A Knife Edge

FOURTEEN

Cooper! So you made it back in one piece,” Schaeffer said, looking up and then leaning back in his chair.

“Yes, sir,” I replied.

“Take a seat.” The fish tank's air filter thrummed away in the background. “How was it out there?”

“They seem to be getting on top of things, sir,” I said. Schaeffer made a “humph” sound and raised a skeptical eyebrow at me. “You're best out of it, son.”

“Yes, sir,” I said, not believing him but not having much choice anyway.

“You'll make available all materials on the Tanaka case.”

“Yes, sir,” I said. “Would you know whether the CIA intends to share any forensics with us from the Four Winds site?”

Schaeffer ignored my question. “Anything turned up on the Tanaka thing I don't know about?”

As much as I didn't like being excluded from the loop, there wasn't a lot I could do about it. I gave up what I didn't tell him when I called in from San Francisco. “Sir, I have a statement from a witness claiming he saw Boyle on deck moments after Tanaka was thrown overboard.”

“Then why didn't this witness do something to help the guy in the drink?” he asked.

“I don't know, sir, but it's a good question.” A couple of better ones would be to ask whether Boyle pushed Tanaka overboard and why. And whether the Transamerica bombing was somehow linked to Boyle and therefore related to Tanaka's death.

“Some people …” he said, shaking his head.

“I strongly recommend that this witness be interviewed by the SAC,” I said. I strongly recommended it because the Marianas was a long way to go for nothing, the witness, as far as witnesses went, being a waste of time.

“I'll be sure and pass that on to CIA,” said Chip.

“I also received this.” I set the envelope containing the disk, still wrapped in the laundry bag, on his desk.

“What is it?”

“Possible evidence, sir.” I told him about the disk, gave a précis of what was on it, and explained how it came into my possession.

“I trust you haven't made copies.”

My fingers were crossed where he couldn't see them. “Can you tell me why the CIA has taken over the case, sir?”

“No, I can't,” he said, cracking his knuckles one by one. “Look, you've done a good job on this, Cooper. You've performed some fine work here and I've enjoyed having you on my team. That's going on your Officer Performance Report, by the way.”

“Yes sir,” I said, but I was thinking, what fine work, exactly? Sure, I could buy tropical fish with the best of them. I already knew the Tanaka case was no longer mine, so I was a little surprised. Was Chip attempting to soften me up for something, even if it was just for me to move on quietly? Or was he feeling bad that a difficult case I was making headway on had been handed to a jerk like Bradley Chalmers? I wasn't going to get any answers to these questions, so I let them slide.

Twenty minutes later, I was at OSI HQ, Andrews AFB. An agent I'd never met was sitting in the office that had my name on the door, so I walked down the hall to Arlen's. He was on the phone. He gave me a nod and shifted in his seat, half turning his back to me. He cut the call short and said, “Vin! Here already? That was quick. We haven't really had time to prepare for your triumphant return.”

“I wondered where my parade was. Merry Christmas, by the way.”

“And a big ho-ho-ho to you, Vin. So, back in OSI's clutches now.”

“This week. Did you get the MPEG I sent you?” I asked.

“Yep.”

“You done anything about it?”

“You want to get some air?” he asked. “I can also brief you on the case you're gonna be working.”

“Okay, but give me ten,” I replied. “I'd better clock in with my new boss first.”

From the commanding officer, Brigadier General James Wynngate, who was drowning in mucus from a bad head cold, I received a lecture about the new OSI. After sneezing what appeared to be around a cup and a half of concentrated rhinovirus over my service record spread out in front of him, the general eventually got around to telling me that Arlen would brief me on the case I'd been assigned to.

And so, another twenty minutes later, I was back where I started. It had begun sleeting outside so Arlen and I detoured around the corridors of the HQ block and arrived at the cafeteria. It was much smaller than the Pentagon's and nowhere near as crowded. Arlen led the way to a table in a corner.

“You want coffee?” he asked.

“That depends. Is it any better than the mystery fluid they serve at the Pentagon?”

“No.”

“Then I'll just watch you have one,” I said.

“Suit yourself,” he replied. “Can you fire this up while I go get it?”

He pulled a laptop out of the briefcase tucked under an arm and set it on the table before making his way to the counter. He returned with a Styrofoam cup containing what looked like muddy rainwater just in time to have his thumbprint scanned by the computer's inbuilt security program.

“So what are we doing?” I inquired.

“This case we're getting you to work, the investigating special agent came down with acute appendicitis and was hospitalized. With the stuff going on on the West Coast, we had no one available to take the guy's place, so I put in a special request for you.”

“Really. You did that?” I asked. “Had me pulled off the Tanaka case?”

“Whoa, buddy! I just put in a request. I didn't think it'd be acted on.”

I wouldn't have believed so either, unless it fitted in with someone else's plans. “And here I was, wondering whether there might have been darker forces at work. Why me? I'm sure I'm not the only special agent on this planet, although it is true that I'd have to be one of the best.”

“If not the best,” said Arlen.

“Well, you know, modesty forbids …”

“Since when?” he asked.

I cracked a smile, the first in a while.

“Vin, you've been moaning for months what a drag it is at the DoD filling in forms.”

“Correction,” I said. “Correcting forms other people had incorrectly filled in.”

“Whatever. I just thought I could do you a favor, you know? And I also had a case but no one to work it, so there was that, too.”

I could have been angry. I didn't like being manipulated, even if the intentions were honorable, but the reality was that the Tanaka/Boyle case was out of my hands anyway, removed by powers far above Arlen's head.

“So where do you want to start?” he asked.

“With the MPEG I sent you.”