EXFIL by Anthony Patton (best books to read non fiction TXT) 📗

dusted off his hands before opening the back door, and entered as a cute Thai girl hopped into the back seat from the other side.

“Excuse me,” he said.

“Oh hey,” she said innocently, “I didn’t see you! Are you from the embassy? I’ve never seen you at Club Ecstasy.”

Johnson looked at her curiously. “Why would you think I’ve been to Club Ecstasy?” This was no coincidence.

“All the soldiers go there,” she said and stroked the fade around his ears. “What are you doing here?”

“I’m here on business,” he said. The driver looked back with a shrug—where to?

Johnson gestured for him to be patient, eager to see where this was going.

“I’m investigating something for the embassy,” he said to the girl.

“An investigator,” she said and touched her heart with a gasp. “I hear they are investigating some of the Americans who go to the club.”

Johnson gestured again for the driver to be patient. “Do you know the names?”

She tilted her head. “Captain Howard.”

“Do you know Captain Howard?” he asked.

“Not me,” she said, “but I know someone who does. If we go to the club now, you can talk to her.”

Johnson turned to the taxi driver. “To the airport, with a stop at Club Ecstasy.”

As they drove through the busy streets of Bangkok, Johnson analyzed this odd coincidence—what had to happen to make this chance encounter possible—as she flirted and suggested they could have a lot of fun at the club for a good price. She slid closer, kissed him on the cheek, and attempted to caress his crotch with a devilish grin. He checked his phone—pictures, videos, and text messages—to ensure there was nothing incriminating.

At Club Ecstasy, Johnson grabbed his luggage and followed the girl inside, where she gestured for him to sit and wait at a table. For early afternoon, there were a surprising number of customers looking for fun, mostly middle-aged men in tropical garb. He popped open his bottle of aspirin.

“Hey babe,” a passing waitress said, “get you a drink?”

“Water, please,” he said. She handed him a draft beer in a clear plastic cup from her tray and walked to the next customer. He shrugged and washed down the aspirin, then chugged half of the beer before setting it down. His taxi friend arrived with a dancer with silky black hair, wearing jeans and a skin-tight shirt. They sat and joined him.

“Are you investigating Captain Howard?” she asked.

“Do you have information about him?” he asked.

She nodded confidently. “He was here with Lance,” she said. “I was sitting on his lap.”

“She means Colonel Reed,” his taxi friend said.

Johnson opened his notepad. “Anything else?”

She nodded. “I asked Captain Howard if he wanted this pussy—that is what we say around here to sound sexy for the Americans.”

Johnson jotted this down and gestured for her to continue.

“He did not seem interested,” she continued, “but Lance—I mean, Colonel Reed—said get your ass back there…that’s an order.”

“What, he said it…exactly like that?” he asked, skeptical that she’d remember an exact quote.

She nodded and left in a hurry.

He dialed a number on his phone, finished his beer, and leaned back in the chair.

“Hey, it’s me,” he said and listened. “I’ll give you my full report when I get back, but I just spoke with a woman who claimed that Colonel Reed pressured Captain Howard to have sex with a dancer. She sounded coached.” He listened and nodded. “I know this whole thing was unusual from the beginning, but something’s not adding up.” He nodded again, leaned forward, and ended the call. His taxi friend did a sexy dance and gestured to the back rooms. He shook his head and wheeled his luggage outside to the cab.

TWENTY-THREE

Time and again, it’s not the crime, it’s the cover-up. If I were to confess my misdeeds with Jewel and Anna and report the recruitment pitch, we could get ahead of the story and judo-throw it back to China in our favor.

Jade Envy would be sent home after being given a final chance to work for us, and Anna would face a criminal investigation, which would help us prevent future cyberattacks.

I would be commended for my willingness to come clean, but would face disciplinary action and would never wear the rank of brigadier general.

No doubt I’d be allowed to retire to avoid any embarrassment for the Army, and seek a defense contractor job to sock away money for the kids’ college fund. Of course, I would have to live with the shame of a divorce and being blamed for Captain Howard’s suicide.

It’s human nature to take profits too early or allow losses to run. Our emotions, primarily fear and greed, struggle with the bell curve of risk management. Counterintelligence problems were not like good wine; this wouldn’t get better with time.

However, there was one way to keep this operation on track and salvage my future, but only if something undesirable were first allowed to pass, like sacrificing a pawn to take the queen. Sometimes, we are in so deep that even a minute chance of returning to the surface outweighs the likelier outcome of sinking deeper. If you receive a life sentence without parole, a double life sentence doesn’t feel much worse.

As I drove to the urgent meeting I’d requested with Lewis, Brett, and Nguyen, I continued my risk analysis in search of clarity. Should I confess or lash myself tighter into my web of deception? In the final analysis, I concluded that I couldn’t live without Beth and the boys and decided that my plan was my best move. Not to mention, my plan also had escape hatches along the way, so it would be difficult to make a case against me in the fog of war.

The chaos and confusion would be my way out because people had been programmed to doubt conspiracy theories, even if the evidence was clear for all to see.

As I entered Cyber Command and walked to Lewis’s office, I felt more confident about my plan and repeated the story in my