The Serpent's Kiss

27

Agent Roger Kandling watched Mary Linzey hurry away. When she had disappeared from sight, Kandling whipped out his cell phone and placed a call.

“Gray here.”

“Sir, it’s Kandling.”

“Did she buy it?”

“All the way, sir. She’s working on the assumption that Derek Stillwater may actually be The Serpent. If she doesn’t swallow that, she at least is suspicious of his involvement here.”

“Good,” Gray said, his voice sounding muffled and nasal. “Good job, Kandling. Anything else?”

“Just a suggestion, sir.”

“What’s that?”

“Alert the local police that Stillwater is a ‘person of interest,’ and should be detained.”

Over the phone Matt Gray laughed low and soft. “I like that. Yes. Good job. I don’t want to spread my resources out any more, but get the local cops on it. Good. Take care of it. And Roger?”

“Yes sir?”

“We never had this conversation.”

This gave Kandling pause. Was he being hung out to dry by the SAC? “Yes sir,” he said. “Understood.”

“Soon as you’re done, get your ass back over here.”

“Yes sir.”

They clicked off and Kandling took a second to think through his approach. Gray was playing games with Stillwater and with inter-department turf feuds. That was fine by him. He had no love of the Department of Homeland Security. The Bureau was still the top anti-terror cops, as far as he was concerned.

But he saw no reason why he should be “taking the fifth” during the eventual congressional investigation. He wanted his neck kept out of that potentially ugly noose.

It was a classic CYA procedure, and he took a moment to figure out exactly how to cover his ass for when this thing blew wide open. When he figured it out, he dialed the Detroit FBI office and set things in motion.