The Fix

Chapter 38

Decker, Brown, Bogart, Jamison, and Milligan were sitting around a conference table at the WFO staring at the middle of the table.

Sitting there were the items Decker and Brown had found at the storage unit and then placed in evidence bags. All the items had been checked for prints and other forensics, but the tests had come back negative.

Bogart picked up the doll and examined the secret compartment.

Milligan slid the ID badge over and looked at it. “You said you checked and Berkshire, or whatever her name really is, never worked at DIA?”

“That’s right,” said Brown. “She would have been thoroughly vetted, undergone a background check, and her prints would have been taken and kept on our database. She’s not there.”

Bogart put the doll down, cleared his throat, and said, “We’ve checked all of our databases and can find no record of her. If she worked either in a government agency or as a contractor requiring a security clearance her prints would have been on file. They weren’t.”

Decker sat staring down at his hands.

Jamison glanced at him. “What do you think, Amos?”

“I think the part of the badge clipped out had someone else’s name.”

“If it were an RFID badge,” said Milligan, referring to radio frequency identification devices, “it would be full of the holder’s data unless it had been electronically wiped clean.”

“But it isn’t,” said Decker. “It was obviously issued before that technology was used, at least by DIA.”

Brown said, “Berkshire could have been the mole’s handler. She wouldn’t need to be on a database or have a badge to do that. The person on the inside would, of course. But Berkshire could have just managed the asset and collected the intel.”

“That is far more likely,” said Decker. “We just have to find out who that person on the inside was.”

“But do you think Berkshire was still acting as a handler?” said Milligan. “I mean the old badge, the floppy disk, the 1980s KGB communication, it all dates from another era.”

Bogart said, “That’s a good point. She might have retired and decided to do something else with her life.”

“Good works, you mean,” said Jamison. “Maybe to atone for what she’d done in the past.”

“But where does the money come in?” asked Brown. “Handlers are not known to make fortunes. And if she was working for the Russians, why not just go back there when she retired?”

“Maybe she couldn’t,” said Decker.

They all looked at him.

“Why wouldn’t she be able to?” asked Brown.

“Why would a Russian operative be unwelcome back in Russia?” said Decker.

“Because they turned against their country,” answered Brown.

“Are you saying Berkshire was a double agent?” said Bogart.

“I’m saying it’s possible she was a spy and then was turned.”

“But if she was wouldn’t there be some evidence of that?” asked Milligan. “Some record?”

“Well, since we just discovered this possibility now, we have to pose that question to the right people.”

“If it was over thirty years ago it might be hard to find the right people to ask,” noted Bogart.

Decker looked at Brown. “You know this world better than we do. Where would you look?”

“There are lots of intelligence agencies, Decker, with overlap. Hundreds of thousands of human assets spread over two hundred countries.”

“So needle in a haystack,” commented Jamison.

“Compounded by the fact that the clandestine community doesn’t like to answer questions about anything,” added Brown.

“And if we ask they may not tell us the truth anyway,” said Milligan.

“I wouldn’t bet the farm on it,” opined Brown.

Bogart said, “If she was managing an asset within DIA or another of the intelligence agencies, that asset may still be around. Berkshire might have retired, but that doesn’t mean the asset did.”

“That’s true,” said Brown.

“But where do you think the money came from?” asked Jamison.

“If she turned to our side and helped us out, could the cash have come from there?” asked Decker, looking at Brown.

“Depending on the significance of the assistance. But if she were a spy the basic leverage might have been help us or go to prison, not a penthouse.”

“But if she wasn’t caught but came forward voluntarily?” said Decker. “Maybe she didn’t reveal herself as a spy but rather as a citizen with some special knowledge looking to help?”

Brown thought about that. “I don’t know how likely that would be.”

Bogart said, “The tricky part is how do we organize an investigation along these lines? We have four items here and a dead woman who might or might not have been a spy or a handler or something else.”

Decker said, “The first thing we have to do is find out who Anne Berkshire really is. Or was.”

“What the hell do you think we’ve been trying to do, Decker?” exclaimed Milligan.

“But we have more to work with now. If she was Russian, that’s something that can be checked out. If she was a handler for a spy within the government, that can be investigated too. We have leads, we just have to run them down.”

Bogart said, “If she did help out this country and was paid a substantial sum for it, that is something we should be able to track down.”

“But how does that explain Dabney’s killing her?” asked Jamison. “We know that Dabney stole secrets, but that was very recently.” She looked at Brown. “Do you have anything to show that Dabney and Berkshire were working together?”

Brown hesitated.

“Oh for God’s sake, you can at least nod or shake your head,” said Jamison in exasperation.

Brown shook her head.

Jamison turned to Decker. “Okay, so what is the connection?”

“I don’t know,” admitted Decker. “But if we find the answer to one, something tells me we’ll find the answer to all.”

Brown picked up the security badge. “I can check out when these types of badges were used at DIA. We tend to change them on a regular basis, so that will give us some time parameters.”

“And she kept that KGB communication for a reason,” said Decker.

Brown nodded. “And I’m going to read it from one end to the other. It might provide some clues.”

“And the floppy disk?” asked Jamison.

Bogart picked it up. “It’s been a while since any of us have seen one of these. We’ve had the lab go through it. Whatever was on there no longer is. At least nothing that’s intelligible.”

“Was it Russian?” asked Jamison.

“It was computer ones and twos,” replied Bogart. “That made no sense.”

Decker picked up the doll.

Milligan said, “You don’t expect to get anything from that, surely.”

Decker rubbed the doll’s hair. “I don’t expect anything. I just go where things take me.”

His phone buzzed. It was a reminder to him of their meeting with Nancy Billings.

Decker stood. “Like right now. Let’s go, Alex.”