Conspiracy: A New Jack Reynolds Novel

By Joseph Clinard

A group of right-wing, inside-the-Beltway, zealots are planning a major holocaustic-type event that will change the face of America and the worlds economy forever. Who these evil-doers are, and the scientific electro-magnetic cyber process they will deploy, must be stopped at all costs. Enter Jack Reynolds, his son Sam and the always reliable and trustworthy private detective and sidekick, Danny Lorenzo and the perpetrators are pressured to launch their missiles early and flee the country. In a non-stop, action-filled adventure, author Joseph Clinard once again brings to the reader his latest tale of quintessential Jack Reynolds intrigue, his beautiful Italian nemesis, and a new and sexy love interest from the Pentagon. The result is a fast-paced tale which keeps the reader on the edge of his seat as the venue moves from Washington D.C., through the Arizona desert and finally to Mexicos Cabo peninsula and a powerful, decisive ending. Read Conspiracy, the newest and possibly the most exciting Jack Reynolds epic yet.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: May 7, 2013
• ISBN: 9781481740333

Joseph Clinard

JOSEPH CLINARD, a financial advisor by occupation, has written and published five novels of adventure and intrigue while developing a strong following of fans in the process. In addition to this avocation, Joe loves golf and travel as well as boating on New York’s Long Island Sound. Not quite old enough for retirement, he happily mixes business and these pleasures with much aplomb.

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© 2013 Joseph Clinard. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

Published by AuthorHouse 5/6/2013

ISBN: 978-1-4817-4034-0 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4817-4032-6 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-4817-4033-3 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2013906545

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models,

and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

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Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid.

The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

CONTENTS

PROLOGUE

CAST OF CHARACTERS

INTRODUCTION

PART ONE

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

19

20

21

22

23

24

25

26

27

28

29

30

31

32

33

34

35

36

PART TWO

37

38

39

40

41

42

43

44

45

46

47

48

49

PART THREE

50

51

52

53

54

55

56

57

58

59

PART FOUR

60

61

62

63

64

65

66

67

68

69

70

71

72

73

74

75

76

77

78

79

80

81

82

83

84

85

86

87

EPILOGUE

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

BOOKS BY

JOSEPH CLINARD

TRANSFERENCE

THE CUMMINGS LEGACY

THE AVENTI CIPHER

THE TSUNAMI FACTOR

CONSPIRACY

SHORT STORIES BY

JOSEPH CLINARD

THE COUPLE

CHARLIE O

DUNMORE THROOP, Ph.D

ROTH XLI718

(The above soon to be compiled into

a book entitled, "Love times Four"

and will be published)

COMPILED BY

JOSEPH CLINARD

JOE’S (FAVORITE) JOKES

(Soon to be published)

POETRY BY

JOSEPH CLINARD

POEMS OF LOVE

(Unpublished)

PROLOGUE

Electricity was first used in America in the year 1879. Up until that time life was not easy for most Americans. The United States was between wars and nearly everyone was poor, but with exceptions. Class distinction was broad and obvious; falling into two basic categories. Although substantially in the minority, the few multi-millionaires were the noblemen and aristocrats of the time and lived opulently. Some barons attributed their fortunes to the great land grab of the western expansion. Some built and operated the railroads that carried goods from the Chicago stockyards to the east and the New York harbor. Or they cheated Native Americans out of vast properties, rich with natural resources. There were those who operated shipping routes, both cargo and passenger lines up and down the Mississippi River, to South America and Europe. Many held extensive cattle and sheep ranches. Some raised tobacco, cotton, wheat and corn commercially in great plantations; many owned slaves. Hundreds operated gold mines, silver mines or tin mines in the western settlements of Utah, Wyoming and Colorado and the new California territories. A great number owned oil wells in and around the Texas and Oklahoma settlements. Many of the affluent played the commodity markets, the bond markets and, to a lesser extent, the new stock markets and some made fortunes. A lot of these men were ruthless, unkind and anything but the gentle class that they portrayed. Some were even killers.

In the 1800’s there were no income taxes. Large families were commonplace, often intermarrying, as cousins married cousins. Wealth often stayed within the families and was passed down from generation to generation.

The middle-class barely existed. The lower classes were the poor, the very poor and the homeless, those who often starved to death or froze in the winters while attempting to live in the forests. In most homes, the only source of heat was the large fireplace that was also used for cooking. Woodpiles lined every home’s outside wall or porch and chopping blocks with huge wood axes stuck in them were seen everywhere.

Disease was prevalent and took the lives of babies and toddlers, as well as the aged, with remarkable frequency. Bouts of influenza often wiped out entire communities and medical care was scarce, where it could be found at all. Most people of the time were often sickly and frequently a family member was lost to the ravages of pneumonia, typhoid, typhus, meningitis, pulmonary tuberculosis, etc. Medicines were few and in short supply. Many were homemade elixirs and herbal potions and other family remedies.

All machinery was mechanical, nothing at all was electronic. Electricity, once it was available, was found only in small quantities, usually in some urban centers and then only in replacing gas lamps into street lights. Candles and oil lanterns provided the needed light to see by when the sun had set for the day. Running water was a result of hand pumps, windmills and gravity-fed aqueduct systems. Most bathrooms were outdoor latrines called privies.

Other than the railroads, transportation relied primarily on the horse. Horses held individual riders or pulled open and covered carriages. Between cities, towns and villages teams of horses pulled covered wagons and stagecoaches carrying up to eight persons, as well as luggage, cargo, food and water. Money and gold were often transported and were frequently the objective of outlaws.

Outside of urban areas, everyone grew at least some of the food they consumed. Vegetable gardens were commonplace in all backyards and were frequently large. Many people owned a cow, several chickens, ducks and occasionally, a pig or goat.

People were used to walking great distances in all types of weather. Outside of large cities, streets were rarely paved, often muddy and always littered with horse dung.

Life expectancy was an average of only 39 years.

Most men worked long hours, often from early morning to early evening and frequently six days a week. Sunday was for church and visiting with extended family members and friends.

There were no government welfare programs or agencies that people could turn to for assistance. Churches often fed the indigent.

The Civil War came along and things got worse for everybody.

Life in the late1800’s was quite difficult. Pleasures were few and simple.

But then electricity began to be used commercially and everything began to get a whole lot better….

"In a time of universal deceit,

telling the truth is a revolutionary act."

—George Orwell

CAST OF CHARACTERS

The following story takes place in the near future.

INTRODUCTION

Strolling on the Mall in the late morning sunshine and passing the magnificent Washington Monument on their left, Martin Cooper, the National Security Agency’s Executive Director walked closely next to Justin Bennett, the 50-year old, good looking Southern Baptist who considered himself an American super-patriot. Bennett, the recently appointed Attorney General, who had been confirmed by unanimous congressional acclaim, was determined to return the United States to what the founders originally envisioned and intended nearly 250 years earlier- the gathering in Philadelphia in 1776 to sign the most important document in the nation’s history. The Declaration of Independence was to Bennett, the most important pivotal event the world would ever know.

Cooper was much Bennett’s senior. At 66, the NSA chief had been inside the Beltway for over four decades and knew everybody who mattered. A former member of Congress, a former White House Chief of Staff, a former CIA Assistant Director and a one-time Secret Service agent when he was in his 20s, Cooper, it was said, kept a secret dossier on all his enemies and could on a whim, destroy half of them.

He knew this and, unfortunately, so did they.

As the two men slowly walked and talked, two large black GMC Yukon SUVs crept along the curb slightly behind them. Inside, six Secret Service agents intensely watched them stroll, ready to spring into action at the first hint of a threat to either man.

If the secret service had any idea what the two were planning, the agents themselves would have apprehended them forthwith. Conspiracy to overthrow the Government of the United States was still a Federal offense, a violation of the Constitution- something they had all sworn an oath to defend, the National Security Agency Executive Director and the U. S. Attorney General, notwithstanding.

PART ONE

1

J ack Reynolds was very nervous. He had spent nearly forty of his sixty-one years facing danger of every type from terrorists to anarchists, from urban guerrillas to executive boardroom killers. But today would be a different and more frightening challenge, one that caused him sleepless nights and angst–filled days for nearly a week. Today, he was meeting with his twenty-six year old son, Samuel, for the first time in ten years. They hadn’t spoken in a decade and Jack wasn’t at all sure it would go well.

As one of the country’s leading forensic investigators rising from the accounting disciplines, Jack Reynolds structured his practice to investigations involving the protection of the fortunes amassed by his clients. Often, worldwide events threatened or negatively affected the wealth of the super-rich. Jack’s clients had an average net worth of $500 million and they paid him a considerable annual fee to protect it for them.

Sam Reynolds had been a boy when Jack and his wife, Nancy called their marriage quits following fifteen years together. She moved back with her parents to Vermont following the divorce and took both of Jack’s children with her. Jack’s daughter was older and ultimately decided to find her independence in Seattle, all but disappearing from the family scene and choosing to have nothing to do with her mother or her father. Occasionally, she communicated with her brother, Sam.

But now, suddenly and out of the blue Sam had called and needed to see Jack and he had sounded extremely worried about something. It was very urgent, he had said. Jack prayed that there were no health issues involved.

He sat in the media room on the 21st floor of his ten-room penthouse condominium on New York’s fashionable Fifth Avenue at East 81st Street, opposite The Metropolitan Museum of Art. It was a quarter past ten o’clock, a beautiful mid-June morning. Restless, Jack stood up and walked across the room to the sliders and stepped out onto his terrace. He stood at the railing looking out over Central Park. Being a school day, there were many groups of children being escorted around the reservoir by teachers and parents alike. Several yellow school busses stood below, parked along Fifth Avenue.

The buildings on the far side of the park, along Central Park West and with an easterly view, were aglow with the reflection of the mid-morning sunshine. Jack was a bit jealous as he actually preferred an eastern view; although, he admitted, the daily sunset over New Jersey wasn’t too difficult to take. He could sit for hours, watching the activity going on inside the park.

Looking straight down onto Fifth Avenue, Jack noticed a taxi pull to the curb right in front of his building. A young man exited the cab, paid the fare and darted into the building’s entrance. Jack wondered if it was Sam. His suspicion was confirmed a moment later when the intercom rang and Fred, the weekday doorman, announced Sam’s arrival.

Jack told Fred to send him right up.

The anticipation of his son’s arrival sent a bead of nervous perspiration down Jack’s spine. He couldn’t understand why he was so anxious.

The penthouse apartments were served directly from the lobby of the luxury building by a private elevator. After a moment, a chime sounded and the elevator door opened. Sam Reynolds stepped out and directly into Jack’s opulent apartment.

Father and son stood facing each other for a brief awkward moment before speaking. Jack quickly realized that his son was as apprehensive about the meeting as was he, so he put out his arms to greet Sam and the two of them hugged. It felt good to have his boy in his arms once again. They clopped each other’s back for a time and then broke the embrace. He couldn’t believe how the boy he last saw had turned into a full-grown man.

It’s just great seeing you again, Sam, said Jack, as he directed the young man into the living room and to an oversized, white leather chair. Can I get you a cup of coffee? How about some breakfast? Have you eaten?

No, dad, nothing right now, I’m good, he replied. I’ve got something very important to discuss with you and I want to get on with it right away. We can get something later.

Alright, replied Jack. But I would like to catch up with you and with what you’ve been doing all these years….

Sam cut him off. Dad, we’ll get to that in due course, but you’ve got to listen to what I have to say, it’s very important.

Jack sat down in the adjoining chair as his son continued..

As you may or may not know, I work in Washington, D.C. as an aide for Senator David Minelli of Maryland. He’s a conservative Republican and chairs the Armed Services Committee. I’m his senior assistant, having worked my way up the ladder from a page, following my graduation from the George Washington University School of Law.

Jack reflected on how much of his son’s life he knew nothing about and was ashamed for not trying harder to maintain a relationship with him following the divorce. Nancy was partly to blame, he acknowledged, in that she wouldn’t permit him access and moved them so far away. Jack’s schedule at the time prohibited his visits with any degree of consistency.

Sam continued. Dad, I came across some of the Senator’s classified papers the other day that were not intended for me to see. What I read shocked me to the core. To authenticate what I read, I commenced a low-key and stealth personal investigation. Not only was my shock and horror justified, what I have further learned has scared the daylights out of me. There is nobody else in the world that I can bring this to, except you. Based upon your experience as a forensic investigator and the cases you have solved over the years, I just had to fly up here and share this with you, and I know you’ll be able to decide the best course of action.

Jack was consumed with curiosity over the intrigue Sam had brought to him and needed to know at once what he was talking about. Tell me son, what’s wrong?

Dad, said Sam. I have reason to believe that in no uncertain terms, the United States of America is about to be destroyed.

2

M ajor General Noah Jonas Adams, U.S. Army (Ret.) sat behind the 120-year old oversized oak and cherrywood desk in his office. The 17-room mansion built in 1895 and modernized twice with custom-designed high-tech specifications, sat in the hills of northwestern New Jersey, five miles from the Delaware Water Gap and surrounded by 246 wooded acres of birch, elm and maple trees. The house, and its support buildings which included a six-car garage and a hanger and landing pad for his helicopter, was built on a cleared rise in the center of the property at the end of a two-mile driveway that serpentined throughout the dense woods from State Highway 49. At that intersection, no gate or number identified the property’s owner, nor gave any indication that a residence of such proportion would be at the driveway’s terminus. Underground sensors, however, alerted the crack security team at the mansion if an intruder or invited guest had turned onto the driveway and was making their way toward the residence. A vehicle would be tracked every one-sixteenth of a mile until it reached the end of the woods and the parking circle with its ornate Tuscan fountain in the center. Closed circuit television cameras centered on the circle and no action was missed.

Noah Adams had been an only child. He was born in 1950 in Philadelphia, PA. out on the Main Line, an upscale millionaire’s row. His parents were part of the old-money social register, spending all of their time on philanthropic endeavors and mostly ignoring the upbringing of their son; leaving that to servants and tutors. At the age of 16 he was sent to a military boarding prep school where he excelled in his studies, graduating with honors. With his parents’ connections, he won an appointment to West Point, graduating Suma Cum Laude before going on to the War College where he earned a Masters degree. He excelled in the U.S. Army, rising quickly through the ranks becoming the youngest Lieutenant General in the United States. Adams was well-liked by superiors, members of Congress and the politically conservative president himself which ultimately led to his promotion to Major General. Then, after a major political change in the congressional majority and the White House, he began to fall from favor, verbally disagreeing with most new policies affecting the Pentagon and fought vociferously with the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. He was looked upon as a rogue, enemy of the Administration and following some brutal public criticisms of the President on several late night television talk shows, he was summarily fired and forced into retirement. Adams was resentful and grew to hate everything that this country had become and vowed to find a way to change it. Ultimately, he devised a plan and invited some close Washington friends who thought much as he did, to join him in working to change America forever.

It was common knowledge that Noah Adams was an outspoken right-wing Republican zealot. He made no effort to change this image and accepted interviews by the media whenever it was possible. He enjoyed the limelight and fostered public opinion whenever he could. What was not known by the public or the media was that he was a paranoid schizophrenic, a political extremist and a behind-the-scenes, anti-social activist with an agenda.

But the FBI knew it, and was privately sympathetic to it.

The CIA knew it, too, and tacitly encouraged it.

The NSA knew about it and was up to their ears in it. Martin Cooper, the National Security Agency’s Executive Director had been close friends with Noah Adams for over thirty years, but found it prudent to keep that fact to himself.

3

R epublican Senator David Minelli of Maryland closed and locked the door to his inner office in the Senate wing of the Capitol building and sat down behind his desk. He removed a plastic card from his inside jacket pocket and slid it into a special slot in his computer. Immediately, the screen dissolved to a bright red. A Password Request window opened along with a soft tone. Minelli typed in a series of alpha and numeric keystrokes and the screen turned to a rich shade of blue. Several personal questions were then asked in succession. The Senator typed in the answers that only he could know.

David Minelli was born and raised in Ocean City, Maryland. He was one of a set of twins and was forced to grow up with a shared identity. Unlike most twins, David grew to hate his brother and competed endlessly with him, undermining him wherever he could. He and his twin became estranged after high school, attending different colleges. Even their philosophies were diametrically opposed with David seeking a career in politics. He worked with the Committee to Re-elect the President under the Reagan Administration where he met the woman he ultimately married. They had no children. Minelli worked as a congressional aide before running for Congress where he was elected to represent the people of Ocean City, serving for six years. Minelli decided to move from the House of Representatives to the Senate in 2008 when the woman who occupied the seat retired. He became friends with General Noah Adams through the poker group