I interrupted my daughter, saying, “and just for the sake of giving this mystery person a name, let’s call him ‘Moore.’”
“Yes,” Valerie agreed, “let’s pretend the mystery man is Agent Moore, because a guy like Agent Moore would have access to the data, and the skill set to manipulate it.”
“Okay, for the sake of the story, let’s use Moore as the mystery guy. You three lay it out for me,” Wakefield said.
“First, I need a little background on Agent Moore to make the story as plausible as possible. Tell me what you can,” I said.
Wakefield thought about it and then said, “Okay, I’ll play along. Agent Moore is listening,” she gestured to her right ear, “he’ll get a kick out of this. Now, I don’t have my agents’ files memorized,” she said as she considered Moore’s past, “but I believe he was recruited from the military, and if I’m not mistaken, he was a member of a Special Forces-type group, but I don’t recall which one.”
“That’s good enough,” Valerie said. “For our purposes, let’s just say he served in the Army and was a member of their elite Ranger group.”
Walking toward the whiteboard, Leecy said, “Agent Moore is connected to Briggs Smith, because they were both Rangers. Let’s also assume that Travis and Porter are also part of that elite group. So, they all know each other directly or indirectly, but they share a common background. Porter, Travis, Briggs and Agent Moore are now connected.”
“Now,” Valerie offered, “let’s assume Porter, because he had the demeanor of middle management, worked somewhere that put him in contact with ex-cons. Maybe he was a parole officer, prison warden or guard, or maybe he was at one time an actual FBI agent.”
“We would know about that, all of that. That would’ve turned up in our search,” Wakefield said.
“Not if the guy doing the searching was also part of the team trying to steal whatever it is they’re after,” I said.
“I see,” Wakefield said, “so what Leecy was suggesting was there are actually two moles, then.”
“Yes, because as my dad said yesterday, there’s nowhere to hide anymore, and I believe that. So, how did those three guys, Porter, Travis and Briggs, just disappear? Someone had to make them ghosts, and who better to do that than the guy in charge of looking for them?
“There’s another thing. When Porter interrogated us, how is it he came to have files on all of us? If he was an actual FBI agent, that might explain it, but he isn’t, at least not now. He got that information somewhere, and oddly enough, his file read almost exactly like the story you told,” Leecy said.
Wakefield stood and said, “This isn’t a game or supposition. You three really believe my agent is behind all of this. Why?”
“For all the reasons we’ve stated, and the fact that his reaction to Granger’s CIA history wasn’t shock or surprise, but confirmation,” Valerie said.
“How the hell can you read that on a person?”
“The same way I can tell that you believe everything we’ve laid out for you, and you’re only pretending to be indignant,” Valerie answered.
“I only believe that what you’re saying makes sense. It’s logical to a point, but what you haven’t explained is the connection to INESCO.”
She was right. We hadn’t tied that together, and I wasn’t sure how we could. But leave it to my daughter to do just that: make a connection even if it was a stretch.
“Look at the board,” Leecy said, “INESCO has an ex-con in Pickett on the payroll. What if that’s the connection?”
“Explain,” Wakefield said.
“I don’t know,” Leecy said with her eyes closed. I could see her searching her memory like a Rolodex. “Umm, I seem to recall an article about a state-run program that incentivized Georgia’s businesses to hire ex-cons. I want to say that the state paid the business part of the new hires’ wages for six months.” Her eyes opened and she pointed at the board. “So, INESCO hires the ex-con Pickett through this program. If there’s one hire through the program, maybe there’s another, and maybe Porter heads the program. That connects Porter to the break-in, and to the mole at INESCO. That is, if the mole turns out to be part of the program. That would connect it all, right?”
“It would be a very tenuous connection at best, and it’s all supposition at this point,” Wakefield answered. Then she said as she stared at the board, “but if Porter is in a position to track his newly employed ex-cons, then he knows one of them is working at a company that supplies the DOD and NASA. Porter keeps a close eye on the man. Maybe Porter threatens to have the man sent back to prison by framing him for something. I don’t know how, but Porter has leverage over the guy. The guy is either directly involved with or has knowledge of an INESCO product that may pay off on the black market. Desperate to get out from under Porter’s control, he tells Porter all about it. Porter enlists the help of his old Army buddies. He’s smart enough to know that he needs help if he’s going to try for whatever the hell it is. A person in a position like Agent Moore’s is a perfect accomplice,” Wakefield said, looking toward the connecting doors Agent Moore had pulled closed earlier. She turned back toward the board, saying, “Yes, I can see how all of that would fit together very nicely. The only problem is: we looked under all of those rocks and found nothing.”
“I’m not surprised. The first rule of espionage is ‘nothing is as it seems to be,’” I said, and then offered, “I think this situation is much simpler. I think Porter purposely placed ex-cons with INESCO. I think this has been in the works for a long time. Porter, Moore, and the rest have just been either waiting for the mole to reach a position with INESCO that afforded him access to the right technologies, or they were just waiting for the right project to come through the INESCO pipeline.”
“Conspiracy, now, is it?” Wakefield asked.
“No. Well, maybe. Or it’s just real smart people figuring out a way to make a huge pile of money on someone else’s work. The one thing I know for certain is the motives never change. This was to be a good old-fashioned theft with a hostage kicker. Why do they need leverage? Why try and kidnap Leecy? Answer: They can’t get to what they want at INESCO. The mole knows it’s there, but needs someone else to get it for him.”
Valerie jumped in, saying, “We’ve got to get back to the office and search the personnel files. If Leecy is correct, then all we have to do is find the employees that are part of this state program. Once we have the names, we question all of them until we find the one that’s involved. We make him tell us what they’re after and then we keep it safe. Game over.”
“Or we call Lester,” Leecy said, “and have him question Mr. Pickett. Daniel is probably still in the hospital. I’ll bet for a lighter prison sentence, he will spill the beans on the guys at INESCO that are part of the program. He might even know the one we’re after.”
Wakefield was walking toward the connecting doors and pulling them open as Leecy finished her thought. I was following Wakefield at a distance when she started barking orders to the operatives on the other side of the suite through her earpiece.
“Ryan, be advised we have hostile on site. I have two Agents unconscious. I need you and your team in tech-ops.”
I reached the open doors to the room and looked over Agent Wakefield’s shoulder. Julia and Zachary were both unconscious in their seats, probably knocked out by one of the invisible gases I knew the CIA used to incapacitate their enemies without killing them, or maybe tazered. The odor of burnt plastic also filled the air, and I noticed the computers were smoking. Agent Moore was nowhere to be found.
I was moved out of the way by the other three members of Wakefield’s unit as they rushed into the room. Hodges and Franks bent over Julia and Zachary, assessing the situation and reporting the two victims had been tazed, while Ryan conferred with Wakefield.
“We can use our laptops to access the hotel cameras and search for Moore,” Ryan said. “He couldn’t have gone far. Maybe we can locate him with
his cell or earpiece transmission signal.”
Wakefield ordered, “Get to work on the cameras in and around the hotel. Go back thirty minutes, and search forward. Forget tracking him. He’s too smart to have his cellphone or earpiece on him anymore. Our best hope is to search the cameras.”
I walked away from the room toward Leecy and Valerie.
“Moore is the third man. He is our mystery man. He’s gone. Better make that call to Lester now,” I said.
Valerie removed the prepaid cellphone from her Go bag and dialed 411. I heard her ask for the Park City, Georgia police department before I turned my attention back to Wakefield.
“How can we get in touch with you if we need you later?” I asked her. I was thinking it was time for my family and me to go.
She looked around the room at all the destroyed equipment and said, “He poured acid on everything we were using, but,” she reached for a small black case on the floor next to Julia, “he missed the backup earpieces we keep for emergencies. Do you remember how these things work?”
“No, I’ve never used one.”
“That’s right. You refused to wear the old ones with the wire and the battery pack. You’ll like these new ones a lot better. No wires. The battery is built in, and they are rechargeable. The earpiece sends and receives communications between all those wearing one. These are all tuned to the same frequency. You talk, and I hear what you say, and vice versa. I guess Tom didn’t get a kick out of the conversation after all. He has the upper hand for now.” She moved to place the earpiece in my ear, but I took the device from her hand. “Just slip it inside your ear and give the outer edge a light tap with your finger to activate it. No one will know you’re wearing it, and after a while, you’ll forget it’s there yourself. There is one drawback.”
“What’s that?” I asked slipping the tiny thing inside my left ear canal.
“The range is less than twenty miles.”
I was starting to remove it when Wakefield placed her hand on my hand, stopping me. “No, leave it. I’ll get this place cleaned up, and we’ll head to Park City. If you need us, we’ll be ready.” She let her hand fall to her side, continuing. “You three need to get to work on those files. Maybe together we can still salvage something out of the mess Moore made of this case. Find out what they’re after. Let’s use it to catch those bastards,” she said. She looked from me to the men busy cleaning up the communications room and reviving the injured agents.
I realized how close we were standing to each other and moved back a step before saying, “I owe you something for asking for your help. Let us take care of Moore and his gang for you. We can minimize your exposure that way. Keep the CIA and your team out of it, if possible.”
“But that’s not what I want. That’s never been what I wanted, and you’ve known that since we met.”
I felt my face blush and shook it off. I’d been very close with Wakefield during my years at the CIA, and I was always aware of her as a woman with powerful feelings that leaked out whenever we worked together, either close-up or at a distance. There had always been an unspoken chemistry that nearly, but never explicitly, overwhelmed our professional relationship. We’d both worked hard to keep it at bay. That wasn’t always easy to do. Seeing Tammy again reminded me just how difficult it had been.
Wakefield changed directions, saying, “No, this time I want to recruit your daughter. I can tell she’s as sharp, if not more so, as you. Add to that her mother’s influence and bloodline; that kid is a can’t-miss prospect.”
I looked over my shoulder at Valerie and Leecy. Val was still using the phone. I wondered what she could be talking to Lester about for this long. Leecy was busy checking her Go bag contents. Something was off with those two.
“I think Valerie has other plans, but Leecy is going to make her own decisions about her future. She has a mind of her own, Tammy. We all know that,” I said softly. “So, you can try to recruit her, but there’s no predicting what direction she might choose at this point. So let me clean this up for you. I owe you from long ago. It’ll make us even.”
“Okay…okay for now…but I’ll be listening if you need me. All you have to do is ask for help, and we’ll come running.”
I saw Ryan, Franks and Hodges give me a quick glance and nod. I realized they were listening to everything Wakefield and I had said.
“Earpieces,” Wakefield reminded me.
Valerie came over with Leecy, looking grim.
“Bad news. Talked to Lester. Daniel Pickett died less than forty-five minutes ago,” Valerie informed the group. “Lester says there’s an investigation into the death, but I’m sure that Porter and Moore found a way to get into the hospital and tie up their loose ends.”
“They won’t kill the man they have in place at INESCO, will they?” Leecy asked.
“Moore would’ve heard everything you three said even if he wasn’t in the building at the time,” Wakefield said. “I’ve offered an earpiece to Granger. Would you two like one?”
“Absolutely!” Leecy said.
“Agent Wakefield,” Ryan said, “the computers are completely fried. The acid ate through the motherboards. But we spotted Moore on the surveillance cameras exiting the building twenty minutes ago and entering a black SUV. We were able to track both his cellphone and earpiece signals south out of the city, then lost them both. We extended our camera search and located the SUV again south of the airport, but we need to go mobile.”
“All right, that squares it. Wrap up this HQ and be prepared to evacuate in fifteen minutes,” Wakefield said. Then facing me and my family, she asked, “Do you need a lift? Or do you want to use the stolen truck you arrived here in?”
How did she know about the truck? I didn’t really care at this point. Nothing fazed me anymore. I was beginning to accept this new world of high-tech surveillance.
“Can you drop us in East Park near the old tobacco warehouse?” Valerie asked.
“I’m happy to take you anywhere. Earpiece?” Wakefield asked.
“Yes, thank you,” Valerie said.
“Don’t be surprised by our silence. Once my team puts in earpieces, we only speak when spoken to. No idle chatter. The boys, as you saw, will speak to me directly rather than use the earpiece technology.”
There was a buzz of activity in the suite. Julia and Zachary had been revived with no apparent long-term damage, and were assisting Hodges in Tech-ops. Ryan and Franks had disappeared behind the connecting door on the far end of the room. I assumed they were wrapping things up as the entire team prepared to vacate the suite. It looked like we would all go mobile together.
“Five minutes. Let’s go.”
We followed Wakefield down the hall and into a waiting elevator. Wakefield inserted a key card and pressed the B3 button. When the doors opened, we were in the subbasement of the hotel, near the incinerator room. Valerie, Leecy and I followed Wakefield through the labyrinth, ending at the rear of one of two black SUVs parked there.
As we climbed into the SUV to wait for Wakefield’s team to arrive, Leecy asked, “Is there a way that I can do both, Mom? I mean, can I be both a CIA agent and Mossad agent?”
I was about to say no when Wakefield turned in her seat to face Leecy, saying, “I am very well-acquainted with the head of Mossad, and our agencies’ relations have thawed a bit. They were almost frozen completely after the Pollard Case, but that was almost thirty years ago. Let me see what I can do. Maybe now is the perfect time for a joint operation.”
I smiled, remembering the case she referred to, and thought if any one person could bring the two agencies back together, Leecy could.
Meanwhile, we had a puzzle to solve in Park City.
The drive to East Park didn’t take long. I was seated in the second row seat of the suburban next to Leecy, who was next to Val. Wakefield was riding in the front passenger seat, and Ryan was driving. Following us in the second SUV were the rest of the team, including Julia and Zachary
.
I listened to Tammy second guess herself and wonder aloud how she didn’t see it. Valerie and Leecy sat in silence, staring out the window. I didn’t pretend to have any answers for Wakefield, though I wanted to tell her not to be so hard on herself. The truth was, however, she’d be held accountable for having a rogue agent operating under her nose, even if we were able to clean up the mess. Fair or not, that was the way the agency would see it. I knew that’s what she was worrying about. I also knew we could help her.
We stopped at the first red light in East Park.
“Where to now?”
“Straight for three lights,” Valerie instructed. “Take the first right after the third red light. Follow that dirt road till it dead ends, and we’ll get out there.”
“Okay, will do.”
“Why so far from Park City?” Wakefield asked.
“We left our Jeep a few miles from where the dirt road ends. Now that we know the APB was of limited scope, and I assume you’ll counter it with a few phone calls, there’s no reason not to drive the Jeep,” I answered.
“Done and done,” Wakefield said.
“Thanks for the lift,” Valerie said.
“Our pleasure,” Wakefield said.
“As far as Leecy’s future is concerned,” Valerie began, “let’s talk when this is over. There are things to consider. I don’t want her to rush into anything.”
Touching her ear, Wakefield said, “Anytime.”
Valerie didn’t say goodbye or wait for the SUV to drive away before she started hiking for the Jeep. I saw her check her watch. “We have nineteen hours to find the mole, figure out what they’re trying to steal, and stop it.”
“Why do we have to do anything at all?” Leecy asked. “It seems to me the product is safe. I mean, if Porter and Moore could get to what they want, they would already have it. They failed, right?”
“No,” Valerie said, “all they incurred is a setback. Guys like Porter and Moore aren’t going to let that stop them. Yeah, they failed at taking you hostage, but what about Grandpa Reuben, my bothers, or Mom? They’re all in danger. That’s why after I called Lester, I called the family and told them what was happening. I don’t care about CIA protocol, Ron,” she said, and then, remembering her earpiece, “I don’t care if Wakefield is pissed; my family needed to be warned. I told them everything. They’re all hunkering down at INESCO. David and Isaac are busy working the files, trying to connect the dots.”