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Zack entered, Kimmie followed after Wren bade her in, and then all four of them sat at the table. Kimmie pulled out her tablet as Wren began to speak.
“Right, Zack. Your man Pace has just caused us a spot of bother in the city.”
Hightower was confused. “What happened?”
“He was sighted at Havana Harbor this morning, running overwatch for a team of men who came ashore in the container terminal. It went loud, three dead, all police, another injured. The Americans escaped.”
Almost speechless, Zack asked, “What…what the hell were they doing at the harbor?”
Hinton said, “We were hoping you might be able to tell us.”
Zack looked over and saw that Kimmie was taking notes, like this was a fucking board meeting.
“Wait. You think I knew about this?”
Hinton shrugged. “We don’t know. America wants to disrupt my research here, I’ve been telling you that from the start. They came and talked to you, and you said they seemed satisfied by what you said. Now this.”
“What makes you think this has anything to do with you?”
Wren answered, “We had several containers of cargo on a ship that had just come into port. More mainframes for our research, some other bits and bobs. Our containers don’t look like they’ve been tampered with, but nevertheless we are working under the assumption they were coming after our equipment, likely to sabotage it.”
Zack just shook his head slowly. “I don’t know anything about this. But you know I used to be Agency. You shouldn’t have hired me if you didn’t trust me.”
Hinton put a gentle hand on Zack’s forearm. “I trust you. You saved my life, after all, putting your own in danger. But we really need you to think back to your conversation with this man at the bar the night before last. Anything you didn’t tell us?”
Zack thought back, but he was also thinking about what he’d just learned. Somehow Ground Branch had been given permission to go into Cuba and run an operation. Very possibly against Anton Hinton.
He said, “I didn’t tell you Pace said he thought something was off with you. Your business dealings, your bad relationship with the U.S., even your setup down here in Cuba, he seemed like he found it a little suspect. But he didn’t accuse you of anything, and I told him I spent every day around all of you and haven’t seen anything that concerns me. I figured he would have left Cuba immediately after our conversation, and I have no idea what his people were doing snooping around the harbor.”
Hinton said, “I have a bad relationship with the U.S., true, but I also have a bad relationship with the Chinese.” Hinton rubbed his face. “Half the people who’ve been killed I loved like brothers and sisters. The other half? The other half I had some sort of conflict with. Tomer and I hadn’t spoken in years, Bogdan Kantor blamed me for losing an important contract with the Americans when we were in business together, Dr. Park thought my researchers stole some of her work.” Hinton waved a hand. “They didn’t, by the way. And I didn’t kill them.”
Wren said, “Anton is a polarizing figure, we know this. But what happened today is beyond the pale.”
Zack said, “You want me to talk with the Agency? I mean, assuming they’re still in town?”
Hinton said, “To tell them what?”
“To try to find out why they are after you, assuming they are.” Zack shrugged, looked at Wren. “Any intelligence is good intelligence. I’ll feel them out, find out what the plan was at the harbor, what they suspect. Find out if they are looking at anyone else, or if they’re just focusing on you?”
Wren said, “It’s too dangerous. You work for Anton now, you might be a target.”
He laughed a little. “Of Jim fucking Pace? The Agency’s not going to assassinate me, and if he tried, I’d take care of it.”
Hinton leaned forward. “Gareth…I think this is a good idea. We just send Zack as an emissary, find out what they were looking for. Keep it friendly.”
Wren looked to Hinton. He seemed surprised, but after a moment he ran his fingers through his graying hair. “Perhaps him going to see an old friend on neutral ground and exchanging information might be beneficial to us.” He looked to Zack. “Get us all you can, and tell Pace, again, that we are victims here, not perpetrators.”
Zack nodded.
“How will you find him?” Hinton asked. “Just call the embassy?”
Zack shook his head. “I suspect finding him won’t be the problem. I’ll go out for dinner tonight. Alone. If the CIA is still here, they will find me.”
•••
The safe house at the end of a long gravel road in a rural western Havana suburb called Bauta had been used by the Agency for clandestine meetings between officers and agents for over a decade. A large ranch with a separate barn on a wooded property divided by farmland, it was especially secure because a pair of locals in a shack a few hundred meters closer to the suburb thoroughfare watched out for any approaching vehicles whenever the Yumas, the local term for Yankees, were on the property.
Bauta was miles away from the harbor and all the mayhem that had happened there today, but still, any American intelligence officers on the ground in Cuba remained at great risk.
