Court did not respond to this.
“My organization is thankful. We want to show our thanks.”
Court sighed, leaned back against a window of the office building, and blew out icy steam visible under the halogen lamp. He said, “Why don’t you do what organizations do? Commission a plaque with Ruth’s name on it, and stick it on a wall.”
“I’ll see to that, of course. But we want to do something for you.”
Court thought about it a moment. “Commission a plaque with my name on it, and stick it up your ass. Good-bye.”
“Wait!”
“What?”
“We can do better than that. We can do much better.”
“What are you talking about?”
After a pause the weak voice said, “Wherever you are right now, you might want to be somewhere else. We can help with this.”
“How?”
A raspy cough delayed the answer. Finally, “We are Mossad. We can make it happen.”
It was an early spring in Washington, D.C.; the sun was bright over the capitol building and the morning joggers circled the National Mall, taking advantage of the beautiful weather.
On a bench in the trees in the Smithsonian Butterfly Habitat path, a thick middle-aged man sat alone wearing a black raincoat; anyone passing by who paid any attention to him would find he seemed uncomfortable and agitated.
He checked the time on his phone for the second time in three minutes, and then he kneaded his thighs for a minute more.
Finally he pushed a few buttons on his phone and held it to his ear.
The call was answered after several rings, and Leland Babbitt looked up and down the path before speaking quickly and quietly, spending no time on pleasantries. “It’s a quarter after eight, Denny. You were supposed to be here a half hour ago.”
Denny Carmichael replied. “I didn’t agree to come at all. I just said I’d think about it.”
“Oh, come on, Denny. We need a face-to-face.”
“No, we don’t. You and I won’t be doing any face-to-face meetings anytime soon. I don’t want you at Langley, of course, and I sure as hell don’t want to set foot at Townsend in light of all the exposure you’ve had in the past two weeks.”
Babbitt’s voice rose and fell with desperation. “I get that. That’s why I proposed off site. A neutral location. You and me. We can put this to bed and move forward.”
Carmichael said, “Lee. Let’s give it the time it needs to die down.”
Babbitt gritted his teeth. His fleshy jowls rolled with the movement. “You aren’t going to leave me to swing in the wind on this.”
“That’s exactly what I’m doing! Your man killed a Mossad officer. You don’t think there will be repercussions for that?”
“He wasn’t my man, Denny! He was your man! You made him! You fucked him up! You fucked all those boys up. Now Dead Eye has caused a conflagration with the Israelis and Gray Man is still out there, somewhere. You can blame Townsend all you want for Brussels, but the fact remains both the bad actors of that operation were rogue CIA assets. That’s not Townsend’s fault.”
Carmichael’s gravelly voice was low and fast. “Keep your mouth shut, swing in the wind for a few months, and you might still have a prayer of getting some sort of contract work from us in the future. But you breathe a goddamned word of any aspect of the events in Brussels, events I’m prepared to deny under oath, and you will never find work again. Public or private sector.”
“You pulled our access to classified data. How the fuck are we supposed to stay in business?”
“I have no doubt that Townsend will be able to find lucrative security contracts in the commercial sector.”
“We’re American patriots! We’re not fucking mall cops!”
Carmichael did not respond.
After a moment to calm himself, Babbitt said, “You aren’t the only game in town, you know.”
“Was that some sort of a threat?”
“It is what it is.”
Carmichael growled, “Fuck you, Babbitt.”
“No, Denny, fuck you. As a matter of fact, I think I’ll do just that right now.”
Lee Babbitt hung up the phone, stood up from the bench, and reached back like he was going to throw the phone into the trees. But he stopped himself, slipped it back in his pocket, and began walking up the path toward the National Mall.
He never looked back as he marched angrily through the joggers and commuters, but had he done so he never would have seen the man following him, because the man following him had the skills to blend into his environment.
Babbitt walked up the steps to the Capitol, disappearing after a minute in the shadows under the East Portico, where he entered a doorway.
Far behind him, secreted in the shadows of a cherry tree not yet in full bloom, the follower turned to his right and crossed the Mall, heading south.
As he walked he took his hand off the small Ruger pistol he carried in the left-hand pocket of his jacket, and he used the same hand to pull his baseball cap down lower over his eyes. His right hand remained in his pants pocket, which kept his arm from swinging while he walked.
Court Gentry headed back to his car, parked just two blocks south of the Mall in an underground garage near L’Enfant Plaza. Today had been a bit of a waste; he’d come for answers he did not get from a target who did not show, but nevertheless, it felt good to be operational again after his lengthy period of recovery.
He stopped at a hot dog cart, bought a bottled water, and drank a few sips while he stood there, allowing himself one last glance at the Capitol building. Despite the emotions welling inside him, it would not do to stop and stare. He was in cover, and his cover wasn’t some wide-eyed foreign tourist.
Unlike many of his operations, in this rare case his cover identity matched his true identity. He was American. He’d been gone for a while, but he was still American, and now he was home.