Guardian of Lies

TWENTY-SEVEN

Kim Howard entered the room, followed by Zeb Thorpe, head of the FBI’s National Security Branch. They were meeting in the conference room at the FBI field office in San Diego, out on Aero Drive and not far from the Marine Corp Air Station at Miramar.

“How was your flight?” Jim Rhytag was already set up at the table, going over reports from the FBI transcripts.

“Don’t ask,” said Thorpe.

“What have we got so far?” Thorpe dropped his briefcase on the table and shed his suit coat.

“Has anybody briefed the White House yet?” said Rhytag.

“I’m told the national security advisor included it in his briefing to the president yesterday morning,” said Thorpe. “The president wants an update every morning.”

“I just started going over the summaries of the transcripts from the recordings, the office and phones,” said Rhytag. “According to the analysts, there’s not a lot. Unfortunately, we got a late start. If we could have gotten the warrants a few days earlier, and surveillance in place faster, it would have made a big difference.”

“We did the best we could,” said Thorpe. “You forget, we had to shop for the judge.”

Thorpe had a point. There were eleven judges appointed by the Chief Justice of the United States to serve on the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court. In any close case the FBI and the Justice Department had a pretty good idea which members of the court would give them a warrant and which judges might give them a hard time.

Rhytag’s lawyers and Thorpe’s agents had to wait nearly two weeks until the judge they wanted was on call. Then last weekend, when most of the judges on the special court were gone, they filed their application and snagged the judge they wanted.

It was a tough sell convincing a federal judge to allow them to electronically record conversations between lawyers, as well as between those lawyers and their client, who was already behind bars on state homicide charges.

The pitch they made was that the defendant, Katia Solaz-Nitikin, was believed to be a foreign agent working at the behest of an as-yet-unidentified foreign power. She had entered the United States in the company of a retired operative of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency, Emerson Pike. She was then believed to have murdered Pike at his home in San Diego County. They then used the old Soviet intelligence documents linking Nitikin to the missing nuclear device. They used the photographs taken by Katia’s mother, along with the information they had concerning the disappearance and possible homicide of the photo analyst in Virginia, which they claimed identified Nitikin as being alive. They established the family relationship between Katia and her grandfather. They then summed it all up. It was the government’s belief that Emerson Pike had stumbled onto a plot involving Yakov Nitikin and a nuclear device in his possession, possibly involving the transport of that device to an unknown destination within the United States for the purpose of committing an act of terrorism.

They told the judge that it was the government’s belief that Katia Solaz had murdered Emerson Pike to silence him and had taken the photographs in order to ensure that they did not fall into the hands of the United States government. In so doing she was engaged in assisting Nitikin in furtherance of a plot to plant a nuclear device on U.S. soil for purposes of terrorism.

They told the judge that the government did not wish to arrest Katia Solaz on these charges as of yet. Since she was already in jail, she was no longer at risk of furthering the conspiracy. But she was a valuable asset in the government’s surveillance. The government lawyers told the court they understood that none of the information conveyed by Ms. Solaz to her lawyers could be used in a later prosecution on charges of espionage or terrorism. But given the risk of a loose nuclear device finding its way onto U.S. soil, the government had little choice but to lose the evidence against Ms. Solaz and gain the necessary intelligence to find the device. They would build a wall around the state murder case. None of the information obtained under the federal surveillance warrants would be shared with the state prosecutor or the local police, thereby avoiding any problems in the state’s prosecution for the murder of Emerson Pike.

To these conditions, the court added one more. The government could record conversations between the defense lawyers or between the lawyers and their employees or agents, but only those conversations involving the Solaz case. Recording of conversations in the office involving any other matter were prohibited, and all such information coming into the possession of federal agents was to be treated as confidential. On these conditions the warrants were signed by the judge, allowing audio surveillance and telephone taps.

The problem for Rhytag and Thorpe was that because of the delay in obtaining the warrants, none of the electronic surveillance had been in place at the jail until after the last meeting between her lawyers and Katia Solaz.

“We know that Solaz’s mother took the photographs. That much they let slip during the meeting at the courthouse,” said Rhytag. “And if they’re to be believed, Madriani and his partner know where the photographs were taken.”

“Kim told me in the car on the way in,” said Thorpe. “But they wouldn’t tell you.”

“They wanted to trade it for concessions in the state’s case.”

Rhytag couldn’t share what he knew with the two criminal defense lawyers for fear that they would use it to go public. The information that there was a loose nuclear device somewhere in the hemisphere, probably in the hands of terrorists, and that this was the reason Emerson Pike was murdered, might shift the focus of suspicion away from their client. It could also result in a national panic, and cause whoever had the device to expedite their timetable. Even if Rhytag suspected that this was the reason behind Pike’s murder, there was no hard evidence to support it. Templeton had a solid case against the woman, and she had a motive, money.

“Do you think Solaz is involved with the device?” said Thorpe.

“I don’t know,” said Rhytag.

“If so, she may have told her lawyers what Nitikin has,” said Thorpe.

“To listen to the lawyers in the judge’s chambers, they know a lot. Whether or not they really do only the phone taps and wire transcripts will tell us.”

“So far the only conversation we have between the lawyer, Madriani, and Solaz is one telephone conversation…” Rhytag finds the sheaf of pages. “Here it is.” He passes it over to Thorpe. “It was recorded off the lawyer’s cell phone. He called her at the jail. She called him back. It was right after the meeting at the courthouse. Very brief, nothing in it. He’s holding everything until he meets with her at the courthouse tomorrow morning. He told her he didn’t want to discuss things over the phone.”

“You think he knows?” said Thorpe.

“I was hoping to have everything in place for a while so we could be listening in before they filed anything formal to obtain the photographs. That way we wouldn’t have to mention the federal courts and surveillance right away. Unfortunately, it didn’t work out.”

“Well, taking her before a grand jury is not going to do any good.” Kim Howard, the U.S. attorney, is looking at one of the transcripts. “This was yesterday. It’s a conversation in the office between the two lawyers. If we hit her with a grand jury subpoena and offer immunity on any federal charges, apparently they’re prepared to tell her to take the heat, sit tight, and let a federal judge issue a contempt citation.”

“That’s what I was afraid of,” said Rhytag. “Unless we can talk the prosecutor into offering something on the murder charge, her lawyers aren’t willing to bargain.”

“What about the prosecutor?” said Thorpe. “Can’t you get him to budge?”

“He made an offer, but it’s not much. Here’s the problem. He thinks one of the lawyers, this guy Madriani, is involved with Solaz. He suspects that the lawyer may be a co-conspirator in the murder.”

“You’re kidding me,” said Thorpe.

“No, I’m not.”

“If that’s the case, how do we know the lawyer’s not involved with Nitikin? What kind of evidence has your prosecutor got?”

“We don’t know. We’re not sharing with him, so he’s not sharing with us,” said Rhytag. “It’s not just the national security angle. We’ve had to keep the state prosecutor in the dark to protect his case. If we let him partake of our information, we end up contaminating his entire prosecution, especially now with the surveillance warrants, listening in on the lawyers.”

“What’s he like?” Thorpe wants to know about the prosecutor.

Rhytag tells him about Templeton’s disability. “Seems bright, a decent enough guy. Given the fact that we’ve told him next to nothing, I suppose we’re lucky that he’s cooperating with us at all.”

“You may change your mind after you read this,” said Howard.

The telephone on the side table behind Howard rings.

“Here, take a look.” She hands Rhytag some pages of the surveillance transcript as she swivels in her chair to get the phone.

He reads for a few seconds. “Son of a bitch!”

“What is it?” said Thorpe.

“That little sucker, that moral pygmy, sold us out.”

“What do you mean?”

“He’s angry because we won’t talk to him. It was Templeton who invited the defense to file the motion to get the photographs. He told them to do it now. Guess he figures that’s going to smoke us out and give him some information. That little prick! He forced us into court before we could get the surveillance up and running. Damn it to hell,” said Rhytag.

“Maybe we should tell him everything we’ve got,” said Thorpe. “Stink up his case and let the state court dismiss it.”

“Serve him right,” said Rhytag. “If it wasn’t such an abuse of justice, I’d call him on the phone right now and read him the transcript and record the telephone conversation.”

Howard hung up the phone and turned back to the table. “She’s here. I told them to send her in.”

“Good,” said Rhytag.

A couple of seconds later one of the secretaries opened the door to the conference room. In walked a young woman in running shoes, shorts, and a T-shirt. Her hair was disheveled, and she looked somewhat sweaty.

“Please excuse my appearance,” said Daniela Perez. “I thought it might look suspicious if I changed my routine at the jail to shower and clean up this early in the day.”

Thorpe made the introductions since he was the one who’d made the assignment.

Daniela’s true name was Carla Mederios. She was born in Panama in the old Canal Zone to a Colombian mother and an American father. Her dad was an officer in the Army Corp of Engineers. He was killed before her eyes when Carla was fifteen years old. They had been shopping in Panama City when her father was taken by rampaging Panamanian thugs, one of the so-called dignity brigades. He was hacked to pieces by machetes, and his body dragged through the streets. It was a month before the U.S. invasion of Panama and the capture of Manuel Noriega.

Carla moved with her mother to Colombia and remained there until she returned to the United States for college.

It was no surprise that she spoke fluent Spanish. She was also an honors graduate of Pepperdine University, in Los Angeles. After college she spent four years as a lieutenant in a U.S. Army Ranger battalion, two of them in combat in Afghanistan. It was there that she gained the artwork on her body and learned how to deal with unruly people in showers.

She returned from the military and studied law at the University of Virginia, where she graduated second in her class.

Mederios turned down four six-figure job offers from major law firms in New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles and instead went to Quantico, Virginia, where she trained to become an FBI agent. For the last three years she’d worked undercover, both in the United States and abroad. She was now considered one of the foremost female agents in the bureau, the reason she’d been picked for this assignment.

“Agent Mederios, have a seat, please.” Rhytag offered her the chair next to him.

“I don’t have much time,” she said.

“Where does she think you are right now?” said Thorpe.

“I told her I had a meeting with my lawyer. After all, I didn’t want to lie to her,” said Mederios. “She thinks I’m at the jail, in one of the conference rooms. Tomorrow we’re going to court together. I’d take her shopping and out to lunch, but we don’t have enough time.” Even Rhytag laughs at this. “She thinks I have a court appearance. I figured I’d put myself on the bus with her and we could talk.”

“Have you gotten anything out of her so far?” said Rhytag.

“I’ve built up some goodwill,” said Carla. “I let her beat me at gin rummy three days running. If you saw us together you’d swear I was her Doberman, on a leash, growling at the gangbangers. But she’s reluctant to talk about her case. Her lawyer has filled her head with anxieties about trusting people in jail.”

“She told you this?” said Thorpe.

“Right out of her lawyer’s handbook,” said Carla. “He told her not to discuss it with anyone, and she listens to him. To hear her tell it, the man walks on water.”

“This would be Mr. Madriani?” says Howard.

“I don’t know his last name. There are two of them. She calls them Paul and Harry.”

“When you say he walks on water, does it look like the normal lawyer-client relationship or do you think there might be something going on on the side?” said Howard.

“You mean a threesome with her lawyers? Now that would be kinky,” said Carla.

“I’m talking about Madriani. That would be the Paul half of the partnership. Do you think she and the lawyer might have been having an affair?”

“There hasn’t been any heavy breathing that I’ve heard.”

“Keep your ear to the ground,” said Rhytag.

“One thing is certain, she’s scared. I don’t think she’s ever been in jail before. She’s a little naive. If I were doing an evil deed, she’s not someone I’d pick to do covert work.”

“That may not be how it went down,” said Thorpe. “She may have been enticed up here by the victim without knowing the reason.”

“You mean Pike.”

“Correct,” said Thorpe. “When she realized what was happening with the photographs, she knew enough about Nitikin to know she was in trouble. So she had to get the photographs back.”

“And to do that she ended up having to kill Pike, is that it?”

“It’s possible,” said Thorpe.

“The prosecutor seems to think she had some help,” said Howard.

“We know she drugged Pike,” said Thorpe. “One of our agents got a glance at a toxicology report. So she’s not as innocent as she looks. Keep one eye open when you sleep.”

“I’ll try to get her to talk about the case, but-”

“Forget the case,” said Thorpe. “Get her to talk about her life down in Costa Rica, her family. About her parents, particularly her mother. Share some intimate details with her about your own family. Nothing real. Make it up. Get her reminiscing about life on the outside.”

“We know now that it was her mother who took the photographs,” said Howard. “We need to know where the pictures were taken and where her maternal grandfather is.”

“Yakov Nitikin. I read the file,” said Carla. “If she’s involved in the way you think she is, she’s not going to tell me anything about Nitikin.”

“She may give you a clue. It depends on who she thinks you are,” said Thorpe. “If she gets in trouble again and she has nobody to lean on but you, and she trusts you, she may.”

“Just an idea,” said Rhytag. “I take it that after the fight in the shower there are hard feelings on the part of some of the other women.”

“That’s an understatement.” Carla laughed. “It’s why I needed the weapon. I wasn’t excited about the idea of fending off eight or ten of them if they got me cornered somewhere out of sight of the guards. But if I have to pull the Walther, I’m going to be out of there. It’ll blow my cover. It’s one thing to have a zip gun. It’s another to have a three-eighty with a full magazine.”

“Given your attire I’m curious as to where it is right now,” said Thorpe.

“You don’t want to know,” said Carla.

“The sheriff wasn’t keen on a loaded handgun in his jail. I was advised that it’s against state law,” said Thorpe. “He told me that if you got caught with it, my ass was grass, because neither he nor any of his people knew anything about it, including the guard who slipped it into the towels for you. So if I lose my pension, you owe me.”

“Semper fi,’” said Carla. “I knew you’d been in the marines too long to let one of your troops go tits up in a county jail.”

Howard looked at her, wide eyed.

“Excuse my language,” said Carla. “I’ve been undercover too long.”

Thorpe laughed.

“So here’s the deal.” Rhytag was ignoring them. “Solaz is bottled up in jail on a murder charge with gangbangers who, after the brawl in the shower, would stick a shiv in her in a heartbeat. So if you aren’t around to protect her, she’s got problems, right?”

“I hope you’ve thought about that,” said Carla.

“We have,” said Rhytag. “She’s not in any danger. We’re keeping a close eye on her. Father Protector, the guard who slipped you the gun, has her on a special assignment in the jail dispensary while you’re here. We’re not going to let anything happen to her.

“But in the meantime,” said Rhytag, “there’s no reason we can’t put all that fear to work for us. Here’s how we do it. Tell Solaz that your lawyer pulled some strings with somebody he knows at the jail. They’re thinking about transferring you someplace else. Tell her it’s the honor farm. If you’re right about her, and she hasn’t been inside before, she’s not going to know the difference. Tell her it’s a place where they let inmates go when they think they can trust them, and it’s much better than the jail. Tell her you already talked to your lawyer and there’s a chance he might be able to have Solaz transferred with you. The problem is, to do this your lawyer needs a lot of personal and family background information to make sure she qualifies, so that when your lawyer goes to pull all the levers, it’s not going to blow up in his face. He needs to know all the places she’s lived, where her family is from, all the places they’ve lived, go back at least three generations. Take notes. You need to know whether any of her family members going back that far have ever been in any trouble with the law in any of the countries where they lived.”

“This honor farm has high standards,” said Thorpe.

“Platinum Diners Club only,” said Rhytag. “You need to have any information her family has ever given her in this regard. Tell her that in most other countries, the government in the United States is able to check records, so she has to be sure to tell you everything she knows. If your lawyer finds something in the records that she hasn’t told you about, he’s going to think she’s hiding something and she’s going to be off the invitation list at the honor farm. In which case, when you leave she’s going to be left behind all alone to entertain the angry women you pissed off in the shower.”

“What if she wants to discuss it with her lawyer?” said Carla.

“Tell her she can’t. Because if she does, her lawyer is going to want to talk to the people at the jail. If he does it’s going to result in both you and your lawyer getting in a lot of trouble. You put her in the pit of divided loyalties,” said Rhytag. “You came to her rescue; she’s not going to want to get you in trouble. Besides, all she has to do is give you the family background and you’ll take care of the rest. Otherwise you won’t be able to play cards with each other much longer. If she doesn’t deliver up the family tree immediately, let her look around at all the angry faces for a day or two and then tell her time is running out, you need the information or she may wake up one morning soon and you’ll be gone.”

“You’re cold,” said Carla.

“That’s how you survive in an ugly world,” he told her. “Think of it this way. The minute she mentions Grandpa Nitikin’s name as a survivor, you take her by the hand, call the guard, go out to the front of the jail. We’ll have agents from the bureau pick both of you up in a nanosecond and we’ll put her in a private suite in the federal tower downtown so we can talk to her.”

“Yeah, right, with the lights on day and night and the room temperature moving from the Arctic to the Sahara every half hour,” said Carla.

“What can I say? The world is a dangerous place,” said Rhytag.