Alex And Cassidy: Betrayal Part 29

"No. I don't."

"I think," she cooed. "You are just like me." He stared at her blankly. "You aren't fooling me, Congressman. What is it that has you so upset? The fact that the boy is not yours?" His jaw stiffened. "Um-hmm," she smiled. "That's what I thought."

"Claire..."

"The fact that she actually was with someone else." Brackett's smile grew and she nodded. "Not the picture perfect Christmas card after all," she teased.

"Shut up, Claire."

"Oh, Chris," she pushed him back on the bed. "Do you really miss her that much?" He looked up at her and licked his lips. "No?"

"Do you miss Agent Toles?" he shot back.

"Oh....I think we both know we are where we should be."

"Where is that?" he asked.

"Congressman," she whispered as she unb.u.t.toned his shirt. "Love or power?"

"What?" he asked trying to focus as she undressed him.

"It's a simple question. Love or power?" She pulled back slightly and regarded the questions in his eyes, smiling seductively. "One thing my father did teach me, Congressman; you cannot have both. Either you love or you love power. Which is it?"

His expression changed slightly and revealed the slight twinkle in his eye. "He is my son, Claire."

"No, he's not," she grinned. The congressman's head was spinning and his heart was racing with the attractive agent methodically seducing him. "Emotional entanglements equal compromise. Information equals power," she whispered in his ear and then began leaving a trail of kisses down his chest. "You are free of one." He closed his eyes momentarily until he felt her absence. Opening his eyes, he found her hovering above him. "So?" He kissed her fully and she pulled away with a smile. "That's what I thought."

Alex sat at the kitchen table weeding through a stack of doc.u.ments with Brian Fallon watching closely. "What is it you think is in there?" he asked.

"I don't know what's in here, Fallon. If I did I wouldn't be sitting here looking at this mess."

Fallon picked up a piece of paper and shook his head. "There's more blacked out on this than there is written."

Alex kept her gaze focused on the paper. "And?"

Her partner shook his head. "Anyway, you are supposed to be resting. Ca.s.sidy is going to kill me when she finds us here."

"Nah, she won't. I was given clearance to do puzzles."

"What?" he asked.

"I said, the doctor told me I could do puzzles," Alex smirked.

"I doubt that this is what she meant." Alex shrugged. "So," Fallon began. "You think President Merrow was involved in something."

Alex clenched her jaw as her thumb moved to press on her temple. "I don't think anything."

"I don't understand."

Alex sighed and finally lifted her gaze. "Fallon, he was. What it was and what he was doing; that I don't know. It got him killed, so whatever it was, it wasn't good."

He looked back down at the sheet of paper in his hands and began studying it again. His brow twitched and he squinted in concentration. "Alex?"

"Hum?"

"You never knew Admiral Brackett?"

"The Pentagon is a big place, Fallon." Her partner sneered at her. "Really big," she opened her eyes wide for effect and laughed.

"Alex?"

"What?"

"Look at this." Alex accepted the paper from her partner's hand and began to study it. She scanned it several times before riffling through a stack of papers in front of her and retrieving another page. "Do you think it means anything?"

"Son of a b.i.t.c.h."

"I guess that means yes," he surmised. Alex pressed the heels of her hands into her temples and let out an audible groan. "Alex," Fallon began cautiously. "There's a lot blacked out there...."

"Yeah, there is. Sometimes what is missing tells the story, Fallon."

"What would Somalia have to do with Merrow?" he asked.

"Specifically, you mean?" He nodded. "Nothing...probably. But, it's certainly an interesting path to follow."

"This is from 2004, Alex."

Alex nodded again and set the papers down. She pulled out her chair slightly. "Yeah....Fallon, let's just say that SPHINX was more than a mission to work with the locals and a.s.sess potential threats. That's just what we were told."

"You mean when you were in Iraq?"

Alex got up from her chair and walked to the back door, needing to move and a brief change of scenery. "Let's say that our efforts were just a bonus to the actual objective."

"I don't," he began as his partner pressed on the bridge of her nose with some force. Alex felt sick. "Toles?" The agent kept her back to her partner. She rubbed her eyes and attempted to process her suspicions. "Alex?"

"Fallon, look at the second page." He retrieved the second page of the doc.u.ment and focused on it. His eyes traveled slowly over the paper but he remained unsure what it was that Alex wanted him to notice. "You see that word; the one that looks out of place? Look, Fallon. What word looks out of place?"

"WASHTUB?".

"Yeah, right, WASHTUB. Do you know what WASHTUB was?" He remained silent, shaking his head.

Alex turned slowly. "It was a CIA project in the 1950s."

"You really do watch too much X-Files," he rolled his eyes.

"It's not a joke, Fallon. WASHTUB was the codename for an operation that planted fake Soviet arms off the coast of Nicaragua. It was part of an effort, disinformation. The intention was to tie the Guatemalan government to communism. The objective was to overthrow the Guatemalan president."

"Alex, what the h.e.l.l would that have to do with anything in Somalia or Iraq?"

"Do you know, Fallon; what two of the most lucrative businesses in the world are today?" He stared at her. Alex chuckled and looked to the ceiling. "Arms and drugs, Fallon....arms and drugs."

"I really am not following you."

"Do you know what prompted WASHTUB?" she asked him.

"I would imagine it has something to do with communists. I do recall a bit of that in my history lessons," he smiled.

"Mm." Alex let out another heavy sigh. "Bananas."

"Excuse me?"

"Bananas."

"Alex, you lost me."

"Fallon, the world is and has always been about money. Today it's drugs and weapons....back then, well in Central America it was bananas....and guns."

"Okay?"

Alex walked back to the table and pointed to the two pieces of paper. "If you want to keep your customers happy, you keep them in control. The money flows to them; the money flows to you. Right? Let's say WASHTUB was repurposed."

"What?" Fallon was perplexed.

Alex sat down. "Back in the 1950s Fallon, there was a move to reform land ownership in Guatemala. Ever heard of United Fruit?"

"Fruit? Alex...."

Alex shook her head. "Doesn't matter the details. The point is, Fallon, the president of Guatemala committed to redistribute land ownership away from United Fruit and back to the Guatemalan farmers; to reduce dependency on foreign business. That was not a popular platform. It got him ousted....and the CIA was central in ensuring that. It's about money."

"I still don't...."

"Well, the attempt was to tie him to the communists. Follow?" Alex laughed. "Same deal, Fallon. You want to keep moving your guns? Keep moving your drugs? What do you do?" He shook his head. "You tie your opposition to your enemy. 1950s it was communists. Now? It's terrorists."

"Why WASHTUB?"

"Back then, it probably had more to do with the submarine cover story they used...who knows? NOW, great word... WASHTUB. Wash it clean."

"You mean money laundering." Alex raised her eyebrow in confirmation. "You don't actually believe that SPHINX is about running guns?"

"A lot more than guns I suspect."

"And President Merrow?" he asked.

Alex sighed. The picture was coming into clearer focus, at least part of it. She couldn't be certain what it meant yet and she couldn't be certain how far back it went; but John Merrow's need for her to dig was beginning to make sense and she did not like the way the puzzle was coming together. "I think," Alex said as she rose to her feet again and made her way back to the window. "I think, that John was CIA. And, I think that our small team's work served a different purpose than Taylor and I were led to believe."

"You think John Merrow was running...."

"I think we need to keep looking. Somalia, Yemen, Chile, Hungary....All mentioned. You're right; there is a lot blacked out. There is still enough visible to see in the light of day, Fallon." Alex rubbed her face and shook her head again as her voice dropped to a whisper. "Jesus, John."

"Alex...John Merrow..."

"Fallon, in this business no one is ever who they appear to be, no one."

"What does that say for us?"

Alex nodded. "I don't know, Brian. I really don't know."

"Toles, you seriously think John was working under CIA directives?" Alex blew out the breath she had been holding as she watched Brian Fallon's car pull away. "Hey, Toles....you there?"

"Yeah, Taylor...I'm here."

"You ask Krause?" Taylor asked.

"No. Not yet," she answered.

"You think Jane knows?"

Alex sighed again. "She might suspect."

"Even if you are right. What would that have to do with Mutanabbi?"

"I think you know. I think we were set up."

"Jesus.....You think it's all related? I mean to the a.s.sa.s.sination?" Taylor felt sick.

"Taylor, you and I both know it's all related."

"We can set up additional taps...look at..."

Alex took a deep breath. "Listening and reading isn't going to solve this one, Taylor."

"Toles..."

"You and I both know there is only one way to dig into this one."

"You want to go off the grid." There was no response. "Toles..."

"I can't go off the grid, Taylor. At least not right now and I can't break this on my own. We need someone closer."

"You want to use Krause. Toles, how can you be sure you can trust him?"

"I'm not sure. I am sure that's the best choice we have if we want to find out what is really going on." She paused and felt the weight of her suspicions falling on her. "If I want to keep Dylan and Ca.s.s safe."

"You don't think O'Brien is CIA?"

Alex laughed. "Hardly, but he's connected to Brackett."

"Toles....You don't think the colonel was still CIA...I mean when...."