She broke the kiss and looked at him. He said, “Was that so bad?”

She shook her head. “It was okay. But it was the first part I really wanted.”

31. Squeaky Clean

Ulrich checked his watch for probably the tenth time in an hour. Almost ten o’clock. He needed to go home and get some sleep. But he’d become so afraid of being away from the secure phone that he was hurrying back to his desk even from bathroom breaks. Anyway, it wasn’t like he was going to sleep even if he left. All he could do these days was toss and turn until the sun rose and he could get up and come into the office without it being so early he would seem deranged or obsessed.

The secure line buzzed. He jumped and then snatched up the receiver.

“Ulrich.”

“Clements. Okay to talk?”

“I’ll tell you if it isn’t, okay? What is it?”

“We have a problem.”

Ulrich flinched. If Clements had been a doctor, “problem” would doubtless be his favorite way of informing patients they had inoperable brain cancer.

He closed his eyes. “Tell me.”

“We lost everybody. Twelve Blackwater contractors, two Ground Branch operators. They’re all dead.”

Ulrich shook his head. It was unbelievable. This was just… this couldn’t be happening to him.

“What about Larison?”

“We’re pretty sure he’s not among the dead.”

“Why just ‘pretty sure’?”

“Because there are no survivors. There’s no one to report in. So all I can tell you right now is the math. We sent twelve contractors and two operators. Costa Rican media is reporting fourteen dead. Yeah, it’s possible one of the dead is Larison or one of them is Treven, but if that were the case, it would mean at least one of our guys was still alive. And if one of our guys were alive, he would have reported in by now. So I think it’s a pretty safe assumption that Larison killed all of them, or that he killed the Blackwater snatch teams and Treven killed the two Ground Branch.”

Ulrich dropped his glasses on the desk and scrubbed a hand across his face. “What about the tapes?”

“No sign of release. Yet.”

“What’s our next move?”

“We don’t have one. The op has been turned over to JSOC.”

Ulrich didn’t respond. It was really almost funny. How just when you thought things couldn’t possibly get worse, they always found a way.

“You there?” Clements said.

“How did this happen?”

“The national security adviser was furious when I told him the snatch teams were Blackwater. ‘You deceived me, you told me they were Ground Branch, blah, blah, blah.’ I told him it didn’t matter, that the Blackwater guys were all former government, anyway. I mean, he was only pissed because the op failed. If it had worked, he wouldn’t have cared if we’d hired goddamn al Qaeda to do it. And I told him so.”

It was actually amusing, imagining Clements growing some balls that way. “Very diplomatic of you.”

“It didn’t matter what I said. His mind was already made up. At which point, Horton made his move. And now he’s the national security adviser’s best friend.”

“For all we know, Horton’s people took out the snatch teams. So Horton could go back to the national security adviser, say I told you so, and take over the op.”

“It doesn’t matter. It’s done.”

“Fine. What does he propose?”

“That we give Larison the diamonds.”

Ulrich laughed. “That’s his plan? That’s what he proposed? That we just capitulate to this pyscho’s demands and call it a day? That’s ingenious. I can’t believe no one else thought of it.”

“Yeah, well, the national security adviser seems to like it. We’ve got an interagency meeting in his office first thing to thrash out the details.”

Ulrich tried to think of anything he’d seen that had spiraled this far out of control and still been righted in the end. Nothing came to mind.

“Well,” he said, “I guess we just have to hope that Horton knows what the hell he’s doing. And maybe he does. It’s not like he’s squeaky clean on all this. After all, he’s the one who took care of the Caspers.”

PART THREE

32. Maneuvering

Ben’s phone buzzed. He opened his eyes and saw faint light coming through the window. He picked up. “Yeah.”

“You get any sleep?” Hort said.

Ben looked at the clock readout. Shit, he’d been unconscious for over six hours. He’d needed it. “Yeah, believe it or not.” Paula opened her eyes and Ben raised a finger to his lips.

“Good. We have a task group meeting with the national security adviser in thirty minutes. We just got an email from Larison, and he says he’ll be calling. I want you to listen in.”

“Listen in? How am I going to do that?”

“I’m going to leave my mobile phone on. Set to speakerphone. A little oversight on my part.”

“You can do something like that in the White House?”

“The meeting’s not in the White House. The national security adviser wants to keep this thing as far from the president as he can. The meeting is at his house in Potomac.”

Once again, Ben was intrigued that Hort was including him in management stuff, if only on a listen-and-learn basis. “Okay…,” he said.

“It’s just him, me, and the deputy director of central intelligence, Stephen Clements. Clements is the genius who convinced the national security adviser that it made sense to try to snatch Larison. And by the way, the snatch teams weren’t Ground Branch. They were Blackwater.”

“Are you kidding? The Agency contracted out this snatch?”

“They did. The good news is, the national security adviser is very unhappy about it. With a little luck, that means he’ll listen to reason.”

“You mean listen to you.”

“Son, believe me, on this one there’s no difference.”

“So those two guys who tried to drop Paula and me… they were Blackwater?”

“That’s a little unclear right now. Clements says they were Ground Branch, there to supervise. He thinks Larison killed them along with the snatch teams. Or he’s pretending to think that.”

“What do you think?”

There was a pause. “I don’t know what to think. There’s always a lot of maneuvering between the various agencies. I’d hate to think it’s gotten to the point where we’re trying to bump off each other’s players.”

“I told you, it was supposed to be a hit.”

“I don’t doubt you. Believe me, there’s more behind-the-scenes bullshit on this op than I’ve ever seen.”

“Yeah, I’ve been getting that feeling.”

“Well, for that reason as much as any other, I want you to be able to see how decisions are getting made here.”

So that’s why Hort wanted him to listen in-to prove that he had nothing to do with the two guys outside Nico’s office. To show that, even after Obsidian, Ben could trust him. Or maybe this was more management grooming. Or both.

“Okay,” he said again.

“I’ll call in a half hour. Keep your phone on mute. And I’ll call again after, when it’s done and we can talk securely.”