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CHAPTER 23

LANGLEY, VIRGINIA

STANSFIELD was still rolling Cooke’s visit around in his mind when Kennedy finally showed up with the youthful-looking Dr. Lewis. He set the one problem aside and prepared to deal with another one. Kennedy had refused to tell the head of Stansfield’s security detail why she needed to see him so urgently, and the deputy director of Operations was not surprised. CIA headquarters was just five minutes from their house, and it was common for him to be called in on a moment’s notice for the simple reason that most of his conversations had to be held in a secure environment.

Kennedy plopped down in one chair and Lewis took the other. Stansfield returned to the couch and looked at Kennedy. “What’s the problem?”

She had been thinking about how much she should tell Stansfield, and in the time it had taken to get dressed, pick up Lewis, and get to Langley, she had decided that it was best to keep nothing from him. “Rapp called me this morning.”

“I assume you mean he called the service and left you a message.” There was a touch of concern in his voice.

Kennedy nervously cleared her throat and said, “He called me at home.”

He took the news stoically and said, “So he’s alive.”

“Yes.”

“Did he have an explanation for missing his check-in?”

“Yes. He was shot.”

If Stansfield was alarmed, he didn’t show it. “How bad?”

“I’m not sure. He said he’d been hit in the shoulder. That was all.”

“And this was on your home phone?”

His tone was devoid of judgment, but Kennedy knew it was there. She nodded reluctantly.

Stansfield was far from thrilled to hear this news. He sat motionless for a few moments and then said, “Your phones are clean as far as you know?”

“They were swept two weeks ago.”

“Do you record your calls?” Stansfield asked this only as a precaution.

“No,” she answered honestly, “I’ve never seen the need.”

“How long did the call last?”

“Less than two minutes.”

The answer seemed to take some of the tension out of Stansfield. “I need you to repeat everything that was said.”

Kennedy relayed nearly verbatim what Rapp had said. The only thing she omitted was her warning Rapp about Victor’s keeping an eye on the apartment.

“Have you talked to Ridley?” Stansfield asked, referring to Rob Ridley, the leader of the advance team.

“Yesterday. He assured me that Tarek was traveling without bodyguards.”

“So the advance team missed them and Rapp missed them as well,” Stansfield said. “I find it hard to believe both of them would miss something so obvious.”

“I do as well.”

“So . . . we have four dead men in the room that the Libyans are claiming were Tarek’s bodyguards, but our best advance team and one of our best operatives somehow never saw them.” He took off his glasses and set them in his lap. “That doesn’t add up.”

“No it doesn’t. And this part about the fifth man . . . the one who shot Rapp.”

“Yes.”

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