Free Three by William C. Oelfke Page A

anything in your not-so-secret
snooping?” 
    Maxine sighed and answered, “OK,
I’ll call you Oliver if you call me Max….  I’ve had no luck in connecting
anything between these three religious groups.  If Abraham was the father of them,
he did very little to keep his family together.  The director did pass on some
information, just in from our agents in Israel that makes the connection even
less likely.  The highly encrypted and therefore technologically sophisticated
messages came from a Haredi neighborhood.  As you know this sect is the Jewish
equivalent to the Religious Society of Friends.  Both shun anything modern,
keeping to the strict law of the Bible or Torah.” 
    “Yes, Max, I know. Haredi
means ‘those who tremble at the word of God.’  They’re the last group to resort
to violence, and certainly not one to join a conspiracy linked by high
technology.  It’s likely Central Intelligence is right; some ISIS cell is
hiding its true location by linking its communication through this most
unlikely location.” 
    “You may be right, Oliver;
however I must tell you that my own family are Quakers who trace our history
all the way back to the Valiant Sixty of seventeenth century England.  My
father was the first Phillips to break away from the Society of Friends.  So
you see, although I was not raised in the faith, I’m a Quaker soldier of
sorts.  I’ll look into the Israeli military to see if I have a Haredi
equivalent.  Meanwhile, you have to see what you can find in Waxahachie.  If
this is an ISIS plot, it may be possible that this transmission was also a
linked communication by some non-Christian terrorist cell in the States”
    Oliver was surprised by
Maxine’s revelation of her family history and eager to find out more at some
later time.  For now, he was pleased that she was willing to open up to him,
but decided not to comment.  She had not mentioned the attack at his apartment. 
Oliver did not want to tell her about it unless she had been briefed by Clark. 
“Well, I’m on my way to Texas to see what I can find out, but you might begin
looking for some publicized event that occurred a few days before this set of
communications that may have triggered some jihadist action.  After all, we’ve
seen this pattern in previous ISIS attacks.” 
    “I’ll do that, and you keep
in touch and stay out of trouble.  Remember, I’m the field agent!”
    “I’m sorry, Max.  You’re the
one who should be out in the field.”
    “No, Oliver, you’re the best
for this mission.  It’s fact-finding only, and should not involve bullets or
IEDs.”
    “Good grief, I hope not!”
exclaimed Oliver, relieved that Maxine was good humored about being left out of
the Waxahachie trip.
    It was difficult for Oliver
to again approach a flight to Dallas/Fort Worth, knowing what had transpired
before his last attempt.  However, this time the trip to O’Hare and the flight
to Texas was not interrupted with bad news, or for that matter, news of any
kind, as he again found himself deep in thought, distracted by events at
Fermilab and at his apartment.  He began to feel a dark fear growing within him,
stemming from his suspicion Peter was murdered.  He realized he feared for
Alice Newbury’s safety as well as that of Elizabeth, David, and Khalil.  For
now the threat, if it existed at all, was unseen and unknown and lurked in the
shadows of his mind.  He wished that he could somehow remain in Chicago to
watch over all four members of this “family” of Peter’s.  Oliver also realized
the federal agents now in place there would be just as concerned for the safety
of these four people as he was, especially if foul play had already been
suspected.
    Walking from the arrival gate
in the Dallas-Fort Worth Airport to the car rental agency, Oliver was
immediately aware of the people around him.  They were obviously different from
those he had recently encountered in Chicago and Washington, D. C.