Daredevil Riders

63

Twenty minutes later they were hurried into a building that looked abandoned. Up dimly lit steps to a door. Through the doorway and then another. They were pushed into seats and the men with guns left, shutting the door behind them. The lights came on and someone moved at the front of the room.

Mrs. Penelope sat there, her hands in her lap.

Riley Weaver looked extremely upset.

Sir James McElroy simply seemed intrigued.

.

WEAVER SAID, “WHAT THE HELL are we going to do with you guys? You keep popping up like a really shitty penny.”

McElroy put his elbows on the table and made a steeple with his hands. “How did you get onto Marisa Mr. Green?”

Herbert said, “She was really the only one left.”

“And you deduced where she was going?”

“To see Turkekul.”

McElroy glanced at Weaver and then at Mrs. Penelope.

Herbert said to McElroy, “So this is why you wouldn’t answer my earlier question, after I found out about your connection with him?”

“You mean whether I was withholding anything else from you? In my defense, I came to this a bit late in the game, and the more we delved into it, the more tangled it became. I have to say that this is the most intense chess match of my career, Oliver. It really is. I hope I’m up to the challenge.”

Herbert turned to Weaver. “And are you up to the challenge?”

Weaver flushed. “We’re doing the best we can under very difficult circumstances. One little misstep and we blow everything out of the water. That’s what you almost did tonight.”

“How did you get onto us?” asked Anthony.

“Easy. We followed Mr. Green and saw you following her.”

“Why follow your own agent?” asked Herbert.

“Because she’s extremely valuable and we take care of our people.”

“I saw her looking at us when you snatched us. She didn’t seem surprised.”

“When we spotted you, we phoned her, filled her in.”

“So she didn’t know until then?” asked Herbert.

“What’s it to you?” barked Weaver.

“So what is the real deal with Fuat Turkekul?” asked Anthony. “He’s not going after bin Laden, is he?”

“How long have you suspected him of being a traitor?” said Herbert.

Weaver looked surprised, Anthony shocked, but McElroy nodded thoughtfully. “I thought you might work it out.”

“It took me long enough,” noted Herbert. “Too long, in fact.”

“He came to us with much promise,” said McElroy. “So much promise, in fact, that Mrs. Penelope here, one of our best, was assigned to work with him before we transitioned him principally to Mr. Green’s handling.”

Mrs. Penelope nodded. “That was one of the reasons I had to go away, Oliver,” she said. “To work with Fuat.”

“On what exactly?” asked Anthony.

Weaver laughed ruefully. “He came and sold us a real bill of goods. First, he could take us to bin Laden. Then, we had a mole in our midst. And he would help us track it down.”

“But it turned out he was the mole?” said Herbert.

“A Trojan horse, more like it,” noted McElroy. “He came to us in disguise, as it were. And now he has unleashed a virus amongst us.”

“A virus? How?” asked Anthony.

“We let him in the door,” lamented Weaver. “And he brought other elements with him. Unknown elements.”

McElroy added, “Our only recourse now is to let him think we trust him, are working with him and then follow it up to his other connections. Not the preferred way to go about it, but we have few options.”

“That’s why he wasn’t doing much?” said Herbert.

Weaver nodded. “That’s right. Fuat takes everything very slowly. Wanted to move to D.C. Lot of prep time, build his network, and the next thing we know things are going to hell.”

“The incident in the park?” asked Anthony. “That’s him?”

“Undoubtedly,” said Weaver. “We think it was just a prelude to something much bigger.”

“And Mr. Green? What’s her role?” asked Herbert.

“She’s one of our deep cover agents. A lobbyist and lawyer by day with a plethora of international clients, many of them fron

ts by our government and our allies. That allows her to travel widely. She sees and reports back. Her Middle Eastern language skills are spot-on. She spent many years there for the CIA and later in joint assignments with NIC. She has solid contacts in the region. She was a logical choice for the assignment with Fuat, to supplement what Mrs. Penelope was doing.”

“How do you explain that connection? Lobbyist and academic?”

“Easily enough. Mr. Green represents several organizations in the Middle East that have relationships with Turkekul. Officially they are working on a number of initiatives to strengthen trade relations between Pakistan and the U.S.”

“And the phone call she made while in the park?”

“To another agent who provided her cover when the FBI made inquiries,” answered Weaver.

“When did you begin to suspect Turkekul?” asked Anthony.

McElroy fidgeted with his tie. “Far too late, of course. He was quite good. Mr. Green suspected something first, and we followed up on those suspicions and confirmed them. And she did so at great personal risk to herself I might add.”

“But you’re saying he doesn’t know you suspect him?” said Herbert.

“He is too wily an operative not to suspect. But we have given him no reason to really suspect, if you understand me. We have given him rope. We have covered for him on several occasions, as you are well aware.”

“What do you think his plan is?”

“Nanobot residue in a bomb?” said Weaver. “Scares the hell out of me, and it should you too. I know you talked with the president about something at Camp David. It was about that, wasn’t it?”