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He opened the top and looked down at the close-bonded stacks of thousand-dollar bills. “Thirty million. Amazing to look at,” he said, “even for me.”
“Colonel Ben David will be pleased,” the agent said, deadpan.
Maceo Encarnación gave a silent laugh. “We all will.”
Soraya was about to leave Peter’s hospital room when Secretary Hendricks bustled in.
“Good to see you out of bed, Soraya,” he said. Then he looked past her to where Peter lay. “How are you feeling?”
“Numb,” Peter said, “in every way imaginable.”
Hendricks dredged up a bark of a laugh. “Look, Peter, I don’t have a lot of time. We have a bit of a situation up at headquarters.”
“The computer network is down.”
“That’s right,” Hendricks said, at the same time Soraya said, “What?”
“Dick Richards.” Peter looked at Hendricks, who nodded. “I told Sam to pick him up.”
“Anderson made a command decision to try and definitively link Richards with Core Energy.” Hendricks gestured. “Brick has been ultra-cautious. Despite what he allegedly said to you—”
“He did say it to me, dammit!” Peter said heatedly.
Hendricks let Peter expend himself. “A court of law will rule against you,” he said, after a time. “We’ve tried to follow a money trail, but if Richards is being paid by Core Energy or any of its subsidiaries, we have yet to find any evidence of it. Anderson knew this, which was why he put a keylogger onto the terminal he set Richards up at.”
“Don’t tell me,” Peter said sourly. “It didn’t work.”
“What makes you say that?”
“I assume you have Richards in custody.”
For the first time, Hendricks appeared chagrined. “He’s gone, disappeared.”
“Find Brick,” Peter said. “That’s where Richards went, guaranteed.”
Hendricks spoke softly into his mobile. When the conversation concluded, he said, “For some reason Brick wants the Treadstone system down. Why?”
“Assuming you’re right,” Soraya said, “it’s likely our overseas monitoring he wants to go silent.”
Peter snapped his fingers. “You’re right! But what is he afraid of us finding out?” He gnawed on his thumb for a moment.
Hendricks shifted from one foot to the other. “Peter...” He looked suddenly uncomfortable. When Peter looked up, he continued. “Considering everything that’s happened to you—the serious nature of your current injury, I think it’s best if you’re relieved of duties as codirector of Treadstone.”
“What?” Peter said.
Soraya took a step forward. “You can’t.”
“I can,” Hendricks said. “And I am.”
“It’s my legs that are paralyzed,” Peter said, “not my brain.”
“I’m very sorry, Peter, but my mind’s made up.”
As he turned to go, Soraya said, “If Peter goes, so do I.”
Hendricks swiveled back, leveling his heavy gaze at her. “Don’t be foolish, Soraya. Don’t throw away your career for—”
“For what? My loyalty to my friend?” she countered. “Peter and I have served together from the begi
Hendricks shook his head. “You’re confusing dedication with loyalty. That’s a terrible mistake, one you’re not likely to recover from.”
“It’s Treadstone that won’t recover from losing its co-directors,” she said with all the force she could muster.
The secretary appeared shocked. “You talk about Treadstone as if it’s a family. It’s not, Soraya. It’s a business.”
“With all due respect, Mr. Secretary, Treadstone isa family,” she said. “Every one of its contacts overseas belongs to me. If I leave, they’ll leave with me—”
“They won’t.”
“—just as they did when I was let go from CI during the regime change.” She stood toe to toe with Hendricks, unafraid because, really, she had nothing to lose. She had no desire to remain at Treadstone without Peter. “I told you at the time that regime change was a mistake and that’s turned out to be true. CI is a shell of its former self. It’s dysfunctional, and morale is far worse than it was in the weeks following nine-eleven.”
“I don’t react well to being threatened,” Hendricks said.
“I don’t think I’m the one doing the threatening here.”
“Look, Anderson’s in the field, even as we speak. Peter put him in charge and—”
“I like Sam as much as the next guy,” Peter said, “but he’s not seasoned enough to run field ops for Treadstone for any length of time.”
“Are either of you going to do it?” Hendricks gestured. “Look at you. Neither of you could walk out of here under your own power.”
“There’s nothing to stop us setting up a temporary HQ right here in Peter’s room,” Soraya said. “In fact, given that the Treadstone servers have been rendered useless, a substitute network seems like the best possible course of action right now.”
Peter, who had been watching the dispute like a spectator at a te
She turned, frowning. “What d’you mean?”
“What if it was being used to pay for something else?”
“The money’s proved to be counterfeit,” Hendricks said dismissively.
“What?” Peter’s head turned. “Really?”
Hendricks nodded. “Uh-huh.”
“But that doesn’t make sense. The guy who almost killed me—” “Tulio Vistoso,” Hendricks said. “Aka the Aztec. A top-line Mexican drug lord.”
“I don’t understand,” Soraya said.
“We think it was a feint,” the Secretary said. “Classic misdirection on Maceo Encarnación’s part. When he’s in Mexico City, the two are practically joined at the hip.”
Peter shook his head. “I’m not so sure. The Aztec went to extreme lengths to protect that money.”
Another short silence ensued.
“Is it possible,” Soraya mused, “that Vistoso didn’t know the money was counterfeit?”
Peter was intrigued. “That would mean he’d been scammed.”
“That doesn’t track,” Hendricks said. “Vistoso was one of the Mexican Big Three. Who would dare to scam him?”
“Someone with more juice.” Peter looked from one to the other. “Someone like Maceo Encarnación.”
Soraya turned to Hendricks. “Have you been tracking him?”
“Encarnación was in Washington several days ago, giving an interview for Politics As Usual.”
“I’m still back on the counterfeit thirty mil,” Peter said. “Something about it is totally off.” He snapped his fingers. “There must be an expert we can get hold of who might be able tell us who the counterfeiter is.”
“It’s already being worked on,” Hendricks said. “But why should we be interested?”
“Thirty million is an enormous amount,” Peter mused. “It had to be very, very good work. A master forger was involved. Maybe we can use him to implicate Maceo Encarnación.”
Soraya crossed her arms over her swollen breasts, noticing how tender they had become. “Speaking of Maceo Encarnación, do we know where he went after his interview?”
“He flew back to his headquarters in Mexico City,” Hendricks said.
“Is he there now?” Peter said.
Hendricks was already on his mobile, barking orders. He waited, staring at Peter. A moment later, he got his reply. “He’s in Paris now, but has yet to disembark, which is odd because his plane has been on the ground for a good six hours.”
“So okay,” Peter said, “because Vistoso was Maceo Encarnación’s prime lieutenant and because thirty million, even in counterfeit money, is a helluva sum, we’ve speculated that Encarnación must be involved.”
“I’m thinking of Brick wanting the Treadstone system down,” Soraya said. “Could there be a co
“That system,” Peter said, “is our best listening post in the Middle East.”
“And Paris,” Soraya said, “is a helluva lot closer to the Middle East than Mexico City.”
Hendricks gave a quick nod. “Maceo Encarnación’s pilot will have to file a flight plan out of Paris.”