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“If he wanted to kill you, you’d be dead.”
“Viggie was in his plane. Was he going to kill her?”
“No. We were getting the girl away from Valerie. You just got in the way.”
“Oh,” Michelle said, looking chagrined.
“Champ also told me to tell you that you have a lot to live for. And to give up trying to fly planes. I’m not sure what he meant by that.”
Michelle looked down at her hands. “So Champ is okay?” she said.
“Yes. And like me, he’s been reassigned.”
“Why was Viggie taken?” Michelle asked.
Whitfield said, “There was also code in the song’s notes that Alicia managed to break using the computers at Babbage Town. It was actually based on the World War II–era Enigma code.”
Sean said, “I knew it! She used my clue about the Enigma code to break it and then lied to us about it. And Viggie was also a code, a living, breathing one.”
“And the song title was the big clue: ‘Shenandoah,’ ” Michelle added.
“That’s right,” Sean agreed.
“What did the decoded song say?” Michelle asked.
“It described some of the things Monk Turing saw at Camp Peary. It was enough to make Valerie order Alicia to take Viggie.”
“Alicia kidnapped her?” Michelle exclaimed.
He nodded. “I know it probably doesn’t mean much after all she did, but Alicia helped me and Champ get Viggie onto that plane. I believe she really did care about the girl because it was a big risk, her doing it.”
“It might mean a little bit,” Sean admitted.
“Ian, how can you continue to work for a place that’s dealing in drugs!” Michelle exclaimed.
Whitfield shrugged. “You need poppy seeds to make opium and you need opium to make heroin. And right now in Afghanistan, the poppy crop is the only thing keeping the economy going. And if we don’t buy it terrorists will and use the enormous profits from dealing the drugs to attack us. Lesser of two evils; sometimes it’s the only choice we have.”
“It’s still wrong,” Michelle persisted. “And what Valerie did was criminal.”
“Valerie was a rogue clear and simple. As crazy as it sounds I believe she was going to kill you both after the torture was done, and she probably believed she’d get away with it. The role of the CIA she had in mind is not the same one I have, and never will be so long as I have anything to say about it.”
“Ian, you have to tell us one thing: How did Monk Turing get across the river?” Sean asked.
Whitfield hesitated. “I guess I owe you that. It was an underwater propulsion device. We found it.”
Sean looked at Michelle. He said, “No, that was—”
Whitfield cut in: “We found two of them, actually. One on the night all hell broke loose.” He eyed them both. “Know anything about that?”
Sean smiled. “Great minds do think alike.”
The limo slowed and then stopped.
“We’re here,” Whitfield said, opening the door. “Take your time, I’ll wait outside.”
CHAPTER
93
