AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“PDA,” Swain said.
“Oui. The PDA.” Said with a French accent, it was pei d’ay.
“The number you use to contact him—”
“It is a mobile number, I believe, as I am always able to reach him on it.”
“Have you had the number traced?”
“We do not investigate, monsieur; we coordinate.”
Swain was well aware that Interpol’s constitution directly prohibited the organization from conducting its own investigations. His guy had just confirmed that he was indeed Interpol, not that Swain had doubted it.
“I am certain the mobile phone would be registered under a false name,” the Frenchman continued. “That would be easy for him to do, I think.”
“A snap of the fingers,” Swain agreed, pinching the bridge of his nose. A fake driver’s license was easy to come by, especially for people in their line of work. Lily had used three sets of identification running from Rodrigo. For someone who worked at Langley, how hard could it be?
He tried to think of the various means available for nabbing this guy. “How often are you in contact?”
“Sometimes not for months. Twice in the past few days.”
“So a third contact so soon would be unusual?”
“Very unus
ual. But would he be suspicious? Perhaps, perhaps not. What are you thinking?”
“I’m thinking, monsieur, that you’re between a rock and a hard place and would like to get out. Am I right?”
“A rock and a—? Ah, I understand. I would like that very much.”
“What I need is a recording of your next conversation with him. Turn off the recorder while you’re talking, if you want. The content of the conversation isn’t important, just his voice.”
“You will get a voiceprint.”
“Yeah. I’ll also need the recorder you use. Then all I have to do is find a match.” Voiceprint analysis was fairly exact; that and facial-recognition programs had been used to differentiate Saddam Hussein from his doubles. A voice was a product of the structure of each individual’s throat, nasal passages, and mouth, and hard to fake. Even impressionists couldn’t exactly match a voice. Variables came in with the differences between microphones, recorders, audio feed, and so on. By having the same recorder, he took that variable out of the equation.
“I am willing to do this,” the Frenchman said. “It is a danger to me and my loved ones, but I think the risk is manageable, with your cooperation.”
“Thank you,” Swain said sincerely. “Are you willing to go a step further, and perhaps remove the threat from existence?”
There was a very long pause; then he said, “How would you do this?”
“You have contacts you trust?”
“But of course.”
“Someone who could maybe find out the specs of the security system at a certain complex?”
“Specs . . . ?”
“Blueprint. Technical details.”
“I assume this complex belongs to the Nervi organization?”
“It does.” Swain gave him the name of the laboratory, and the address.
“I will see what I can do.”
