General Jackson stating that the FBI had decoded the page, although he gave him no further information. Jesse pressed him, but he was told that Martinez would meet him at Dulles and that he would fill him in at that time. Now, all the material he had found in the “fortress” seemed moot. He also informed him about finding Peter Jensen’s camera, which still contained film. It was a long shot, but there might be something on the film that would point to a motive for murder. He also informed Jackson about the fire that consumed the Jensen’s home and barn back in 1975 and his suspicions as to the person that might have caused it. Before their call ended, Jackson told Jesse he would pass this newfound information to Martinez and Clayson.

  *****

  On the short two-hour flight, Jesse found it hard to believe that they had already deciphered the document so quickly, and he was extremely anxious to talk with Martinez. Jesse stepped off the plane and was greeted by the man with a warm smile and a firm handshake.

  “Welcome home, Major. I understand that you had a very productive trip.”

  Jesse extended his hand to Director Martinez and said, “Thanks, Joseph; it was great to see General Bennett again, and I was thrilled to hear that he’s going to make a full recovery. I was also able to make some interesting discoveries at the Jensen farm, but I would like to find out what you came up with before we go into that, if that’s all right with you, sir.”

  “Very well…why don’t we sit in my car? It’s a little more comfortable and equipped with all sorts of little devices that will make our conversation much more private. Besides, I have some very nice brandy on board.”

  When the two men got into the back seat of the specialized Chevy Suburban, the driver opened his door and started to exit the vehicle when Martinez called out to him. “Don’t run off too far, Ronnie; we won’t be long.”

  Ronnie poked his head back inside and said, “I’ll be waiting right outside the door whenever you’re ready, sir.”

  After Ronnie closed the driver’s door, Martinez opened a panel and pulled out a crystal decanter that was half full and two crystal highball glasses and set them on a pull-down shelf.

  “Neat, or would you like some ice?” Martinez asked politely.

  “Neat is just fine, sir.”

  Martinez handed him one of the glasses that held two inches of brandy and poured himself the same amount.

  “Before we begin, I understand you have some film you would like to develop?” Martinez looked at the old camera case in Jesse’s hands and said, “I assume that’s the camera in question?”

  “Yes sir…indeed it is.”

  Jesse gave the FBI director a quick background on how the camera came into his hands, given the fact that Jensen’s neighbor Nils was sure that the Jensens never used it after it was shipped back to them from Vietnam following Peter’s death. It was a logical conclusion that Peter Jensen might have taken the film while stationed at Xuan Loc.

  “So Joseph, the film inside could be worthless from excessive heat or cold over the decades since they were taken, or if the film is still good, the pictures could be nothing more than photos of…well, anything. But I know one thing for sure. Someone went to great lengths to find and steal all of Jensen’s films after he was killed. I’m just hoping that his killer missed these.”

  “Well, I hope your hunch is correct, Major. Clayson has scheduled a meeting at Langley for zero nine hundred hours tomorrow. I’ll have the film developed at Quantico before tomorrow’s meeting, and we’ll see what kind of photographer Mr. Jensen was.” Martinez lifted his briefcase onto his lap, turned the combination tumblers to the correct combination, pressed both tabs simultaneously, and the latches open simultaneously. He pulled a folder marked “Warning, Highly Classified Material,” then pulled out two pages and handed them to Jesse.

  “I think you’ve earned the right to see this before tomorrow’s meeting.”

  Jesse nodded and reached into his top pocket. He pulled out his reading glasses and put them on. The first document was a classified internal FBI report written by Janet Rockwell. Jesse read the document twice before switching pages and reading the second document. As he read the letter written by Peter Jensen, his mind raced back to the time he sat with Dave Sanders in his Jeep outside his bunkhouse. He was now reading that same letter. It didn’t take Jesse long to see why Sanders was dazed and upset as he sat in his Jeep that day. The letter was disturbing. Jesse returned the documents to the FBI director, shook his head, and said. “Is there any way we can verify any of this?”

  Martinez answered, “We are looking into this as we speak. We might have some answers in the morning, but I am not hopeful after all these years. I hope there is something on the roll of film you found that will fill in the blanks.”

  Jesse nodded their head and then asked an obvious question. “How were you able to decipher this so quickly?”

  “Quite simple…Jensen wrote the letter on top of the travel envelope.”

  “Are you telling me you used the old spy pencil on the writing tablet trick?”

  “Well, it’s a little more elaborate than that, but yes, that is about the gest of it.”

  “Unbelievable. I thought that it would be a whole lot tougher than that.

  Martinez hit the down button on his window. He said before it was even halfway down, “I’m ready, Ronnie.”

  Martinez turned back to Jesse and said, “I have a lot of work yet to do tonight. I suggest you go home and get some rest. Tomorrow is going to be a very busy day.”

  *****

  Several hours later, Janet Rockwell entered Joseph Martinez's office and handed him a flash drive that contained the film from Jensen's camera. It had been developed, enlarged, and digitally enhanced.

  "Did you have any trouble developing the film?" Martinez asked.

  "The only problem I had was that the film was very brittle and had to be handled carefully. There were also some other issues. Some of the photos were taken indoors and some outside without the aid of a flash. I suspect the photographer used a long lens without a tripod and a large aperture with a slow shutter speed on some shots. This caused some of the photos to be blurred. I also believe some shots were taken outside and shot through a glass window that wasn't exactly clear at the time, or the lens was very dirty, which I very much doubt. Other than that, it was a piece of cake."

  "Thank you, Janet. I appreciate you coming in on such short notice."

  "You're very welcome, sir."

  Martinez didn’t ask what was on the film, and Janet offered no insight. Now, she needed to get back home and try to get some sleep. But after what she saw in the photos, she knew that sleep would be hard to come by.

  *****

  Martinez plugged the flash drive into his laptop, which had no network connection. When prompted, he entered the password Janet had also handed him and opened the files. For the next half hour, he carefully examined every photo. A lot of things were now falling into place, and he called Clayson, who was resting comfortably at his Virginia estate. The call lasted only several minutes, and within the hour, an armored SUV carrying four heavily armed CIA agents delivered the flash drive to his home. Martinez had told him about the photos but went into few details over the phone even though it was secure.

  After he viewed the photos, Tony Clayson was compelled to add several new players into the mix. He personally called each one and requested their presence at the morning meeting. Three had been appointed by President Roberts, The Attorney General, and the directors of the NSA and Homeland Security. He also called the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. All had tight schedules, but given the nature of his request, everyone changed their plans and planned to attend. He purposely left out two legislative branch members because of their strong ties to the current president. He debated whether to cut General Jackson and Major Taylor from the meeting. All the chips were now falling into place except for one, and Rakov was their only lead. But after giving it more consideration, he decided to keep them in the meeting simply because Taylor had too much skin in the game to cut him out now, and he felt that he could still use him because of his past relationship with the president.

  *****

  Even though he had a lot of things running through his mind, Jesse was out the minute his head hit the pillow. The day had been long and arduous, and he was happy to be back in his own bed. He woke just minutes before the alarm clock was about to go off, and after a quick cup of black coffee, he jumped into the shower. Feeling rejuvenated, he made himself a breakfast of whole wheat toast and two eggs over easy and read the current news on his laptop while he ate. After breakfast, he checked and replied to several of his e-mails, phone, and text messages before he headed for the CIA headquarters at Langley. There were only two e-mails that he was pleased to receive. One was from his daughter, and the other was from his son, and his spirits were lifted after he read them.

  Jesse hated the morning traffic, yet it was the price one had to pay for living in DC. He pulled into the parking lot at Langley a few minutes early despite the gauntlet and several jackass drivers he had to endure getting there. Jesse checked in and was escorted to the same room as their previous meeting. Upon entering the room, he immediately knew something must have changed dramatically. The room was filled with Washington power players. No one was seated yet. At one time or another, he had met every man in the room except of the AG. He was greeted warmly by the CIA director.

  Getting no indication of what was happening; he approached Joseph Martinez and asked, “Were you able to recover anything from the film?”

  “As a matter of fact, our technician did, but I’ll let Director Clayson go over that in just a minute.”

  You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

  “Is that why all these men are here today?”

  Martinez didn’t answer; he just nodded.

  Jesse was frustrated when he got nothing more from Martinez. Although there was nothing he could do except wait. He had already waited this long; another few minutes wouldn’t matter. He then made the rounds with all the power players in the room before the meeting started.

  *****

  Like their last meeting, no staff aids were present, and after everyone had arrived and the greetings were over, Clayson asked everyone to take their designated seats. When everyone was seated, the meeting started. In front of every man was a folder that contained the usual warnings.

  “Good morning, gentleman. First, I want to thank all of you for coming on such notice. I know you all have busy schedules, but I wouldn’t have asked you here today unless it was extremely important.”

  Clayson then went on to inform the new players about all the events leading up until this point, including the camera and the film that it contained that was found at the Jensen farm. He also read the letter that Peter Jensen wrote just before his death. There were a lot of questions, and most were addressed to Jesse. When no one had any more questions, Clayson moved on to the photos. He flipped open his laptop and entered his password. A few seconds later, the first photo appeared on the large television screen mounted on the wall.

  The picture was of a much younger President Sydney Williams standing next to Dave Sanders, the CIA station chief, outside of the CIA field office in Xuan Loc. The next photo was just of Sydney standing by a Jeep. In both photos it didn’t appear that she knew that her picture was being taken. The next six photos were of various CIA personal and ARVN troops and their equipment. Clayson asked Jesse to narrate for them and he made short comments on all of them before moving on. Without commenting further, Clayson moved on to the next photo of a man facing the camera. His features were much clearer now, and everyone could make out the three-inch scar that ran along the side of his face despite his weeks’ worth of facial hair that was thick and dark. He appeared to be in his late thirties to mid-forties and as hardened as his Asian companions beside him. Sydney was in the background.

  “His name is Jack Sullivan. He was a contract employee for the CIA who worked the Golden Triangle as a deep cover operative and one of the many hired mercenaries who fought against the communist group Pathet Lao in Laos. He had ties to Vang Pao, the Hmong leader who was running his opium trade through Thailand, Burma, and Vietnam to fund and fight against communist control of his country. We suspect that he was running drugs for Vang when his Air America C-46 Commando was shot down in the jungles of Cambodia either by the Viet Cong or the Khmer Rouge in January of 75. The wreckage was found not far from the Vietnam border. There was no trace of the eight men or the heroin that was supposedly on board. At the time, we believed that he purposely crashed the plane to throw Vang off of his tail. My guess is that he wanted to go into the drug trafficking business for himself, and he didn’t want to be looking over his shoulder. It was also rumored that Sullivan was selling American and South Vietnamese troop movements to the NVA for drugs. But that was never substantiated and dismissed because he didn’t have access to Intel. Now it looks like he may have had access through Sydney Perotti, and they were in business together, and things went south. We were able to interview a man who knew Sullivan well and to paraphrase his words; “The man was an asshole that cared only about himself and would sell out his own grandmother if there was money in it for him.”

  In the next photo, it appeared that three more men had entered the room, and Sydney and Sullivan now had their backs to the camera. Two men were Military MPs with MP clearly marked on their helmets, and the third was a tall, middle-aged man in Army fatigues.

  Clayson continued: “Bob Chandler was the man that just entered the room with the MPs. At the time, he was one of the U.S. Senators from Iowa. He was a Marine Major in WW2 and was nicknamed “The Bulldog” by those who served under him. Chandler was part of Senator John Pastore’s 1975 Congressional subcommittee that was empowered to investigate federal intelligence operations and determine if any agency of the Federal Government engaged in any illegal or unethical activity. From what I gathered, the Senator had a particular disdain for the CIA.”

  In the next photo, one of the MPs was pointing at Sullivan with one hand, and the other was on the butt of his M1911 Colt service pistol that was still in its holster. The other MP had a club in his hand. Sydney appeared to have moved to the side, but all eyes stayed on Sullivan.

  The following two photos were blurry. It was as if the person taking the photos could not hold the camera steady because of what had transpired. The last photo showed both the MP’s on the floor and Sydney pointing her pistol at the Senator, who had his hands up in an attempt to stop her from shooting.

  No one said a word until Martinez spoke. “As I recall, Senator Chandler was reportedly killed in an NVA ambush along with all of his staff between Saigon and Xuan Loc.”

  “I did some digging, and that is true. Apparently, Chandler had no military escort when the attack happened, and that raised a lot of questions at the time.” Clayson stated.

  “I also looked into the MPs stationed at Xuan Loc at the time, and there were two that went MIA and never accounted for.”

  After this statement, silence filled the room.

  Jesse hung his head. He didn’t know what to say. He had no idea that Sydney was capable of what he just witnessed. Or, for that matter, drug trafficking, or worse, treason. The photos and Jensen’s letter had just sealed her fate.

  After a long moment of silence, Martnez asked.

  “Is there any evidence that the President and Sullivan knew each other before this incident?”

  Clayson responded. “Our records show they knew each other for quite some time before he disappeared.”

  “Then she could have been feeding Sullivan troop movements,” Martinez stated.

  “That certainly is a possibility. We looked into NVA troop movements not long after Sullivan disappeared, and there is some evidence that they seem to mirror the U.S. troop movements, although that is not conclusive evidence. Spies were on both sides during the entire war, and troop movements were highly guarded. But we know there were leaks…especially on our side.”

  Jesse posed a question to no one in particular. “Why would President Williams get involved in the drug trade? Her family was wealthy, and she certainly didn’t need the money.”

  “Unfortunately, that was true, Major. She was a child of privilege. Her father had powerful friends in Washington and was a power player on Wall Street, but he was financially ruined on a margin call in 73 that he didn’t see coming. He never regained his wealth. Once she was accustomed to wealth, I assumed it was hard to give up that lifestyle. When she was nominated for the VP position, her financial statement stated that her net worth was over 450 million. We know that less than half of that was from her former husband. Her father set up a trust for her, which wasn’t substantial. The bulk of her money came from her overseas business dealing that she did not have to declare in the U.S.,” Clayson answered.

  Everyone was silent until Jackson asked. “With this evidence, is there any way that she can be prosecuted for the murders?” although he already suspected the answer.

  The AG cleared his throat before answering. “First, I will talk about the crimes committed in Vietnam. Although the statute of limitations doesn’t apply to murder, she can’t be prosecuted in the U.S. for crimes that were committed on foreign soil unless it was on a military base or at a U.S. embassy, and we simply don’t know where these photos were taken. Besides, the crime was committed in a county that technically no longer exists. As for the matter of drug trafficking and treason, I think that’s out also; there are no witnesses alive to testify against her. Even with Jensen’s letter and the photos, that is not enough without a live witness to testify because we don’t have definite proof that she pulled the trigger and killed the two MPs. The photos obviously suggest that is what transpired, but there is no definite proof. Now, as for the crimes the President may have been involved in here or an accomplice to, namely the killing of Mary Jensen and the attempted murder of General Bennett and David Choi.

  As you know, a sitting president can’t be put on trial while in office. It would be up to Congress to impeach her under Article 1, Section 2 of the U.S. Constitution. But as you also know… that is not going to happen. In my opinion, we simply can’t put the American public through that after what happened in Connecticut, even if she was involved. It would destroy this country and the confidence in its leaders.” When the AG finished, he looked at all the long faces and waited.

  Director Clayson was the first to speak. “From what we’ve been able to ascertain, I believe that President Williams was helped into power by someone or some powerful group yet to be identified. There are many powerful groups and nations that want to influence our elections and policies…especially the globalists who hate our financial dominance and geopolitical influence. It is not Russia or China who certainly have tried to influence our elections for a long time. I think North Korea is also out. When Rakov assassinated the U.S. diplomat in Germany, he was doing that at the behest of a Russian Olagart with no ties to Putin or the Kremlin. They would not have used the people involved in the attacks in Phuket and on General Bennett. These people were just low-level hired mercenaries. That leads me to believe that it is a small grope of men or organization, a person or group with a great deal of money and political influence.”

  Jesse finally spoke, “I still find it hard to believe that President Williams was capable of what I saw in those photos. But, unfortunately, I was wrong. And if she was capable of this, she may be capable of things far worse. She worked for the CIA in the Middle East for years after Vietnam. She could have been trafficking drugs or doing something else that someone was using against her, such as blackmail. Like these photos, someone may have something similar on her that could put her in a foreign prison for a long time. I simply don’t see her as being complicit in President Robert’s assassination without someone holding something over her head. At least…I want to believe that.” Jesse was looking at Clayson when he said this.

  He nodded and said, “That could very well be true. In fact, it’s something that I considered myself. Before this meeting, I ordered a discreet investigation into her record, from her training at the Farm until she left the agency. Like you, Major, I hope that she was not involved in the assassination, but at this point, I have to believe she was. Ether willingly or unwillingly, it simply doesn’t matter at this point. She may not have placed the bomb that killed the president, but if she knew it was going to happen, she’s just as guilty. Now, this brings me to the next point. I would like you all to look at the report by the senior FBI investigator assigned to the bombing in Mystic, Connecticut. Congressman Becket was a very private person when it came to his personal life. According to friends and family members, no one knew of his terminal illness until the last stages of his cancer. It is his contention, and the evidence at the crime scene backs this up, that whoever was behind this had prior knowledge of Congressman Becket’s illness. They used it to their advantage to plant the bomb that took so many lives, including that of President Roberts. When the investigators discovered that the bomb had been planted at least several months prior to the actual detonation, they started to look for anyone with prior knowledge of his illness. I’m not going to go into specifics, but they did find one person, other than his immediate family, who had this prior knowledge. That person is the current President, Sydney Williams. They learned that Mrs. Becket hired a cleaning lady after learning of her husband’s illness to help her and her husband with the household chores. This cleaning woman, whom Mrs. Becket instructed to stay out of sight when they had visitors, overheard Congressman Becket inform a woman of his terminal cancer not long after she was hired and long before his death. At the time, the cleaning lady had no idea who the woman was. She is an undocumented worker, and she asked no questions.

  It wasn’t until Williams was nominated to run on the ticket with President Roberts that she realized who she was.”

  “Was she questioned about this?” The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff asked.

  “At the time, the FBI questioned everyone who knew Mr. Becket well. Sydney’s father was one of Becket’s oldest and dearest friends, and Congressman Becket apparently followed Sydney’s career very closely. He also had a big hand in her nomination as Secretary of State. So, to answer your question, yes, she was interviewed, but at the time, she claimed that she had no prior knowledge of his illness. We have not questioned her since we obtained the information from the cleaning lady.”

  "That in itself proves nothing. And if that is the only thing that links her to the bombing, in my humble opinion, it's thin at best." Jesse said.

  "You're absolutely right, Major, it is thin. If it comes down to the word of the president of the United States and that of a Mexican National who's in this country illegally….well, you get my point. But it is a smoking gun. Coupled with the fact that a group of hired killers has tried to eliminate anyone who was connected to Jensen's letter, it leads me to believe that she's involved. Now, there's only one thing left to do. And that is to discover who's behind this. We are currently putting pressure on every mercenary contractor in the world. They guard their assets like Swiss banks, but I am positive we will find out who hired the four former MI6 operatives and Ivan Rakov very soon." Clayson answered.

  The phone in front of Clayson buzzed, and he picked up the receiver. He listened for a moment, asked a few questions, said, “Do it,” and then hung up.

  He looked at all the men who fixed their eyes on him and said, “Gentleman, that was perfect timing. It seems that we have a name.”