Chapter 6 - The Interrogation in the Sky
Ten minutes later, the twin-rotor Black Hawk helicopter lifted off from the fairway of the country club, banking hard into the stormy night sky toward Washington, D.C.
Inside the soundproofed command cabin, I sat at the central tactical console beside General Vance and Captain Callahan.
Mark sat across from us in a tactical flight harness, watching the banks of glowing satellite displays and encrypted telemetry streams that illuminated the dark cabin.
"The two hostiles recovered from the residence carried biometric markers linking them to the Kronos Syndicate," Captain Callahan reported, sliding a tablet across the console. "The leak did not come from an external cyber intrusion, Director. It came from within the Department of Transportation's maritime licensing registry."
I zoomed in on the transaction logs. "Someone cross-referenced my civilian shipping cover identity with the executive clearances for the Port of New York."
"We identified the IP address ten minutes ago," General Vance stated, his jaw tight. "The search was initiated from the private office of Harold Sterling—Mark's father-in-law's firm in Stamford."
Mark's head snapped up, his breath seizing in his throat. "Harold Sterling? My mother's brother-in-law? He’s a commercial real estate developer!"
"He's also forty million dollars in debt to offshore European syndicates, Mark," I said, my voice calm and analytical. "When Kronos was looking for the identity of the intelligence director who seized their container fleet in the Adriatic, Harold sold my civilian logistics file to clear his margin debts."
Mark closed his eyes, his fists clenching until the knuckles turned white against his flight suit. "He used our family to pay off his criminal debts. He sent those men to my mother's house."
I placed a hand on Mark's shoulder.
"We don't get angry in this division, Mark," I said softly. "We execute the mission."
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I turned to Captain Callahan.
"Reroute the second tactical team to Harold Sterling's estate in Stamford. Seal all exits, freeze his foreign assets, and bring him to the federal facility in Alexandria before dawn."
