Jones and Mia were still sitting on the bench by the time Recker and Haley arrived at the park. Recker called his girlfriend, who directed them to where they were. Recker and Haley split up, even though Mia said it was now safe, and the danger was over. Recker believed in being extra cautious, if possible. Just because it seemed like everyone was out of danger at the moment, didn’t mean they actually were.
Haley went the long way around, coming up on the other side. Recker went straight ahead, eventually finding his girlfriend, and his partner. When he actually saw his friend, Jones looked like a man defeated. He was just staring down, a sorrowful expression on his face. They’d been through some difficult times over the years, but Recker couldn’t ever remember a time where Jones seemed so glum. Maybe when Haley was in the hospital, and Phillips had died, that might have been the closest to rival it.
Once Mia noticed her boyfriend coming closer, she tried to give him a smile, though it wasn’t much of one. Her hand was on Jones’ back, trying to make him feel better. Not knowing exactly what was going on, but seeing the looks on their faces, Recker took the more gentle approach. He remained standing, right in front of Jones, to put himself in the line of fire in case someone had him lined up.
“What’s going on?” Recker asked.
Jones didn’t respond, and continued looking down.
“He got a call,” Mia replied.
“From who?”
Mia shrugged. “Whoever led us here, I guess.”
“How did you guys get here? Why? Before you get into that, whose phone is that?” Recker pointed to the phone on the bench next to Jones’ leg.
“Some guy bumped into us.” Mia then put her fingers in the air to simulate air quotes. “Accidentally.”
“Let me see it.”
Mia picked it up and handed it to him. Recker briefly looked it over, then dropped it on the ground, and smashed it to pieces with the heel of his shoe.
“What’d you do that for?” Mia asked.
“You have no idea what’s been planted inside that phone. You know how many phones I gave to people when I worked at the agency that had listening devices built into it?”
“You think he was listening to us now?”
Recker shrugged. “Who knows? I’m not taking chances, though. Anyway, back to what was going on here.”
Jones finally spoke up. “I received a text message from you. Or, I thought it was from you at the time. I should’ve known better.” He shook his head at how foolish he’d been.
“What’d it say?”
Jones took out his phone and handed it to his partner. Recker looked at the message that had his name on it, but clearly wasn’t from him.
“This guy’s good.”
Jones sighed. “I wasn’t thinking clearly. If I was, I would’ve had serious doubts about the validity of that message.”
“Why?”
“Because the message only mentioned me leaving the office. If something was really wrong, you would have mentioned Mia as well. It didn’t occur to me at the time.”
“Things happen fast in this business,” Recker said. “Can’t beat yourself up for it. Thanks happen in real time. You don’t always get a second chance or a do-over. You sometimes make mistakes and live with it.”
A minute later, they looked over and saw Haley approaching. He eventually stood next to Recker, as well.
“Anything?” Recker asked.
Haley shook his head. “Nothing unusual. Of course, I don’t really know what I was looking for, either. But nothing seemed out of place.”
“See anyone with a hoodie?” Mia asked.
Haley looked around. “There’s a lot of people walking with hoodies on. Why?”
“There was this guy, standing by the car.”
“What?” Recker said. “Who was this?”
Mia rubbed her forehead. “There’s this, um… this… guy.”
“Why don’t you both just relax, take a breath, and start from the beginning.”
Jones started relaying everything, from the moment he got the text message in the office. He didn’t leave any detail out, and though he didn’t remember every single word that the other man told him on the phone, he got most of the specifics. Most importantly, he remembered the time frame. He apparently only had one week left of breathing.
“So he specifically said you had one week?” Recker asked.
Jones nodded. “That’s what he said. One week from today.”
“Assuming we can trust him at his word, and there’s no guarantee of that, it at least gives us some time.”
“Oddly specific,” Haley said. “What’s special about a week from now?”
“How about it? Anything interesting happen on the date a week from now?”
Jones thought about it for a moment, though nothing came to him. “Nothing that I can think of.”
“But why exactly one week? Why not today, or tomorrow, or three days from now? Why one week?”
Jones shrugged. “I couldn’t begin to speculate.”
“He said he wanted to prove that he’s better than you,” Recker said. “That’s gotta be from your NSA days, right? Couldn’t be from anything else?”
“It would almost have to be.”
“Well it’s a start.”
“Same start we already had before this.”
“He seemed to know so much about all of us, though,” Mia said. “How?”
“Somehow he’s tracked me,” Jones answered. “I don’t know how he’s done it.”
“Is it possible he got into more of your system than you think?” Recker asked.
“At this point, I’d say anything is possible.”
Haley had thought of something else no one had mentioned yet. “How’d he know we were on the way?”
“Maybe that was him at Isengard’s,” Recker said.
“But how’d he know we’d be there at that specific time?”
“Unless he’s got the office watched somehow.”
“But even if he did, and he saw us leave, how did he know where we were going?”
Everyone kind of shook their heads, a combination of trying to think, and also not coming up with any answers. After a little while, though, they all started looking at each other, appearing like they’d all come up with an answer at the same time.
“You thinking what I am?” Haley asked.
“He’s got the office bugged?” Recker replied.
“Gotta be. How else would he know?”
“It’s impossible,” Jones said. “There’s no way he could have the office bugged. There’s no way he could’ve gotten inside. No possible way.”
Recker folded his arms for a moment, looking at people walking around as he kept thinking of a solution. Then it came to him.
“He didn’t get inside. But he didn’t have to. There’s another way.”
“What?” Jones asked. “It’s not possible.”
“Not possible for him to come in, no. But like I said, he didn’t have to get in. He let us do it for him.”
“What are you talking about?”
“We brought something in,” Recker answered.
“Arden’s laptop,” Haley replied. “That’s gotta be it.”
“Has to be. There’s nothing else it could be. Assuming we’ve got this right, and he knew we were coming. There’s no other way unless he was listening and knew we were coming at that exact time.”
“What if he was just waiting at Isengard’s for a while?” Mia asked. “Like he didn’t know a specific time, but assumed that was your next stop?”
“Maybe,” Recker said. “But him being there the exact same time we are, and then doing this… seems like a mighty big coincidence. And you know how I feel about those.”
“Is there a way to check that laptop to see if it’s bugged?” Haley asked. “I assume you didn’t do that already, right?”
Jones seemed almost embarrassed to respond. “I didn’t feel there was a need to.”
“Nobody would,” Recker said. “Are you able to figure out whether it is?”
“Yes, it’s possible.”
“Is he going to know you’re doing it, though?”
“Depends. Why?”
“Assuming we’re right about this, we might be able to use this to our advantage.”
“How so?”
“If this guy’s actually listening, who says we have to say factual information?”
“Give him some dummy info,” Haley said. “I like it.”
“Let him chase us around a little bit.”
“Or lure him into a trap.”
“If we can,” Recker said.
Though Jones appreciated the help his friends were offering, he still felt bad that they were putting themselves in harm’s way when they didn’t have to.
“You know, he specifically said none of you were in danger if you stayed out of the way,” Jones said.
“Don’t even start,” Recker said. “First off, there’s no guarantee he’s being honest in that. Who’s to say he wouldn’t start with you, then come after the rest of us? Second, we’re a team. Nobody messes with one of us. If you want one, you gotta go through the rest of us first. So put anything else out of your mind. It’s not happening.”
Jones grinned. “Fine. I can’t argue with that. I can’t really argue with anything these days.”
“That’s the other thing you gotta stop.”
“What?”
“Feeling bad for yourself. I know you’re not used to people coming after you specifically, but take it from us, that doesn't help.”
“Just gotta accept it and move on,” Haley said. “Gotta get mad, but focused and determined at the same time. Keep an even head and stay calm. If you just resign yourself to a pity party, and get depressed about what’s happening, then you’ll surely lose.”
“He’s right,” Recker said. “This is serious. But we’ve been through it more times than we can count. Buckle up, snap in your chin strap, and let’s go. We can do this.”
“But how?” Jones asked. “He’s clearly got the better of me at the moment.”
“So let’s turn the tables. We’ve done it before. Countless times.”
Jones sighed. “I wish it were that simple.”
“It’s exactly that simple. The work is hard. The attitude is easy.”
“But we’ve got to assume that this person might be watching all of us. We have to assume that he might have cameras set up, or people watching, every single one of us at all times. The office, our apartments, our morning breakfast run, the hospital, all of it. We can’t assume anything is safe.”
“Maybe we should abandon ship for the time being,” Haley said. “Pick a random spot all of us can go to for a week or so. Free of wandering eyes and ears.”
“I don’t know if it’s that simple at this point.”
“He could have one or all of us tracked from the moment we leave here and find us anyway.”
“Let’s just keep doing what we’re doing,” Recker said. “Let’s not do anything different and make him think we’re up to something.”
“How’s that gonna help, though?” Haley asked.
“Assuming we’re right about that listening device in the laptop, we can use that. That’s our play right now.”
“And then?”
“We’ll figure that out as it comes.” Recker continued thinking, coming up with a second part of the plan. “But maybe we’ve got an ace in the hole that he doesn’t know about.”