nitrous!” he warned as he saw her wicked grin.
Margaret would be cursing him each time she sat in the passenger seat of his car.
“Who, me?” Bri asked innocently.
“I’d like the car back in one piece,” Erik warned as his daughter rushed back toward the house. It was a small token, but it was worth it to see a smile on her face.
Chapter 6: Gestation Day 34
Hidden agendas
OSA agent Michael Sparks made a dozen phone inquiries and called in every political chip he held with the Central Intelligence Agency and the Department of Defense. The fruits of his labor began to pay off.
Classified briefings and folders lay scattered across his desk and stacked file boxes cluttered the conference table in his office. Someone was pulling the strings behind Operation Homegrown, and he was several steps closer to learning the whole ugly truth.
The common thread through the confidential files was a monolithic corporation named Pendelcorp. The corporation had diversified its assets by purchasing several small defense contracting agencies and now held a respectable piece of the market share. This was an unheard of anomaly as Pendelcorp was a mining and real estate company.
What possible interest could they have in moving into the defense industry? And when did this occur? No articles of incorporation had been filed for any of the defense companies acquired by Pendelcorp; each search he performed in the Public Federal Database came back with only mining and real estate charters. Defense contracts were long term-affairs with complicated bidding and selection processes. The fact that Pendelcorp was able to buy out several companies and actually bid upon and win several contracts in such a short time reeked of favoritism or fraud.
Reaching for another stack of papers, Sparks muttered, “I smell a big, fat, ugly rat. Where’s the connection to the Denton, Marques and Priscoli law firm and Agent Knight?” He moved files around. “It’s in this pile of shit, somewhere, and I’m not stopping ‘til I find it.”
He suddenly stopped when he laid eyes on a file tab marked ‘Personal Knight Divorce.’ “Hello!” He scanned it quickly.
A wad of legal papers stated that the president and CEO of Pendelcorp was married to the ex-wife of Special Operative Erik Knight; details regarding the messy divorce and failed child custody battle – one Pendelton had dropped for no particular reason – were spelled out.
Sparks shuddered as he reviewed the devastating case Pendelcorp’s attorneys had presented during Knight’s divorce proceedings. The amount of liable and slander perpetrated against the private investigator was devastating, not to mention the fact that Knight’s attorney had been paid off by Pendelcorp not to challenge certain ‘facts’ brought to light in the courtroom.
“That guy got screwed six ways from Sunday; his ex marries a billionaire, and he has to pay her child support.” Sparks noted that the court date for Brianna Knight`s custody hearing, which was dropped, timed almost perfectly with Erik Knight’s employment with Martin Denton and with the United States Government.
“Damn! This is better than an afternoon soap opera,” the agent mumbled. He continued to leaf through page upon page of documents obtained from a supposedly, non-existent federal database called ‘Eyes,’ a huge archive of data from court cases all around the country as well as a detailed listing of every large corporation and its employees.
Michael Sparks had several pieces of the vast jigsaw puzzle, but every answered question generated another. Erik Knight, a special operative for the government – due to his special talents and abilities – was connected with the colonel and major because of the Hopedale Mountain incident.
The guard duty in France would be the perfect assignment, and the least he could do to keep the operative from serious threat. Guarding the French socialite during the six-month tour of her homeland would
Margaret would be cursing him each time she sat in the passenger seat of his car.
“Who, me?” Bri asked innocently.
“I’d like the car back in one piece,” Erik warned as his daughter rushed back toward the house. It was a small token, but it was worth it to see a smile on her face.
Chapter 6: Gestation Day 34
Hidden agendas
OSA agent Michael Sparks made a dozen phone inquiries and called in every political chip he held with the Central Intelligence Agency and the Department of Defense. The fruits of his labor began to pay off.
Classified briefings and folders lay scattered across his desk and stacked file boxes cluttered the conference table in his office. Someone was pulling the strings behind Operation Homegrown, and he was several steps closer to learning the whole ugly truth.
The common thread through the confidential files was a monolithic corporation named Pendelcorp. The corporation had diversified its assets by purchasing several small defense contracting agencies and now held a respectable piece of the market share. This was an unheard of anomaly as Pendelcorp was a mining and real estate company.
What possible interest could they have in moving into the defense industry? And when did this occur? No articles of incorporation had been filed for any of the defense companies acquired by Pendelcorp; each search he performed in the Public Federal Database came back with only mining and real estate charters. Defense contracts were long term-affairs with complicated bidding and selection processes. The fact that Pendelcorp was able to buy out several companies and actually bid upon and win several contracts in such a short time reeked of favoritism or fraud.
Reaching for another stack of papers, Sparks muttered, “I smell a big, fat, ugly rat. Where’s the connection to the Denton, Marques and Priscoli law firm and Agent Knight?” He moved files around. “It’s in this pile of shit, somewhere, and I’m not stopping ‘til I find it.”
He suddenly stopped when he laid eyes on a file tab marked ‘Personal Knight Divorce.’ “Hello!” He scanned it quickly.
A wad of legal papers stated that the president and CEO of Pendelcorp was married to the ex-wife of Special Operative Erik Knight; details regarding the messy divorce and failed child custody battle – one Pendelton had dropped for no particular reason – were spelled out.
Sparks shuddered as he reviewed the devastating case Pendelcorp’s attorneys had presented during Knight’s divorce proceedings. The amount of liable and slander perpetrated against the private investigator was devastating, not to mention the fact that Knight’s attorney had been paid off by Pendelcorp not to challenge certain ‘facts’ brought to light in the courtroom.
“That guy got screwed six ways from Sunday; his ex marries a billionaire, and he has to pay her child support.” Sparks noted that the court date for Brianna Knight`s custody hearing, which was dropped, timed almost perfectly with Erik Knight’s employment with Martin Denton and with the United States Government.
“Damn! This is better than an afternoon soap opera,” the agent mumbled. He continued to leaf through page upon page of documents obtained from a supposedly, non-existent federal database called ‘Eyes,’ a huge archive of data from court cases all around the country as well as a detailed listing of every large corporation and its employees.
Michael Sparks had several pieces of the vast jigsaw puzzle, but every answered question generated another. Erik Knight, a special operative for the government – due to his special talents and abilities – was connected with the colonel and major because of the Hopedale Mountain incident.
The guard duty in France would be the perfect assignment, and the least he could do to keep the operative from serious threat. Guarding the French socialite during the six-month tour of her homeland would
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