The Ares Decision

30

What’s so important that it couldn’t wait?”

Dave Collen closed the door behind him, giving it a solid push to make sure it was sealed. “We have a problem with Brandon, Larry.”

“What kind of a problem?”

Collen slid his laptop onto Drake’s desk and brought up a security video depicting an elevator full of people. “Watch him.”

Drake leaned into the screen, squinting as the doors opened and five more people crammed themselves into the already crowded space. One of those people was Gazenga, and he wrestled his way to the back, taking a position next to a beautiful blonde.

The elevator descended three floors and Gazenga pushed his way back to the front. After he exited, the video ended.

“So, he doesn’t like taking stairs?” Drake said. “I don’t see that as a life-or-death issue.”

“Watch more carefully,” Collen said, restarting the video. He paused it at the point where Gazenga settled in next to the woman and proceeded frame by frame. “Look at his right arm.”

Everything below the elbow was obscured, but Drake saw Gazenga’s shoulder come up a bit and then drop back down when the elevator stopped. The woman glanced up at him and then watched incuriously as he got off.

“The elevator jerked, he bumped the woman next to him, and then he left. What are you driving at, Dave?”

“He put something in her pocket. Watch it again.”

Drake frowned skeptically as it rolled for a third time. It was possible to interpret the movement of his arm as lifting his hand level with the pocket in her jacket, but it was a hell of a lot easier to interpret it as nothing.

“I appreciate your thoroughness, Dave, and I think a little paranoia is probably warranted at this point, but—”

“Do you know who she is?”

“No.”

“Randi Russell.”

Drake knew the name — everyone with sufficient clearance did — but they’d never met personally. “Last I heard she was chasing some Taliban explosives expert through the Hindu Kush.”

“Yeah. Apparently he met with an accident.”

“What kind of accident?”

“He got in the way of one of Randi’s bullets and then fell off a six-hundred-foot cliff. She’s back at headquarters for a couple months while things in Afghanistan cool off.”

“Okay, but she and Brandon would have no way of knowing each other, and as far as I can remember, she’s worked on every continent on the planet except Africa. If you’re right and he’s getting cold feet, why would he go to her?”

Collen fell into one of the chairs facing Drake’s desk. “Smith had a fiancée awhile back — she died from being infected by the Hades virus.”

“So?”

“Her name was Sophia Russell.”

Drake felt the knot that had been tied in his stomach since he’d started this operation tighten. “They’re related?”

“Sisters. And to the degree that Russell and Smith are close to anyone, they’re close to each other.”

Drake stared down at the frozen image on the laptop for a moment. “Still, it could be a coincidence.”

“There’s more security footage of what Brandon did after he got off the elevator. He had no business on that floor and just went straight for the stairs and back to his office.”

The tightness in Drake’s stomach began to spread to his chest. “Have we checked her out?”

“As soon as I got this, I had her called into a meeting. We turned the heat up and she took off her jacket. When they broke for coffee I checked her pocket. Nothing.”

“Then either there was nothing there to begin with…”

“Or she got the message.”

Drake opened a drawer and pulled out two Excedrins, downing them without a drink to stave off the headache he knew was coming. “If he did pass her something, it could have been anything — an invitation to a private chat room or to an e-mail account with a damn treatise on everything we’ve done.”

“I’ve gone through all his computer usage,” Collen said. “He’s a clever little bastard, but I found the footprints of his search for someone to contact. I’m pretty confident that we have a handle on everything he’s done electronically.”

“Then a time and place. A meeting.”

Collen nodded.

“If you’re wrong and she has something on us…”

“The minute I saw the video I put heavy surveillance on her. If she knows something, we’ll eventually find out about it.”

“Eventually isn’t good enough, Dave. Randi Russell is the last person we need getting her teeth into this thing. If she…” Drake’s voice lost its strength for a moment, fading under the weight of the disaster scenarios playing out in his mind. He stood and paced across his expansive office for a few moments before stopping on a rug that bore the CIA seal. “Are we prepared to move against Gazenga?”

“We’ve been ready since the day we brought him in. Should we go?”

“Can we afford to?”

“The short answer is no,” Collen said. “We think Omidi is in Uganda, and Brandon’s using his contacts to try to confirm — contacts I don’t have a relationship with. On the other hand, can we afford not to?”

“Damn Castilla and his ops team! This should have never gotten this complicated. Do it. Get rid of him. And I expect you to pick up the slack, Dave. No excuses.”

“What about Russell?”

“It’s the same story, isn’t it? Killing her is dangerous. But leaving her alive is potentially suicidal.”

“Then we’re considering dealing with her?”

Drake gave a short nod.

“I’ll start laying the groundwork, but it’s going to take time. When it comes to walking away when she should be dead, Randi Russell is a witch. This has to be planned to the very last detail.”

“We don’t have time to play around, Dave. I want to see a summary of possible options by tomorrow afternoon.”