President's assassin

CHAPTER NINETEEN

As we climbed off the helicopter and walked across the tarmac, we shook hands and agreed we would keep our debriefings short and be out in no time. In truth, I had felt fine until Jennie mentioned food and sleep, at which point Pavlov kicked in. My ass was really dragging.

But by coincidence, Mort Silverman was puffing on a big stogie outside the entrance as we made our way into the building. Between his plump physique, rumpled suit, and oversize cigar, the guy looked like Danny DeVito in front of a bad movie set. In fact, I had yet to observe a single CIA person who bore an even passing resemblance to James Bond. Most, like Mort or Phyllis, looked like somebody you'd run into in the produce section of the local Giant. Of course, it's not about how they look: It's about how they think. I introduced Mort to Jennie, and Jennie to Mort, and they exchanged a few pleasantries.

Incidentally, I noticed that Mort was standing on my left foot, which I interpreted as a subtle way of telling me not to go anywhere. Jennie had to check her phone messages, and eventually she departed, leaving us alone.

Mort drew a heavy puff from his cigar and asked, "Got a minute?"

"For you, Mort, two minutes."

"Two things. You want the good news first or last?"

"How about the kick in the ass first."

He laughed. "Yeah, well… you know a guy named George?"

"Why? Has he been shot? Tell me it's so."

"You should wish. He called Phyllis while I was in there. Not for nothin', watch your ass around him."

"And what was George's issue?"

"I couldn't hear much. But I caught enough to know he was pissing all over you."

"Thanks. I owe you one."

"Yeah, you do. Now you're about to owe me two." He asked, "You know what Carnivore is?"

"Sort of like an Internet search service, right?"

"Like King Kong is sort of a monkey It belongs to the FBI, and NSA's got another version that works internationally. You cue it for.. like, certain words and phrases, and it sweeps through the world's telephone and e-mail conversations. If one of these phrases pops up, say, in a conversation, it gets collected."

Perhaps recalling that I was a technological dimwit, Mort searched my face to be sure I understood before he continued. "Phyllis had Peterson order NSA to look for the phrase 'one hundred million bucks,' or variations thereof."

"Good thinking. They get anything?"

"A lot of hits, from banks, security houses, and the U.S. Congress." He paused a moment and sucked on his cigar. "But somebody's shoving a block of a hundred million bucks pretty quickly through a bunch of banks."

"Explain that."

"This basket of money's gone through… like, six banks, just in the past twelve hours."

"Okay. Why would somebody do that?"

"You tell me."

I thought about it a moment. "Laundering?"

"Well, I called some sources over at Treasury. Good guys… they're into this money shit, right? Not laundered… hidden."

"And there's a distinction?"

He laughed. "That's what I said. Sometimes tax dodgers, they shift their money around a lot. It creates a long chain, and tax authorities lose the thread."

"Okay."

"I said, so if you had to make an illegal payment of, like, a hundred million sometime in the near future, would you do that? They said that's exactly what you'd do. The money loses its identity. Cycle it a few times through Swiss banks, the Caymans, a few little Pacific islands-places with liberal-to-no reporting procedures-pretty soon, you wouldn't have a clue where the money originated."

"But would you know where it comes out?"

"If it stays in a single block. But if, at some point, they break it up, like into a bunch of five- or ten-million packets, and wire it sequentially, you could lose visibility of it."

I nodded, and he said, "If these guys are any good, they'll do just that."

"So what do we do about that?"

"Phyllis is on the phone right now with NSA and Treasury. They say, if they can catch it at just the right moment, NSA can put tracers on it, like a thousand little cookies. Then, no matter what the meatheads try, we'll know."

Interesting. Only one problem. "But-"

"Yeah… you got it." Mort looked down at his shoes a moment. "We catch them after the President's already dead."

So anyway, Mort asked what I'd been up to. He'd been open and straight with me, so I was open and straight with him, and I told him about Margaret and Jason, and we both agreed that the Barneses were one screwy family It's all about reciprocation.

Phyllis was still chatting on the phone when I entered her office. I stood perfectly still in front of her desk for about thirty seconds. Unfortunately, patience is really not my strong suit. I began wandering around, pawing her pictures, pulling out her books and checking titles, playing with the few personal items on her desk. I hate it when people do that.

She eventually got the message, and she put a hand over the phone's mouthpiece. "Drummond, if you don't take your hands off my property, sit down, and behave, I'll boil you alive."

Goodness. I set down her teacup, sat at the conference table, and behaved perfectly, while loudly drumming my fingers and tapping my foot. Two out of three is really good for me.

Whoever Phyllis was chatting with apparently was bellyaching about how much trouble and expense it would be to follow, say, a hundred packets of wired money, if the bad guys chose to break it up. I mean, somebody just murdered three of our highest officials, they've threatened to assassinate the President, and this bureaucrat's worried about his overtime account. Typical. But Phyllis knew the drill and remained patient, though firm and insistent.

Eventually, she hung up and focused on me. "Well? Anything worthwhile turn up from our CID friends?"

"The one lead that looked good turned out not to be good."

"That happens. Still you have to go through the process. You know about-?"

"I know. I ran into Mort."

"Fine. Now I'll update you on our other progress." And for the next two minutes she did. Apparently, the world had now been informed that Jason Barnes was the killer and the manhunt was in full froth. With its usual anal efficiency, the Bureau had released and distributed not only Jason's official photograph but a sort of facsimile gallery of this-asshole-could-look-like-this sketches-Jason with a mustache, with glasses, a beard, bald, as a blond cross-dresser, whatever. The gallery would be printed on the front page of the Washington Post. This way, in the morning Jason would know what disguise not to wear.

The Bureau had to go through the paces, but sometimes the right thing to do is also the stupid thing to do. Not that I had a better suggestion. In fact, as Phyllis elaborated more of the steps and precautions-setting up checkpoints at strategic locations, screening Jason's charge card purchases to see where he liked to hang out, his phone records to see who he hung out with, etcetera-it struck me that hunting this guy down was going to be a bitch. I mean, there are people without Jason's brains, experience, and inside edges who spent ten years on the FBI's most wanted list. But Jason had lived in D.C. for three years, he knew the streets, he knew how to get around, and he knew what the police could do and what the police could not do.

Also, Jason's accomplices, in the parlance of the Bureau, remained UnSubs. Without the slightest tick of recognition, they could go out, retrieve groceries, scope out the checkpoints, and surveil the targets, while Jason hung around his hidey-hole and hatched his nefarious plans and plots. But enough unbridled optimism. Eventually, Phyllis wrapped it up by asking me, "Anything you can think of we should be doing but aren't?"

"Not a thing."

"Do you think he'll go after Mark Townsend?"

"I think, if he's half as good as he's been so far, he'll detect the security coverage and look elsewhere."

She nodded. "It's not a good posture, is it?"

"It's a terrible posture. Basically, we're waiting for him to make the next move, and praying he makes the kind of mistake he hasn't made yet."

"My read also." She added, "Let's hope his next move's not too awful."

"If you're the target," I noted, "it will be awful."

"Of course. Speaking of awful, you look terrible."

Well, I should. I was trying to look terrible. I had scruffed up my hair and I sank a little lower in my seat. I yawned. "Well… I'm fine, boss… a little… tired… hungry… filthy… but-"

"Go get cleaned up and take a nap, Drummond. You're no good to anybody if you can't think. Lord knows what might develop later today."

I stood. "I… if you insist."

She looked at me curiously. "I'm certainly not… insisting."

I fast-stepped toward the exit, before she had a change of heart. She said, as I went out the door, "Just be sure to leave your number with the comm center in the event-"

I shut the door.

Elizabeth sat at her station outside Jennie's office door, and she smiled at me as I approached. She appeared to like me for some reason. As I said, women are rotten judges of men. I smiled back and said, "Good morning, Elizabeth. Is her majesty ready to depart?"

"On the phone at the moment."

I leaned against Elizabeth's desk and waited. We chatted amiably for a few moments, then, totally out of the blue, she mentioned, "I think she likes you."

I ordinarily don't like nosy, gossipy women sticking their noses in my business. But this was okay. "Oh… well, you know, we're just partners… maybe friends-"

"I don't think so. She thinks you're very attractive… and sexy."

"She never mentioned smart?"

Elizabeth laughed. She then paused, as gabbers do, contemplating how much to disclose. Eventually she stated, "She needs a man. She should have children by now. Have you ever been married?"

"Nope."

"Never? How old are you, Major?"

It could only go downhill from here, so I pointed at her ring. "Well… how long have you been married?"

"Twenty-seven wonderful years. Seven kids. Three girls and four boys. Just had our first grandchild."

"Wow! That's a lot of-"

"Children. Yes, I know. Don't you want children?"

"Can't I just borrow them?"

"How many?"

I was on the verge of killing either her or myself when fortunately the red blinker on Elizabeth's phone stopped blinking. Before Elizabeth could say another word, I said, "I'd better catch her while she's free." I popped my head into Jennie's office. "Still up for this?"

"Yes… I think."

She looked doubtful, however, and I suggested, "Maybe we shouldn't."

"With everything going on, you're probably right."

So we both weighed the choice between lounging around our cramped offices and waiting for something to happen or a nice breakfast, shower, and a nap, or perhaps something more than a nap. I said, "Bring your cell phone."

She grabbed her purse and mentioned, "That was George."

"What's he doing?"

"He's assumed direct control of the security around Townsend."

"Smart boy Take care of the boss, and the boss takes care of you."

She smiled. "He's not as smart as we are."

I smiled back.