“Fuck you, kid. Can’t see shit up close without these but I can still shoot the right nut off a gnat at fifty paces.” Zack said it without looking up from the phone, then his voice rose in both volume and sophistication. “Good evening, Director Hanley. I have Six in pocket. Passing you to him now, sir.”
Hightower tossed the phone across the width of the trailer.
Court caught the phone and brought it to his ear.
“How did you know I was here?”
Matt Hanley said, “You were fixated on AAP from the start. I had to dig around to see what the hell it was, but when I found out about the old building at Harvey Point, I sent Hightower to check it out. I’ve also got a guy shadowing Catherine King at Heathrow. She was in comms with you, which means I know that you know about BACK BLAST.”
“I do.”
“And at this point, I figure I know what you are thinking about doing.”
Court said nothing. He still held his Glock in his right hand.
Hanley continued, “Right now it feels like the ground underneath your feet isn’t solid anymore. Like everything you thought you were turned out to be a lie.”
Court closed his eyes.
Hanley said, “Give me a second, and I might be able to give you something to stand on. Something to believe in.”
“Is this a Scientology pitch?”
Hanley ignored the joke. “Court, about two hours ago Jordan Mayes was murdered on the George Washington Parkway.”
Court opened his eyes quickly, then leaned his head back against the trailer wall. “I didn’t fucking do it!”
“Relax, I know you didn’t. Carmichael had it done. But he’s already pinned it on you. You need to know that.”
“Whatever,” Court said, defeat obvious in his voice.
“I need your help. I can’t do anything within the confines of the Agency, because if this goes public it will burn the Agency to the ground.”
“And you think I give a shit?”
“Of course you do. You won’t let Denny beat you, and if you eat a damn bullet right now you are handing him a golden ticket to sweep the past week under the rug and move on. I don’t care about your motivation. Don’t do it because you like yourself. Blame yourself for your mistake in Italy, just like everybody else does. But do it because you hate Denny Carmichael.”
“Do what?”
“You and Zack, with me running you from distance. I’m talking about getting the band back together for one quick op.”
“Going after Denny?”
“Negative. We can’t touch Denny, unfortunately.” Hanley paused. “He’s sequestered away in a safe house somewhere, probably has fifty guys covering him in a blanket of guns. But we sure as hell can go after the foreign goons he’s using to fight his war against you. We take them down, we get some people at HQ asking questions about a bunch of dead foreign operators on the streets, and then, sooner or later, Denny’s crimes will be exposed to the right people in government. The ones who can force him out without any comebacks on the rest of the Agency.”
“Who are the foreign hitters?”
“We don’t know for sure, but Denny is tight with the intelligence chiefs of several Middle Eastern countries. Some say too tight. I never thought he would use back channels to run his own foreign hit team on the streets of the USA, but if that’s what he’s doing here, just think about the other shit he’s gotten away with.”
“You know where they are?”
“I put Jenner’s unit on the tail of the JSOC team looking for you. Had them stand off and keep their eyes open for these foreign assholes. They ID’d them, then tracked them back to a home in Arlington. We count about eight to ten fighting-age males inside.”
“And you can’t go after them because SAD can’t work in the U.S.”
Hanley finished the thought. “And I can’t just report them to local authorities, because the media would indict the entire CIA for crimes nobody but Denny had any part in.”
“Why don’t you tell the director of the CIA what you know? He has the juice to shut Denny down.”
Hanley replied, “He’s a pol, Court. He doesn’t give a damn about this Agency. He’ll run to the New York Times and say he is saving America by shuttering his own organization. He’ll destroy U.S. intelligence just so he looks good to the press.
“You and Zack, Court. Face it, you two outsiders are the only chance we have.”
Court thought it over for a moment. “I don’t know, Matt.”
“What don’t you know? This is your job, Six. We all have to make sacrifices for the good of the country.”
Gentry rubbed his eyes. He started to get up, the pain in his ribs still slowing him. He said, “What the hell have I been doing for the past twenty years?”
Hanley softened. “Make all that count for something. Save this Agency. Take away Denny’s proxy force.”
Court looked across the trailer to his former team leader. Zack couldn’t have heard Hanley’s side of the conversation, but he was obviously on board with the plan. He just gave Court a sly grin and a slow thumbs-up.
Court ignored Zack and addressed Hanley again. “There are two of us. We’ll need some equipment to do this right.”