The Hunter

CHAPTER 23

Central Intelligence Agency, Virginia, USA

Wednesday

16:56 EST

He looked like a kindly old gentlemen, face craggy but tanned, thin but still strong, hair grey but thick. Kevin Sykes watched Ferguson pour himself a cup of coffee from the brushed steel pot and take a sip. It was bitter, tasteless crap, but the caffeine content should at least meet with Ferguson’s approval.

‘Has the room been swept?’ Ferguson asked. He looked at Sykes through the reflection in the office window.

Sykes nodded. ‘Just before you got here.’

Ferguson turned around and said, ‘Then please explain to me what the fucking hell has just happened.’

Sykes tensed visibly. ‘Tesseract showed up in Switzerland.’

‘And?’

Sykes shook his head. ‘Swiss police found a body in the woods north of the village of Saint Maurice. My man.’

Ferguson sighed heavily and sat down. ‘What about Tesseract?’

‘We don’t know for sure. The house was burned to the ground. I guess there’s a chance he was in it.’

‘That sounds to me like a fool’s hope, Mr Sykes. If he killed your man I doubt he would have managed to get himself cooked afterward.’

‘I’m afraid I’m inclined to agree with you, sir.’

‘So he’s gone then, with the flash drive?’

Sykes nodded.

‘Unless it was lost in the explosion. Which would take this from disastrous to catastrophic,’ Ferguson added. ‘When did all this happen?’

‘A few hours ago,’ Sykes replied, half to himself. ‘Look, this isn’t over yet. We have leads. We-’

‘So why did you not inform me of this earlier?’

‘This is my show, and I’ve been handling it. Telling you before I knew the facts would have achieved nothing except to inflame the situation. There isn’t anything you could have put in motion that I have not already done.’

Ferguson frowned. ‘And whom did you use this time?’

‘Carl McClury. He was ex-Special Activities Division with a solid record in wet work, before that Special Forces. He wasn’t prone to asking questions either. He was freelance, did contract work for the company. His cover was as a security guard at the Zurich embassy, so he was the perfect choice for a clean-up op.’

‘You have got to be joking.’ Ferguson stepped forward angrily. ‘You used a CIA employee? Are you out of your fucking mind?’

‘A former employee. He’s not on the books.’

‘Don’t get cute with me, Mr Sykes. It amounts to the same thing. What do you think will happen when they find that out?’

‘Nothing,’ Sykes answered confidently. ‘McClury was an agency contract shooter, and everyone knows it’s not unheard of for our contractors to do work for other people. Who knows who McClury may also have been doing jobs for? Europe’s a hell of a big place. Lots of potential clients. His death will go down as an occupational hazard. Plus,’ Sykes added, ‘there is nothing that connects McClury to Tesseract. There’ll be no evidence that the man who killed him was the same guy who shot up Paris. And let’s not forget that nothing connects us to McClury or Stevenson and his crew. We’re so clean we’re practically virgins.’

Ferguson ran slim fingers through his hair. ‘I’m afraid I don’t share your confidence.’

‘There are at least two people between us and McClury, and neither know where their orders came from. McClury was payment on delivery, and he didn’t deliver. Before him, Stevenson was paid in advance in cash. Alvarez won’t be able to identify the man who paid him. And that money was shipped through the usual methods — intermediaries, offshore accounts, et cetera. No trail. We let Stevenson gather his own team, remember? We’ve got nothing to worry about.’

‘That remains to be seen.’

‘Yes, McClury’s death makes things awkward, but he was a shrewd operator. Meticulous. He won’t have left any tracks to follow like Stevenson. Besides, he was totally deniable alive, and he’s even more deniable dead.’

‘You forgot to add incompetent to his list of qualities.’

‘He had an impressive track record.’

‘Right up until the point he got himself killed.’

‘Be that as it may, he was the only choice for the op given its unique criteria. We needed someone fast, and disposable hitmen aren’t exactly easy to find.’

It was a good retort but Ferguson waved a hand to dismiss the point, and Sykes swallowed down the anger that flared up inside him. He reminded himself who he was speaking to and didn’t press the issue further. Ferguson wasn’t just his boss, he was the architect of their scheme, and he demanded obedience at all times, even when he was blatantly wrong.

‘What are you going to do about McClury?’

Sykes already had everything planned out in his mind. ‘It’ll be a day before he’s identified by the Swiss police, another day at the very least before anyone that matters realizes he’s former agency. That’s more than enough time for me to sour McClury’s reputation. I’ll make it seem as if he’d been taking contracts for some very objectionable people. The kind of people who don’t mind killing the hired help when they’re no longer useful. That’ll be sufficient to muddy any trail. No one will think to connect his death with what’s been happening elsewhere.’

Ferguson seemed to take a long time placing his cup back down. He carefully wiped the corners of his mouth with the thumb and forefinger of his left hand. Somehow Sykes managed to stop himself from smiling. He knew he’d won the old bastard over. Ferguson just didn’t want to give Sykes any praise.

‘Things have gone bad so far, I accept that.’ A little humility would go down nicely, Sykes thought. ‘But this thing isn’t over yet. Tesseract is still out there, still with the flash drive I’m sure, so we have options. People are looking for him now, the French, Germans, Swiss, the agency. That’ll help us close in on him. And when we do, I’ve got some more contractors on standby. I know it’s risky, but we can make it look like someone else got to him first. Sure, things won’t have been as clean as we would have liked, but the end result will still be the same.’

‘There won’t be a next time.’

‘You don’t know that. It’s too early to give up.’

Ferguson paused for a moment. ‘This is what we’re going to do instead.’

‘The plan is still good; we can make it work.’

Ferguson continued. ‘I’m afraid I don’t share your optimistic evaluation of the circumstances. Your incompetence thus far has made it even more difficult to salvage this operation. Have you forgotten what’s at stake here? Because I haven’t.’

‘Of course I know what’s at stake. You’re the one who’s losing sight of the objective, not me.’

‘You arrogant little shit,’ Ferguson said with a smile. ‘I’ve spent my entire career moving from one mission to the next without letting anyone get in my way. I’ve never lost sight of an objective. You can count on that. But I’m not going to put my freedom in jeopardy because you seem incapable of killing one man.’

‘I think you overestimate Tesseract’s chances.’

‘I think you overestimate your own.’

‘Nothing has happened so far that cannot be fixed.’

Ferguson shook his head. ‘Stand the contractors down immediately.’

‘What? No, we have to keep them ready.’

‘Tell me why exactly? May I remind you of the considerable efforts it took to track Tesseract down in the first place when he didn’t know we were trying? Now that he knows people are after him, do you think that’s going to make him easier to spot? Frankly, I’m amazed you think that’s a workable course of action at this time, and I’m even more amazed that you’re willing to put more people at risk after what just happened to McClury.’

‘What else are we going to do? Hope Tesseract dies of natural causes and leaves us the location of the missiles in his will?’

‘Comments like that do nothing to reassure me, Mr Sykes. You don’t leave me any choice. I’m taking it out of your hands.’

‘What the hell does that mean? What are you going to do?’

‘Something I should have done from the very beginning. Had I known this killer would be quite so adept at staying alive I never would have waited. I’m making a call.’

‘What? To who?’

‘To someone who can help us. There’s a man I’ve used before. An expert.’

‘An expert?’

‘A killer.’

‘Who?’

‘He’s not on our files, he’s SIS.’

‘As in the British Secret Intelligence Service? That’s insane. What about the British government?’

‘They’ll never know. He’s a contract agent. He’ll just do some moonlighting for us.’

‘Moonlighting?’

‘MI6 can’t pay him what I can.’

‘What’s the guy’s name?’

‘You won’t have heard of him. His name, or at least the name I know him by, is simply Reed. From this point onward he takes over the hands-on part of this operation.’

‘This is ridiculous; we don’t need an outsider. It’ll only complicate matters.’

‘I don’t care if it does complicate matters. Getting this mess buried is all I give a damn about. The only way we can proceed is by using an outsider.’

‘That’s bullshit.’

‘If you can’t speak like a grown-up, don’t speak at all. What else are we going to do? Gather together another bunch of clueless mercenaries? Or just dispatch more former company men and hope no one joins the dots if they don’t come back?’

‘We can still make it work.’

‘You’re not hearing me. Now that McClury is dead our hands are tied. You’ve had your chance and you’ve failed. Reed is our only hope of getting this situation cleaned up without bringing us into the spotlight.’

‘And where are you going to send this Reed? Like you said, we don’t know where Tesseract is any more.’

‘Tesseract can wait for the moment. Reed can be in Paris by the morning.’

‘Why Paris?’

‘I don’t think we have any time to waste. Do you?’ Sykes shook his head, unsure what question he was answering. ‘Good,’ Ferguson continued. ‘When Reed lands in Paris I want him to meet up with your man on the ground as soon as possible. What’s his name again?’

Sykes kept his face level, trying not to show he didn’t have a clue what was being discussed. ‘John Kennard.’

‘That’s right,’ Ferguson said. ‘Have Kennard supply Reed with a list of everyone who’s had an active role in this operation. Reed will then take care of the rest.’

‘What do you mean? Why would he need that list?’

Ferguson didn’t answer, but his eyes, peering through the steam from his cup, said it all.

‘Jesus,’ Sykes gasped, finally understanding. ‘All of them?’

Ferguson nodded as if it was of no consequence. ‘And they will be missed.’ He didn’t skip a beat. ‘But sacrifices must be made for the greater good.’

‘The greater good?’

‘All right,’ Ferguson admitted with a half smile that Sykes didn’t appreciate. ‘Maybe not for the greater good, but for the good of you and me. I am still assuming that you don’t want to spend the rest of your life behind bars?’ Ferguson paused and Sykes didn’t respond. ‘I didn’t think so, and that is the price of failure here, Mr Sykes. You are still aware of that?’

‘Yes, sir.’

‘This operation of ours has failed.’

‘Sir, I think it’s too early to-’

‘Shut up and let me finish. This operation has failed. Achieving our original objective is now a secondary consideration. Getting our hands on those missiles is going to take nothing short of a small miracle, so I suggest we focus our efforts elsewhere.’

‘What about the list of buyers I’ve been working on?’

‘For the time being you can forget the money, Mr Sykes. Our priority at this moment is to make sure we come out of this with our skins intact. The only way this could’ve worked was to have no loose ends, but we’ve gone way past that. Now, it’s damage limitation. We can’t have people walking around with knowledge of an illegal op that spectacularly failed.’

‘But none of them know the full details of what we’re doing or even who they’re working for. Only one is true agency anyway. And besides, we’ll need to use them again if we’re going to make this work, and they’re good, they’re trustworthy.’

‘Don’t kid yourself. They’re about as trustworthy as you are.’ Sykes’s eyes narrowed. ‘Or I am for that matter. What if one of them puts the pieces together about what’s been going on here, what are we going to do then? Hope they don’t tell anyone?’ Sykes looked away. ‘Alvarez is already on the scent and looking as if he might actually be getting somewhere. Or maybe that fat idiot Procter will stop worrying about his promotion prospects long enough to make the appropriate leap of faith. Do you really think that this disaster will stay buried if anyone besides ourselves knows even some of the details?’

‘But two are Americans, for Christ’s sake.’

Ferguson’s expression didn’t alter. ‘It’s unavoidable.’

Sykes’s head rose slowly. ‘You haven’t just decided this, have you?’ You would have had them killed even if things had worked out perfectly.’

Ferguson nodded. ‘Eventually yes, using Reed over an extended period of time, but this accelerates the urgency.’

‘And when did you plan on telling me?’

‘Don’t get all precious on me now, Mr Sykes,’ Ferguson said. ‘I told you at the very beginning if we were going to pull this off it had to be completely clean. No traces back to us. What did you think I meant?’ Sykes’s eyes dropped a fraction. ‘You’ve been in this business long enough to know what I was talking about. You may not have admitted it to yourself, but you knew exactly what you were getting yourself into, so don’t act so shocked now. There was always going to be a clean-up phase to this operation, and Reed was always going to be part of that. Experience has also taught me that you need a back-up in case the unexpected occurs, and I knew Reed could be that trump card. And, as events have transpired, it’s a good thing I had that foresight. Until now you didn’t need to know the details.’

‘Evidently.’

‘I trust this isn’t a problem for you?’ He paused. ‘Is it?

Sykes’s voice was quiet. ‘No, sir.’

‘That’s settled then. Reed will need all their details straight away, and I do mean all their details.’

‘I’ll make sure he gets them promptly.’

‘That’s my boy.’ All sympathetic smiles now, Sykes noted sourly, like a father explaining to his son the necessity of having the family dog put to sleep to avoid the veterinary bills. ‘It’s for the best.’

‘Yes, sir,’ Sykes said, finding himself staring into space. He realized Ferguson was watching him closely and straightened up.

‘I do hope you have the stomach for this, Mr Sykes,’ Ferguson said.

‘Of course, sir.’

Ferguson’s voice dropped a few decibels. ‘Because I would be very disappointed to find my trust in you to be misplaced.’

‘You don’t have to worry about that, sir.’

‘I’m glad to hear it.’

‘This Reed character,’ Sykes said to take the spotlight from himself, ‘just how good is he?’

Ferguson raised an incredulous eyebrow.

‘He’s killed more people than Stalin.’