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“No,” the speaker said, finally. “Perhaps it’s better to follow the director’s advice. Of course, Mr. Director, you’ve got confirmation hearings coming up, and it might reflect badly on you if that turns out to be the wrong advice.”
“I can only advise you to do what I think is best, Mr. Speaker,” Kinney said, “and not concern myself with the hearings.”
“Let the chips fall where they may?” the speaker asked, grinning.
“Yes, sir,” Kinney replied. “I expect I can find another job, if I have to.”
“Any questions, gentlemen?”
“You going to keep us posted, Mr. President?”
“I’m not going to issue bulletins, at least not until Fay is caught, but feel free to call either Bob Kinney or Kate Lee for an update, whenever you like. If that’s all, gentlemen?”
A lot of handshaking took place, and the group filed out, leaving Will alone with Kate and Kinney.
“Anything else, before we bring the others in for the security briefing?” he asked.
“Mr. President, there’s something I should mention,” Kinney said.
“Go ahead, Bob.”
“I was very surprised to learn that the CIA had in their computers templates of FBI I.D. cards and letterheads, allowing them to create convincing but bogus FBI agents and correspondence at will.”
Kate spoke up. “Bob, surely you can imagine that sometimes our field officers need to impersonate FBI personnel in order to further their work.”
“Quite frankly, Kate,” Kinney replied, “I can’t imagine that that would ever be necessary. However, should the need ever arise I think it would be best if you made a request for I.D.s directly to me, instead of printing your own.”
“Kate?” Will asked, when she hesitated.
“I would much prefer to keep things as they are,” Kate replied.
“Well, in that case, I’m sure you won’t mind furnishing us with templates of CIA I.D.s and letterheads, so that my agents can impersonate Agency personnel at will.”
Will was amused but tried not to show it. “Is that unreasonable, Kate?”
“All right, Bob, I’ll have the templates removed from our databases and destroyed, and I’ll come to you, if we need the I.D.s.”
“Thank you, Kate,” Kinney said, beaming.
TWENTY-THREE
HOLLY SAT AT HER LAPTOP at the desk in her room while Tyler Morrow looked over her shoulder.
“This is nuts,” Holly said.
“What do you mean, nuts?”
“There’s no way we can begin to cover opera in New York. You’ve got the Metropolitan and the New York City Operas, both at Lincoln Center, both running five days a week. What’s more, the same opera often plays more than one night during a week. Look at this: Carmen on Thursday night and Saturday night. Even if we knew that Teddy loved Carmen, which performance would we cover? And Carmen is on the following week, too. And we don’t know that Teddy loves Carmen. We can’t go to two operas five nights a week, either.”
“I see your point,” Morrow said. “After all, there are only two of us.”
“You don’t have to attend the opera to find out if Teddy does,” said a voice from the hallway.
Holly and Tyler turned to find Lance standing in the door.
“You just said that both the opera houses are at Lincoln Center. Why don’t you stake out both houses, one each, every night before the performance and watch the audiences go in? Look for men alone, fifty or older; Teddy is said to look at least ten years younger than his sixty-seven years.”
“Good idea,” Holly said, embarrassed that she hadn’t thought of that herself.
