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He motioned Robie to the chair and said, “Coffee?”
“Thanks.”
The escort disappeared, presumably to fulfill this request. In the meantime Robie sat back and took in the man who led his agency.
He looked older than his fifty-four years. His hair was all gray, his waist was thick, and his hands were dotted with age spots. But it was the face that really told the story: lined, jowly, with eyes that were ensnared in deep pockets of flesh. They looked like miniature sinkholes swallowing the man whole. The lips were narrow a
nd cracked. The teeth behind were yellowed and irregular in shape. He made no attempt to conceal them. But then again, Robie figured Evan Tucker had very little reason to smile in his job.
The coffee came and the aide departed, closing the door behind him.
Tucker pushed a button hidden in the kneehole of his desk and Robie heard a sudden hum of power. He looked at the windows as thick panels slid across them. He looked at the door as the same thing happened there.
It was all very James Bond–like, but it had a legitimate and tangible purpose. The room had just been turned into a SCIF, or sensitive compartmented information facility. Obviously, what Robie was about to hear was considered to be intelligence residing at the very highest levels of the clandestine community.
Tucker sat back in his chair and continued to look at Robie. “She’s been communicating with you,” he said. The tone was slightly accusatory. “Sending you these stupid messages. Like it’s some sort of game. And telling you she doesn’t really want to blow your head off. It’s all bullshit, I trust you know that.”
Robie didn’t flinch. He never flinched. It took your mind off the game. “I know it. But there’s also nothing I can do about that. Your people say they can’t track her.”
“They tell me she’s using encryption levels above the NSA’s standard platform. She’s obviously planned this out well.”
“But if she keeps texting me, it gives us some information. And she might make a mistake. In fact, I think she’s already made a mistake by communicating with me.”
“She’s playing head games with you, Robie. She’s really good at that. I’ve seen the reports on her. She’s a manipulator. She can get people to do things by worming her way into their confidence.”
“She tried to burn me alive. Funny way to gain my confidence.”
“But then she tells you she’s sorry? No harm, no foul? And telling you to watch your back? Right and wrong? She’s doing her best to flip this whole thing to where she comes out innocent and misjudged. Makes me sick to my stomach.”
“She can say whatever she wants to. It doesn’t change my task, does it?” Robie took a sip of his coffee and then put it back down.
Tucker kept looking at Robie like he was trying to discern the slightest uncertainty in his words. “Gelder was a good man. So was Doug Jacobs.”
“So you knew Jacobs too?” asked Robie.
“No, but he certainly didn’t deserve to be shot in the back by a traitor.”
“Right,” said Robie.
“You do what she does, Robie,” said Tucker. “Walk me into her mind.”
Robie didn’t answer right away, because he wasn’t exactly sure what the man was asking. “I can tell you technically how she would approach her tasks. I can’t tell you why she’s turned traitor. I don’t know enough about her yet. I was just assigned this.”
“She’s not letting the grass grow under her feet. You can’t either.”
“I’ve been to the scene of both shootings.”
“And almost run into an FBI agent in charge of the investigation. You later had dinner with the woman. Is there a conflict there that you’re not seeing?”
“I didn’t volunteer for this mission, sir. And I had no way to control who was assigned by the FBI to investigate.”
“Go on.”
“I’ve also been to Reel’s cottage on the Eastern Shore.”
Tucker nodded. “And almost gotten burned to death for your trouble. I’ve watched the SAT footage. I think you need to elevate your game, Robie. Or else she’s going to kill you too. You come highly recommended. But we don’t need to find out down the road that she’s better than you are.”
Robie coolly appraised the man sitting behind his desk in his fine house with his guards and barricades all around. Robie knew about Tucker. He’d been a politician, then came over to the intel side. He’d never been a field agent. Never worn the uniform. Like Jacobs he was never there. He got to watch long-distance on SAT screens as others died violently.
Robie knew that drone technology ended up saving lives because you didn’t need to send in an entire team and put them in harm’s way. It was only the target at risk of dying. But sometimes computers and satellites and drones weren’t enough. That’s when Robie got called up. And he did his job. What bugged him was the desk grunts thinking that what they did was exactly what he did. It wasn’t. Not by a long shot.
“You think I’m being unfair?” said Tucker in a patronizing tone.
“The issue of fairness has nothing to do with what I do,” replied Robie.
“That’s good to hear. It saves us time.”
Robie looked around. “Since we’re in a SCIF, sir, perhaps you can give me your opinion of why this is happening.”
“Reel has turned. Someone turned her.”
“Who do you think that is? The agency must have some idea.”
“You have info on her last four missions. They took place over the better part of a year. I would say the answer would lie there.”
“Might the answer lie with the man she didn’t kill?”
“Ferat Ahmadi, you mean?”
Robie nodded. “Sometimes the simplest answers are the right ones.”
“That explains Jacobs. It doesn’t explain Gelder.”
“Let’s explore that. Did Gelder have a role in the hit on Ahmadi?”
Tucker looked around, his expression saying the SCIF wall suddenly wasn’t sturdy enough to contain the weight of this conversation.
Robie said, “If you don’t think I’m cleared for it, we can discontinue the discussion.”
“It would be quite stupid to bring you into this and not think you’re cleared for it.”
“So did Gelder have a role?”
“To my knowledge—” began Tucker, but Robie held up a hand like a cop directing traffic, which was actually what he felt like right now.
“With all due respect, sir, prefaces like that do me no good. You’re not testifying on the Hill. I need a complete answer or none at all.”
“Gelder headed up the clandestine operations, but he had no direct involvement in the Ahmadi mission,” said Tucker as he sat up straighter and seemed to look at Robie in a new light.
“So if we discount Ahmadi, where else do we look? We need some connecting dots between Jacobs and Gelder.”
“Has it occurred to you that Reel might just be targeting individuals at the agency based on some paranoid template in her own mind? She was working with Jacobs. She could set him up easily. He’s dead. Gelder is the number two man. She takes him down and it does catastrophic damage to the agency and helps our enemies. There could be no more rhyme or reason to it than that.”
“Don’t think so.”
“Why not?” Tucker said sharply.
“Anybody could do that. Reel isn’t just anybody.”
“I didn’t think you knew her that well. The file says you’ve had no contact with her for over a decade.”
“That’s true. But the contact I did have with her was pretty intense. You get to know a person under conditions like that. It’s like you’ve known them your whole life.”
“People change, Robie.”
“Yes, they do.”
“So what exactly is your point?”
“She has a plan. And the plan is of her own making.”
“And you’re basing that on what? Your gut?”
“If she were working for someone else, she would not be communicating with me. The standard rules of engagement preclude that. Her employers would be monitoring that, just as you are monitoring my communications. She wouldn’t risk that. I think this is personal.”
“She could be playing you. Taking you off your game. She’s an attractive woman. Her record indicates that she’s used all her assets to successfully complete her missions in the past. Don’t get sucked in.”
“I’ve taken that into account, sir. Still doesn’t add up.”
“Then if she has an agenda, what is it? We’re talking in circles.”
