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Hurley and Rapp shared an awkward glance. “It’s hard to explain, Irene, but I believe this guy,” Rapp said.
Kennedy thought of what Rapp had said to her a few days earlier. “Do you believe him because you want to believe him?”
“That’s not it,” Hurley jumped in. “This Kassar tells a pretty convincing story.”
“Irene,” Rapp said, leaning forward, “he’s the guy in the tape. The one who walks in and shoots the two guys.”
“He told you that?” Kennedy asked in near total shock.
“Yes . . . he told us how he gave Rick a shot right before the final beating that would make it look like he was dead. They staged the whole thing. Including leaving the camera behind for us to find.”
“And the beating was real?”
“Yep . . . It was Rick’s idea. Kassar said he tried to stop it repeatedly, but Rick would not listen. He said the only way it would work was if they made it look real.”
As Kennedy thought of the remorse and recrimination she’d felt over Rickman’s beating and death she was dumbstruck. What kind of sick man would go to such lengths?
“And Hubbard was supposed to disappear as well,” Hurley added. “It was part of the deal Rick set up. He had arranged for Hubbard to stay behind and feed Mitch the information about the dog and then they would sneak him out of the country, but Durrani thought bringing Hubbard along was too big a risk, so he had him killed and told Rick Mitch did it.”
“And Gould?”
“Rick hired him,” Hurley said. “Kassar said Rick was obsessed with Mitch. Said he kept telling Durrani that the only way this would work was if Mitch was killed.”
“I don’t understand.”
“Apparently,” Rapp said with no joy, “he thinks I’m the only man who ever really got him. Who understood how he thought.”
“And,” Hurley said, “he was scared shitless of Mitch. Kept telling Durrani that Mitch was the last man at the Agency. That if he had even the slightest inkling that something was wrong he wouldn’t stop until he’d tracked both of them down and killed them.”
“Which is exactly what I’m going to do.”
Kennedy took in a deep breath and leaned back. She could tell by the look on both Rapp’s and Hurley’s faces that it would be impossible to dissuade them from killing Rickman and Durrani. At the moment she had no objection, but this could be a very complicated operation, one they might not survive. “Why do I get the feeling that the two of you already have a plan?”
“We’re still working on it,” Rapp said.
“I don’t want to rush into this,” Kennedy declared. “We should get JSOC involved and do this the right way.”
“Irene, you know I love JSOC. No one is better than those guys, but that could take weeks to pull together. Rick can give away a lot of secrets in two weeks. Shit, he can give away a lot of secrets in two days.”
“I don’t like the idea of sending you two in to handle something like this. If anything goes wrong I won’t be able to help you. Durrani is a dangerous man.”
“Irene, look at the fallout after the bin Laden raid, and that was Abbottabad, sixty minutes north of the capital, and bin Laden was a fucking Saudi and the most notorious terrorist in the world. Durrani is a decorated Army officer and for all intents and purposes the second-most-powerful man in the ISI, and his compound is on the outskirts of the capital. You can’t send the SEALs or Delta Force in there. We’ll have a fucking war on our hands.”
As much as she hated to admit it, he was right. “How are you going to do it?”
There was another sheepish look between Rapp and Hurley, and then Rapp finally said, “Like I said, we’re still working on it.”
“That’s fine, but I want to hear the broad brushstrokes.”
“When’s your meeting with Taj, and can you get Durrani to attend?”
“Tomorrow afternoon at three, and I have requested that all three deputies attend, including Nadeem Ashan, who was fired yesterday.”
“Good. It would really help if you made sure Durrani was in attendance. He knows three of his men are dead. We were listening when Kassar told him. He freaked out.”
“Considering the importance of the meeting, I think I can make that happen.”
“Here’s what we’re going to do. We’re going to fly into Jalalabad and then cross into Pakistan via car. The checkpoints are way more lax than the airports. This way we can bring our equipment, and if Kassar makes one wrong move he’s dead. I can’t hold that threat over him if we fly into Islamabad International or Bhutto.”
