By the time Recker and Mia made it back to the office, Jones had already pulled apart Arden’s laptop. Though Recker wasn’t crazy about bringing Mia back into the lion’s den, he didn’t feel right about leaving her alone, either. Considering they didn’t know who or what they were up against, he wasn’t going to leave her by herself, just in case she became a target. Even though the man said no one else would be involved, Recker couldn’t take that chance. He wouldn’t take that chance.
As soon as they walked into the office, Jones looked over at them and put his finger up to his lips. He then pointed to the laptop on the desk, which wasn’t fully intact. Recker and Mia quietly walked over to the desk, looking at what Jones was pointing at. Jones pointed to a small metal object that was now sitting right beside the laptop. It was probably not much bigger than a quarter.
Recker looked down at Jones, who simply nodded, letting him know that was the device they were looking for.
Jones mouthed the words, “that’s it.”
Recker cleared his throat, then took a few steps back.
“So how did your meeting go?” Jones asked. “Did your contacts know anything?”
“Uh, no, no,” Recker replied. “Nobody knows anything. It’s like this guy’s a ghost or something.”
“Ghosts always come out of the shadows at some point.”
“Yeah,” Haley said. “A week from now.”
“Why don’t you guys get out of here, clear your heads for a bit?” Jones said. “I’ll continue things on my end here.”
“I’m not sure that’s a good idea.”
“Me neither,” Recker said.
“Well we don’t have anything else going on right now,” Jones said.
“We don’t?”
Jones put his finger in the air and started scrambling around the desk, looking for something. “That actually reminds me. I’ve got something on your friend.”
“My friend?”
“Yes, don’t you remember? Diago. Whatever his first name is. I can’t remember at the moment.”
“Oh, yeah. I really did almost forget with all the other stuff going on.”
“Anyway, earlier this morning, I actually found everything we need,” Jones said.
“Really? So, what’s that mean?”
“It means everything he said was the truth. His brother really was innocent of the crime he was accused of.”
“Wow,” Haley said. “How about that?”
“Now, that doesn’t mean his brother’s an angel, or that he hasn’t done something else equally horrific. That I don’t know. But I do know he wasn’t involved in the crime he was convicted of.”
“And how do you know that?” Recker asked.
Jones pulled up a few images on his computer. “Here is Diago and his brother. Caught on security cam on the perimeter of a delivery company’s warehouse. Look at the time stamp. It’s a clear thirty minutes away from where the robbery went down.”
“And it’s at the same exact time.”
“It certainly is.”
“You wanna email the kid back or you want me to?”
“I think it would be best if you did it,” Jones said. He then motioned for Recker to do it away from the office.
“Yeah, you’re probably right.”
Jones then grabbed a pen and paper, and scribbled something down before showing it to his friend.
“You should probably do that away from here. I’m going to run another sweep on all the computers to make sure I haven’t missed something.”
Recker nodded. “Well, I think Mia and I might go out and get something to eat. It’s been a long day.”
“It certainly has,” Jones replied. “Don’t bother coming back in tonight. Get some rest. We’ll hit it again tomorrow.”
“Right. Chris, you wanna join us?” Recker shook his head no.
“Uh, thanks, but I’m not very hungry,” Haley answered. “I’ll just stay here for a bit, see if we can come up with something.”
Recker put his thumb up. He then motioned for Haley to call him if they came up with anything. Haley implied that he would.
Recker and Mia then left the office and went back to their car. Once they got in, Recker started the car, but didn’t put it in drive. He stared up at the window to the office. Mia glanced over at him. She could tell he was worried.
“He’ll be fine.”
Recker looked over at her and was able to form half of a smile. “Yeah.”
“Where to now?”
Recker shook his head. “I don’t know. For the first time in a long time, I just don’t know. I feel kind of helpless right now. Without something to go on, I feel like we’re swimming upstream without a paddle.”
“Something will break. It always does.”
“Is it going to break in time? That’s the question.”
“You know, I was thinking, the guy said David was going to die in a week, right?”
“Yeah?”
“Well how would he make that happen? If David doesn’t leave the office, how would he be able to carry out his plan?”
“He’d have to get in somehow,” Recker said.
“Is that even possible?”
Recker shook his head. “I don’t see how. Not unless he blew the door off. And I’d think that’d be too much noise.” Recker continued staring at the window to the office.
“What? What is it?”
“I don’t know. I was just thinking about whether someone could get on the roof, then get in through the window.”
“Wouldn’t they need a rope to get down there?” Mia asked.
“Yeah. But it might be easier to get in than the door. Unless they plan on…”
“On what?”
“On putting the place on fire. That would make anyone there have to get out.”
“Is that the only way?”
Recker took a deep breath, trying to think of anything else. “It’s the only thing I can think of right now. Unless he’s got a way of drawing David out somehow.”
“How could he do that?”
“Only thing I can think of is if someone else was in trouble,” Recker said. “One of us.”
“That doesn’t seem the most logical, though. If one of us got into trouble, David wouldn’t be the first one called, right? And he wouldn’t be the one to save anybody else. Not physically, at least.”
Recker shook his head. “I don’t know what else would get him out of the office. It doesn’t make sense. Why would the guy tell David he’s got exactly one week, knowing that David probably wouldn’t leave?”
Mia had the answer, though it didn’t make much sense to her. “Because he doesn’t want him to leave. He wants him to stay in that office. That would make sense as to why he’s got it bugged, right? That way, he can hear what’s going on.”
“He could have it bugged for a lot of reasons. That’s only one. He could just want to know how close we are to finding him. That’s probably the main reason. Unfortunately for us, we’re not very close. At all.”
“There must be something else.”
“I don’t know what it is.”
“Yes, you do. You know.”
“No, I really don’t.”
“Mike, you always know. Maybe it’s not at the front of your mind at the moment. But you know of something else.”
“I wish I was as confident in myself as you are right now.”
“Well, hopefully Nate is available and will be coming,” Mia said.
“Yeah, but that’s only half the battle. That’s only to help protect David. That’s not really gonna help find the guy that’s behind this.”
“But it would at least put your mind at ease, if only a little.”
“I know, but like I said, that’s only half the battle.”
“What about Lawson?” Mia asked.
“What about her?”
“Maybe she can do something?”
“Different agency.”
“I know that. But maybe she knows someone there. Or maybe she can pull a string. I mean, you guys did help her with that situation with the ex-MI6 agents, right?”
“Yeah.”
“Worth a shot, isn’t it?”
Recker nodded. “Just about anything is at this point.”
Recker pulled out his phone and immediately dialed Lawson’s number. She didn’t pick up right away. After the fifth ring, Recker ended the call. He waited a couple of minutes before trying again. This time, she picked up on the third try.
“Hey stranger.”
“Wanted to see if you could do me a favor,” Recker said.
“Sure. If I can.”
“We still have that thing going on with David that I told you about.”
“How’s that going?”
“It’s not. We’ve got no leads so far.”
“That’s too bad. How can I help?”
“I’m on a last-ditch effort here,” Recker replied. “Don’t know who it is. So far, the only thing we’ve determined is that the guy plans on killing David in one week.”
“Oh, no.”
“I would appreciate any help you can give me.”
“Well, I’ve floated a few things in the air, kind of quiet-like, but I haven’t heard anything.”
“I think we might need to drop the quiet routine and go in full-blast.”
“You sure about that?” Lawson asked. “I seem to recall you not wanting to put him back on the NSA radar if you didn’t have to.”
Recker hesitated in his reply. “I know. But I genuinely don’t know another way right now. We’re on a time crunch. And I don’t wanna spend the next week spinning our wheels and coming up with nothing. We need answers, and we need them fast.”
“I hear you. I can start asking around if you want. No idea where that might go.”
“I was hoping you could do one better.”
“How’s that?”
“Does the NSA still have an office at Fort Meade?”
“Yes.”
“Maybe I could get a meeting with someone,” Recker said.
“Uh, I don’t know about that.”
“Look, someone’s targeting David. We’ve got one week, and we’ve got no leads. If we could narrow it down to who this person is, that can give us something to go off of.”
“Are you sure about this?”
“No. But I don’t know any other way right now. Unless a miracle drops in our laps, and I don’t think we can count on that.”
“You could be opening up a whole different can of worms if you go down this path. You know that.”
“Not if you present it the right way,” Recker said.
“And how would I do that?”
“There’s a top-secret project going on, with ex-members of both agencies involved, trying to take down a possible domestic terrorist. Both David and I are working with you guys and should not ever be under any investigation going forward as a result of this meeting.”
Lawson giggled. “You really have all the answers, don’t you?”
“I don’t have any answers. I’m just pulling things out of the air here.”
“OK. Give me some time here and I’ll see what I can do.”
“Time’s running out.”
“Just give me a day or two. I’ll do my best to get something quickly. It’s the best I can do.”
“I know. I appreciate anything you can do.”
“Yeah. You’re lucky I like you guys.”
Recker laughed. “Doesn’t everybody?”
“Apparently not. I’ll call you if I have something.”
“I’ll be waiting.”
After putting his phone down, Recker looked over at his girlfriend. “Guess we’re waiting.”
“I know how much you love that,” Mia replied.
“Yeah. My favorite thing to do. Wait.”