THIRTY-NINE
The sun had come around so that it shined directly into the conference room windows, which darkened automatically, giving the bright day the look of an overcast one. It seemed to fit Alex’s and Schermerhorn’s moods.
“Could I have something to drink?” she asked. “Coffee, water, I don’t care. It’s been a long morning.”
“You were telling us about a gift George brought you,” McGarvey said.
“He didn’t exactly put it that way. But he said he’d come to help.”
“And it did change everything.” Schermerhorn said.
“First something to drink.”
McGarvey nodded, and Pete went out of the room to get something. She left her pistol lying on the table, directly across from where Alex was sitting.
After a beat Alex stood up and went to the windows. “A white van is just leaving,” she said. “Blankenship’s minders?”
“I suspect it’s the caterers. They came to stock up for us.”
“You’re thinking about keeping me here, along with Roy, till this thing is figured out? It won’t be that easy, though. Not without George. So I suppose we’ll be the hand-carved ducks floating in the pond, the hunter hiding in the weeds.”
She went back to the table and looked at the pistol before she sat down.
“Will he show up?” McGarvey asked.
“It depends on his orders, I suppose, but he’s already demonstrated what he’s capable of. Five down, only the two of us left.”
“You looked for him here, but you said you couldn’t find him. Maybe he’s not the killer.”
Alex laughed, but it was without humor. “You still can’t imagine how easy it is to get in and out of this place. Especially if you’re willing to kill someone for it.”
“Are you?”
Alex looked straight at McGarvey. “Under the right circumstances, you bet. But so far no one has held a gun to my head.”
“What about the security officer in the parking garage?”
She laughed again. “Come on, McGarvey. You know as well as I do that most of your rent-a-cops are outclassed. As long as everyone plays by the rules, the system works. But step outside the playbook, and Blankenship only has a few good men who know what the hell they’re doing.”
Pete came back with a couple of liter-and-a-half bottles of Evian and several paper cups.
Alex opened one of the bottles, poured half a glass, and handed it to Pete. “You have to be just as thirsty as I am by now.”
“Yeah, listening to bullshit always makes me thirsty,” Pete said, and drank the water. She shrugged. “Sorry to disappoint you, Ms. Unroth, but I’m not suddenly going to go all glassy-eyed and start telling the truth because something’s been put in the water. Though it’d be good if you and Roy did. Maybe we could get somewhere and actually save your lives.”
“Give Roy and me guns and a lot of ammunition and put us in a safe room here. Then send us a video feed of every single male and female on campus — George was a pretty boy. Narrow face, nice eyes, great lips. That would include all employees, including the guys in the Watch, the janitors and other maintenance people, the caterers who just came and went. Bus drivers and taxi drivers who drop people off at the OHB. Tour guides, along with all the VIP congressmen, Pentagon staffers. FBI people and any other LE person who’ve ever come on campus. The people who come in to fix the leaks in the roof, or the plugged-up toilets, or the electrical outlets that spark. The crews that blacktopped the road six months ago. The cable people — we just upgraded our fiber-optic network. How about pilots and passengers flying across our airspace? Anyone notice the hang gliders down in Langley Fork Park? Or hikers or campers not far from where I crashed through the fence? How about tunnels, storm water drainage pipes? You guys have all that covered?”
“I expect we have most of it,” McGarvey said, getting her point.
“Most of it’s not good enough. And who watches the watchers? Who minds the minders? This place leaks like a sieve.”
Pete sat down. “Wager and the others thought they were safer in here than outside,” she said.
“They were wrong, weren’t they?” Alex flared. “Like shooting fish in a barrel. You people still don’t get it.”
“Then why didn’t you run when you had the chance?” McGarvey asked. “Why’d you come back into the barrel, knowing all that?”
“Because of you.”
“Thanks for that, but I didn’t do such a hot job in Athens.”
“But you did. You were the lightning rod. George has an inside source here. You were hiding out in Serifos when Pete and Otto came to talk to you about the murders here on campus. Mr. Page knew about it, and so did I. But Marty Bambridge knew, and I expect there were people on his staff who also knew. And excuse me, Mr. Director, but when’s the last time you had your lighthouse swept for bugs? Or debugged your phones or computer? When Otto talks to you, he uses his backscatter encryption system no one has been able to break. But that in itself is a dead giveaway. He makes an encrypted call to Serifos, and voilà, someone like George could know he’s talking to his old friend Kirk McGarvey.”
“Nice speech,” Pete said.
“I’ll stay here as long as I think it’s safe for me to stay. But give me something to protect myself with when George does show up.”
“You’d just walk out the door?”
“Christ. Haven’t you people heard a thing I just said? Yeah, if the time comes, I’ll just walk out the door.”
“Let’s make sure he’s coming, and then help us to catch him,” McGarvey said.
“He’s on his way, Mr. Director, if he’s not already here,” Alex said.
“We’ll do what you’ve asked, except arm you. Otto can set up the video feeds, starting with personnel records of everyone on campus, along with the surveillance records for the past week. No need to get beyond when Walt Wager was murdered. Pete will take care of nailing down every opening in the physical plant, and I’ll stick it out here with you two.”
“Send Blankenship’s minders away.”
“I didn’t sign up for this shit,” Schermerhorn said.
“Fine,” McGarvey said. “We’ll ship your ass back to Milwaukee and let the cops straighten things out.”
“I want a pistol.”
“The surveillance system is pretty good here.”
“Didn’t help Walt.”
“It wasn’t armed when he was killed. You want to do this, I’m it.”
A look passed between Alex and Schermerhorn. “Set up the video feed for us, and if George is on campus, we’ll spot him,” Alex said.
“Something’s buried in the hills above Kirkuk,” Pete said.
“That’s what George came to tell us. And that’s the whole point, even though it still makes absolutely no sense.”
“Well, what is it, for goodness sake?” Pete asked.
Alex hesitated. “It isn’t so much what it is — or was, because I think it may have been moved after we left — but why it was, and its pedigree, if you will.”
“You’re making no sense,” Pete said.
“I know. But first decrypt Roy’s redo of Kryptos four, and let’s try to take George alive to give us some answers. Because without them, all our lives in this room — even yours, Mr. Director — will be forfeit.”
“Nothing’s that big,” Pete said.
“This is,” Alex and Schermerhorn replied almost simultaneously.
FORTY
Alex knew George was coming for her. They’d all known it to one degree or another. But she thought she was special, not so much for the sexual relationship she’d had with him, or for the rampages they’d gone on down in the oil fields, but because of her position of influence with the DCI. So she figured she would be the last.