“Maybe the president should make a call.”
“No. That would make it clear that Mancur is working for us.”
“So the fact that he may well be critical to us means we can do that much less to help him?” McGivern shook her head ruefully. “But wait, they must know he’s doing something for us. He gave up Elkins’s name.”
“That’s right. But what do the Saudis know about her? What does Mancur, for that matter? That she’s a computer expert. Big deal, right? The Saudis are letting an uproar develop over Elkins to show their militants that they, too, can stand up to the Great Satan. But for all they really know, she could be a low-level embassy employee. Bring in the president, and we confirm their worst suspicions about her and Mancur. The way I see it, if the Saudis suspect Mancur is just part of a smaller effort to destroy AQAP, then they’re likely to see it as in their interest to let him proceed. They’re more threatened by AQAP than we are. But if the president begs on his behalf, they’ll know Mancur is a major player who’s privy to a great deal, and they’ll think that he’s someone we’ve been grooming for years. They’ll want to know everything he knows, and they won’t stop until they find out.”
“So what’s the cover story for Elkins?” McGivern asked.
“Like I said, low-level embassy employee. We’re getting her out for her safety and to please the king.”
“Scrape and bow?”
“Indeed,” Holmes replied. “But we need to provide a security detail for her. She absolutely can’t be taken by some Islamist extremists. If that happens, we’ll be lucky if they shoot her. More likely, they’ll extract the most advanced encryption systems in the world, then put her to work for them.”
“I’m assuming a SEAL team is already trying to find Anders.”
Holmes confirmed that. “Now I’d like you to make sure they send in another detachment for Elkins. Let’s get everybody to Sana. The lawlessness in Yemen works in our favor right now. The CIA already has a safe house.”
McGivern and Warnes left. Holmes leaned back and stared at the ceiling, knowing that Lana’s life was now in play as well as Mancur’s. But the choices were terrible. Sometimes you had to give up a great operative for the greater good. Sometimes you didn’t know if losing a life did any good at all. No matter what the outcome, you remained haunted by the death forever.
Ambassador Arpen called Lana into his lavishly appointed office, took her elbow, and led her to a wide window.
“Look at that,” he ordered, as he used a pair of binoculars.
“I know. I’ve seen it.” Thousands of Saudi protestors massing outside the embassy gates.
“The kingdom has lodged an official complaint with Washington.” He put the binoculars on the windowsill. “Seems one of our spies they’ve been ‘debriefing’ has identified you as a computer specialist of some kind. They’re saying that you’re a spy. If they come over that wall, your little charade here will have cost us deeply.”
“Have you been in touch with the king’s—”
“Of course I’ve been in touch with them,” he said dismissively. “However, I’m not sure all the king’s men are in touch with the Saudi street. But it’s safe to say that everyone beyond those walls is playing games with us because you played games with them.”
Lana had had enough: “Are you so thick that you thought the secretary of state really had sent over new technical support for the embassy at a time when every one of us is needed in the States to try to fight cyberterrorists who are systematically destroying the country? Grow up!”
He backed away, as if struck.
“You have just violated all kinds of protocol, Ms. Elkins, and you will pay for it.”
“You have no idea to whom you’re speaking, so don’t ever threaten me again. And stop playing the blame game. This isn’t a school yard, Rick.” She dropped his honorific as if it were a communicable disease. “I did not orchestrate my own targeting.”
The ambassador cleared his throat. “I was a little testy just then. I apologize.”
“Apology accepted. Look, I’m less than thrilled about leaving with that happening in the streets. Could you contact the palace and see if they’ll at least provide aircraft for us?” She looked at the teeming protestors. “A helicopter would be nice for starters, as soon as possible.”
“They’re not in the mood to grant favors, Ms. Elkins. They’re in the mood to extract teeth, if need be, to find out what we’re really up to. I’d like to know, too.”
She ignored his entreaty. “We did some huge favors for them on 9/11,” flying Saudi royalty out of the U.S. after all commercial flights were canceled. “Maybe it’s time to collect a chit or two.”
“If the king really wanted to help us, he could make those people down there go away with a snap of his finger.”
“I’m not so sure. You said yourself that his staff isn’t exactly attuned to the Saudi street.”
The ambassador turned his attention back to the demonstration. She knew what he feared. She worried about it herself. A replay of the Iranian hostage crisis. The protestors outside the embassy gates right now looked furious enough to do just about anything. Then her attention was grabbed by a huge poster starting to burn. She snatched up the binoculars, shocked by what they revealed: a close-up of her face on fire. Jesus Christ. Where the hell did they get it?
Lana had always been far removed from the blood and mud of actual struggle. To see that kind of hate, directed so personally at her from only a few hundred feet away, was alarming.
“I feel that they know something about you that I don’t know.” Arpen looked at her. “But I do know this: You’re going to Yemen.”
“Yemen? Nobody’s told me that.”
“That’s my job at the moment.”
“You’ve got to be kidding. They just snatched Agent Anders down there.”
“It’s not my decision. Take it up with Deputy Director Holmes. He’s ordering it. We have to get you out of here quickly. A SEAL team is on the way.”
She nodded, thinking that Holmes and his staff would have thought through the decision to move her south. But still, Yemen?
“You won’t be going through a formal border crossing. When you get down there, you’ll be working from a CIA outpost. Mancur will be heading to a safe house in Sana, if he’s released.”
“Do you know what they’ve done to him?”
“Everything, I gather.”
“What kind of shape is he in?” she asked.
“Ms. Elkins, I’ve never met the man. Have you?”
She lied, shook her head. Clearly Ruhi Mancur wouldn’t be in very good shape, if and when she ever saw him again.
“He gave you up. Maybe Anders, too,” the ambassador said.
“We all give up someone. He was smart to name me. At least I have some security.” Though another glance at the demonstration showed the streets leading to the embassy clogged with angry shouting men, possibly belying her hopes.
“What if they come over the fence?” she asked the ambassador. “How are you going to stop them?”
“We are not going to start shooting Saudi citizens, I can tell you that much. The preferred approach here is restraint, and getting you out of here so they can have their little victory over your expulsion.”
She looked at the swelling crowd, spotting a Saudi demonstrator atop the wall. “It had better be fast,” she said as the man jumped onto embassy grounds.