The Protector

7

"I don't want anybody complaining because the only boneless sirloin 1 had was frozen and needed to be thawed in a microwave," Chad said.

The group, minus Tracy, who continued to watch the monitors in the control room, sat at a long table in a kitchen filled with stainless-steel appliances. The plates before the group had half-inch strips of beef in a beige sauce studded with mushrooms and onions on top of green noodles. A bowl of salad was next to each plate, with a napkin-covered basket of freshly baked bread in the middle.

"And I don't want anybody complaining because the green noodles aren't homemade but came out of a box."

"I can't imagine anyone complaining," Prescott said. "It looks and smells wonderful."

"With the right attitude like that, I'll cook for you anytime," Chad said.

"The team's on duty," Duncan told Prescott, "and can't have wine, but that doesn't mean you can't. I can offer what I'm told is a fine Chianti Classico."

Prescott nodded in approval.

Roberto stuck a napkin into the top of his shirt, highlighting his dark goatee. "Man, I haven't had goulash in ages."

"It's not goulash. It's beef Stroganoff," Chad said. "It was invented by a French chef who worked for a Russian aristocrat in the late nineteenth century. The aristocrat's name was Count Paul Stroganoff. As usual, the guy with the power got the attention, while nobody remembers the chef who created the dish."

"Did you ever think about getting an honest job and running a restaurant?" Cavanaugh asked.

"All the time," Chad said, "but I know I'd miss the smell of gun oil."

"Delicious." The enthusiasm with which Prescott ate was impressive. "There's something a little extra here that I can't quite place. The mustard and the sour cream, of course. But…"

Chad watched with interest as Prescott savored a mouthful.

"Oyster sauce? Is that what I'm tasting? Oyster sauce?"

"Two tablespoons. You know your food."

"Here's your wine." Duncan showed Prescott the bottle, then set a glass next to him.

Prescott let the dark liquid drift over his tongue, assessing it.

"I telephoned my contacts at the DEA to learn more about Escobar's tactics, but it's Sunday evening, so I couldn't reach them," Duncan said. "I'll try again tomorrow. Meanwhile, we have a number of issues to discuss." He looked at Cavanaugh, who set down his fork and started the briefing.

"You need to understand there are four stages involved in arranging for you to disappear," Cavanaugh said. "The first is a new identity and new documentation for it, especially a birth certificate and a Social Security number. You want to be confident that the government won't question your Social Security number. One way to do it is to assume the identity of someone who's been dead for quite a while, someone without any close living relatives to contradict your claim to be that person. You meet these requirements by searching old newspapers for an item about an entire family that died in a fire or a similar disaster. You then learn the Social Security number of a child in that family who'd be your age now if he had lived. Many parents get a Social Security number for their newborns. Hospitals often include the applications with their regular paperwork. In some states, death certificates include that number, and death certificates are easy to obtain, a matter of public record."

"Assuming someone else's Social Security number is illegal, of course," Duncan said. "As a consequence, we never perform that service for any of our clients. We only teach them how to do it."

"I understand," Prescott said.

Cavanaugh continued. "For a moderate threat level, it's a fairly secure way to assume a new identity."

"Not foolproof, though." Roberto wiped his mouth with his napkin and joined the conversation. "Sometimes the government gets curious about a Social Security number that hasn't been used for years and now suddenly shows up on tax returns, which means that in addition to whoever's hunting you, you've got the government on your back, charging you with a federal crime."

"Exactly," Cavanaugh said. "And Escobar's threat level is too serious for us to allow you to get exposed in any way."

"What we're going to suggest," Duncan said, "is expensive, greater than the hundred-thousand-dollar fee you and I negotiated over the telephone."

"You want to raise the price?" Prescott set down his knife and fork.

"Given what happened today," Duncan said, "I don't have a choice."

"Raise it how much?" Prescott frowned.

"An additional four hundred thousand."

Prescott didn't blink. "You did a background check on me?"

"I did."

"You know that my biotech patents made me a millionaire many times over."

"I do."

"Thanks to Protective Services, I'm not in Escobar's hands. In fact, given everything Cavanaugh and the rest of you have done so far, not to mention all this-" Prescott gestured toward his surroundings-"a half million dollars sounds like a bargain. Tomorrow morning, I'll arrange an electronic transfer to your account."

"One hundred thousand dollars of that money," Duncan said, "shouldn't go anywhere near our account. Once we teach you how to hide the electronic trail, I want the hundred thousand transferred directly to someone else." Duncan slid a piece of paper across the table to Prescott. The paper had numbers and a bank's name written on it.

"To a specialist, who has a way to get you a brand-new, previously unassigned number," Cavanaugh said.

"Doesn't a similar problem still exist?" Prescott asked. "New numbers go to young people. Won't the government question the number when it suddenly starts showing up on tax returns for a man my age?"

"New numbers also go to immigrants who get green cards," Duncan said.

Prescott gave him a significant look. "Brilliant."

"I'm assuming this specialist will invent a background for you that says you're from Canada, Great Britain, South Africa, Australia, or New Zealand. Some country that would account for your Anglo-Saxon features," Duncan said. "She'll give you-"

"She?"

"You'll find Karen quite personable. She'll give you a detailed background-where you supposedly grew up and went to school and so on-which you'll need to memorize until it seems it really is your background. She'll also give you photographs of these places and information about them that anyone who'd been there would be expected to know. You'll get a new name, of course, which you'll need to internalize until it's second nature to you. A driver's license with a picture ID. A passport. Credit cards. Sometimes even a library card. All of them perfect. Cadillac treatment. Very expensive," Duncan concluded.

Prescott looked fascinated. "But how does she manage to do this?"

"If I asked her, I'm sure she'd refuse to answer, or else she'd lie to me."

Duncan himself was lying, Cavanaugh knew. The truth was that Karen had once worked for the branch of the State Department that supplied undercover intelligence operatives with documents for false identities.

"The main thing is, she does exceptional work," Duncan continued. "She's already preparing the documents. All you need is to have her take your photograph so she can put it on your new driver's license and passport. Tomorrow, we'll take you to Albany and complete the process. By nightfall, you'll be a new man."

"You said there were four stages in arranging for me to disappear," Prescott said. "What are the other three?"

Duncan looked at Cavanaugh, nodding for him to continue.

"Eventually you'll want to change your appearance. Some of it can be easily done. Since you have fair hair, it makes sense to dye it black. You're clean-shaven, so it makes sense to grow a mustache or a beard. You don't wear glasses, so why not get a pair that has non-corrective lenses? All that's fairly obvious, and in moderate-risk situations would be sufficient, but in your case, some form of surgical change is advisable. We'll take you to a plastic surgeon we use. Not even your mother will recognize you after he's finished with your nose and chin."

"My mother's dead," Prescott said.

"Sorry to hear that, but on the other hand, that partly solves the biggest problem you're going to have," Cavanaugh said.

"Which is?"

"I'll come to it in a moment, after I deal with the third stage in your disappearance, which is arranging for you to have access to money. In many cases, the person who's disappearing has to give up a job. In his or her new life, money becomes a significant issue."

"Fortunately, that won't be an issue for you, because you're wealthy." Duncan slid another piece of paper across the table to him. "Tomorrow, after the final details of your new identity have been arranged, you'll transfer your money to this numbered bank account that we've established for you in the Bahamas. You'll note that the password is Phoenix. I couldn't resist the rebirth idea. As soon as you activate the account, change the number and the password so you're confident the money is secure, even from us."

"You'll need to establish another bank account, this one conventional, in your new name at your new place of residence,"

Cavanaugh said. "Periodically, you'll transfer funds to that second bank, preferably in amounts less than ten thousand dollars, because transactions larger than that have to be reported to the government. But don't make it too close to ten thousand dollars, because the DEA uses that pattern to identify drug traffickers. Seven to eight thousand would be a reasonable figure, one that won't attract the government's attention."

"You'll need a story to tell your banker to explain your income," Duncan added. "Perhaps you receive periodic installments from a trust fund. Perhaps you retired early after selling a business and for tax reasons you preferred a schedule of payments rather than a lump sum. Whatever fabrication feels comfortable to you."

Prescott took another sip of wine. "And the fourth stage? The one that presents the most problems?"

Cavanaugh looked around the table. Everyone glanced down, uneasy.

"Initially, a new life sounds tempting," Cavanaugh said. "An escape from your enemies. A fresh beginning. The chance to correct mistakes and start over. The trouble is, you have to make a complete break with your past. Do you have a family, Mr. Prescott?"

"No."

"No ex-wife? No children in college?"

"No. My work kept getting in the way of marriage and establishing a family."

"A lady friend?"

"No."

"A boyfriend?"

"I'm not gay," Prescott said with annoyance.

"That's remarkable. I've been protecting people for several years, and this is the first time I've dealt with someone who had no serious social connections. You said your mother was dead. What about your father?"

"Dead also."

"In other words, there's no one in the world who'll miss you if you drop out of sight."

"More or less." Uncomfortable, Prescott glanced down. "Yes."

"That makes it easier," Cavanaugh said, "because a clean break with the past means you'd never have been able to contact your parents if they were alive, or other relatives, or your friends. If you'd wished, a wife and children could have gone with you to your new life, but they'd have had relatives and friends they'd have missed, and eventually you or someone in your family would have been tempted to get in touch with people you cared for in your past. In most cases, if your enemy manages to find you, that's how it's done, by keeping a close watch on the friends and relatives you left behind, by checking their mail and tapping their phones and watching for any change in their routine. Fortunately, that's not going to be an issue here."

"Do you have any fantasy spot where you've always wanted to live?" Duncan asked. "When you decided to disappear, was there a place you had in mind?"

"No." Looking more abandoned, Prescott stared at his wineglass.

"Good," Duncan said. "Because, if you had, you probably would have mentioned it to people you worked with or did business with."

"Casual conversation," Chad said." 'Gosh, wouldn't it be great to live in Aspen and ski whenever I want in the winter.' So you disappear and move to Aspen, and the next thing, Escobar's men come crashing through your back door."

"Do you subscribe to any scientific journals?" Cavanaugh asked.

"Several."

"Not any longer," Duncan said. "Escobar will find out which journals publish articles in your specialty. He'll manage to get his hands on the subscriber list. He'll make a note of which subscribers recently moved and which people subscribed after you disappeared."

"And the next thing you know," Roberto said, echoing Chad's earlier comment, "Escobar's men'll come crashing through your back door."

"Do you like to play golf?" Cavanaugh asked.

"Yes. It's one of the few forms of exercise that-"

"Not any longer. You can't ever go near a golf course again. Escobar will find a way to learn your habits. If he somehow manages to figure out where you've moved, he'll arrange to have someone watch the golf courses, waiting for you to show up. On and on," Cavanaugh said. "Do you understand what we're trying to tell you?"

Prescott gulped the last of his wine and poured another full glass. "When you say 'a new life,' you mean it literally. I have to make a complete break from my past."

"With no exceptions," Cavanaugh emphasized. "The kind of clothes you like. The music you like. The food you like. You're going to have to change all of it. The books you like. Back at the warehouse, you had the collected poems of Robinson Jeffers and a couple of books about him. From now on, Jeffers is one author you can't ever be caught reading."

"You make it sound…" Prescott's voice faltered. "Depressing."

"For many, it is, once the people who disappear finally understand the full implications," Duncan said. "You have to prepare yourself and confront the problem now. How much are you afraid of Escobar? Are you ready to do everything that's necessary, no matter how isolating, in order to keep him away from you?"

Prescott took another long swallow from his glass. "I'm tired of being afraid. Yes." His expression hardened. "I'm ready to do everything that's necessary."

"Good," Duncan said. "Tomorrow, we'll take you to meet Karen in Albany, get your photograph taken, and receive the documents for your new identity."

Tracy suddenly entered the room. "Maybe not."

"Why?" Duncan frowned.

"Three helicopters are headed this way."