Is This Goodbye?: A Frank Moretti Thriller Read online

  Is This Goodbye?

  A Frank Moretti Thriller

  Frederick Wysocki

  Is This Goodbye is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and events are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  Copyright © 2018 by Frederick Wysocki

  All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with the written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright Act 1956 (as amended).

  Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damage.

  Created with Vellum

  This book is dedicated to Denise Wysocki.

  By Frederick Wysocki

  A Timely Revenge: An Anthony Rizzo Novel (2014)

  The Start-up: A Frank Moretti Thriller (2014)

  Blood Rivals: A Frank Moretti Thriller (2015)

  No Time For Fools: A Frank Moretti Thriller (2015)

  The Arabian Client: A Naomi Dolphin Thriller (2016)

  The Reluctant Spy: A Frank Moretti Thriller (2017)

  Happy Hour Murders (2017)

  Is This Goodbye? A Frank Moretti Thriller (2018)

  If you would like to be informed about forthcoming books by Frederick Wysocki, please visit his web site at www.frederickwysocki.com./contact

  Contents

  1. St Kitts

  2. Virginia

  3. St Kitts

  4. Virginia

  Chapter 5

  6. Wednesday

  Chapter 7

  8. Thursday

  9. Saturday

  10. Sunday

  11. Monday

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  17. Tuesday

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  27. Wednesday

  Chapter 28

  29. Vancouver Police Station

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  35. Thursday

  36. Thursday, Vancouver Jail

  Chapter 37

  38. Virginia

  Chapter 39

  40. Friday, Vancouver Crown Counsel Office

  Chapter 41

  Chapter 42

  Chapter 43

  Chapter 44

  45. Virginia

  46. Vancouver

  Chapter 47

  48. Sunday, St Kitts

  49. The week before, Vancouver

  Chapter 50

  Acknowledgments

  1

  St Kitts

  If I don’t marry her, I really need to kill her. She knows too much.

  Usually passionate bedtime sex with his girlfriend and bodyguard, Naomi, left him sapped and sleeping like a baby.

  Last night it hadn’t done the trick. Once again, Frank Moretti had spent the night trying to turn his brain off. The decision had consumed him for the past several weeks.

  Naomi did warn me up front about her stupid code. And damn it, she’s right; normally a bodyguard shouldn’t get involved with a client.

  I just wish things could go on as they are. Why does she need to be such a bitch about this getting married thing?

  About 2AM, he’d told himself that his brain would work it out and give him an answer in the morning.

  It hadn’t.

  Ever since Naomi had given him the simple ultimatum on their recent trip for the CIA to Russia, he’d been mentally consumed by her demand. “If we don’t get married, I’m planning on setting up a bodyguard training school with Boris.”

  When he’d asked why, her reply hit home.

  “I love you, Frank. We’ve become much more than bodyguard and client. Our relationship has to change. I’m not going to guard you if you’re with another woman.”

  He didn’t want to end up being some lonely playboy so he told her he’d commit. However, he hadn’t yet.

  Frank understood why Naomi had given him the ultimatum. He’d hired her as his bodyguard. Against her will, he’d pursued and won his way into her bed.

  And she’s right. It would be too much to ask her to be my bodyguard if I was sleeping with other women. But I haven’t yet.

  Around 3AM, with his eyes wide open, he’d slipped out of bed and gone into his den. There he’d taken a piece of paper and tried using the simple list method. He’d written down all the reasons to marry her on the left side of a piece of paper.

  She’s beautiful

  She’s sexy as hell

  She’s smart.

  She’s protected me

  She’s made me a lot of money with the deals she’s helped me complete.

  Then he’d tried to write down what was bothering him on the right side.

  She knows too much

  I have to be the boss

  He’d relaxed into his leather chair and stared at the list. His mind slipped into the darkness where things that pissed him off waited to erupt.

  I’ve had to cheat, lie and even kill people to get where I am.

  I gotta have the final say.

  If we’re married, I don’t need to worry about her testifying against me.

  It’s not like I have cold feet or that I’m afraid to commit. The fact is that I almost asked Ashley to marry me before I ordered her death.

  By getting rid of Ashley’s possible testimony and lying to the FBI, I became rich. All was good. Well, except that the CIA is now blackmailing me to do work for them.

  I can deal with them.

  I can always hire another bodyguard and there are tons of good-looking women out there.

  But, I doubt there’s another package like her. Beautiful, passionate and smart enough to protect herself and me from God knows what.

  Suddenly, Frank came up with an answer to his dilemma. I’ll have her sign a prenuptial agreement, which will guarantee that I get the final say.

  Frank quietly entered the bedroom. The clock said it was 3:33AM.

  With his mind at rest, sleep finally absorbed him.

  2

  Virginia

  Most of the CIA’s work must always remain a secret. That’s the complex nature of collecting, analyzing and disseminating foreign intelligence.

  It’s done mostly by covert agents in the field, away from loved ones with only loneliness and sadness to keep them company. If caught, spies are drained of their information then either jailed or killed by their captors. If they should survive past their usefulness as determined by a faceless bureaucrat, or long enough to retire, agents have to remain silent and often disappear.

  In many countries, they are eliminated in an ‘accident.’ In the United States, many enter into the limbo of the Witness Protection Program to live out their shadowy lives.

  While still on the job, staying up to date on foreign intelligence is a daily challenge.

  Over a hundred senior CIA staff were seated lecture style in a secure and sterile briefing theater. Many had carried in the lifeblood of the CIA, coffee.

  The closed-door event included Regina Lofthouse of the CIA’s Cyber Intelligence Division and her boss, Deputy Director Cyrus Saxton.

  Several weeks af
ter the mission Regina was still milking her Cyber Intelligence Division’s recent success with Frank Moretti and Naomi Dolphin in Russia.

  Regina and Cyrus were listening to two well-known Generals.

  General Wallace from the U.S. Space Command was respected for having spearheaded improved combat effectiveness and having sped up information collection and assessment for strategic decision-making.

  General McIsaac was the espionage expert on China. He was known not to be a talkative man. Lofthouse felt McIsaac was the epitome of the saying, ‘If I tell ya, I’ll have to kill ya.’

  The headquarter staff often felt they were being given too much information. It was as if they were routinely being scared into dedication to their duties.

  Together, the Generals were discussing their slides on China. The information in the presentation was making Regina depressed.

  China is prepared for war with the U.S.

  China’s spy network in the U. S. includes:

  25,000 Chinese intelligence officers

  More than 15,000 recruited agents

  Her mind wandered to the meeting she was going to have after work with her niece. International challenges are one thing. Dealing with family can be just as dangerous.

  I have no choice. I promised my sister that I would try to talk some sense into my niece. I need to dig deep and find a way to deal with her.

  China has more than 70 military satellites used for communications, navigation, positioning, meteorology, electronic and signals intelligence

  China has performed multiple anti-satellite tests using directed-energy weapons, satellite jammers, and anti-satellite missiles

  Regina knew that because of the latest Chinese tests the Pentagon was discussing stepping away from the Outer Space Treaty to maintain their edge in controlling outer space. She’d been told by her boss, “We must keep our edge no matter what.”

  There’s nothing that I can really do to influence what the U.S. does militarily about China or any other country. Ashley however, I need to help.

  She shifted her weight so she could whisper to Cyrus. “What are we doing to counter all of this?”

  He held up a finger to his lips and half whispered. “Listen.”

  General Wallace was standing on the left and used his clicker to present one last slide. “Space is not a sanctuary and it is where the next war will begin.”

  General McIsaac added a warning. “We also know that China believes that a preemptive first strike is preferable, as it would put them in a distinct position of advantage.”

  There was a question from the audience. “Is it true that we’ve had a breach in our Chinese agents that have been providing intelligence to us?”

  General McIsaac paused as if he couldn’t answer.

  Regina watched as he set his jaw and his eyebrows twitched.

  “Last year the Chinese Government began systematically dismantling our spying operations within their country. It all began when we started to press China on North Korea. Within two months, one of our agents was marched out of his office and shot in front of his colleagues in the courtyard of a government building. It was a message to others who might have been working for us to stop. They have killed or imprisoned more than a dozen resources since then and have crippled our intelligence gathering there for years to come.”

  Someone yelled out. “Did we confront them?”

  McIsaac stood up even straighter. “We did. They declared that the People’s Republic of China is a unitary sovereign state and has an obligation to defend its national security and has the legal authority to protect their interests.”

  “So you’re saying that besides China becoming much more aggressive towards us they have damaged our intelligence-gathering on them.”

  Dark clouds seemed to enter McIsaac’s brain as Regina could see his eyes harden. She expected him to order the person who’d made the statement to be removed.

  “That’s correct. With that I’ll present the next slide.”

  A Chinese priority is to obtain military weapons-related technology

  The last item fell into the realm of Regina’s Cyber Intelligence Division. A big part of her Division’s work was tracking promising technology and protecting it from foreign powers. It fell to Regina and her team to find and blackmail as many people connected with technology as possible into becoming part time agents.

  Without using blackmail, there was no way for her to attract or afford them. Without them, there’s no way the CIA can monitor and protect mission critical technologies.

  She turned and nodded at Cyrus.

  The two presenters had asked if there were any questions.

  A hand went up in the front row. “Where are we in developing new technological solutions to maintain our edge?”

  “That’s a great question. There are three new technologies I will share with you today. First, we are rolling out a second-generation surveillance system known as Space Fence to track satellites and orbital debris. Concurrently, we are rolling out a classified satellite defense technology that will pinpoint the source of a laser fired at a satellite. And third, in the event of a disabled satellite, we have developed and can now rapidly launch swarms of miniaturized satellites on a cost effective basis.”

  Regina grinned. It was a planted question.

  Another question rang out. “What if our large nuclear-hardened command-and-control mission satellites are incapacitated?”

  “Umm, currently, high-flying unmanned aerial vehicles with satellite-like payloads offer the most advanced alternative. Given their limited global reach however, we are working on other solutions.”

  So, we don’t have a solution.

  Another attendee asked the question no one else had the guts to ask. “How severe is the threat of a war in space right now and what would be the result if it happened today?”

  Both Generals stood up straight and glanced at each other.

  That wasn’t a planted question.

  General Wallace raised his voice. “The threat is imminent. We believe that China will most likely initiate any hostilities by going after us in space.”

  The audience went silent. The comfort of being the leader in space technologies had just been pierced.

  Wallace paused for effect. “The result would be comparable to a nuclear war and would most likely be the opening salvo.”

  General McIsaac added to the impending doom. “Make no mistake about it, the leaders of the PRC are spending every waking hour calculating how to capitalize on their positions and how to leap frog us in power.”

  Regina knew this to be true.

  As she was frequently reminded by Cyrus, “It’s your job to help protect U.S. Technology or we will lose control of our lead of it. It’s the only thing that separates us from our enemies in today’s world.”

  Just before the day’s briefing, Deputy Director Saxton had met with Regina. “So far, China’s army of hackers has stolen vital information relating to the F-35, the P-8 reconnaissance aircraft, ballistic missiles, and the Littoral Combat System. Your team must help us stop them before we lose more.”

  Cyrus passed her a file folder marked ‘CONFIDENTIAL’. “This is an updated list of technology firms that your staff needs to monitor and protect at all costs. I need you to pay particular attention to the firms based in Canada.”

  Why would he want me to focus on Canadian firms?

  Regina’s team was already spread too thin. However, she had accepted the folder.

  After the briefing, Regina still didn’t have an answer to her question.

  3

  St Kitts

  His bladder woke him.

  Coming back to bed, he glanced at the time.

  5:30AM.

  I may as well wake Naomi.

  He kissed her. “It’s sunrise time.”

  She let Frank take her hand as they walked out to the veranda together. Frank sat on his favorite chair while Naomi snuggled onto his lap.

  The early morning symph
ony of birds filled the air. The chorus was building as the light started to illuminate the shadows where plants and creatures waited. The fact there had been a light rainfall only an hour ago didn’t seem to damper the joy.

  Several Green Vervet monkeys joined in the mayhem. Frank glanced right towards the tree line and spotted two of the pests.

  His eyes went back to the horizon. I’ll never tire of watching the ocean at sunrise and sunset. I love how the water goes from teal near the sandy shore to dark blue as it disappears into the horizon.

  Fighting for his attention, Naomi Dolphin was squirming on his lap. Her head was cuddled against his shoulder.

  Without Naomi and her family, I wouldn’t know a soul on this bloody island. I wonder what the people of St Kitts would think of us if they knew what we had done together and what we are capable of?

  The smell of fresh drip coffee drifted their way as the cook prepared their breakfast.

  Naomi snuggled to get herself comfortable.

  In return, he stroked her black hair.

  Naomi craned her neck so she could suck on Frank’s earlobe.