Court said, “Meaning…maybe she’s the leaker, and she needs to know how worried she should be about a CIA investigator like Pace identifying her.”
“That’s the concern,” Hanley said.
Jill Mori said, “I’m looking into Ortega in open source. She’s single, and very private. She works at an ODNI office at the State Department in Foggy Bottom, and lives near Washington Circle, a mile or so away.”
“Okay,” Court said. “What’s our mission?”
Gumdrop spoke as if the answer was obvious. “Go up there and find out if she’s the spy.”
Hightower made a face.“Find out?”
“Yeah.”
Hanley started to say something, but Hightower spoke first. “Ma’am, we’re not exactly Starsky and Hutch.”
She looked to Hanley, then back to the assets at the table. “I don’t know what that means.”
Court clarified, “We’re not detectives. We’re not investigators.”
Jill said, “Nobody is asking you to decipher the Rosetta stone.”
To this, Hightower said, “I don’t know whatthatmeans.”
Hanley stepped in. “We will support Jim Pace’s operation. Be his eyes and his ears, his black bag team. He’ll do the investigating; you’ll do the grunt work.” He looked to Jill now. “You have to talk to these guys like they’re big dumb idiots. It’s not their fault. They’ve all been blown up a lot.”
Now he turned to Hightower. “Speaking of which. Night Train, you’re not on this op. Go back to Boulder, get your MRI, and get yourself cleared for duty.”
Zack looked to the two other assets with him, then back to Hanley. “That’s not for several days. Let me go on this. I’ll drive the surveillance van or something.”
For the first time, Arnold spoke up. “I put a white GMC van on site already in a parking garage on Maryland Avenue. I have four sets of magnetic decals in the back. Different businesses. Three cases of cams, some disguises, other odds and ends. I have a couple other vans and cars in storage nearby. We can rent other vehicles if we need them.”
“Weapons?” Hightower asked.
“Shouldn’t need them,” Arnold said. “But yes. Pistols will be with your ICE uniforms.”
“ICE?” Travers said with a tone of confusion.
“You have a few covers. All in the van.”
Travers cocked his head. “Wait. You did that all this morning?”
“Loaded the van last night. Dropped it in D.C. this morning.”
“It’s eight thirty in the morningnow. That’s two hundred miles away.”
“Earlythis morning, sir.”
“Right.” Travers was impressed. “Cool.”
Hanley had been mulling over Hightower’s desire to join the team. He said, “Zack. Nothing operational. You promise me that?”
“I promise.”
“All right. Conductor will stay here. The rest of us will fly up to Reagan on the jet now. It’s waiting for us at Hampton Roads.”
Hightower said, “It will be good to see Jim again.”
But to this, Hanley held up a hand. “You’re not going to be interfacing directly with Jim Pace. Watkins’s orders. Pace goes to Lacy, Lacy goes to us, we go to you.”
