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“He’s got a periscope up Mike’s ass.”
Drex cursed under his breath. “Well, that’s just fabulous. How far up it?”
“He showed up at Mike’s office yesterday morning all bluster and self-importance. Hauled Mike away from his desk and into a conference room. He grilled him about the meeting we had in the hotel. Remember the enchanting Ms. Li?”
Drex couldn’t help but chuckle. “She delivered my note to Rudkowski?”
Gif didn’t see the humor in it. “I think you’re missing the point here.”
Sighing, Drex pressed his thumb and middle finger into his eye sockets and rubbed them. He was suddenly very tired. “I get your point. Rudkowski isn’t just following up on my mysterious vacation, he’s micromanaging a pursuit.”
“Precisely.”
“I saw this coming and warned you of it. If he failed to find me, he’d come after you. I advised you to be on alert.”
“Agents are watching us, night and day. We’ve pretended not to notice. But coming to Mike’s workplace, putting him through the wringer? That takes Rudkowski’s zeal to a new level.” He studied Drex for a moment. “You left him a bread-crumb trail to follow to that hotel.”
“You and Mike urged me to contact him.”
“Through official channels, Drex. Making him the butt of a joke isn’t what we had in mind.”
Drex put up no defense. He figured he deserved this particular hand-slapping. “Rudkowski found the hotel by tracking the text sent from my old phone?”
“Isn’t that how you planned it?”
He shrugged, as good as an admission.
“Rudkowski went to the hotel in person,” Gif said. “Conversed with Ms. Li.”
“I made certain she would remember me. The birthday cake and all.”
“Likely she would have remembered you even without that.”
“She’s new on the job. Eager to accommodate.”
“Nevertheless, I doubt she would have been quite so accommodating had you not been quite so suave.” He paused. Then, “What did the note to Rudkowski say, anyway?” Drex told him, and Gif smiled in spite of himself. “I would have paid good money to see his expression when he read it. But it would have been nice for you to let Mike and me in on the joke before it was sprung.”
Drex shook his head. “This way, you can truthfully claim ignorance and innocence.”
“Makes no difference what we claim. We could take a blood oath, and Rudkowski still wouldn’t believe us.”
“Probably not. But, on the plus side, your consciences remain clear.” He shot Gif a grin, but Gif wasn’t in a jesting frame of mind.
“This is serious, Drex.”
He dropped the grin. “Yeah, I know.”
“You don’t know the worst of it.”
“There’s more?”
“Rudkowski didn’t stop with the grilling. He alleged that Mike had tampered with evidence, stolen classified documents, breached secure email accounts. He reeled off a laundry list of offenses.”
“Shit.”
“Right. On and on.”
“How did Mike respond?”
