words in the phone were “I’ll wait on the warden.” He hung up.
Mark looked up. “Well, did you get it done?”
Troy sat down in the chair and put the phone back in his pocket. “The governor of Georgia should be calling the warden in a few minutes to tell him to release you into my custody immediately.”
Mark sat up a little. “Really!”
“Really. You got anything in your cell that needs to be retrieved, anybody you want to say goodbye to?”
“No. I’m ready to go. And the money we discussed?”
“Good to go. We’ll go by the FBI’s evidence room in DC and take a million right off the top of whatever drug money they’ve ceased. There will never be any record of you anywhere, anytime. You’re a ghost from now on.”
“I assume I will have no problem being issued multiple passports or driver’s licenses.”
“Nope. Straight from the State Department.”
“Weapons?”
“You’re on your own.”
“That will be hard with a felony charge. You gonna erase my record?”
“Too much trouble. You can use one of your false identities. I’ll even get you a concealed carry permit.”
“What happens if I decide I don’t want to do this anymore?”
Troy’s smile faded away, and he got a very serious look on his face. “You will pick up your prison sentence right where you leave it today.”
“No consideration for the things I fix between now and then?”
“There’s always consideration. It depends on when you want to quit as to how things are handled. Six months from now and you’ll be right back here immediately. Twenty years from now and I am sure we’ll thank you for your service and tell you to have a nice life. You disappear between now and then and someone will come visit you when you least expect it. Catch my drift.”
“Yeah, I ain’t stupid.”
“I know you’re not.”
“What about the time in between fixes?”
“We’ll give you a sat phone that’s untraceable you can keep. The down time is all yours. You can live where you want. Date who you want and do what you want. You have to stay out of trouble, this ain’t a license to do whatever you want. You have to be available fairly quickly, and you have to accept what we give you. It’s just that simple.”
“How many other guys out there like me?”
“None in this role. There are other programs, but this is a brand-new deal. As the world around us becomes more and more insane, the more we need someone like you to end things that otherwise would just keep going until they were serious problems.”
“What guarantees do I have that when the shit hits the fan somewhere, I won’t be left holding the bag?”
Troy folded his hands across his lap. “None. There are no guarantees. If it’s here in the States, we won’t let you go to jail for anything sanctioned. Abroad is a little different.”
Mark threw his left arm in the air in protest. “Well, that’s bullshit. You’re gonna let me sit in some jail in Turkey and rot.”
“Mark, that’s why I picked you. Your military training, your investigative skills, your weapons knowledge, and your ability to fight like you do make you the perfect guy. Nothing we give you will be immediate action required. You’ll have time to research, plan, and execute to make sure you don’t get caught. We’ll help you with any agency you need. NSA, CIA, FBI, State Department, you name it, and you can get access to information or help. Those agencies just can’t carry out what has to be done. There has to be separation. Do you understand?”
“Yeah, I understand. I just don’t want to get left behind somewhere doing the government’s business because some administration in the White House frowns upon what I did. You get what I mean?”
“I do. We’ll take care of you. You take care of us, and we’ll take care of you.”
The warden, the head guard, and several others came walking into the hospital ward just then. The door slammed against the wall as they came through it.
The warden came up to Mark’s bed and looked at Troy as he stood. “Are you Troy Place?”
“Yes, sir.” He stuck out his hand.
The warden didn’t take it. “Mr. Farmer, somehow you have managed to get yourself some pretty strong friends. The governor of Georgia just called me and said to release you to Mr. Place here.”
Mark held up his cuffed wrist. “Can you take these off me?”
The warden turned to the head guard. “Get this asshole out of my prison right now.”
The warden walked out of the room and slammed the door behind him. The head guard walked over and uncuffed Mark. He turned and stuck out his hand to Troy. “I’m Officer Spivey, don’t mind him. He doesn’t like it when somebody tells him what to do.”
Troy smiled and shook his hand. “I’m sure. Do you need me to sign anything, Officer Spivey?”
“No, apparently the governor told the warden that he was to release Mark immediately without any delay. The paperwork would come when he got around to it and hung up. You must know some pretty important people.”
“Yeah, the president of the United States is a pretty important guy. People usually jump when he calls.”
The guard turned to Mark. “Who the hell are you really?”
Mark was trying to stand without his ribs puncturing a lung. “Nobody, man.”
The head guard helped Mark stand. He gave him a pair of shoes to wear and stuck out his hand. “I appreciate what you did in here. Senator Sloan was a friend of mine. Got me my job here a long time ago. What they did to his daughter was awful. That asshole you killed deserved it. I owe you one if you ever need it.”
Mark looked at Troy, and he smiled. “Making a difference already.”
Chapter 4
The Problem
Henry Sutter transferred a hundred thousand dollars to the account of the United Front Against Politics, UFAP, for the third time. They were his favorite group for bringing violence to any protest that was happening. They had a radical group of followers that never seemed to care about bloodshed for no reason.
Henry hated the United States and, in particular, its latest president. He had grown up poor in London. His mother had left him on the streets there at age six. He never saw her again. He never knew who his father was. He snuck his way onto a cargo ship coming to America when he was eight. In New York, he was scooped up by children and family services and found himself in an orphanage a week later. He was in the system,
