Страница 50 из 85
18
By eight thirty he was in Vie
At Vie
Though he saw James Ei
The room was bleakly cheap and small but functional. He took a shower and dressed in his dirty clothes. He left his four-day beard untouched, but in the mirror noticed among the chestnut tones several white hairs. It was all so disappointing.
Ei
“Anyone behind me?” Milo asked.
Ei
“How’d you get me out?”
“Ask Drummond. I assume he’s got a German contact.”
“Why Myrrh?”
Ei
Milo unwrapped a pair of plastic cups from the bathroom. They drank.
“Well?”
Ei
“Who?”
“Nathan Irwin.”
“I sure hope you brought some blow.”
Everything, Ei
Milo recalled his last voluntary television memory, in Warsaw. “I saw it on the BBC.”
“So did Irwin, and if anyone can smell an approaching scandal, it’s a senator. He knew his career could be on the chopping block. He cornered Drummond. Demanded to know how it had gotten out. Drummond had to admit to the mole investigation.”
“I bet he didn’t take that well.”
“You’d win that bet. He’s upset enough that the Chinese know about the Sudanese operation, but apparently that’s not the only pie Irwin had his finger in. So he’s taken over the department. Drummond’s now his errand boy. Irwin recalled everyone to New York to be debriefed and given new legends and go-codes.”
“What about you?”
“Drummond thought you might need someone to hold your hand.”
They drank until late, Ei
When, after midnight, Ei
“Where the hell are you?”
“Sorry, James. I’ve got something to do before heading home.”
He didn’t sound angry, just amused. “And you couldn’t’ve asked me along?”
“You wouldn’t’ve let me go.”
“You know who I’ve got to call now, right?”
“Go ahead. I’ll leave the phone on for a half hour. Tell him I’ll be expecting his call.”
Ei
“You tell me.”
“Tell you what?”
“There should be something in the files. Back in December, someone used my name in Budapest. My real name.”
“So?”
“You’re still new, Alan. Maybe you don’t realize what a no-no that is. Someone uses my real name, then other people can track it to my family. It’s simply not done.”
“Then come on back,” said Drummond. “We’ll figure out who did it.”
“Not during a freeze, we won’t. And later, I won’t have a chance.”
“Why not?”
Milo pulled into the slow lane behind a big rig. “Theodor Wartmüller.”
“What?”
“It was you, Alan. It was you the whole way.”
“You’re making no sense, Hall. What did the Krauts do to you?”
“I didn’t remember at first,” Milo said, “but then it came to me. Theodor Wartmüller. In December, one of my first jobs was to mail a package to him. I didn’t know what was inside, but now I do. Photographs of him with Adriana Stanescu, in bed. It was us. We’re the ones who blackmailed him, and then we swooped in to save him in exchange for favors.”
Drummond made some grunting noises, and Milo realized that it was after three in the morning there. “Can we talk this through later?”
“There’s no point, Alan. We set up Wartmüller by setting up the girl. Then we killed her.”
“Hold on a minute,” Drummond said, and Milo heard movement on the other side and a muffled voice, perhaps female. Walking. He was leaving his wife to find some privacy. A door closed; then he came back on. “It wasn’t my watch, Hall. You know that. Mendel set it up. I told you before-I’ve had to spend all my time cleaning up his mess. From what I gather, we monitored the whorehouse for some time and collected pictures of various German politicos before letting the police shut down the operation. Then Mendel used you to send those photos, which were to get us back in with the BND. Really,” he said, “no one even told me this when I took over the department. I didn’t know a thing about it until Wartmüller called me directly, asking us to get rid of Stanescu. Had to backtrack to figure out what he was even talking about, and I made my decision.”
“It was the wrong decision.”
“I don’t like it either, but we got plenty in return.”
He merged into the eastward flow of traffic, which was lighter than the westward flow. “Just tell me, then. Who actually pulled the trigger?”
“I’m sure you’ll figure it out on your own.”
“It was us, yes?”
“Yes, Milo. It was us. Wartmüller learned of your failure, so I had to send someone else. Someone with a little more loyalty.”
“Someone with fewer scruples.”
“A Tourist.”
“Ei
Drummond didn’t answer.
“This is why I won’t have time later to find out who was using my name in Budapest. Because I’m finished. I quit.”
“You’re not serious.”
“I really am, Alan. Find your mole on your own, and enjoy working for Senator Irwin. I hear he gives a brutal Christmas party.”
Milo switched off his phone, then steered with his knee as he took it apart. He was careful about it, because he didn’t want to have a wreck. He didn’t want anything to go wrong-he’d had enough of that.