Panic

40

‘Y ou’re working a scam on me, Evan,’ Bedford whispered so he wouldn’t be overheard on the CIA jet. They flew miles above the Atlantic, arrowing south toward Florida. Evan sat in the back, Bedford next to him. Carrie sat at a front window. A fourth passenger, a beefy-necked older man who Evan presumed was a CIA officer Bedford trusted, chatted with her. He’d introduced himself as Frame, no first name mentioned, so Evan was unsure if Frame was a code name like Bricklayer or his real surname. Frame made small talk about the Washington Redskins, apparently his preferred subject. Carrie smiled and nodded and kept glancing at Evan. ‘I know a scam when I see it.’

‘Excuse me?’ Evan asked.

‘I don’t think you really have the files, at least, not all of them. You’re a responsible kind of guy. If you could take Jargo down in an instant, you would. So you’re not telling me everything you know about these files.’

Evan remained silent.

Bedford gave him a crooked smile. ‘You are a piece of work, young man. Blackmailing the CIA.’

‘Not the whole Agency. Just you, Bricklayer.’

‘Piece of work,’ Bedford repeated. ‘I could use a young man like you, Evan.’

‘No, thank you.’ He knew Bedford meant it as a compliment, but he wanted no more of this world. ‘I don’t think I’m conning you any more than you’re conning me.’

Bedford looked hurt. ‘I’ve been totally straight with you about our plan of attack.’ Bedford had outlined a simple scheme: get Evan to a safe house where he would call and arrange the meeting. He would take a laptop that looked just like Khan’s; Bedford assured him Jargo would never get close enough to it to spot any differences or check a serial number. Evan would suggest an immediate rendezvous at a secluded spot where Bedford and his team would take cover, not giving the Deeps time to set up their own counteroperation. Jargo and Dezz would be taken alive if possible, dead if required.

‘Yes, and your plan sounds thorough,’ Evan said. ‘Just like Pettigrew taking us around London was.’

Bedford leaned back. ‘Everyone on the team has been vetted. They’re clean. Pettigrew wasn’t a team member, he was a decorated field officer who wouldn’t ask too many questions.’

‘Jargo’s worried about his CIA contacts being exposed. He eliminated one by getting rid of Pettigrew.’

‘I suspect he was a client, not an operative. He was one of the most senior CIA officers in Europe,’ Bedford said. ‘You see the challenge I face. How deep Jargo’s reach can be. But I promise you, Evan, I’ll honor our deal. I’ll bring your dad home. This is the best chance we’ve ever had to get Jargo. We’ll have additional personnel in Florida to help us. I’m finally getting every resource I need.’

Evan glanced toward the front of the plane. Carrie watched him. Frame was reading the Guardian ’s headlines to her and commiserating about the state of the world.

Evan might not get another chance. He leaned in close enough to Bedford to smell the mints on the man’s breath. ‘There’s a reason Jargo’s been able to infiltrate you, and that’s because he knows you so well. The Deeps are a CIA problem, aren’t they?’

Bedford frowned.

‘Indulge me for a minute. Spy networks don’t spring up out of orphanages. They have to be cultivated. The Agency spawned them. Alexander Bast set up the Deeps for the CIA. You could have agents on American soil who you would never have to acknowledge. A ready-made group of agents you could use for all sorts of clandestine jobs you don’t have to explain to Congress, or to anyone. No paper trail of their involvement with the Agency. No blame if anything ever went wrong.’

Bedford said, ‘I think that’s an incorrect hypothesis.’

‘So who set up this network?’

‘Alexander Bast, for his own reasons. I suppose he wanted to make money. Freelance spying. Mr. Bast was a man ahead of his time.’ Bedford stared ahead.

‘You’ll never, ever admit it was the CIA, will you? I’m wasting breath asking you.’

Bedford smiled.

‘You’ll kill Jargo, even if you don’t need to kill him to save my dad. You don’t want him talking about your deals with him, the fact he was pinch-hitting dirty jobs for American intelligence. And you can take over the network. Worm your way into every intelligence service and business that uses the Deeps.’

‘When you and your dad are safe, the Deeps are no longer your concern.’

‘They have families like mine. And Carrie’s. Kids and spouses who have no idea what they do. You’ll hunt them down, won’t you? Or use them for your own agenda.’

‘Evan. Please. Not your concern. Your only worry is getting your dad back. As soon as we have him, the two of you are on a plane to a warm, distant paradise, new names, cash, a fresh start.’

‘What about Carrie?’

‘Her, too, if she wants to go with you.’

Evan closed his eyes. He did not sleep. He heard Bedford rise from the chair, cough, pour a drink of water, go talk on the jet’s phone, presumably to check on arrangements in Miami. Then Evan heard Carrie slide into the leather chair next to him.

‘So. You’ve gotten everything you want.’

‘Not quite yet.’ Kept his eyes closed.

‘The past day has been hell on me. I thought you were dead. I thought I had made a mistake, that I had failed to protect you.’

Evan opened his eyes, tilted his head close to hers. ‘I don’t blame you. I trust you,’ he said in a low whisper, his mouth a bare inch from hers. ‘So you should know I don’t have the files yet.’

Her eyes went wide. ‘But you told Bedford…’

‘I told Bedford I had the laptop, with the files on it. My hacker did crack the password on the laptop. But all the files are encrypted. My hacker hasn’t been able to break the encryption yet. He may not be able to. We could be at a dead end.’

‘So the laptop we have…’

‘Isn’t Khan’s. It’s just a new one, the same model, bought this morning in London. It’s my decoy, my fake-out. We put a program on it that will appear to reformat the hard drive if anyone attempts to crack the log-in password. My hacker has Khan’s laptop back in London, and he’s trying his best to unlock the files. But he hasn’t yet. So I’m trusting you. Tell Bedford and maybe he’ll break his deal with me to hide me and Dad. I’ll only give him the real laptop once Dad and I are clear and gone. And I mean, gone under our own terms. In identities we’ve set up. Once we’re gone, I don’t want Bedford or the Agency to ever find us. Ever. My family’s involvement ends now and forever. So, you have to choose, Carrie. If you want to come with me and Dad, you can. I want to be with you. If you don’t, if you want to stay with the Agency, that’s your choice. But I’m trusting you with this information.’

‘What if we can’t get your dad back or if Jargo has already killed him?’

‘I think my dad is Jargo’s weakness. I can’t be sure, but…’ Evan paused – remembering Jargo’s cryptic words the first time they’d spoken on the phone: We’re family, in a way, you and I; hearing Dezz’s taunt: We’ll all be like family – seeing two boys in a faded photograph who shared similar features. ‘I don’t think Jargo will kill him.’

‘He killed your mother.’

‘But Jargo could have killed him when he found out Mom stole the files, and he didn’t. He’s kept him alive, fed him a whole story about the CIA killing Mom.’

‘Will you give the CIA Khan’s laptop if your hacker can’t break it open?’

‘Yes. I still vanish, under my own terms, and I’ll arrange for Bedford to get the real laptop. Maybe the CIA can crack the encryption if we can’t. I don’t want Jargo running free. I want him taken down just as much as you do. If I die today, the hacker turns over the laptop to MI5 in London, with a letter explaining what’s hidden on the system.’

She looked at him, then looked at Bedford.

‘I keep wishing we had met in that coffee shop, just like regular people,’ Evan said, his voice a whisper. ‘That we had our dates and got to know each other, without you already knowing everything about me. That we built trust the way everyday people do. I trust you now. But you have to trust me.’

Not a moment’s hesitation. ‘I do.’

He put his arm around her. She closed her eyes, leaned into his shoulder. He closed his eyes, and this time he slept, heavily. When he woke up, she was asleep, nestled against his shoulder. For a moment the nearness of her broke his heart. Then the plane began its descent toward Florida, toward Fort Lauderdale.

I’m coming, Dad, and they won’t know what the hell hit them.