It’d been twenty-four hours since Recker’s meeting with Lawson. Him, Jones, and Haley were all in the office, talking generally about plans if they really did proceed with this mission. Recker wasn’t sure how long it would take, but he assumed it would be quick if the agency really wanted Cloutier gone as soon as possible.
“So, did you talk to Mia yet?” Jones asked.
“Don’t start that again.”
“That’s a no,” Haley said, looking at Jones.
Recker was just about to get into the discussion further when his phone rang. It was the same number Lawson had called from yesterday. He eagerly picked up to hear what the news was.
“Hey, hope you haven’t been waiting on pins or needles or anything,” Lawson said.
“Nope. So, what’s the verdict?”
“Everything’s been approved.”
“Everything?”
“Every single thing you asked for.”
“That was easy,” Recker said.
“Like I said, they really wanted to make this happen and were willing to do just about anything to get you on board.”
“Any issues with anything?”
“Not really. They’ve already reached out to the NSA to do whatever they’ve gotta do to get Jones’ file deleted.”
“And the other things are no problem?” Recker asked.
“No issues.”
“Good. So where are we headed and when?”
“London. Tomorrow morning. Does that work for you?”
Recker hesitated before answering. London. That’s where everything started for him. At least everything that led to where he’s at now. He didn’t think he’d ever be going back there.
“That good for you?” Lawson asked again, sensing he had an issue with it.
“No. No, that’s fine.”
“You sure? We can probably push it back a day if you need more time.”
“No, we’ll be ready.”
“We’ll? So, you got your partners on board?”
“Yeah, they’ll be going too if that’s still good.”
“Absolutely. That’s great. Hopefully, it’ll speed things up.”
“If you wanna send over what you got on Cloutier, we’ll start looking it over,” Recker said.
“I assume your phone’s secure?”
“Damn well better be.”
“Give me a few minutes and I’ll send some things over.”
“What about transportation?”
“I’ll meet you tomorrow morning at six o’clock at PHL,” Lawson answered.
“Here? Not New York?”
“Like I said before, if there’s a leak, they’ll most likely be watching New York airports first. Probably wouldn’t expect anything coming from Philly, especially if they check the manifests and find there are no active agents on it.”
“You’ll be meeting us?”
“Yeah. I wanna make sure everything goes smoothly, just in case you have any last-minute questions, and there’s a few things I want to give you in person.”
“Such as?” Recker asked.
“Phones, for one. I don’t want you using your own phones while you’re there. I’ll have a new phone for each of you. They’re off the books, not registered to the agency in any way.”
“You’re really going all out for this.”
“I told you, I’m going to make sure there’s no leaks on this.”
“OK.”
“And there’s a few files I can give you which I can’t send electronically,” Lawson said. “Sorry there’s no private jets or anything. You’re gonna have to fly commercial.”
“I don’t care about that. I’m not a private jet guy, anyway.”
“I’ll send over all the reports the other agents have filed, though since they all died rather quickly, there’s not a whole lot there to go through.”
“Why London?”
“We have it on good authority that’s where Cloutier is right now. There’s chatter he’s about to make a major deal there in the next week or so.”
“What kind of deal?”
“Exactly what the deal is we don’t know. There are rumors about a terrorist group wanting to make a major purchase from him to further fulfill their propaganda. It’d be irresponsible of me to make a guess on what their target is until I have more information to back anything up. If they’re dealing with Cloutier though, you can be assured it’s going to be big. I would assume the likely casualty rate would be in the hundreds, if not thousands. That’s why this is so important.”
“So, we’d have to get him by next week to prevent this?”
“Well, in theory, but we still haven’t confirmed this deal is actually going down next week or at all. It could just be a lot of smoke to throw us in a different direction to disguise what their real plans are.”
“I see.”
“So even if this supposed meeting isn’t true and doesn’t go down, we still believe he’s in the London area, we still think he’s got a large warehouse somewhere around there, so he’s still a major threat whether he’s got a deal lined up or not. If he doesn’t, we still need and want him badly.”
“Understood. So, what is the exact thing you want from us?” Recker asked. “Kill him? Capture him? What?”
“The agency’s preferred option is to take him alive and make him talk. If there’s any chance of that, it’s what we’d like you to do. The more we can get out of him, contacts, organizations he’s doing business with, bank accounts, not to mention the fact he’s got a huge warehouse of weapons we don’t know the location of, it’s preferable we take him alive if at all possible.”
“And if it’s not possible?”
“Then you do what you have to do. But we really would like to know the location of that warehouse if nothing else. It’s rumored he’s got a stockpile of weapons that would make our army jealous. We’re talking guns, grenades, rocket launchers, possibly even chemical weapons, though we’ve not been able to confirm it. But it’s imperative that we find the warehouse before it lands into the hands of one of our enemies.”
“OK. And if we do take him alive, where do I take him? You want me to beat the information out of him in our hotel room?”
Lawson laughed. “Of course not. I won’t give you the exact location yet, but once you grab him, you call me, and I’ll give you the address of a local safe house you can take him to. Once there, we’ll get him on a plane and transport him to a more conducive place for interrogation.”
“Sounds good.”
“Any other questions at the moment?”
“None.”
“OK. I just want to reiterate that I will be your only contact while you’re over there. No one other than me and three senior directors will know you’re there, and we’re not telling anyone else. You deal with me and me alone.”
“So, if anyone knocks on my hotel door and says you sent them then they get two in the head.”
“Right. Unless you personally hear something come from my lips, assume it doesn’t exist.”
“We’ll remember that.”
“Good. Before I let you go, on a personal note, I just wanted to say thank you for doing this. I know you didn’t have to.”
“Well, I’m not doing it for free,” Recker said.
“I know you got your stipulations out of it, but still, I know coming back to work for us probably was something you never felt like would happen again. Or would want to happen again.”
“Well, I guess from my end I’m still not working for the agency. I’m working for you. You grabbed me once before and you could’ve killed me. You could’ve done a lot of things. You still could. But you haven’t. I trust you. I can’t say I’d have the same feelings if anyone else showed up on my door. I doubt I could’ve done this for anybody else.”
Recker could hear Lawson smiling into the phone. “Thank you. It means a lot,” she said. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”
After Recker put his phone down, he turned to his partners, who were eagerly looking at him, though by listening to his conversation and putting the bits and pieces together, they already assumed everything was agreed to.
“Looks like we’re a go,” Recker said.
“They agree to everything?” Haley asked.
“They did.”
The news was especially sobering for Jones, who didn’t think he’d ever be off the NSA’s radar. Though they didn’t appear to be trying very hard to find him these past few years, he always assumed at some point he’d vault back up to the top of the list. Now, in theory, he’d never have to worry about the group finding him again. Recker tried talking to him, but he could tell Jones’ mind was somewhere else. He figured Jones was reflecting on the NSA being off his trail. They talked periodically over the years about what would happen if the NSA ever tried to find him again. It was a worry that was always on Jones’ mind. Even if it was in the back of his mind, and even if he didn’t show it very often, it was still there somewhere.
Though Jones was initially guarded about throwing in with the CIA, he couldn’t deny it felt good to get the NSA off his back. It was like a weight being lifted off his shoulders. He suddenly felt freer. Not that it ever really affected how he operated, it still felt more liberating somehow.
“David?” Recker asked, finally getting his partner’s attention.
Jones shook his head and focused on Recker speaking. “Hmm?”
Recker smiled. “You all right?”
“Yes. Yes, I’m fine, why?”
“I’ve been talking to you for like five minutes and you haven’t heard a word I’m saying.”
“Oh. I’m sorry, my mind was elsewhere I guess.”
“I could tell. You good?”
“Yes, I’m fine.”
“NSA?” Recker asked.
Jones nodded. “I must admit I never thought it would be possible to escape them. Though I know lately I haven’t seemed to be much of a priority for them, I always figured they would find me somehow, somewhere, a few years down the road.”
“Now you ain’t gotta worry about it.”
“So it would seem. Thank you for that.”
“You’d do the same for me.”
“I would.”
“All right, let’s cut out the mushy stuff before someone starts crying, ’cause I know it won’t be me. Let’s get down to business.”
Just as he said the words, he got a text message from Lawson with a clickable link that led to a secure website they could use to read up on their target. She couldn’t send classified files through email or text and take a risk of it being stolen or compromised. Recker handed his phone to Jones so he could bring the website up on the big screen. Jones typed in the login and password Lawson assigned them. Immediately, files started appearing on the screen, including a couple of known pictures of Cloutier. The man changed appearances periodically, changing his hair from blonde, to brown, to black; sometimes with a beard, sometimes clean-shaven, sometimes a goatee. He seemed to be a master at changing his look. By looking through his file, it was obvious why Cloutier was so elusive. He was not a man who stuck to patterns. He changed his looks, his ways of operating, the people he dealt with, nothing, it seemed, stayed the same.
“Looks like he might be a challenge,” Haley said.
“Would you like to revisit your one-week time frame?” Jones asked.
“No,” Recker answered. “He’s just like anyone else. He has, and will again, make mistakes somewhere along the line. If he didn’t, they wouldn’t even have these pictures of him. If they didn’t make mistakes, we’d likely never catch them. But everyone does. We just have to find the ones he’s made.”
“Easier said than done.”
“It’s always easier said than done. But we’re not a bunch of scrubs they’re sending out into the wild. We’re the best.”
“Well, it would appear this is going to be a long night to get familiar with this man,” Jones said.
“And an early morning,” Haley said.
“Indeed. And some of us have more to do than others.”
Haley looked at Jones, then looked at Recker. “Meaning me, right?” Recker asked.
“That would be correct. You still need to talk to her. You can’t do it in the morning with your bags already packed and a foot out the door.”
“Let’s go over this stuff for a few hours, then I’ll head home for a bit. Then I’ll talk to Mia.”