Jonathan Berry was at his desk, frowning at the man sitting across from him. That man was Tom Asher. Tom was Jackson’s handler. Jonathan was an assistant in the Office of the Legal Adviser for the State Department. Tom worked for the CIA and liaised with State.
Jonathan had just heard the news that Jackson Broke seemed to be missing in action.
“He hasn’t reported in?”
“No.” Tom looked uncomfortable and tried to hide it by crossing his legs. “I can’t call him. I don’t know his situation, but if he’s in a tight spot at the moment, calling his cellphone could be dangerous for him.”
“But you can locate it. Where is he?”
“We show him still on the boat. The boat is north of Grenaa and isn’t moving. That’s all we’re sure of.”
“Dammit! You’d better get on this. This is your problem, you and your damned agency’s, and I want to know where we stand. State can’t be compromised. What’s going on? Do we need to pull Jackson out? I need information. You have one hour. One. Do you read me? Then I push this upstairs and heads will roll. No doubt about whose will roll first and farthest.”
“Loud and clear, sir, but remember, Jackson may work for us, but you were the one who chose him for this.”
“At your recommendation. One hour. Find out. And if you think you can turn the blame onto me, you have no idea of the shit that’s going to fall on you. You think you can threaten me with this, this fiasco! This is your fuckup, not mine! You’d better have good news for me sooner rather than later. I can assure you, your job is on the line here—and possible departmental charges. That’s what you need to know if you’re reading me at all. And telling me he was my choice and so my problem, well, you just made a bad mistake, Mr. Asher. One hour!”
Without another word, Tom was on his feet and walking out the door. His head wasn’t bowed, however, and there was no slump in his posture.
> ( <
“Argh!” Jan was pissed off. “A secret? Come off it! We’re talking about my life, too! You trust me, don’t you? You know I’m not into whatever this is; I can’t be. Think about it. You picked my boat to ride on. I’d been crewing on it for months. I didn’t just join so I could be on it with you. I certainly didn’t save you to get your trust! Are you nuts? I could have been shot along with everyone else. Why do you need to keep anything a secret from me? I’ve helped you so far. You don’t seem able to think ahead. You just want to keep doing what you were told, even though it keeps almost getting you killed.”
He paused for a second, then sat up straighter and shouted, “Fuck this! You don’t want me to know things that might help keep us alive? Okay, fine. I’ll go my own way when we get to Hamburg. Much safer for me. I’ll get a job there. I speak German; we’re in Germany now; I’ll be fine. Probably meet some people with a bit more imagination than you have, maybe even ones who aren’t as reluctant to trust someone. Hey, you can let me out anywhere. Right here. Fuck this! Just drop me at the side of the road. You’re the most ungrateful, most untrusting —well, I know the word for you in Danish and German. Nothing bad enough in English. But, screw you! Let me out.”
The words fell on Jackson like the lash of a whip. He didn’t stop the car; he drove on, staring at the road in front of him. He was silent for several minutes, just thinking. And getting a grip on his emotions.
When he did speak, it was in a very quiet voice. He had to struggle to keep his emotions out of it. “I grew up with a very strict father,” he said. “He wasn’t abusive; at least, that wasn’t his intention. He didn’t mean to be. He never hit me physically; he just wanted more of me than I could give him. So, he was disappointed in me all the time. I saw that, and I tried. I really tried, but I couldn’t meet his expectations.
“He was a very intelligent man, highly educated, and he never found fulfillment in his life. His personality kept him from landing anything but low-level, menial jobs. He took out his frustrations on me, pushing me to achieve what he wasn’t able to. I was an easy target for his frustrations.
“I was always a compliant kid. No surprise that I grew up to be a compliant adult. Some kids are feisty and independent and iconoclastic. I have a brother, a much younger one, who’s like that. Same gene pool, yet we’re completely different. I hardly know him because of the age difference, but he and the old man couldn’t abide each other. I just went with the flow, as they say. Dad pushed and I yielded; I nodded and accepted what he told me to do. Life was easier that way, even if not much fun, and it was not in my nature to rebel or even make a fuss. I always chose the easy way out.”
Jackson brushed his hair back from over his eyebrows, a gesture he made when he was upset. “Dad wanted me to follow the rules. Do everything by the book. Not take chances. Not color outside the lines. That’s what I did. I got top grades in school and college because he made sure I spent all my time studying and because that was what he expected of me. Nothing else mattered to him. Friends, sports, parties, leisure time—none of these were part of my life. He wanted me to achieve what he never had, and I was his vicarious exemplar. So, I studied and lived the image he thought would show the world what he himself was. That was my life.
“That’s still who I am. I do what I’m told. I think that’s why I got the job I did with the government. I had top results in college; the government recruits those people. They tell you what they want done and how to do it, and that’s perfect for me. This assignment? It was all laid out in detail for me. And I’ve been following it, step by step. Just like I always did for my dad. You’re right; you see things much more clearly than I do, and are more independent that I could ever be.
“Continuing on the path I’m on could get me killed. I see that. Yet I find it almost impossible to think for myself, to make my own decisions, and to jettison my handler’s directions by stepping off the path he’s laid in front of me.”
He shook his head. “Most people look to an objective and let that be their goal. They can find different ways to reach it, and they look for the way that’ll work the best for them. I don’t look that far ahead. I look at the next step I’ve been told to take, and by God, come hell or high water, that’s the step I take.”
Jackson took a deep breath. He knew Jan was looking at him, but he never moved his eyes in that direction. It wasn’t till a mile later that he’d settled himself and could continue speaking.
“You’re the exact opposite, like most people are. “I’ve never had the courage to do other than what I was told. I was conditioned that way. Anytime I didn’t do exactly what my dad told me to, well, I never got that far. I couldn’t take the disappointment I saw. When really upset, he didn’t yell, he didn’t belittle. Instead, he went silent. He brooded. And I hated being the cause of that.
“Doing what I’m told is ingrained in me now. An authority figure tells me what to do—and I do it.
“It’s all pretty black and white for me, here with you. The choice I have now is to change or perhaps die. Sounds extreme, but it’s what’s there in front of me, what it’s you’re telling me. I’m not sure that I can change, but I know what you’re saying makes sense.
“If I go along with you, you’ll have to stay right on top of me. It almost hurts to say this, but I’ll need to drastically change my way, and I don’t think I can do that without a lot of help. So, what I’ll try to do is go along with what you advise. It’s going to be hard, but I really don’t want to die yet.”
Jan nodded. “Okay then. You must be ten years older than I am, but I’ll be in charge from now on.” He grinned. This was as new to him as it was to Jackson, but it wasn’t strange for him, either, and it didn’t worry him at all. He liked being in charge. He trusted his judgment. He’d been on his own for a long time now and never had accepted orders from others gladly.
That wasn’t in his makeup. The decisions he’d made had almost always been the right ones. Even working on the boat, he’d done as he decided to do. And it had worked because of how terse the captain had been. He’d given very few orders after Jan knew his job. He left how Jan went about his job up to Jan. That was how they got along, and what made Jan happy.
“I guess the first thing for you to do is let me in on what you‘re doing and why. It’s hard to keep us safe if I’m in the dark about what’s going on.”
Jackson didn’t respond. Jan waited.
“This is difficult,” Jackson finally said.
“Dying would be, too.”
“Okay, okay. I need to change, difficult or not. I’m probably breaking all sorts of laws, but here goes. I’m carrying a document that outlines a new agreement between the U.S. and the UK in the event of the use of nuclear weapons by other nations. Our President and Secretary of Defense have signed it and I’m taking it to the UK for signatures there from the Prime Minister and the British Secretary of State for Defense. They’ll sign and keep it, and I’ll take a copy back to the States.”
Jackson was thinking Jan would be shocked. Instead, he showed no emotion at all. “And what’s next? You must be headed for London. How are you to get there from where we are now?”
Once started, Jackson found it easier to continue. “I’m to fly from Hamburg to Manchester. We’re headed to the airport in Hamburg right now. I get on a plane that leaves in a few hours from now. It’s all scheduled. I pick up the ticket at the airport counter. There’ll be someone waiting in Manchester to drive me to London and get me in to see the Prime Minister and the Secretary.”
Jan considered that. “So if we don’t use that driver in Manchester, you won’t have access to the guys you’re supposed to see in London?”
“That’s right.”
“We’ll have to figure that part out. But we won’t be flying from Hamburg to Manchester. We don’t want people knowing where you are, where you’re going next, and certainly don’t want you meeting people we don’t know are safe.
“These people arranged for you to meet up with Mikkel; we just barely survived meeting him. So no more doing what they want you to do. We won’t follow the path they’ve arranged. We’ll find another way. Tell me, do you have money?”
“Yeah, they gave me $5,000. Said it was for contingencies. I’m supposed to bring it back with receipts for any expenditures.”
“Fuck that. We’re running for our lives. Receipts? Hah! Okay, well, we can travel any way we want. But not what they expect. We do have a problem, though. I don’t think we can knock on the PM’s door and say, ‘Hey there, we’re from the U.S. President come to call on the Prime Minister with a special-delivery document.’ Yeah, they’d let us right in for sure. No, we have to think of something else.”
“I know. This is going to be difficult.” Jackson’s face lit up. “Hey, I know what to do. I’m already late checking in with my handler. I’ll tell him what’s what. He can talk to his boss, and they can arrange for us to get access to the prime minister.”
Then the smile evaporated. “Oh, shit. I don’t have my phone. It was in the coat I took off on the boat. They’ll kill me for losing that.”
Jan shook his head, throwing Jackson a disgusted look. “Not having your phone may save your life, Jackson. It’s on the boat and not on you. They could trace you using the phone if you still had it. Now they can’t.”
“But I can’t check in!”
“You don’t want to check in. You really don’t get it, do you? Your handler and/or his boss are prime suspects. Who could tell the people trying to kill you exactly where you are better than either or both of those two? No, we leave them out of it. We’ll find a way to get to the Prime Minister on our own.”
“How?”
“I haven’t figured that out yet. But tell me about this phone. Did you have all sorts of confidential info on it? Like where you’re going, what you’re carrying, and who you work for?”
“No, it was only for checking in and for them to call me if they needed to. And probably, as you said, trace where I am. Even the number I’d call when checking in wouldn’t help anyone. It connects to a cut-out. I call, give a coded number to whoever answers, and they connect me to my handler. The phone would be useless to anyone else.”
“Okay. That’s not a problem, then. Only worry we have is how to deliver your document. That’ll take some creative thinking: how to do that without any more contact with the people who sent you.”
Jackson didn’t respond. He felt torn between leaving the assumed safety of following all the rules and the weird excitement of actually being on his own for the first time in decades.
> ( <
Tom Asher was back in Jonathan’s office, but he wasn’t sitting this time. He was standing in front of Jonathan’s desk. “Bad news. I had the trace checked, then called someone. The boat ran aground north of Grenaa and is still sitting there. All aboard are dead, including the agent traveling on it who was assigned to watch Jackson. Jackson isn’t among the dead. His coat is there along with his phone. We don’t know if he’s been abducted or is running free. We don’t know the whereabouts of the document.”
Jonathan rose from his desk. His face was bright red. “You’re so fucked. So are we. Find Jackson. That’s your job now, and you better do it damned fast. Find the document and retrieve it. Cover up our involvement with the deaths on the boat. Go.”
Tom turned and left the office.
> ( <
Jan sat in the front seat staring out the side window. He wasn’t seeing the German countryside. He was thinking. Eventually he turned to Jackson. “The Prime Minister must know you’re coming. That you’re delivering a document he’s agreed to sign. So, this might not be as impossible as we thought. Still, I don’t think we should just show up at the door to 10 Downing Street and knock.”
He turned to look directly at Jackson. “What I’m thinking we need is someone who has access to the big guy who we can talk to and get to arrange for us to get in. I don’t know anyone in England except some schoolboys from long ago, and they’d be unlikely to be able to help anyway. What about you?”
Jackson considered it but shook his head. “I know my brother Tyler is going to school there, but that’s all. I don’t even know how to get hold of him. I told you, he and our father were at war with each other, and Tyler and I were never close. My father finally sent him to a boarding school in England. Different continent. I’m surprised it wasn’t to China; the further away, the better. So Tyler is here in Europe, England I think, but I’m sure he isn’t having tea with the Prime Minister.”
Jan thought about that, then asked, “What school is he in?”
“I think it’s something called Harrow and I think it’s somewhere near London. I don’t know anything about English schools. As I said, my brother and I aren’t close. There’s the age separation for starters, and he saw me caving to my father while he always put up a fight, even when young. But he saw how I acted with our father, caving to all his demands, and Tyler started looking at me contemptuously when he was still young, just seven or eight. I’m ten years older. We never had much to do with each other.”
Jan studied Jackson, then said, “I’ve heard of Harrow. It’s an elite UK school that has the kids of the important politicians and celebs.”
Jackson nodded. “No surprise there. My father would want the best, not for Tyler but for his own rep, so he could say his son is in blah-blah-whatever school. The more famous, the better. If this Harrow place is famous, it makes sense that he’d send Tyler there if he could get a scholarship. He’d certainly need a full scholarship. I think he had to take a written exam, too. But Tyler is mega-smart. He must have passed that exam with flying colors. Being smart is why he and Dad fight so much; Tyler can argue as critically and scathingly as Dad can, which drives Dad crazy. He doesn’t know how to handle a son who’s as smart as he is.”
Jan said, “I think Harrow is somewhere in the vicinity of London, just like Eton is. It’s possible Tyler knows someone, another student, maybe, whose dad knows the Prime Minister. We need to talk to Tyler.”