The Fall by R. J. Pineiro

Author:R. J. Pineiro
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781466853478
Publisher: St. Martin's Press

10

REVELATIONS

And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free.

—John 8:32

They sat alone in the hotel room waiting for his handler.

Riggs—though that wasn’t his real name—had already made the call, using a disposable phone, per protocol, signaling the need for field extraction for both of them.

The call to break cover had been difficult for the deep undercover agent, who’d spent almost three years under Hastings’s rule, trying to gather evidence while working his way to become head of the general’s private guard.

But Hastings had already warned him once, after letting Angela escape.

And as he had told Pete in that VIP office, The General never warns you twice.

Riggs’s promotion, Pete had learned later—after escaping together to alert Angela of the team headed for Dr. Wiltz’s house—had come at the cost of the removal of his predecessor when he had managed to disappoint Hastings twice.

“And Hastings made me … kill the guy,” he told Pete, sitting in a reclining chair. “While I was videotaped.”

Pete made a face. “He taped you killing someone?”

Riggs nodded. “That’s the ultimate test of loyalty. After that, he pretty much owns you. And there were others I also had to … before I could earn enough of his trust.”

“That’s … insane,” Pete said.

The large agent, who still looked as if he was genetically engineered, turned his chiseled face away from him, blue eyes staring into the distance.

“Well, it might be crazy, but it’s straight out of the teachings from Hitler’s Mein Kampf and Sun Tzu’s Art of War. Hastings is the ultimate paranoid and has the goods on every single individual under his command, from his militia to his scientists and especially his politicians. And he has his own internal Gestapo-like team spying on everyone to enforce compliance.”

He paused, crossing his legs, staring at his hands as he flexed them into fists before adding, “His reach is deep, Pete. Very deep. Built slowly, methodically, over many, many years. There’s even word he’s planted his own people in the FBI, the CIA, and the NSA. Besides owning half of the Pentagon, the rumor is that Hastings also owns people in Congress, the Department of Justice, and even the White House. That’s why the man’s remained in power for almost two decades, administration after administration. He’s literally untouchable.”

Pete shook his head, having a difficult time believing a conspiracy of this magnitude.

“What’s he after with Project Phoenix?”

Riggs shook his head. “That’s the thing. Only Hastings knows the big picture. After three years in his operation, all I can tell you is that the general has managed to pull together quite the team of experts to develop unheard-of technology that he believes will give him an unprecedented advantage. I heard him once comment to someone he owns in the U.S. Senate that he would eventually have the power that Adolf Hitler would have had if his own scientists could have produced nuclear ballistic missiles in 1942.”

Pete just stared back at him.

“But I know little beyond that. Again, the man’s very careful and trusts no one but himself.

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