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“Sir, General Potter’s waiting outside your office.”
It was an unspoken question—“What do I do with him?”—as much as a statement.
“Be right there,” General Naylor said, closed the lid of the Infernal Black Box, disconnected the ethernet cable, and then carried it into his office, set it on his desk, and connected it to the ethernet cable there.
[FOUR]
General George Potter was pouring himself and General Naylor another cup of coffee when Mr. Lawrence P. Fremont, the CIA liaison officer to CentCom, appeared in the door to General Naylor’s office.
“Ears burning, Larry?” Naylor said, waving him in and then motioning to the coffee service.
“No, thank you,” Fremont said, then: “I’m the subject of discussion?”
“The agency is,” Naylor said. “George tells me your guy in Luanda is one of his. And we were idly wondering why they’d send a special operator to Angola.”
“And your sure to be less than flattering conjecture, George?”
“Well, he’s black, he probably speaks Portuguese, and he’s a special operator. Langley probably decided he’d be less dangerous there.”
“ ‘Less dangerous,’ George?”
“In the sense he wouldn’t have much of an opportunity to make embarrassing waves,” Potter said, unrepentant. “I also said it was probably because he’s black and speaks Portuguese.”
“I respectfully disagree with premise one,” Fremont said, smiling, “and agree with the rest. White people have trouble not standing out in crowds in Africa. But, to judge from this, your/my/our guy seems to know what he’s doing.”
He handed two printouts to Naylor.
“The first was on my desk,” Fremont said. “That’s what you had, I suppose. The second came in just now.”
“Yeah,” Naylor said, glancing at the first. “That’s what I had.”
He handed it to Potter and then read the second message and handed that to Potter.
SECRET
SATBURST 02 LUANDA 23 MAY 2005
FOR REGDIR SWAFRICA
(1) SOURCE AT AEROPORTO INTERNACIONAL STATES LA-9021 UNDERWENT REPAIRS DURING PAST WEEK UNDER SUPERVISION OF CAPTAIN A.J. MACILHENNY OF LEASE-AIRE.
(2) REGISTRY OF HOTEL DEL QUATRO DE FEVEREIRO, LUANDA, INDICATES ALEX MACILHENNY, US CITIZEN OF PHILA., PENN., CHECKED IN 16 MAY 2005. INSPECTION OF HIS ROOM SHOWS NO INDICATION THAT MACILHENNY PLANNED DEPARTURE. ALL CLOTHING, PERSONAL EFFECTS, ETCETERA, STILL IN PLACE. POSSIBILITY THEREFORE EXISTS THAT MACILHENNY PILOTED PROBABLY UNWILLINGLY LEASE-AIRE LA-9021.
MORE TO FOLLOW. STACHIEF LUANDA
“George, while we wait for the oth
ers can you check and see if we got this from somebody else?” Naylor ordered. “I’d like to be sure that it’s up and running.”
“Yes, sir,” General Potter said and walked out of the of fice.
Naylor saw Fremont’s look of curiosity.
“You don’t want to know, Larry,” Naylor said. “If you knew, you might feel obliged to tell someone in Langley that I think we can get things quicker than they can send them to us, and their feelings might be hurt.”
Fremont raised both hands in a gesture meaning, I didn’t ask and, therefore, don’t know.
Naylor smiled at him. Fremont had just proven again he thought of himself as a member of the team.
