Arthur folded his muscular arms across his thick chest, stared down at the floor and paced. This was not what he had been expecting to hear today but if it were true, he needed to act on it quickly.
“Selling arms?” Arthur said. “No way. I don’t believe it.”
“You will believe it when I show you what I’ve got. And what’s more, we know at least one senior person under your command who’s involved and I find it hard to believe he’s acting completely on his own. He would need some cover from somebody. They’re working with a couple guys in the Reserves. Maybe others.”
“How the hell did you, of all people, get this information?” Arthur grabbed onto the bed rail and squeezed it hard for a long moment before looking up at Pell and saying, “You have to tell me what you have and where you got it?”
“It doesn’t matter right now where I got it.”
“The hell it doesn’t! Do you realize what you just said? What it means to the Bureau? It’s explosive.”
“Maybe so but since I’m taking you at your word, you need to take me at mine. There are others who can corroborate what I’m telling you,” Pell replied. “In due time, of course.”
“Due time is now, Pell. What have you got?”
Pell reached under his blanket and pulled out the brown envelope that Steve had given him.
“What’s in here is absolutely explosive but this should be plenty for you to get started on,” he said passing it to Arthur.
Arthur looked at Pell gravely before emptying the contents of the envelope out onto the table next to the bed. Photographs, a USB drive and a number of printed documents landed on the table.
He picked through the photographs silently. After a few minutes he plugged the USB into his notebook – documents, audio and video files. He attached his earpiece and played back several recordings. One was of Carl and a man sitting in a café. The video was from outside but the audio was clear, obviously surveilled by a pro and it was damn incriminating. He turned off the notebook, turned to Pell and considered him for a long moment.
“How confident are you in this information?”
“Very,” Pell replied.
“It seems like a remarkable coincidence that this evidence suddenly appears after you claim Carl has been targeting you,” Arthur said.
“I hate the prick, no doubt about that, but I don’t need to make things up about him. I frankly don’t see how a piece of shit like him has moved up through the ranks of the Bureau undetected. He’s your goddamn direct report, Arthur.”
Arthur shook his head at the accurate dig. This would be a scandal all right. The Northeast Region SAC involved in illegal arms trading. Scandal didn’t even begin to cover it.
“The worst part is that he’s potentially selling to fundamentalists, could be ISIS, Al Qaeda, any, or all of them for all we know,” Pell said. “The bastard’s a double traitor.”
“We need to prove it. We need to work out what’s going on, who the buyer is and if this is true, we need to take him down quickly.”
“Get some of your people up here and see what they find. Did you ever notice his suits and ties? A bit too nice, even for a SAC.”
“We look at the finances of everyone at Carl’s level yearly. I would have been told of any anomalies.”
“He knows what they look for. He’s not going to give himself away that easily. You need to dig deeper.”
“You don’t need to educate me on how to handle situations like this, Pell. I know exactly what to do and I will get to the bottom of this, believe me.” He stuffed everything back into the envelope and locked it away in his briefcase.
“So? Is that good enough?”
“I’ll look into this and if it looks like what it smells like, as I said, you have my word. We have a deal,” he replied. His earlier enthusiasm for this diversion to Boston was gone. Now he had two major problems to deal with. He dropped into a chair, leaned back, tilted his head toward the ceiling and pressed his hand over his brow.
What a fucking mess. He’d get a couple of agents doing a deep dive on Carl immediately but he also had to work out what to do about this would-be virus. So far they had nothing substantive. All they had was a bunch of circumstantial situations which were undoubtedly odd and quite potentially connected but nothing definitive. He also had Pell’s hunch and the man had been an up and comer in the Bureau back in the day before the Jenkins affair, so he was undoubtedly skilled but was his hunch worth anything?
“So, you haven’t told me yet about Andleman. What did he have to say?” Pell was about to explain about Camilla Haywood when there was a light knock on the door and a nurse stuck her head in.
“I’m sorry to bother you, Mr. Kent, but there’s a man from the State Department on the phone, insisting to talk to you. He says that it’s urgent.”
Arthur raised one of his eyebrows. “The State Department?”
“That’s what he says,” she replied in a quivering voice. Her gaze danced around the room, looking at anything but Arthur.
“What the –” Arthur started to curse, but caught himself. “Can I take the call somewhere private, please?”
“Of course. You can use our office. Follow me,” she said as she jerked her head out of the crack in the door and scooted back down the hall. Arthur collected his briefcase and coat and followed after her without a word.
The phone was ringing as he stepped into the nurse’s office and shut the door. Arthur picked it up. “Kent,” he said curtly. He hated being tracked down when he was in the field. He carried a Bureau enhanced iPhone that was capable of secure communications. Why would someone have to get him on an unsecure line? Particularly some dink from State. It couldn’t be good news.
“Is this Arthur Kent, Director of Criminal Investigations for the FBI?” A deep, unfamiliar voice said.
“Yes, who’s this?” A premonition-knot formed instantly in his stomach.
“My name’s Jack Long. I’m with WOTN in Boston, and before you hang up the phone on me, I want to tell you something.”
“What’s that?” Arthur said, having an ominous feeling he knew what he was about to hear.
“I was told an incredible story this morning about a group of people who have developed a virus that’s going to sterilize the world.”
“A virus? What are you talking about?” Arthur said. Shit!
“You know what I’m talking about, Mr. Kent. That’s why you’re here in Boston, isn’t it. The agent who’s been working the case is in Mass General. I know all about it. I wanted to get your comments before we break the story.”
Arthur glared down the hall at Carl and his men. One of them, Pell, or one of those two doctors had talked to the wrong person, and now he was on the brink of his worst nightmare.
“What was your name again?”
“Jack Long.”
He took a long pause before saying, “I don’t know what you’re talking about, Jack. I’m here to interview an agent that went bad and shot a cop. That’s it, plain and simple. Whoever told you that story about viruses, or whatever the hell it is, was obviously taking you for a ride. Hope you didn’t pay them too much.”
“I don’t think so, Arthur. Why would you come all the way to Boston for a bad agent? You’ve got people to deal with that sort of thing. You must be here for something more substantial. Something with bigger implications. I’ll tell you what, though, I’m willing to make a deal.”
“A deal?” Everyone wanted to make deals today.
“I can see how a situation like this requires complete secrecy. If the public found out about it,” he paused for a moment. “Well, I can only imagine what would happen. You give me the exclusive on the investigation, and I’ll wait until you say it’s okay to run the story.”
Blood rushed to his face as his heartbeat doubled. If there was one thing he hated more than anything else, it was being pressured like this, especially by some media schmuck. “Who told you about this?”
“A friend,” the reporter replied.
“Well, even if there were any truth to what you’re saying, I certainly wouldn’t discuss it over the phone like this. And, don’t get me wrong, there is no story here, but I’d like to hear what you have to say in more detail. Could we meet to discuss it?”
“Sure,” Jack replied. “When and where?”
“I’ll send a car for you now. Are you at your office?”
“Yes.”
“They’ll be there directly.”
Before hanging up the phone, Arthur said, “One more thing, Jack.”
“What’s that?”
“Have you told anybody else about this story?”
There was a hesitation. “No.”
“Good, don’t or you lose any exclusive on anything.”
“Damn,” Arthur muttered as he slammed the phone into its cradle. He furiously pounded out a message on his phone and then stepped out of the office.
“May I use your office for a bit longer?” He asked the nurse who was sorting through patient records outside.
“Of course,” she replied.
Arthur walked down the hall to Carl, Irving, and Steve. “I need to speak with you three in private. Come with me.”
They piled into the small office. Arthur let the tension, his ally, build for a minute before he said, “I just got off the phone with a reporter at WOTN. He knows what’s going on here with this suspected virus. I want to know how this information has got out. Right now.”
His eyes blazed as they moved between the three men.
Carl spoke first. “None on my team has spoken to anyone. It must have been Pell. He probably contacted the media just to get this out there, to distract everyone from the real issue about him shooting a cop.”
“I have the news reporter being picked up now and believe me, by the time I’m done with him I will know exactly where the trail leads. So if any of you has anything to say, you’d better say it now. It’ll be your jobs if I find out I’m not being told the truth.”
“I’m telling you, Arthur. This sounds just like the sort of thing Pell would do,” Carl said. “We’re professionals. None of us have said a word, have we?” He turned to Irving and Steve for support.
“Well?” Arthur asked as he stepped into Steve’s and the Irving’s personal space, glaring at each man fearsomely.
“Well sir,” Irving began tentatively. “Pell was babbling about the virus and the doctors—”
“I know about that,” Arthur said. “It was a stupid move by Carl to tell them anything but that’s done. Right now, I want to make sure none of you is the leak. Look me in the eyes and answer that question.”
Each man professed their innocence satisfactorily and Arthur glared at Carl for a long moment. He made a slow hissing sound as he took a long intake of breath between clenched teeth and shook his head. “So that means your foolish decision to talk to those doctors is the reason we’re in this mess.”
Carl opened his mouth to say something but Arthur shut him down. “I’ll deal with you in due course,” he said before opening the door of the office and heading outside.
Dr. Epstein was right there, talking on a phone at the nurses’ station. Arthur walked over and pressed down on the hook switch, disconnecting the Doctor’s call.
Dr. Epstein began, “What the—”
“I want you and that intern in here. Now.”
“Page Lasu and have him meet us,” Dr. Epstein said to a nurse as he stepped into the office.
Arthur stood silently in the office, keying a message into his iPhone for an update from the agents that were on their way to get Jack Long as he waited impatiently for Lasu to arrive.
After a few minutes, the door opened and Lasu walked in. The tension in the room was palpable, and the young doctor looked like he was going to crumple under the invisible pressure. This kid’s never going to make it through his internship, Arthur thought as he glared at the most likely candidate for the Loose Lips award.
“I’ll get straight to the point,” he said. “The fact that Agent Moscovitz here, for whatever reason, decided to share information with you about an active investigation is unfortunate, but we need to know exactly who you might have told about this.”
“I didn’t tell anyone!” The intern screamed as he looked wildly at the men around him. “Nobody.”
“I didn’t say you did,” Arthur said. “And what about you, Doc? Did you talk to anyone about this?”
Dr. Epstein shook his head back and forth.
“You didn’t even tell your wife about it?”
The now visibly nervous man continued to shake his head.
Arthur stepped forward, stood directly in front of the doctor and Lasu and said, “Do you realize how important this is? If this gets out in the media, we’re going to have a crisis. Hysteria in the general public is not a good thing, gentlemen. I need to corral anyone who knows anything about this until we can either confirm or deny the whole thing. Do you understand? This isn’t a game.”
He waited for one of them to talk.
“I talked to my wife about it last night,” the doctor said finally, his face turned down in disgrace. “I’m sure she didn’t tell anyone else, though.”
Arthur took a deep breath and slowly exhaled. “Where’s your wife now?”
“At home, as far as I know.”
“You,” Arthur said as he pointed to Steve Strange. “Take the doctor and go find his wife. Bring her to the office. If you can find out if she talked, then get whoever she talked to and bring them in as well.”
“I’m an American citizen,” the doctor said. His verbal polish gone, face flushed, eyes wide. “You can’t do this.”
Arthur grabbed the doctor by the shirt and pulled him so that their faces were an inch apart. Dr. Epstein struggled, but it was pointless. Arthur was in tremendous shape for a man his age. He could easily bench press the apparently chatty doctor.
“Listen to me, Doc. I’m only going to say this once. You’re either going to work with me or against me and, you can trust me when I say, you don’t want to be on my bad side in a situation like this. Do you understand?”
The doctor nodded violently. Arthur let him go and watched as he and Agent Strange ran from the room.
“Be fast about it,” Arthur yelled at them as the door shut. “Now, what about you?” He said as he turned to Lasu.