National security reasons? What was Montez up to?
Stone stepped out and returned a few seconds later with Harvey in tow.
“How’re you feeling, partner?”
“I’m okay. What’s one more scar?”
Cantrell continued. “Our people didn’t attack you last night.”
“I didn’t think they had. Are any of our vehicles or homes bugged?”
“Not by us. I’m well aware of your past,” Cantrell said. “You’re an unsung hero, Mr. McBride. Very few people outside of this room know what you went through.”
“If you’re here to ask me-us-to back off, I’m afraid the answer’s no. And please call me Nathan.”
Lansing made brief eye contact with his father. “That’s not why we’re here. And I owe you an apology over the Bridgestone business.”
“Accepted. You did what you thought best at the time. I don’t second-guess people, especially people under pressure, and I don’t hold grudges.”
“That’s quite gracious of you. I’m not sure I’d be so forgiving.”
“I’m a chip off the old block.”
Stone said, “Thank you, Nathan. I consider that very high praise.”
Lansing continued. “We’re in a delicate situation here. I’ve talked it over with Director Cantrell and we’ve decided it’s better if we don’t work against each other. There’s too much at stake.”
“Would you care to elaborate?”
Cantrell exchanged a glance with Lansing. “First off,” she said, “I need to tell you there’s more going on than we can share. We can tell you that our two agencies are conducting a joint operation, both at home and abroad. The ATF and DEA are also involved. We want Montez as badly as you do, but we want him alive.”
Nathan started to object.
Stone held up a hand. “Hear them out.”
Cantrell pulled a chair over and sat down. “Have you ever wondered why Montez ended your interrogation so suddenly?”
He had, many times. When he’d last seen Montez, he’d been at death’s door. He remembered seeing Montez leave the jungle camp and assumed it would only be for a few hours or the rest of the day. But Montez never came back. During the long months of debriefing, mental therapy, and physical rehabilitation that followed-and the decade and a half since passed-Nathan had never been able to answer that simple question. Why did Montez stop torturing him and abruptly disappear?
“This won’t be easy for you, but what I’m about to say never leaves this room. Ever.”
Nathan said nothing, waiting.
“Although Montez was never able to get your identity or what agency you worked for, he had his suspicions. It didn’t require a leap of logic to conclude you were working for the U.S. government. He made contact with the CIA after your second week of captivity.”
He spoke slowly, deliberately. “Are you telling me the CIA knew I was alive?”
“Yes.”
“And they didn’t mount a rescue?”
“We couldn’t risk sending in more teams in to look for you. Your location wasn’t known. You became Montez’s insurance policy.”
“Insurance policy? For what?”
“We paid him off to stop interrogating you, keep quiet, and let you go. We also agreed not to pursue him. Eight million dollars to a numbered account of his choice. Half paid immediately, the other half when we had you back.”
“He never released me. He left me there to die.”
“We can only speculate on why he didn’t keep the second part of his bargain. He probably left the camp to secure his first four million and figured that was enough and shouldn’t push his luck by returning. We may never know. We do know that he kept our presence in Nicaragua secret.” She looked at Stone, then back to him. “Officially, no direct U.S. military involvement in Nicaragua’s civil war was ever authorized by the president or Congress. More than that, no intervention of any kind was authorized. If it had leaked, it would’ve been an international scandal of epic proportions. The Iran-Contra scandal wasn’t that distant and the media never got their pound of flesh. The media wanted Reagan’s head on a silver platter. Knowledge of direct U.S. military involvement in Nicaragua might have brought down the Clinton administration. Although Operation Echo was fully justified and stopped countless innocents from being kidnapped, tortured, and executed, it wouldn’t have mattered. Montez could’ve caused major PR damage to us. But he didn’t. He never revealed our boots-on-the-ground training squads or the sniper teams that were mopping up the Sandinista holdouts. When Harvey rescued you, the dynamics changed, but we paid Montez the second half of his money anyway. Hush money, so to speak.”
“You keep saying ‘we’ and ‘our.’ All of this happened on Director Kallstrom’s watch.”
“That’s true, but I was the associate deputy director at the time. Number three in the chain of command. I was neck-deep.”
He looked at his dad.
“I didn’t know any of this until a few hours ago.”
“It’s the truth. There’s no paper on any of it. And there are probably aspects of the Montez negotiation I’m not aware of. I think it’s fair to say that you’re the only reason former Director Kallstrom agreed to tell me what he did. He still has tremendous admiration for both of you.”
“It makes me sick to my stomach knowing Montez was paid eight million dollars, but I’m also grateful. I’m not sure I could’ve held out much longer. He was damned close to breaking me. Or ending it.”
“I read your debrief report. You said he disappeared suddenly before his men suspended you in the cage. He could’ve killed you before he left the camp, especially if he never intended to collect the other half of the eight million. So why didn’t he?”
“I seriously doubt seeing me crucified was worth half his fortune.”
“Agreed.”
“I’d love to… ask him that question.”
“You just might get your chance.”
“I’m counting on it.”
“We’ve continued to honor our deal with him.” Cantrell held up her hands. “Before you say anything, let me explain. We have to look at the bigger picture. The truth is, we have similar deals in place all over the world. We don’t want to undermine our credibility and we don’t know what sleeper measures Montez has in place to release the Nicaraguan info should he disappear. If those exchange students hadn’t seen Kramer’s body go into Lake Powell, we wouldn’t be talking right now.”
“But hasn’t he broken the deal by killing a U.S. citizen on our soil?” Harv asked.
“At the risk of sounding callous, no. Our deal didn’t specify anything other than his silence in exchange for the money and our promise not to pursue him.”
“Are you telling me Nicaragua still means that much?”
“In some circles, yes,” she said.
Nathan made eye contact with Harv. What else has Montez got on the CIA? “So short of spilling the beans about Nicaragua, he has carte blanche to do anything he wants? Is that what you’re telling us?”
She looked at his father and Lansing. No one said anything.
“Well, Director Cantrell, Harv and I have no such agreement and we aren’t operations officers anymore. Your deal is to leave him alone, not be bodyguards for him.”
“It’s not that simple. Montez won’t differentiate the specifics. All he’ll know is that someone’s after him. He’ll assume it’s us.”
“Why? I’m sure he’s got enemies all over the world. It could be anyone.”
“That’s true, of course, but we can’t risk it.”
“So as far as you’re concerned, Montez just walks?”
“The dynamics have changed. We now want him in custody for questioning.”
“You haven’t mentioned Nichole Dalton and her daughters. What’s he doing to them as we speak? How long will they be valuable to him? Why are they valuable to him?” Nathan looked back and forth between Cantrell and Lansing. “There could be dozens, or even hundreds of people at risk because of him. And you can’t tell us anything more about your dealings with Montez?”