Страница 16 из 84
Ke
“Beirut,” Powers said, offering nothing more.
Beirut could mean a lot of things, but on this hot August morning Ke
“Yep.”
“Crap,” Ke
The Pentagon had zero assets in the region and the CIA wasn’t much better. They were still trying to recover from the kidnapping, torture, and death of their Beirut station chief half a decade earlier. Langley did, however, have assets in Jordan, Syria, and Israel. Cummins, who had lived in Syria for the past three years, was the best bet. He’d built up some great contacts by passing himself off as a counterfeiter of U.S. currency and smuggler of American-made goods that were embargoed in the region.
From the jump Ke
“How bad?” Ke
“Bad.”
The doors opened on the seventh floor and Ke
Stansfield cut the person on the other end off, said good-bye, and placed the phone back in its cradle. Looking up at Powers, he asked, “Any further word?”
Powers shook his head.
“How did it happen?” Ke
“He was leaving his hotel on Rue Monot for a lunch meeting,” Stansfield said. “He never showed. He missed his check-in this afternoon and I placed a call to my opposite in Israel. Mossad did some quiet checking.” Stansfield shook his head. “A shopkeeper saw someone fitting Cummins’s description being forced into the trunk of a car shortly before noon today.”
Ke
“I remember you voiced your opposition to this,” Stansfield said, “but know there are certain things that even I wasn’t told.”
“Such as?”
The ops boss shook his head, letting her know he wasn’t allowed to talk about it. “The important thing now is that Schnoz’s Syrian contacts back his cover story. If they don’t step up to the plate for him, this will end badly.” Cummins was half Armenian and half Jewish and had a nose to make a Roman emperor jealous; hence his unofficial cover name was Schnoz.
“Double down,” Powers chimed in. “Get the Texas boy on a plane with a couple suitcases filled with cash.”
“It’s a possibility that I already floated with the White House. They’re getting nervous, though, and for good reason.”
“They should be,” Ke
“Bingo,” Powers said.
Stansfield was quiet for a moment. “I have a back cha
“It better happen quick,” Ke
“I know,” Stansfield sighed.
“Rescue op?” Powers asked.
Stansfield looked slightly embarrassed. “Not going to happen. We knew it going in. Beirut is still radioactive.”
“What if we get some good intel?” Ke
“That’s a big what if.”
“But if we do,” Ke
Stansfield sadly shook his head.
“Corner office or Sixteen Hundred?” Powers asked.
Ke
“White House,” Stansfield replied.
“Our friends at the Institute.” Powers offered it as a suggestion. “They’re in the loop?”
Stansfield tapped the leather ink blotter on his desk while he considered the Israeli option. The Institute was the slang Powers used to refer to the Institute for Intelligence, or as they were better known, Mossad.”
“I’m told they knew before we did.”
“Maybe let them handle the cowboy stuff … if it comes to that.”
The fact that it had not occurred to him to have Mossad handle the rescue spoke volumes about the complicated relationship. “If something concrete comes our way I’ll consider it, but…”
“You don’t want to owe them the farm,” Powers said.
“That’s right. They would more than likely demand something that I’m either unwilling or unable to give them.”
“May I say something, sir?” Ke
Stansfield wasn’t sure he wanted to hear it, but he knew he needed to let his people vent. He nodded.
“This problem is never going to go away until we send these guys a very serious message.”
“I assume you mean the kidnapping?”
“Yes.”
“I told the director the same thing five minutes before you walked in the door, but it seems we lack the political will, at the moment, to take a more aggressive approach.”
“Pussies,” Powers muttered, and then looked at Ke
“No need to apologize.” She paused and then decided this was the right time to push her agenda. “You know what this means?”
“No.”
“It’s yet another example of why we need to get Orion up and ru
Stansfield was not surprised that she’d brought it up. He would have done the same thing if he was in her place, but during a crisis like this it was a common mistake to hurry things that needed time. “I want this to happen as badly as you do, Irene, but it can’t be rushed. If we send a bunch of half-baked assets into the field, we’ll end up spending all our energy trying to pull them out of the fire. Trust me … I saw it firsthand back in Berlin. Just try to be patient for a few more months. If a couple of these guys can prove that they have the stuff, I’ll greenlight it, and support you every step of the way.”
Ke