33 |

Operations Center 2, CIA Headquarters
Langley, Virginia

 

“Sir, I’ve been monitoring Stockholm police reports, and it looks like there was just an incident at the university where Professor Karlsson works.”

Leroux rose from his station, having arrived only minutes ago from Las Vegas, Sherrie already en route to Shitbuktu as she had called it, having taken a separate flight. He was thankful to have something to jump into straight away, rather than spend the evening worrying about her.

He stepped over to Sonya Tong’s station. “Details?”

She shook her head. “Not much, except that there were two perps, a man and a woman—”

Randy Child spun in his chair, staring up at the ceiling. “Fifty bucks says the professors.”

“—and they were armed. They tried to kill one of the guards—”

Leroux interrupted. “That doesn’t sound like them.”

Child dropped his foot, stopping his spin. “You’re right. If those two tried, they would have succeeded.”

Tong continued. “And another woman was assaulted before they made their escape.”

Leroux shook his head, this escalation unexpected. “What was taken?”

“Nothing on that yet.”

Leroux turned to Child. “Where are they now?”

“Their phones are still at their hotel.”

Leroux didn’t buy it. “See if we can pull some traffic camera footage of the area, see if we have them on video near the university.”

Child went to work as Director Leif Morrison entered, National Clandestine Service Chief for the CIA. “What’s the status?”

Leroux stood a little straighter. “It looks like our two professors are about to be wanted for armed robbery and attempted murder.”

Morrison’s eyebrows shot up. “Holy shit!” He glanced about the room. “Pardon my French, people.”

Leroux shrugged. “We’ve all said far worse.”

Morrison chuckled. “I have no doubt.” He motioned at the large set of displays that curved across the entire front of the operations center. “What am I looking at?”

“I’m not sure yet.”

“What does that famous gut of yours tell us?”

Leroux frowned. “That they’ve just completed the first step of someone else’s plan.”