Читать книгу The Legacy of Shadows - William Speir - Страница 10

An aide escorted Arthur Reynolds and Alfonso Berkshire into the U.S. Counter-Terrorism Committee Chairman’s office in Washington, DC. The aide gestured for them to sit at the conference table on the far side of the office.

“May I get you gentlemen something to drink?”

“No, thank you,” both men responded.

“The Chairman will be here shortly. If you need anything, please let me know.”

The aide excused himself and left the men alone in the office.

Both men, who were also members of the Order, worked for the same company that Tom Anderson had retired from several years earlier. Arthur Reynolds was the company president, and Alfonso Berkshire was the director who was responsible for counter-terrorism and counter-espionage training. The Chairman had called Arthur the previous evening to see if his company could provide the training needed by the country’s counter-terrorism units to prepare for the coming offensive against the Russian sleeper agents.

After a minute, the Chairman entered the office and sat across from the two men at the conference table.

“Thanks for coming on such short notice,” he said, opening his notebook and handing neatly-bound papers to both men. “We’re in urgent need of specialized training that I hope your company can provide.”

The Chairman walked them through the papers he had given them, outlining the types of training needed without going into details about what was driving the need.

Arthur jotted down notes while the Chairman presented the material. When the Chairman asked for their thoughts, Arthur said, “I don’t see any problem providing the counter-terrorism and counter-espionage training that you requested. We have resources available at the moment that can be deployed wherever you need them. But there are two areas of training that you haven’t mentioned, and I wondered why.”

“What two areas?” the Chairman asked.

Arthur pulled out a brochure from his notebook. “First, we have a relationship with a company called SignalCorps that makes the finest surveillance equipment on the market today.”

“I’m familiar with them,” the Chairman interjected.

“Well, they have a new system that’s ready for field-testing. It has capabilities that would be perfect for counter-terrorism and counter-espionage. And we subcontract with them to provide training on their equipment. Would you find that valuable?”

The Chairman nodded. “We’re going to need more eyes looking for potential threats than we have manpower available. I’ve seen SignalCorps’ systems in action, and they could help supplement our human capabilities nicely. Yes, add that to the list of training we need. What’s the other area?”

“Hand-to-hand combat,” Arthur replied.

“Why would we need hand-to-hand combat training?” the Chairman inquired.

“Because there’s more to counter-terrorism and counter-espionage than just stopping the threat. You need the intel that terrorists and spies have, and to get that intel, the terrorists and spies must be taken alive. Right now, your units are not trained to wound. They’re trained to kill in order to protect lives. If you need to take terrorists and spies alive, that potentially means hand-to-hand fighting. Just as we have a relationship with SignalCorps, we also have a relationship with a society of combat martial arts instructors who can train your units in non-lethal ways to apprehend targets.”

The Chairman leaned back in his seat and stared at Arthur for a moment. “I hadn’t considered that. Add it as an addendum to your proposal. That way I have the option to include it or exclude it in the contract, depending on what the committee decides. But make sure that the SignalCorps part is in the main proposal. I want that added.”

“The training or the new system?” Arthur asked.

“Both,” the Chairman replied.

As the two men left the Chairman’s office a few minutes later, Arthur said, “Do you see any problems getting the proposal and pricing pulled together in the next day or so?”

“That’s a bit soon,” Alfonso protested.

“I know, but you heard the man. The need is urgent, and if it has anything to do with what the Order’s intelligence committee is working on, we don’t have a moment to lose.”

Alfonso nodded. “I’ll get right on it. I don’t see a problem with the proposal and pricing for our parts, but I don’t know if SignalCorps or the combat martial arts society can get back to us that quickly.”

“Don’t worry about that,” Arthur said. “You focus on our pieces, and I’ll call Master Whitworth and SignalCorps’ chairman as soon as I get back to the office so they can start working on their pieces of the proposal.”

“Sounds good,” Alfonso agreed.

Emily and Tom sat in the den of their house – cleaning their pistols after having lunch at the gun club – when Emily heard the phone in her home office ringing. She ran down the hall and grabbed the phone before the call could roll to voice mail.

“Emily Anderson.”

“Emily, it’s Arthur Reynolds. Do you have a minute to talk?”

“Of course, Arthur. Is this Order business or SignalCorps business?”

“SignalCorps.” Arthur filled her in on his meeting with the Chairman of the Counter-Terrorism Committee.

“I wondered if someone would approach your company,” Emily said when Arthur was finished. “I know what the Committee is up against. When do you need our piece of the proposal?”

“I’d like to have everything by tomorrow night or the next morning at the latest. I want to move on this as quickly as we can.”

“That doesn’t give us much time, but I’ll have the sales team get started right away.”

“Thanks, Emily. Give my best to Tom, will you?”

“Of course. Goodbye, Arthur.”

Emily was now chairman of SignalCorps’ board of directors. Edison Travis Shane, the company’s founder and Emily’s business partner, was still the President and CEO, but he wanted someone else to be chairman, and Emily was the logical choice since nearly every product that SignalCorps now produced was based on her original surveillance system designs.

Emily called Edison and the Director of Sales for SignalCorps as soon as she ended her call with Arthur. She filled them in on the opportunity, and the Director of Sales promised to have a preliminary proposal ready for review by 9:00 AM the next morning.

When Emily returned to the den, Tom asked, “Have you been on the phone this whole time?”

Emily nodded and started cleaning her gun again. “That was Arthur calling. He sends his best, by the way. The U.S. Counter-Terrorism Committee Chairman in Washington wants training services from your old company, and Arthur wants to include SignalCorps’ surveillance training and the use of our new system as part of the training proposal.”

“Nice,” Tom said. “Who’s going to coordinate all of the training with the counter-terrorism units across the country?”

“Alfonso.”

“Good man,” Tom noted. “I’m guessing you’ve already talked to Edison?”

Emily nodded. “He and the Director of Sales are working up a preliminary proposal so I can review it in the morning.”

“Do you have enough people for what’s needed to train all of those units?”

Emily shrugged. “I have no idea. But for an initiative this important, we’ll find a way to make it work.”

“What about subcontracting part of the work to the Order’s best surveillance operatives?” Tom suggested.

Emily thought about that for a moment. “Not a bad idea. And it would give members of the Order access to the teams involved in finding and dealing with the sleeper agents. It could help the Order better coordinate our intelligence-gathering and intervention activities.”

“That’s what I was thinking,” Tom admitted.

Emily stood. “I need to call Edison and the Director of Sales back, but first I’d better call Alasdair and see if he’s okay with the idea.”

“Do you want me on that call?”

Emily smiled. “That’s all right. I’ve got this.”

Tom watched Emily leave the room again, smiling as she disappeared down the hallway. “I know you do.”

Frank Whitworth, Senior Master of the combat martial arts society, ended his call with Arthur and immediately initiated a conference call with the other masters, including Jamie. Once they were on the phone, he told them about his conversation with Arthur.

“Do we have enough instructors to provide the training if the intelligence committee accepts our proposal?” he asked once he finished outlining what Arthur was looking for.

“We’ll have to reschedule some of the training we’ve already committed to,” Master Rutger Samson replied. “But if all of the masters participate, we should be able to get the job done.”

“And it’s not like these are novice students,” Master Gunther Marshall interjected. “These are senior law enforcement and military personnel. We won’t have to start from scratch with them.”

“I agree,” Master Malcom Richards echoed. “And this sounds like too important an opportunity to refuse.”

“That was my thought,” Frank stated. “Jamie, do you have anything to add?”

“I think this should be our highest priority,” Jamie replied. “If I can get Tobias to watch the dojo while I’m gone, I can travel anywhere you need me to.”

“You know that there might be men in these units who won’t take you seriously because you’re a woman,” Master Elias O’Rourke pointed out.

Jamie snorted. “Nothing I haven’t dealt with before. I can handle myself around people like that.”

“Good,” Frank said. “It sounds like we should move forward on this proposal, as long as everyone agrees.”

“I agree,” each of the masters stated.

“Very well,” Frank said. “I’ll pull together a draft proposal and let you all see it before I send it to Arthur Reynolds.”

Alasdair was okay with Emily subcontracting some of the Order’s surveillance operatives to help with SignalCorps’ training, and he promised to contact Terri Ogilvy, the Order’s Chief Surveillance Training Officer, to start pulling together a list of potential names to use. Emily then called Edison and the Director of Sales to let them know that she had additional resources available should more people be needed to deliver the training that Arthur Reynolds wanted.

“Good,” the Director of Sales responded. “We don’t have enough people inside the company to do the job.”

“Well, these are people who have used our systems to do surveillance work in the field,” Emily assured him. “They know the subject matter, and they know our equipment. They’ll do just fine.”

“All right,” the Director of Sales said. “How much do we charge for their services?”

“Use our standard contractor rates,” Emily replied.

“Very well.”

Emily called Arthur when she got off the phone with Edison and the Director of Sales.

“We’ll have the proposal for you in time, but we’re going to have to subcontract some of the training resources. Any objection to using members of the Order? I checked with Alasdair, and he’s all right with it.”

There was a pause. “Clever,” Arthur said finally. “We get to leverage some of the best operatives available who use your systems, and the Order will potentially gain access to intel it could never get otherwise. I like it! Start making a list of who you want to use so we can make certain they have all of the necessary security clearances.”

“Terri Ogilvy’s putting together a list right now. I’ll get it to you as soon as I can.”

“Perfect,” Arthur said. “Let me know if you need anything from me.”

“Will do. Good night, Arthur.”

“Good night, Emily.”

Arthur submitted the proposal in person to the U.S. Counter-Terrorism Committee Chairman. His sales team, along with Alfonso, had worked non-stop for two straight days, finalizing the pricing, adding in the proposals from SignalCorps and the combat martial arts society, and confirming the security clearances of all of the contracted resources that would be needed to deliver what the Chairman needed.

The Chairman flipped through the proposal until he reached the page with the financial summary. He stared at the total proposal estimate for a moment.

“That’s actually better than I expected,” he commented.

“I could raise the price, if that would make you feel better,” Arthur offered.

The Chairman glared at Arthur over the top of the proposal, and then he laughed. “That won’t be necessary. The committee meets in thirty minutes. I’d like you to present your proposal to them. Do you have extra copies, or do you need my aide to start making copies for you?”

Arthur reached into his briefcase and withdrew twenty copies of the proposal. “Will twenty copies be enough?”

“That’s plenty,” the Chairman confirmed.

Three hours later, Arthur walked out of the Counter-Terrorism Command Center feeling exhilarated and apprehensive at the same time. The committee had approved the entire proposal, including the combat martial arts training addendum. The contracts that Arthur had brought with him were signed before the meeting ended.

Arthur had never seen a government contract approved so quickly – further evidence of the seriousness of the crisis that the counter-terrorism committee was dealing with.

Now we have to deliver as promised.