There was a long enough pause at the other end that Pope thought he may have lost the connection. “Mr. President?”
“Why would she help us?”
“She wouldn’t be helping us, Mr. President. She would be helping me.”
“Hold on a minute.”
The president put Pope on hold, looking at Couture, Bradshaw, and Hagen. The four of them were eating lunch in the officers’ lounge. “He says he can’t break the encryption. He wants to talk to his girlfriend the spy; claims she might be able to think of something he hasn’t. Is there a reason I should refuse?”
Hagen cleared his throat. “Mr. President, it may be a ruse, sir. An attempt to pass her some kind of code phrase.”
“Telling her to do what?” General Couture said testily.
“How do I know?” Hagen said. “The man’s a genius — so is the girl! There’s no telling what they might have preplanned.”
Couture didn’t honor Hagen with a direct response. “Mr. President, it’s my recommendation you allow the call. If Chow tunnels under the wall, I’ll accept full responsibility.”
The president failed to stifle a sardonic snort. He reached and pressed the speaker button. “Stand by, Robert. I’ll arrange for her to call you there. And since we’re talking about her, how do you know NSA has taken into her custody?”
“I’ve been planning her arrest for a number of years now, Mr. President.”
The president’s gaze shot immediately in Hagen’s direction.
Hagen looked back at him like a deer in the headlights.
“Would you mind explaining that, Robert?”
“Over the phone, sir?”
“This is a secure line.”
“Well, Mr. President, to make a long story short… I’ve used her to gain access to the Guojia Anquan Bu database.”
The president gave Couture a searching look.
“The Chinese Ministry of State Security,” Couture said softly, noting the vapid look on Hagen’s face. Well, whattaya know? The whiz kid’s weak on China. “China’s version of the CIA.”
“How the hell did you manage that, Robert?”
“I think we’d better save that conversation for another time, Mr. President. There are still one or two stones left to look under for the RA-115. I’ll wait in my office for the call from Lijuan.”
“Very well. Stand by.” The president broke the connection and turned to Hagen. “Go make that call happen, Tim.”
“Yes, sir.”
When he was gone, the president leaned back in his chair. “What the hell am I going to do with that son of a bitch?”
“Pope or Hagen?”
Colonel Bradshaw chortled softly, and the president was hard pressed to hide his own amusement.
“You know, General, I didn’t think so much of you at first. I thought you were a self-promoting showboat, parading around with that damn bodyguard of yours: the major and his dual pistols.”
Couture grinned, the jagged scar on the left side of face standing out. “I’ve been a show-off all my life, Mr. President — and so far it’s served me well.”
49
Pope was at his desk, waiting in the dark, when the phone rang. “This is Bob Pope.”
“Hello, Robert.” Lijuan’s voice was soft and sounded very sad.
“Are you okay?” he asked gently.
“I haven’t been mistreated, if that’s what you mean.”
“Yes, that’s what I mean.”
“How long have you known?” she asked. “From the beginning?”
“Yes.” He gripped the receiver. “I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be,” she said. “I’m not angry with you. I was trying to run off and leave you holding the bag when I was arrested. Did they tell you that? Or was it you who sent them after me?”
“You know me so well,” he said. “How did you not see through me?”
“Your love blinded me. I didn’t think a man like you could ever love a woman if you knew she was planning to betray you. But you’re shrewder than I thought — more cold.”
“I gave you so many opportunities to tell me.”
“Yes, and like a fool, I let them all pass, didn’t I?”
They sat in silence for a moment.
“I need to ask you a favor,” he said finally.
“I won’t betray my people, Robert.”
“No,” he said. “I know better than to ask that. I need your help with a one-hundred-eighty-bit encryption. It’s on a laptop belonging to the Chechen who smuggled the bomb into the country. He’s dead, and there are no other leads. We’re running out of time.”
“That’s the reason they put me through to you. I knew it must be something more than love.”
“This is very painful for me, Lijuan.”
“I wonder if you feel pain the way others do,” she said thoughtfully. “I don’t think so.”
“Will you help me?”
She remained quiet for a long moment. “A one-hundred-eighty-bit key is uncrackable inside of a year, Robert. You know that. I created an algorithm that might have managed it in eight months, but it was only theoretical. Please get out of Langley, Robert. There’s no chance of finding that bomb. There never was.”
“Li, please give me something.”
“Do you promise to come and visit me in whatever dungeon they send me to?”
“If they’ll allow it, yes. Of course I will.” But he knew they would never allow it.
“Then tell me about the Chechen.”
Over the next few minutes, he told her all he knew about Nikolai Kashkin. Then he waited quietly as she thought things over.
“You may be in luck,” she said finally.
He sat up straight in his chair in the dark office, reaching to turn on the desk lamp and grab a pen. “What is it?”
“Well, he was your age… a simple old-soldier type — not a technical wizard. So if he used a commercial AES 180-key generator and installed it on the computer himself, he may have used the default settings to generate the key, which, theoretically, might give you a chance to replicate it.”
The default settings! Pope thought. My God! How did I not think of that? I’ll tell you how: common sense has eluded you all your life. How are you going to manage without this woman?
“You’re already off in your own little world now, aren’t you?” she said.
“You know me,” he replied. “I have to hurry, Li, but thank you very much. I’ll come to see you as soon as they’ll permit it. I promise.”
“You know that wisdom tooth I told you about?” she asked. “The one that came in crooked?”
She had never told him about a crooked wisdom tooth. “What about it?”
“It’s beginning to bother me. I wonder if they’ll let me see a dentist here.”
“I’m sure they will.” His voice sounded thin and reedy to him.
“I love you,” she said. “I look forward to seeing you again, Robert — someday.”
“I love you too,” he said hoarsely, knowing now that she was carrying a cyanide capsule in a false molar.
“Good luck to you, Robert.” The phone clunked in the cradle at her end, and the connection was severed a moment later.
He stood immediately up from the desk and made his way back to the lab without even hanging up the phone.
50
Haroun al-Rashid was strapped to a seat at the back of the plane, still dressed in his pajamas. His sister-in-law sat toward the front, facing the tail, also in her pajamas, with her hands still secured behind her back.
“Don’t bother pretending you don’t speak English,” Gil said, pulling a black trash bag from the roll and giving the box to Crosswhite. “You and your brother Akram have been living in Canada for the past eight years, and you’ve been under surveillance for much of that time. So tell us where to find the nuclear weapon that Kashkin smuggled into the country, and this won’t have to get ugly.”