The Artifact by Jack Quinn Read Free Book Online Page A

Andrea read, “unit, e-mail, occasional phone and address.” She looked at Sammy. “Gee, this is pretty good.”
    “It’s not consistent, though. Because it’s all voluntary, not an official personnel list or anywhere near complete. Most guys just surfed into the site looking for a buddy they served with.”
    “Maybe it’ll pay off when I get the names of Mitchell’s squad leaders from Brooks.”
    Sammy tapped a finger on the printout. “I doubt anyone else has this, either.”
    “All right!” Andrea whooped. “How to go, genius!”
    “Sounds like I just got a promotion.”
    “Damn straight, you did!”
    “What about the MI investigation?”
    “The summary is pabulum. Any chance you can find the full report to the JCS?”
    Sammy made a note on a corner of the printout on his lap. “I doubt it.”
    Andrea sounded discouraged. “May be a whitewash in any event. Written by the very army whose soldiers stole millions in ancient Arab treasure.”
    “Military Intelligence are like Internal Affairs in police departments, Andy. For the most part smart and dedicated. They’d need a lot of people to conduct an investigation like that. How could the army cover it up? And why?”
    “Those are precisely the questions we’re going to answer.”
    Andrea reached to the table for the spiral-bound pad in which she had entered notes during her interview with the general, flipping through the pages to refresh her memory.
    “When I asked for the Bravo casualty report they both jumped on me with all four feet.”
    “The military is very protective of their dead heroes.”
    “I sensed a lot more than that, Sam. Any way you can get the second platoon casualty list?”
    “I’m not sure. They might not report that by sub-unit.”
    “If the Army is covering up a high casualty rate in Mitchell’s second platoon during Black Dawn, I might have a pretty strong wedge to pop some congressional eyeballs.”
    Sammy nodded his agreement as he made another note on the printout.
    Andrea lifted the pages of the JCS summary onto her lap and began reading from it aloud. The report began with an introduction repeating the unsubstantiated charges leveled by Iraqi interim PM Allawi, the questions asked of the 211 soldiers in Bravo Company interrogated, the inconclusive findings, the subsequent fruitless search for the nomadic tribe by a platoon of impartial British Marines, and the conclusion that the Bedouin story had been fabricated for some reason known only to the workings of the incomprehensible Arab psyche. The names of the soldiers interviewed were not listed, nor were any verbatim comments made to MI and CIA investigative officers. Major Charles X. Geoff signed the Report Summary.
    They were both silent for several minutes until Sammy said, “These crooks we’re looking for, probably half a dozen tough buggers, twenty-something, went through rugged training together, ate and slept side by side for months, grown to trust each another.”
    “Could the average soldier pull this off?” she wondered. “This is brainy stuff, unloading the family jewels of some ancient Mesopotamian king; not like stealing dollars from Saddam’s stash.”
    “Let’s not underestimate the devious mind of the common man.”
    “Or woman,” she added.
    “You think so? Technically, the gentle sex is not supposed to be deployed in frontline combat.”
    “These were just patrols, search and apprehend.” She lifted her eyes to gaze at the opposite wall. “Female medics are allowed on patrol under some circumstances. Would they be more squeamish about the theft than guys? Shooting the Bedouins? Would their male buddies exert pressure? How much?”
    “What about the female guards at Abu Ghraib?”
    “Good point. We’re not going to find a bunch of pussycats behind this. According to the Bedouins, they killed to get the treasure, they’ll kill to keep it.”
    Sammy stared at her until she met his gaze. “You’ll bear that in mind won’t you,