Fractured: A Mystery Novel of the NSIU

By Richard B. Christie

Book synopsis:

A truck traveling north near the Mexican border was required to stop for a security check by the Mexican Army. As the

• Language: English
• Publisher: Writers Branding LLC
• Release date: Mar 29, 2022
• ISBN: 9781639453771

Richard B. Christie

For almost fifty years, Richard B. Christie owned and operated a technical engineering company. He performed specialized environmental testing and adjustments to both industrial-grade air conditioning and high-performance sterile air filtration systems used in hospitals, pharmaceutical facilities, and research laboratories; that included special areas where high-class clean rooms were required, such as surgeries, sterile manufacturing suites, and testing facilities. At home, most Winter weekends, he was an active volunteer member of the National Ski Patrol and a Certified Ski Patroller at a major Vermont Ski area. He was trained in remote mountain rescue procedures and advanced first aid.

Book preview

CHAPTER 1

Thursday, 10 January 2019, 8:30 a.m.

Congressional Offices

Washington D.C.

United States Congresswoman Sally Martin, the first term minority representative from Kentucky’s eighth district, opened the door and stepped into her ridiculously small, twelve-foot by fourteen-foot congressional office. It was little more than a large closet, but with her minority status, it was all she would get. She removed her coat and hat and hung them on the coat rack by the door, sat down, and placed her scalding hot coffee cup on the corner of her desk.

The second-floor room was at the end of fourteen other small rooms that made up the backside of the O’Neill House Office Building. Her furniture consisted of a medium-sized desk along with a leather desk chair, two small armed guest chairs, a coffee table, a coat rack in the corner, two old file Cabinets, a small side table and a small window looking out at the blank wall of the next building approximately one hundred feet away.

It was freezing this early January morning, and after walking twelve blocks from her apartment, she wanted to warm up; but the coffee she had purchased as she entered the building, was steaming and still just a bit too hot to drink.

Sally, at thirty-four years of age, and with a master’s degree in advanced mathematics and engineering, had for eight years been a professor at the University of Kentucky. Her ability to follow, understand, and solve multiple complex problems is acknowledged by both her peers and students alike. She had that unique ability to convey a thought process to her students, guiding them to use reason and logic first, to understand, and then solve almost any complex problem they encountered.

With her excellent logic and abilities, several of her students, along with several faculty members, wanted her to take on the responsibility of trying to fix the financial condition of the country. They all believed she could help to bring the politically irresponsible government spending and waste under control.

Although usually quiet and reserved, she finally agreed to their pressure and allowed them to place her name into the race for her local Congressional seat. Several students and a few other faculty members immediately volunteered to be her campaign committee.

By using old-fashioned footwork, modern technology, and social networking, those same peers and students let the public soon find out that her sensible logic and quick mathematical mind exposed the abject failing abilities of her opponent. He had been the district representative for five terms and was sure that the upstart challenger had little or no chance of defeating him.

The election results showed that he and his party had misjudged the amount of discontent that the local population had come to realize. Sally won the vote by almost twelve-percentage points.

She looked at the pile of file folders someone had placed on the corner of her desk the previous evening after she had left for the day. She sighed and thought: ‘They’ve been busy again and had no other place to put them other than on my desk.’ It was becoming an almost daily occurrence, so she just sat down and stared at the files, shaking her head.

After nearly a full year into her term, as an elected minority congresswoman, she questioned her reason for being here and wondered if she was going to affect anything. Her voting record was logically based and what she believed was right for her country and her district constituents.

She was usually at odds with many members of the majority, but she continued to try hard and work with them.

She was, however, subject to the whims of the Speaker of the House. Sally’s reputation in advanced mathematics was very well known, and the Speaker had caved to political pressure and had her appointed to the House finance committee.

There was no question that the Speaker’s associates and the finance committee chairman loved to overload her as much as they could. They usually gave her meaningless requests for information and intricate calculations that they knew she could not provide, with available data, or were utterly useless.

Among the congressional house members and senators alike, the political atmosphere had deteriorated over the past several election cycles. It had always been a challenging meeting of minds, with egos, ideas, and power struggles, but it was getting more intolerant lately.

Arguments have been going on for more than two hundred and forty years. The founding fathers had realized back then that if the republic was to survive, it was necessary to place blocks in the way of one party, or the other, from making changes without the input and control agreement from the many member states. So far, the checks and balances they created continue to work as planned, but there was always someone with some agenda that would cause a change to the basic argument that had worked so well for so long.

Sally sighed again, reached for her coffee, took a sip, found it was just the right temperature, picked up the top file from the stack, and began to read through it.

For the next two hours, Sally read through all the files and made notes as were needed to answer the plethora of useless questions. Questions that some undersecretary had asked about some unimportant or disruptive program that they thought should be advanced.

In one of the files, a California Congress women’s associate had requested an inclusion for a restriction on the military purchase of jet fuel. They reasoned that a reduction of three billion dollars, as an annual decrease in the defense budget, would allow Congress to finance the reestablishment of several previously canceled research committees that could look at the decline of recreational access to sea life in the California coastal regions.

It was such ridiculous proposals, given to her for review, that was beginning to have her wonder why she ever agreed to leave her previous professor position at the University of Kentucky.

She sighed and penned a note to the file with what was becoming her usual statement, stating that such a proposal must be sent through the appropriations committee but should not be considered practical.

Her desk telephone rang, and, after answering it, was asked if she could come over to the state department for a meeting later that afternoon. The call was from the Secretary of State’s office, and she learned Secretary Weiss himself had asked if she could be available for a conference meeting at 4:30 pm. After agreeing to be there, and hanging up the phone, Sally sat back in her chair and was dumbfounded! The Secretary of State had asked her to attend a meeting! About What?

Sally had met the Secretary once when she was first sworn into Congress but had only seen him that one time, and never had a real conversation with him. She wondered what could have happened that would involve her in the state department. She had no idea.

It was getting on to about 11:00 am, and there was nothing she could get involved with that would not make her late for her meeting. So, she put in a call to her friend and former student, Lieutenant JG, Jane McCalla, over at NSIU (Navy Special Investigation Unit) to invite her to meet for lunch at O’Rourke’s Irish Pub on New Jersey Avenue NW.

Jane was thrilled to hear from Sally and told her that although she was going to have lunch with another officer from NSIU, she would talk him into joining them at O’Rourke’s instead. Harold and I will see you at a quarter to twelve, Jane said and hung up before Sally could change her mind.

CHAPTER 2

Thursday, 10 January 2019, 11:50 a.m.

O’Rourke’s Irish Pub

New Jersey Avenue NW, Washington D.C.

Sally got to O’Rourke’s Irish Pub five minutes late and found Jane sitting at a bar level booth with a tall, handsome navy officer waiting for her. As she began to apologize for being a little late, Jane jumped up and gave her a big hug and said: It is so great to see you, it has been several months, and our schedules just never seem to match.

With that, the gentleman also rose, and Jane quickly introduced them. This is Lieutenant Commander (LCDR) Harold Jarett, Jane said and, turning toward him, continued, Harold, I’d like you to meet Congresswoman Sally Martin from Kentucky. Sally was my math professor at the University of Kentucky, and we have been friends ever since. She was elected to Congress a year ago and had been trying to fix the financial state of our union ever since she arrived.

Sally laughed and said: Jane, you still are optimistic about what can be done by Congress, but time has shown me that little can happen when the various members just won’t talk to each other, and that is something they rarely do.

It is a pleasure to meet you, Congresswoman Martin. I hope you can decipher some of the politics that abound through the Washington political doublespeak, Harold said as he shook hands with her, please try to relax a little today, and we shall all have a good old Irish luncheon.

Please call me Sally, she said as they all sat down around the table, I hear enough of the formal language in the House.

Harold said: I understand, and please call me Harold, we try to leave rank and formality at our desks whenever we can.

Jane said: I think I told you a little of our unit, but there are only four officers including the Admiral, twelve enlisted men, ten of them are seals, and two civilian contract employees. We work very well together and have a great deal of respect for each other.

As they sat and ordered their lunch, ‘Bangers and Mash’ along with coffee and rolls, they chatted about various items that seem always to be floating around in the news. The loudest local headline was regarding a significant push to curb the import of drugs and contraband from Mexico at the U.S. southern border.

Harold said: I hope everyone works together to get it under control, too many young people are being killed every year by the actions and drugs that seem to come in over that border.

Sally said: "I only know what the news has reported. I am on the finance committee, and it is confusing what various members want about any spending or in what direction. The costs are high, and the results disputed among multiple members.

I do read the proposals, and when called for a vote, I stay with those who want to do something rather than just obstruct.

Jane said: Let us enjoy our luncheon and forget about the rest for a little while, I am sure it will catch up to us before too long and we will just have to jump in again.

I hate to admit it when she is right, but I have learned that she usually is, Harold said: So tell us how a nice Kentucky girl got sucked into a Washington DC congressional seat?

The three of them relaxed and soon were just friends sitting in a restaurant enjoying each other and lunch. After departing and with an agreement that they would get together more often, they returned to their respective offices.

At ten minutes past four that afternoon, Sally walked into the State Department. She told security she was expected, and after a brief check and clearance, was escorted to a third-floor conference room.

Inside was a circular ring table with about twenty chairs, a few pens, and a notebook and a nameplate by each chair. Sally slowly walked around and found a chair with her name on it and stopped and slowly looked at the seven or eight people already in the room. She recognized several of them from various news reports but was a little confused about why they asked her to join this conference.

Sally, I didn’t know you were to be here also, Lieutenant Commander Harold Jarrett said as he stopped beside her.

Nor you, she answered, but I don’t even know what this meeting is about, so nothing will surprise me.

Just then, another door opened, and a contingent of about eight people stepped into the room, including the Secretary of State himself. Harold quickly nodded to Sally and found his chair about six away from her.

Good afternoon, everyone, said Secretary Weiss, "and I thank you all for coming on such short notice.

"I believe you are all wondering why we called this very impromptu meeting, and I won’t keep you in the dark very long.

"At about 8:30 p.m. Mountain Time, yesterday evening, a trailer truck was stopped by a random Mexican army patrol near the border by Piedras Negras. That, in itself, is not all that unusual; truck traffic is frequent and routine through that area.

"However, this time, as two Mexican soldiers stepped up to the cab, the driver smiled at them and, without a word, pulled a gun, put it in his mouth, and killed himself.

The patrol then opened the trailer and found twenty-eight dead bodies, all shot in the head execution-style. There had been no effort to hide who they were. A plastic bag containing their identities was attached to each of the bodies. Among them were three Americans, eighteen Mexicans, two from Guatemala, and five from Cuba.

Upon a nod from the Secretary, an advisor, Ethan Woods, picked up the narrative: "The Mexican authorities are genuinely concerned about this as are we. So far, we have worked together to keep all of this from the news, but it will be reported by a press conference tomorrow at noon Eastern Standard Time.

"What makes this so different is the fact that it was a clear plan and executed to make a big deal in the network news around the world.

"There are several other items in this story, including thirty cases named, numbered and described as containing a total of seventy-five pounds of ‘Fentanyl,’ in powder form, in each box.

There is, however, something extraordinary about the boxes of drugs. Whatever is in the boxes, it is not ‘Fentanyl.’ What we do know is that it contains a form of ‘Opioid’ mixed with something as of yet undetermined.

The Secretary again spoke: "Among the dead were two American Servicemen and the assistant United States Attaché in Coahuila. It looks as if the boxes of drugs are for someone unknown in the United States, but we do not know who.

"At this point, the Mexican authorities are just as angry and frustrated as we are. We believe this was an act from one of the Cartels, but we do not know who or which one.

"We ask the FBI to please take the lead in the investigation. Please work closely together with the CIA on this; also coordinate information with the Mexican authorities. We need to learn the cause of this and those who were responsible. I am asking for this, at the request of the President, and the Department of Justice (DOJ). We wish to use all available resources to help find answers.

"That is all I have for now, but please help keep this out of the news, hopefully till tomorrow.

Ms. Martin, would you please remain for a few minutes after everyone leaves, I’d like to speak with you and ask a few questions? Perhaps Lieutenant Commander Jarrett, you too could stay with us for a few minutes?

As everyone was leaving, Sally sat quietly and looked at Harold, who also sat quietly, looking back at her.

Secretary Weiss came over and sat next to Sally and said: "I wish to ask you, Congresswoman Martin, if you would work with NSIU to help. Together you may determine a reason