Close Quarters

Close Quarters

PROLOGUE
Andrew Whitney, known as The Old Man (sometimes affectionately and sometimes not so much) by the agents of the Goddard Project, perused the data presented to him by one of his top analysts.  There was no denying the pattern the data revealed.  Military technology that was not supposed to be available in any country in Africa, but especially the ones that had it, had been leaked.
The question was, “What to do about it?”  Was the technology being stolen, or had it been provided by the US Military itself?  Very few people realized the all too real presence that the US Military had in several African countries, countries few would anticipate receiving proprietary military training from the United States.
But oil wasn’t the only commodity of interest on the African continent.  Africa was a continent rich with minerals and the necessary labor to extract them.  More than fifty percent of the world’s cobalt and ninety-eight percent of the chromium reserves could be found in countries located in southern Africa.  Most of which were far from stable politically and militarily.
So, what was the US Military doing training their soldiers?  Protecting national interests, or at least that’s what the politicians claimed.
Whit wasn’t so sure, but his opinion hardly mattered.  The only thing he had any influence over was the illegal distribution of proprietary technology.  And the only way to find out if the distribution was intentional, or not, was to send in his own agent.  Another memo on his desk gave him the perfect cover too.
The State Department was sending out several auditors to Africa, who were supposed to determine whether human rights violations were happening in the extraction of minerals being purchased by the Federal Government and American corporations.  Whit would send one of his agents ostensibly to audit the mines, but also to try to gather firsthand intel on whether or not the military technology finding its way into questionable hands had done so in violation of US law.
Bennet Vincent would be just the agent.  While the man looked like a mild-mannered accountant, he could kill with his bare hands, handled weapons even better and knew his way around a computer like it was a kiddy maze at the park.
He was also the next on Whit’s list of agents that needed to get a life outside of the Goddard Project.  Whit couldn’t see much opportunity for that on this assignment, but there was always the next one.

Copyright © 2010 by Lucy Monroe