He and McGarvey had worked on a couple of sticky situations over the past year or two. They had a mutual respect. “Dmitri Runkov, for one,” McGarvey said. “The rezident is a tricky man. He’s out in the open most of the time, but he does his little disappearing act every now and then,” Rudolph said. “Drives everyone nuts. Do you think that his shop might have had something to do with your brush in the islands?” “It’s a possibility that I don’t want to ignore,” McGarvey told him. Adkins walked in, and McGarvey waved him to a seat. “None of his people came over to watch me do battle with Hammond and Madden.”
“C-SPAN. No need for them to be there in person,” Rudolph said. “But it might help if you would level with me up front rather than later.
Hans Lollick wasn’t an accident. Somebody’s after you. Why do you think it might be the Russians? To settle an old debt?” “It might be as simple as that,” McGarvey said. “Dick Adkins is in my office now.
I’ll have him send over a package on a Russian who used to work in the KGB’s Department Viktor years ago. His name is Nikolayev. He’s missing, and the Russians think that he might be somewhere in France.”
“And you think that there might be a connection?” Rudolph asked. He was a lawyer by training. All problems had solutions if you started at A and worked your way directly toward Z. “We’d like to talk to him.”
“I’ll look at your stuff and see what we can do. We have a couple of good people in Paris. In the meantime, we’ll see if Runkov has made any calls to France lately.” “Thanks, Fred. Let me know.” “Will do, Mac. But keep your head down, would you. You can’t imagine the strain it would place on my people if someone bagged a DCI.” The nagging, whispering again. It wasn’t as simple as revenge. But exactly what it was McGarvey had no real idea. Nikolayev was nothing more than a starting point. “I’ll make sure that the file gets over to the Bureau this morning,” Adkins said. “In the meantime, Jared’s people have come up with something. But I’m damned if I know where it gets us.” “It’s Monday morning, what do you expect?” McGarvey said in a poor attempt at humor. “How’s Kathleen?” “They’re doing some tests this morning.
We should know something by this time tomorrow. Could be nothing more than nervous exhaustion. They’re not sure.” Adkins nodded sympathetically. His own plate was full because of his wife’s illness, but he seemed to genuinely care about Kathleen. “They found Elizabeth’s skis and took them to a forensics lab that the Bureau uses at Lowry Air Force Base. Todd was right, it was Semtex. Not only that, it came from the same batch as the Semtex they used in Hans Lollick. Same chemical tags. Jared will have the full report later today, but whoever staged both attacks was playing from the same sheet of music.” It didn’t surprise McGarvey. “What about the fuse in the skis?” “It was an acid fuse, they know that much. But they won’t be able to figure out when it was set until they get the skis back here.
All Jared could tell me was that the delay could have been as long as ninety-six hours.” “Four days,” McGarvey said in wonder. “Starting at Dulles, anybody who had access to the skis could have rigged them.”
“Or it could have been anyone who had access to your garage,” Adkins said softly. Dick Yemm and Otto Rencke were the first two names that came to McGarvey’s mind. He shook his head. He refused to go there.
Dulles and ml. Denver were the best bets. But even if the skis had been rigged at the house, someone could have waited until he and Katy were gone, defeated the alarm system and done their thing. A professional could have been in and out in a matter of minutes. “Let’s develop a list of every person and every opportunity to rig the skis, starting right here in Washington and working forward all the way to Vail. Then develop a separate list for Hans Lollick, and subtract one from the other.”
Adkins nodded. Either list would be large, but the combined list would be very small. Frighteningly small. Ms. Swanfeld buzzed. Carleton Paterson had arrived. “Send him in,” McGarvey said, as Adkins got up to go. “Staff meeting at ten,” McGarvey told him. “I’ll get on it,”
Adkins said, and he walked out as the Company’s general counsel came in. Paterson looked angry. “Good morning, Mr. Director,” Paterson said. “Although for you I shouldn’t think it’s very good at all.”
“There’ve been worse,” McGarvey replied. “How is Mrs. McGarvey? I understand that she was hospitalized over the weekend. She wasn’t injured on Hans Lollick, was she?” “Nervous exhaustion. They thought that a couple days’ bed rest might do her some good.” “Do us all some good,” Paterson agreed. “How is your daughter doing?” McGarvey’s jaw tightened. “She’s safe, and she’ll mend,” he said. He shook his head.
“Beyond that I don’t know yet.” Paterson nodded as if it was the news he had expected. “Well, you’re certainly not out of the woods. Hammond telephoned me at seven this morning. He wants you before the committee this afternoon. Something came up, he told me.” “Not today, Carleton.
You have to stall them.” “Not this time, Mr. Director. Either you show up to answer whatever latest questions they have for you and I expect they’ll have something to do with the attempt on your life or the committee will recommend to veto your appointment. Hammond’s words.” McGarvey closed his eyes. “What time?” “Two.” Ms. Swanfeld called. McGarvey picked up the phone. “Yes?” “Your son-in-law is on three.”
“Thank you,” he said. He gave Paterson a nod. “Two o’clock it is. But see if you can find out what’s on the agenda.” “I’ll try,” Paterson said, and he left. McGarvey hit the button for three. “Good morning, Todd. How are you doing?” He tried to keep his tone reasonably upbeat. “Better,” Todd answered. “At least Liz finally got some real sleep last night. Doctor Hanover says he’ll let us get out of here tomorrow morning.” “We’ll send the Gulfstream for you,” McGarvey said.
“It’s early out there, but is she awake yet? Can she talk?” “The doctor came in a couple of hours ago. He’s with her right now. I’m out in the hall. I’ll see how long it’ll be ”
“Wait,” McGarvey stopped him. “How are you doing, son?” Todd took a few moments to answer. “I can’t get the sound out of my head. When she hit the tree.” He was shaky now. “I thought she was dead. But when I saw the blood I knew that we’d lost the baby. Again.” “There’ll be another one.”
McGarvey’s heart was breaking for his son-in-law. But there wasn’t a thing he could do for him. “I don’t know if we can go through that again.” “Don’t give up on each other,” McGarvey flared. “Goddammit, Todd. You’re young. You’re both tough.” “Yeah.” “Have you talked to your folks?” “My dad called. They wanted to come out here, but I told them that we’d be back sometime tomorrow.” “Do they know what really happened?” “No. It was just a stupid skiing accident.” “It’s better to keep them out of it.” “I know,” Todd said. “How is Mrs. M.?” “We put her in the hospital yesterday afternoon. She’s taking this very hard, so they have her on some pretty serious sedatives. And they’re running some tests this morning.” Todd fell silent again for a few seconds. “I didn’t recognize her voice I when she called here. It was like she was a complete stranger. Anyway, how did she find out so soon?” “Apparently Otto told her. Did he call you?” “No,” Todd said.
“But that was stupid of him.” “Yeah. We’re still working on the why.
But he’s disappeared.” “Christ, don’t tell me that they got to him.”
“We don’t think so. At least Louise doesn’t think so. We’ll find out when he turns up.” “Okay, here comes the doctor,” Todd said. “Hang on a minute.” Ms. Swanfeld came to the door. “Mr. Yemm is here. Can you see him now?” McGarvey looked up and nodded. “Send him in.” Yemm came in, and McGarvey motioned him to have a seat. Todd came back on the line. “She’s fine. Unless something develops today, or sometime overnight, she can get out of here first thing in the morning.” “Good.