Criss Cross

Chapter 32

My cell phone buzzed, snapping me awake. I picked it up and saw a Northern Virginia area code and an unfamiliar number. I thought about letting the call go to voice mail, but then I answered. “Alex Cross.”

“Mr. Cross, this is Captain Arthur Abrahamsen. I hope you don’t mind that Ali shared your number with me.”

“Not at all,” I said, sitting up. “How can I help, Captain?”

“Ali has been asking to go on rides with me, but honestly, sir, the training runs scheduled over the next few weeks will be tough on me, let alone on a ten-year-old.”

“I pretty much told him that,” I said.

“Sure, and thank you, sir. But, anyway, I mentioned Ali to a friend of mine, and he pointed me to a kids’ riding group called Wild Wheels. You can look them up on the web. There are several Chapters locally, one of them geared toward mountain bikers. I was thinking, with your permission, I could go to one of their evening rides with Ali. That way we could kill two birds with one stone — he gets to go for a ride with me, and he gets introduced to more age-appropriate friends and training partners for the future.”

“I appreciate that. Let me take a look at the website and show it to him,” I said. “But it sounds as if he’d like it. Especially riding with you.”

Abrahamsen laughed. “He’s a ball of fire.”

“He is that,” I said. “And thank you for taking an interest in him.”

“It’s the least I can do for someone with as much passion for the sport as Ali has. Next Wild Wheels ride is Thursday, seventeen hundred hours, in Rock Creek, which works for me. I’m on recovery that day, training-wise.”

“Okay, we’ll get back to you.”

“Look forward to it,” he said, and he said goodbye and hung up.

I looked at the phone for a moment, then looked over and saw Bree’s side of the bed was empty. I glanced at the clock and groaned. It was almost nine.

But before I got up myself, I called Ned Mahoney. “Do me a favor?” I asked.

“Depends.”

“Can you run a U.S. Army captain named Arthur Abrahamsen? Works as a liaison between the Pentagon and the Hill.”

“Why?”

“I don’t know. Abrahamsen’s a big road racer, sponsored by the military, and he’s taken an interest in Ali. I just want to make sure he is who he says he is.”

“For you, Alex, anything,” Mahoney said.

I took a shower and was dressing when my phone rang.

“U.S. Army captain Arthur Abrahamsen, defense intelligence liaison to the House Armed Services Committee. West Point graduate. Two tours in Afghanistan. Heck of a bicycle racer. Your kid’s lucky he’s taken an interest.”

“Thanks, Ned.”

“What are uncles for?” he said and hung up.

I put on my shoes, feeling a little down. I appreciated someone of Captain Abrahamsen’s caliber helping Ali, and I’d had male coaches and teachers who’d been big influences on me. But there was also a certain sadness in realizing that Ali, my baby boy, was moving to a time where he’d rely on me for guidance less and less.

My cell phone rang again. This time it was Keith Karl Rawlins.

“The Ethereum stopped moving,” he said.

“Okay,” I said. “Where is it?”

“In two hundred and fourteen accounts spread out all over the world. Some of it has been downloaded to so-called hard wallets, but I have the codes for them. Not a Bitcoin of it has been spent, though. As far as I can tell.”

“So it’s just sitting there?”

“Correct.”

“We know who owns the accounts?”

“Shell companies of one sort or another. I haven’t been getting far in that regard. But I might have something else for you. There’s an idea I’ve been toying with, and I wanted your input. Can you come to the lab at Quantico?”