Use of Force

CHAPTER 79

Andrew Jordan pulled the MacBook Air out of his briefcase and pushed it across Paul Page’s dining room table.

“Ever heard of a thumb drive?” Page asked, accepting it.

“That’s what I said, but Susan Viscovich is spooked.”

“You used Viscovich to hack Carlton and Ryan?”

Jordan nodded. “She’s the best and I know you didn’t want to waste any time.”

“What did it cost us?”

“Don’t ask.”

Part of Page really didn’t want to know. A job like this must have been exorbitantly expensive. “Why the laptop, though?”

“She said it was for our safety,” Jordan replied. “She had to put out a contract for the hack. They scanned the files up and down for malware and didn’t find anything, but she’s paid to be suspicious. She wanted to make sure we were able to review all of the material on a computer stripped of any ability to connect with the Internet.”

“How’d she get the information onto the laptop?”

Jordan shook his head. “No clue. And to tell you the truth, I don’t really care.”

“So what did she come up with?”

“The personal email accounts for Reed Carlton and Lydia Ryan.”

Page was impressed. “That was quick.”

“Like I said, she’s the best. The emails go back quite a way, and there’s lots of them.”

“Did you also hire her for the rest of the surveillance?”

Jordan nodded. “That, though, didn’t go as well.”

“What do you mean?”

“Ryan wasn’t scheduled to have her place swept for another two weeks. The plan was to get in and get out before the CIA came through, but for some reason, she had them come in early. They found everything.”

Page was not happy. He was even less happy when Jordan added, “They found all the surveillance at Carlton’s too.”

“Son of a bitch,” he cursed. “Now they know we’re on to them.”

“They know someone is on to them. They don’t necessarily know who.”

Page looked at his partner. “The Deputy Director of the CIA and Reed fucking Carlton found out their homes were wired. You don’t think they’re going to move heaven and earth to get to the bottom of it?”

“Viscovich has assured me that absolutely none of the equipment she used can be traced back.”

“Well she wouldn’t be the best,” he replied, making air quotes with his fingers, “if it could. But I’m not worried about the equipment giving her away. I’m worried about whoever installed it. She does tons of fucking contract work for the Agency. If word gets out about this, her installers may start spilling what they know.”

“She has assured me that won’t happen.”

“Well that’s fucking great, Andrew. I’m glad you’re willing to gamble everything on a promise from Susan Viscovich.” Page paused and then added, “Are you fucking her?”

Jordan laughed, “Now that would be worth risking everything over.”

Page was pissed off and didn’t like his cavalier attitude. “She’s a weak link. You need to fix this.”

“Fix this?” Jordan said, with another laugh. “Fix it how?”

“Kill her.”

“You’re fucking crazy, you know that?”

“Kill her,” Page instructed, “and kill the installers.”

“Is that all?”

“You don’t seem to understand how serious this is.”

Jordan looked at him. “And you don’t seem to understand how insane you sound.”

“What exactly do you think is going to happen when Reed Carlton comes after us for this? Have you thought about that?”

“Frankly, Paul, he’s your obsession. Not mine. I was just trying to do you a favor. And apparently, no good deed goes unpunished.”

“We’re both going to get punished if we don’t get out in front of this.”

“I’m not killing anybody,” Jordan stated. “Full stop. Not going to happen.”

“That’s too bad,” said Page, as he removed the suppressed .22 Walther pistol mounted under his dining room table and fired into his partner’s left temple, killing him. “Now, I’m going to have to do all the work.”