Last Chance to Die

21



After more than three hours of interrogation by the Annandale police and Bureau agents, Vail and Kalix headed back to Washington and the off-site. “Come on in. I’ll buy you a beer,” Vail said.

They walked into the workroom, and Kalix motioned toward the wall. “You and Kate sure covered a lot of ground on this.”

Vail came back from the kitchen and handed him a beer, cracking open his own. “A lot of it is the tracking information from the phone you guys gave Calculus.”

“It looks like a lot more than that.” Kalix opened his beer and took a small sip as his phone rang. “John Kalix.”

He went over to the desk and got ready to write. Then he dropped the pen and straightened up. “There’s no way to trace it at all. . . . You’re sure? . . . Okay, then your best guess. . . . Okay, thanks.” He disconnected the line. “That was one of the techs. The phone company has no record for that number.”

“How can that be?”

“After being told it didn’t exist, he called the number and got a busy signal. So, since the number was active, he called a contact who handles covert government ‘contingencies,’ as he calls it. Best guess is that it’s CIA. It’s a clearing number. If a source needs to leave a message, he leaves his code name so it’ll get routed to his handler. But it’s mostly used for dry-cleaning traces, a dead end in the trail. Say you wanted to make a pretext call, like you did today before we went into that house, but you didn’t want anyone to be able to trace it. You dial the covert number plus a code and then the number you want to call. It’s then put through like a regular call. You can send photos, or text, or anything else you can do with a regular line. And if anyone tries to track it, you get the answer we just did. It doesn’t exist. If you call it, it rings busy unless you enter the code.”

“How do Russians get access to a CIA tool like that?” Vail asked.

“Maybe one of their moles sold it to them. Once you pay a source for something, you generally feel it belongs to you. But the problem is, we can’t even determine if it was the CIA who gave it up. Other agencies know about things like this. We figured it out. Even if we did find out it was CIA, there are hundreds of employees who probably have access, authorized or unauthorized, to that number.”

Vail said, “Instead of this getting clearer, it seems like we’re getting further and further from any answers.”

Kalix didn’t answer. He was back at the wall, studying the charts. Vail could see that something had caught his attention, so he sat down on the couch and sipped his beer, waiting.

Finally Kalix turned around. “I haven’t told anyone this, but ever since I was up here with Langston and saw these charts and realized that’s how you found the three spies, I had a duplicate set made for me from the file. I’ve been spending a lot of time studying them, especially while you were in Chicago. I really wasn’t making too many connections until we came up with this CIA number. See if this makes sense: We know that someone has framed Kate. Most likely the Russians. But why Kate? She’s not in counterintelligence, at least not now. And she was only exposed to that work twice. Once in Detroit when you were there and she was supervising a squad covering the Middle East, right?”

“Right.”

“And her only other CI assignment was when she had liaison here at headquarters with the CIA. So now with this phone number probably being the agency’s, that’s twice we’ve had the CIA come up. The big question is, how do the Russians and the CIA fit into a frame of Kate?”

Vail said, “I don’t know.”

“I can think of one possibility. Let’s say the Russians have a highly placed source in the CIA. But there’s a problem. Somewhere in his travels, he ran into Kate Bannon at the wrong time. Maybe he was doing something he shouldn’t have been, something that might compromise him, something that, coupled with an upcoming event, might click together for her. So this CIA agent and his Russian handlers now have a problem. Maybe they decide to kill her, but they can’t just assassinate her, because the investigation would never cease, and once solved the Russians would be considered more evil than they were during the Cold War. So they decide to make it look like an accident. I assume you know about her ‘suicide attempt.’ ”

“The director told me. He thought it was as ridiculous as I did. If your theory is right, maybe the Russians were trying to make it look like she took her own life. She did think she was slipped something. And once that didn’t work, maybe an accidental death would work just as well. Like when we had to rappel off that building and the rope was rigged to look like we’d died trying to escape the fire. We’re sure the Russians orchestrated all that. But then they tried to kill just me when I went after Petriv.”

“Maybe they thought she’d be with you,” Kalix said. “Up to that point, you two had been into everything together.”

“So then the Russians went to Plan C, to provide proof that she is guilty of treason and get rid of her permanently. Which was their final, fail-safe plan all along. It’s hard to believe that the entire Calculus ruse was set up to protect somebody in the CIA who’s spying for the Russians,” Vail said. “But it’s the only thing that makes sense out of all this.” He went to the wall and started examining the charts.

Kalix asked, “Do you think Calculus’s movements have something to do with it?”

“I don’t know. But Calculus is the key to this, and thanks to these we know everywhere he went until he disappeared. Maybe they are the answer.”

Kalix stepped up next to him and glanced at the maze of photos, charts, and notes covering the wall. “Do you want me to stay and help?”

“No, why don’t you go get some sleep, and we’ll start fresh tomorrow. I’m going to go to bed myself. Call me first thing in the morning.” Vail smiled crookedly. “If you dare.”

After Kalix left, Vail lay down on the couch and stared at the wall. It was too far away for him to read, but that was good, because he was starting to wonder if there were any larger patterns he was missing. He started to retrace Kalix’s theory through the different sections of the information on the wall, but then his burning eyelids slid shut.

Vail felt someone tap him on the leg. “Steve.” He opened his eyes and was surprised to see Lucas Bursaw standing over him. “I know it’s late, but I saw your car outside and the lights on.”

Vail checked his watch. “Late? It’s almost five A.M.”

“The computer geeks finally finished that Volume Shadow Copy query you suggested. They found fourteen files on Sundra’s laptop that had been deleted in the thirty days before she disappeared.” Vail sat up, and Bursaw handed him a thick stack of pages with the contents of the files printed out.

Vail let his thumb riffle through them. “That’s still a big haystack.”

“I was up most of the night with it. There are five of them that look like she was working pretty hard.”

“And the other nine?”

“She found nothing illegal and closed them, giving her a reason to delete them.”

Vail thought for a second. “So if she was still working on the other five, why delete them?”

“That’s why I’m here. They were all wiped from the computer the day she disappeared.”

“Sounds promising. Have you taken a look at them?”

“Yeah, but there’s nothing that I can see. What do you say we check them out and see if we can get someone to flinch?”

“Luke, I’ve got something to tell you. Kate’s been arrested.”

“What!”

Vail then proceeded to tell him everything, from being picked up at the hospital New Year’s Eve to his trip to Chicago to the shoot-out the day before.

“Kate? A spy? Even the Bureau can’t be that stupid.”

“You’re right, it’s the Justice Department. And they’re low-keying everything about it. She hasn’t been formally charged. I guess they’re hoping if she spends enough time locked up, she’ll tell all.”

“Don’t they have to arraign her?”

“Special provisions have been made. They can hold her for up to ten days before letting her see a judge.”

“Whatever misguided thing you’re about to do, I’m in,” Bursaw said.

“I appreciate it, Luke, but—”

Abruptly Vail got up and walked away as though Bursaw wasn’t there. He went to the workroom wall and picked up a blue highlighter. He drew a streak through one of the entries, and then, after searching a few more seconds, he drew the blue slash through a second, then a third. He picked up the phone and dialed Kalix’s home number. “Get over here.”

Vail hung up and said to no one in particular, “Why didn’t I see this before?”

Kalix knocked on the front door, and Vail went down to let him in. “What is it?” he asked Vail.

“I think I found something. Come on.”

Once they were upstairs, Kalix noticed Bursaw. “Who’s this?”

Vail introduced them. “Luke is at WFO, and he and I go back to Detroit. He’s been deputized and given the appropriate death threats.”

Kalix shook Bursaw’s hand. “That’s good enough for me. . . .” The deputy assistant director’s voice trailed off with a trace of apprehension.

Vail pointed at the newly highlighted entries on the wall. “On three different occasions, Calculus went to the exact same coordinates. A place that it doesn’t make sense for him to go even once.”

Kalix studied them for a moment. “What is it?”

Vail went over to the computer and moved the mouse, lighting up the monitor screen. The Bureau satellite was online. “Bryn Mawr Park. About a five-minute drive from . . .” Vail moved the cursor as it traced the map along Route 123 and then Chain Bridge Road.

Kalix took a step closer to the screen. “ . . . CIA headquarters at Langley.”

“And that means what?” Bursaw asked.

Vail looked at Kalix and then at Bursaw. “I have no idea.”

Kalix said, “It means we’re one step closer to . . . What time of the day were these three contacts?”

Vail picked up a file and started making notes. When he finished, he handed Kalix a slip of paper. “At 10:03 A.M., 1:42 P.M., and 10:48 A.M.”

Kalix turned around and smiled at them.

“What?” Vail asked.

“All three are during working hours. Have you ever been to Langley?”

“No.”

“You can’t get in or out without swiping your ID.”

“So the CIA will have a record of people leaving headquarters on those dates, around those times. That’s great, but I doubt they’ll be willing to share that with us.”

“I have a good friend over there. We went to law school together. And he’s in Personnel.”

Vail pushed the phone toward Kalix. He picked it up and dialed.

After Kalix hung up, he said, “Maybe by this afternoon. He has to sneak around a little to do it. He’s going to call me at the office. As you probably heard, I had to promise him first notification if something comes up on one of theirs.” Kalix got up to leave.

Vail asked, “Where are you going?”

“Back to the office. I have a meeting I can’t miss. I’ll call you as soon as I hear anything.”

After he left, Vail went back to the wall and started scanning it. Finally he turned to Bursaw and said, “Let’s get out of here for a while. What do you say we go cover some of those leads on Sundra?”

“You sure you want to bother with that now?”

“I need something to do. Let’s go make some people nervous.”

For the next three hours, the two men fell into an old rhythm developed during three years of friendship and working together in Detroit. They complemented each other well, picking up on the familiar nuances of criminal behavior, which weren’t much different whether they were in D.C. or Michigan.

The first stop was a Middle Eastern travel agency. Sundra’s file did not document why she was investigating them, but once Vail and Bursaw started interviewing the owner, they discovered that he had a large marijuana-growing operation in the building’s basement. They decided that someone had flagged the premises based on the inexplicable electrical consumption caused by the massive lighting system used.

The next one turned out to be an identification mill operated out of a residence. The individual in charge of the operation provided forged driver’s licenses and car titles for a hundred dollars apiece. He had been arrested years before and received probation. When he told the two agents that his lawyer said he would probably be continued on probation if caught, Vail and Bursaw felt satisfied that he had nothing to gain from Sundra Boston’s disappearance.

“Two down, three to go,” Vail said as they got back into the car. “Lucas Bursaw, tell us who our next contestant is?” Before Bursaw could answer, Vail’s cell phone rang. It was Kalix. Vail listened for a few seconds. “Okay, we’ll meet you there.”

Bursaw said, “What’s up?”

“We’re going to have to put this on hold. John has that list of CIA employees.”