Sunday and Monday
On Sunday we drove back to my house. Rachel would stay with me for a while, until she was strong enough to resume her life. I called Barry, who came over right away. She flew into his arms. It made me realize that although he and I couldn’t make it work, he cared about Rachel as much as I did. That was a good omen. I smiled. Barry caught my eye during their embrace and smiled back.
Both Rachel and I had a good night’s sleep, but when I woke up, the skies were threatening. An hour later it rained, a cold, dreary rain that makes me want to huddle under the covers. I was about to do just that when a chauffeured limousine pulled up to the curb. A uniformed driver got out, opened an umbrella, and trotted around to the back of the limo. A gray-haired man wearing an impeccably tailored suit emerged. The limo driver handed him the umbrella, and the man proceeded to my front door. I felt the flash of recognition.
Gary Phillips. Deputy COO of Delcroft.
I went to the door and opened it just as he reached the porch but before he pushed the doorbell. If he was surprised, he didn’t show it. “Good morning, Ellie. Do you have a few minutes?”
I showed him into the family room and brought him a cup of coffee. He sat in my father’s chair, took a sip, then placed it on the side table. I sat on the couch.
“You heard the news about Stokes, I assume?”
I nodded.
“On behalf of Delcroft Aviation, I want to offer you a formal apology for the—the terror and anguish you and your daughter suffered. And make no mistake, it was a terrorist action. Stokes deserved what happened to him.”
Was this a tacit exoneration of what Luke had done? Was he telling me that Luke indeed was an active player in Stokes’ assassination?
“And we want to compensate you for your suffering. I know money can never—”
“I don’t want your money,” I cut in.
His eyebrows shot up.
“But I do want some answers.”
He reached for his coffee. “You’re entitled. Ask away.”
“Why did you hire Stokes in the first place? What happened to your due diligence?”
“We thought we did it right. It turned out the report we got was a fabrication. It was full of—well, simply put, lies.”
“You didn’t know he’d been kicked out of the Agency?”
“We did not. Stokes clearly had allies in high places protecting him. That, by the way, is being looked into right now.”
“Gregory Parks. He didn’t commit suicide, did he?”
Phillips tightened his lips and said nothing for about thirty seconds. Then: “No. He didn’t.”
“Stokes pushed him.”
Phillips nodded. “Yes.”
“When did you know that?”
His answer was slow to come. “Long enough for me to be charged with a felony if someone wants to.”
I jerked my head up, surprised by his candor.
“What about Charlotte Hollander? What are you going to do? She sold DADES to the Chinese.”
“Well, actually, that’s the other reason I’m here.”
I inclined my head.
“The schematics, the blueprints, for DADES that were sent via Charlotte’s emails to General Gao had been adulterated.”
“Adulterated? How?”
“They were changed. Simply but effectively. If and when the Chinese copy and manufacture them, bottom line, they’ll end up with nothing. DADES won’t work.”
I went rigid. “You’ve got to be kidding.”
He shook his head. “By the way, this is top secret. No one outside the company knows this. Just the chairman and me. And one of the engineers.”
I tried to wrap my head around the news. “Who changed them? How did they find out? What are you going to do?”
Smiling, he held up a hand. “I’ll answer all your questions. But one at a time. We compared the attachments—you know, the schematics and blueprints—on the drive from Parks, the one you handed over to Stokes, with the originals in our vault. The differences were clear.”
“And?”
“As I said, it was a subtle but effective strategy. A conduit led to the wrong box. A wire here and there was misplaced. Altogether, it was enough to render the product worthless.”
“Who did this?”
“It had to be Charlotte.”
“Not Parks?” I said.
“No, it was Charlotte.”
“How do you know?”
“Because the changes started on her computer. What she sent Parks was not what she designed. And that’s what Parks sent to Gao.”
“My God!” I leaned forward. “That means…” I thought it through. “That means that Hollander didn’t commit treason after all.”
“That’s correct. Hollander is a patriot. At least in our eyes. Finally, someone had the—excuse the expression—balls to take on these goddamn international cyberthugs.”
“Do you think Parks knew?”
“I don’t know.”
Knowing the strength of Parks’ loyalty to the Uyghurs, I wouldn’t have been surprised if Hollander and Parks were complicit. I debated whether to tell Phillips that I knew Parks was a double. I decided to keep quiet for the moment. After all, the only other person who knew that, aside from possibly the Chinese, was no longer alive. Which reminded me.
“Did you know that Parks was engaged? And that his fiancée was killed in an ‘accident’ on the Eisenhower?”
“So I’ve been told.”
“Do you have any idea who might have been behind it?”
“You should ask your FBI friend. I wouldn’t know.”
“But if you had to speculate…”
“I wouldn’t.” Phillips took a breath. “We live in a dangerous world.”
Was he hinting that the Chinese government might have played a role in Grace’s death? I didn’t know, but I did know I wasn’t going to get anything further from him on that score.
“Back to Charlotte,” Phillips said. “As I said, Delcroft owes her a huge debt. She saved the future of the company.”
Maybe so, I thought. Though she could still be in danger if and when the Chinese found out they’d been conned. But the fact that Hollander and Parks might have been working together would explain her reaction to seeing Parks in my video. She didn’t want any association between them to surface. She’d created a deep-cover operation.
But one thing didn’t compute. “Wait a minute. If everything you’re saying is true, why did Hollander run?”
“The way I figure it,” Phillips said, “she had to know Stokes was on to her. And how dangerous he was. I’m guessing she decided it would be safer to drop off the grid than take her chances with him.”
“Have you two been in contact?”
“No.” He met my eyes. I sensed it was the truth. “I wish I was. I would want her to know it’s safe to come back.”
“You don’t think she knows?”
“I don’t. In her position, she couldn’t risk even an Internet café.”
“Because…”
“Because she doesn’t know who knew what when. Stokes was probably monitoring her; the Agency and NSA too. And the Chinese. If I were her, I’d have gone as far away from an Internet connection as possible.”
There was another institution he hadn’t mentioned. “You forgot to add the military to your list.”
He lifted his coffee cup, took another sip, then set it down. “Yes.” He nodded. “Them too.”
“Do they know about the adulterated files?”
“Why do you ask?”
“Because…” I paused. “They were the ones who killed Stokes, weren’t they?”
“I told you I don’t know who killed Stokes,” Phillips said. “But, whoever it was, I can’t say I’m sorry about it.”
“Nice dodge, Mr. Phillips.”
“What do you mean?”
“Isn’t it possible that, in addition to Hollander and Parks, the military discovered that the plans were adulterated?”
“Anything is possible.”
“Hollander did have an exemplary military career before she came to Delcroft.”
“She did,” he acknowledged.
“So how do we know they weren’t behind the entire deception?”
He kept his mouth shut.
I’d figured Stokes planted the bomb at Dolan’s office. It made sense at the time. But what if it wasn’t Stokes? What if it was the Pentagon? They had a vested interest in letting the deal go through, especially if they knew DADES would turn out to be a dud.
Phillips blew out a breath. “Actually, Ellie, the government has been playing both sides against the middle for a long time.”