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Chapter 74

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Nobody was smiling in Kramer's office. Bradford had been in custody for over a day. He'd refused to say anything.

"He's not talking," Carlson said. "The only thing he's said is that he wants a lawyer."

"Have you explained to him that he's being charged under the Patriot Act?" Kramer asked. "He must know he's forfeited his right to an attorney."

"Yes. I told him he was asking for a one-way ticket to Guantánamo or Romania. It didn't make any difference. He sat there and smirked."

"That little shit. I can't believe he's got that much guts," Davidson said.

"I don't think he understands, Director," Jenna said. "He may think rendition is an idle threat."

"He's about to find out that it isn't," Kramer said. "Lewis, arrange for him to be taken to the facility run by our Romanian friends."

"Are you sure?"

"We have to find out how much damage he's done. Give him one more chance to come clean. If he refuses, get him on a plane today. Keep me posted on the interrogation."

"How far can they go?" Carlson asked.

"As far as is necessary. They're authorized to use extreme measures. Make sure Bradford knows what's in store for him if he refuses to cooperate. It might shake him loose."

Jenna started to object, then realized it would do no good. By questioning Kramer's decision, she'd accomplish nothing. This wasn't a battle she could win.

"I'll take care of it as soon as we're done with this meeting," Carlson said.

"If the media gets wind of this, it will create a real problem," Davidson said.

"Then we'd better make sure they don't find out. It took years for the Agency to recover after the last time we had a mole. We need to keep a lid on this."

"How did this happen?" Jenna said. "Why didn't we see something was wrong? We missed all the signs."

"Not all of them," Davidson said. "We figured out there was a mole, didn't we?"

"When we started looking, we never looked at Bradford. If you hadn't forgotten your keys and gone back to your office, we still wouldn't know who it was."

"We didn't have any reason to suspect him," Carlson said. "He's never given any indications he was disloyal. Hell, his clearance is as high as mine."

"Jenna, I want you digging into his life," Kramer said. "See if you can find something that tells us why he turned. See if there's anything we can use to put pressure on him."

"I'll start with his finances. If he was being paid, there's a record somewhere."

"Look for a woman," Carlson said. "Maybe he's got some little honey on the side."

"Of course you would think of that," Jenna said.

"He's right, Jenna," Kramer said. "The opposition might have used a woman to get to him. Honey traps are as old as espionage. You can find them in the Bible."

"Don't worry, this man will have no secrets by the time I'm done looking at him."

"We can assume the recent string of failed operations is due to Bradford," Kramer said. "The question is, who was running him?"

"Based on the ops that went wrong, I'm leaning toward the Russians," Carlson said.

"I agree," Jenna said. "It's also possible he's responsible for what happened with OPERA."

Davidson snorted.

"You may not like Thorne," Jenna said, "but maybe you should wait until we've managed to extract them before you dismiss her story out of hand."

"I'll believe it when I see it," Davidson said.

"Where is Thorne now?" Kramer asked.

"The last time I talked to him, he was at an old safe house of ours near Novgorod. I told him to get to Estonia for extraction," Carlson said. "I haven't heard from him since."

"Do we have real time satellite coverage of the location?"

"It depends on the time," Jenna said. She looked at her watch. "Yes. We should have a satellite over the area now."

"Bring it up on the monitor."

"I'll do it," Jenna said.

She got up and went to a big screen monitor mounted on the wall of Kramer's office. A panel beneath controlled the display. From this room, whoever sat in the director's chair at Langley could access any one of dozens of satellites in orbit around the globe. Jenna called up the menu and selected a satellite over Western Russia. She entered the coordinates for the safe house. The image came up on the screen. In Russia, it was early morning. The sun had cracked the horizon.

"Who the hell are those guys?" Carlson said.

Vehicles were parked in front of the house where Thorne was supposed to be hiding with OPERA. A helicopter sat in a dirt field nearby. Armed men in uniform moved in and out of the building.

Jenna zoomed in on a man smoking outside the building. She focused on his insignia.

"A Colonel, GRU. If Thorne and OPERA were there, they've been arrested."

The man looked up, almost as if he could sense the satellite watching from far above. Jenna focused on his face.

"That's not the look of someone who's pleased with himself."

"Thorne probably left before they got there," Carlson said. "He's got a sixth sense for these things. It's spooky."

"If those troops are looking for OPERA, she must have something they want. Like the Russian war plan," Jenna said.

Davidson rolled his eyes. "She killed her boss, remember? They're looking for a murderer."

"Jenna, can you track Thorne's phone?" Kramer said.

"He turned the tracking feature off. It makes sense. If I were him, I'd be worried about the mole blowing my cover."

"We had no certain proof there was a mole before he left," Davidson said.

"Well, Scott," Lewis said. "He did try to tell us, didn't he? As I recall, you didn't want to hear it."

"That's not how I remember it, Carlson."

"The way your memory works, you'd make a good politician."

"Who the hell do you think you are, talking to me like that?"

"That's enough," Kramer said. "Lewis, get Bradford on the way to Romania. Jenna, contact Thorne. Find out where he is and what he's doing. Tell them we've caught the mole. Tell him to turn on his damn tracker. Scott, go through everything Bradford could have seen in your safe. See if you can get a handle on operations he's compromised."

She paused.

"Any questions? Then get on it."