The Innocent

Chapter





78


ROBIE DIRECTED VANCE to his hideaway farmhouse. At his demand she had turned off the GPS chip in her phone. Vance had called in to her supervisor on the drive over and reported what had happened. One FBI agent was dead on the scene, the man Robie and Julie had seen. The other agent was nowhere to be found. In fact, the Bureau could not confirm that he was in fact the agent that had been sent to Virginia to protect Julie.

Vance dropped the phone into her lap with a grimace of disgust. “Dammit! Get the little shit right and the big shit doesn’t happen.”

“You have to go off grid,” said Robie. “You okay with that?”

“Does that mean you actually trust me?”

“They were willing to kill you back there too.”

“I have no problem going off grid so long as there’s a plan.”

“It’s evolving. But I need some information.”

“What kind?”

He looked at Julie, who sat in the backseat staring at him.

“What changed was Julie came up with the right answer.”

“What answer?” Julie asked.

“It was a timing issue, really. As soon as you said it the red dot appeared on your chest. That’s when we both might’ve become expendable.”

Vance looked at Julie. “What did you say?”

She said, “That my dad and Mr. Broome and Rick Wind were part of a squad. And a squad has nine or ten soldiers in it. So maybe they talked to someone else in the squad. And that’s where all this started. I mean, if the three of them kept in touch, maybe some others did too.”

Robie nodded and looked at Vance. “So the safe house wasn’t just unsafe. It was also bugged. They could hear everything we were saying. And the second Julie said that, the dot appeared.”

Vance said, “You really think that might be it? The other members of the squad?”

“I think we need to find out whether it is or isn’t, and we need to do it fast.”

“You can get that info pretty quickly from DCIS.”

“I could. But since DCIS has been infiltrated I don’t want to tip my hand.”

Vance slumped back as she drove and thought about this. “And the Bureau might have been infiltrated too.”

“Might have been!” exclaimed Julie. “What part of tonight did you miss super agent Vance?”

Vance grimaced. “Okay, was infiltrated.” She looked at Robie. “So what do we do?”

“I know someone who might be able to help,” he said. “An old friend.”

“You sure you can trust this person?”

“He’s earned that trust.”

“Okay.”

“But I have to leave you to go see him,” said Robie.

“Do you think it’s a good idea to split up?” asked Vance nervously.

“No,” he replied. “But it’s the only way this will work.”

“How long will you be gone?” asked Julie anxiously.

“Only as long as I have to,” he replied.


Robie got them settled in the house, showed Vance where things were, set the alarm and perimeter security, and then strode out to the barn. He climbed on his motorcycle, slipped on his helmet, and started the bike. The powerful pulses of the engine soothed him, gave him something else to focus on besides what he had to do later.

He rode his bike east and then north. He reached the Beltway and followed that long curve north. He raced over the Woodrow Wilson Bridge, the winking lights of D.C. to his left, the green sweep of Virginia running to Mount Vernon to his right.

The building he arrived at nearly thirty minutes later was brick, small, and had a high fence running around it. There was a guard in uniform posted out front. Robie had called ahead. He was on the list. He had his proper creds. The guard let him pass through after doing a thorough search.

A few minutes later he was walking down the only hall the building had. Doors on the left and right led off from this main artery. They were all closed. The hour was late. There wouldn’t be many people here.

But there was at least one. The one he wanted. The man who had held Robie’s position before Robie had.

He stopped at one door, knocked.

Footsteps came his way. The door swung open.

A man in his mid-fifties with white close-cropped hair stood before him. He and Robie were about the same height. The man was trim, his shoulders broad; he seemed to have retained much of the strength of his youth.

When he shook Robie’s hand, that strength was clearly evident. He ushered him in and closed the door, but not without first taking a look down the hall, ostensibly for any threats. Even here, Robie would have done the same thing. It was just a part of you at this level.

The room was small, efficiently laid out. No personal mementos were evident. The man sat behind his desk, on which was a small laptop. Robie sat across from him, settled his hands over his flat stomach.

“It’s been a while, Will,” said the man.

“I’ve been kind of busy, Shane.”

Shane Connors said, “I know you have. Good work.”

“Maybe, maybe not.”

Connors cocked his head to the left. “Explain that.”

Robie took ten minutes to walk him through the recent developments. When he was done the other man leaned back in his chair, his gaze solidly on Robie.

“I can get the squad makeup right now. But once you get that, what are your plans?”

“To follow it up. There’s a maximum of seven of them left. Local ones will be the focus, of course.”

“I can see that.”

Connors leaned toward his laptop, hit some keys, and then sat back. “Give it ten minutes.” He continued to look at Robie. “It’s been twelve years for you.”

“I know. I’ve been counting too.”

As though on cue, Robie could hear the tick of a clock coming from somewhere in the office.

Connors said, “Looked down the road?”

“I’ve been looking down the road since the first day.”

“And?”

“And there are certain possibilities. But nothing more than that.”

Connors looked disappointed by this, but he said nothing. His gaze went to the laptop. For the next eight minutes both men stared at it.

When the email fell into the electronic mailbox, Connors hit a few keys and a printer resting on the edge of the desk whooshed. Some papers slid out. He picked them up but did not glance at the pages before passing them to Robie.

“I need a fresh car. Untraceable,” said Robie. “I can leave my bike as collateral.”

Connors nodded. “It’ll take two minutes.”

“Thanks.”

He made a call. Two minutes passed. The computer dinged. Connors nodded again.

“Done.”

They rose.

Robie said, “I appreciate this, Shane.”

“I know.”

Robie shook his hand. As he turned to leave Connors said, “Will?”

Robie turned back.

“Yeah?”

“When you look down the road next time, look farther than a place like this.”

Robie glanced around the office, settled his gaze back on the man, and gave a slight nod. Then he was walking down the hall, the papers clutched in his hand.