39 |
39 |Operations Center 2, CIA Headquarters Langley, Virginia
“Well, this isn’t good.”
Leroux stepped over to Randy Child’s station. “What?”
“I’ve been monitoring flights leaving Stockholm and just got a hit. James Acton and Laura Palmer boarded a flight to Dubai earlier.”
Leroux’s eyes narrowed. “Dubai?”
“Yup.”
“Interesting.” He gestured to the main displays. “Put it up.” Child complied, copies of the boarding passes and passport scans appearing. Leroux read every piece of information displayed, searching for something, for anything that might give them a clue, when he stopped, his gut telling him something wasn’t right. “They each checked two bags.”
Child shrugged. “So? Maybe they don’t like to travel light. They’re rich, aren’t they?”
“Yes, but why did they have their luggage with them?”
Child’s eyebrows shot up. “Huh?”
“And look when those tickets were bought. Just minutes after the robbery was reported.”
“So?”
“So, why do you bring your luggage with you on a robbery, then buy the tickets to leave the country? And why buy tickets? They have a private jet at their disposal.”
Child shrugged. “Maybe the jet wasn’t available? It’s a lease-share network, so there are no guarantees.”
Tong attacked her keyboard, then shook her head. “No, there’s a jet in their network in Oslo. They could have just reserved that one and it could have been there in time.”
Child folded his arms across his chest, regarding Leroux. “So, what are you saying? I’m confused.”
Tong cleared her throat. “So am I.”
Leroux dropped into his chair. “Think about it. You break into the university, assault two people, then leave for the airport. After you leave, and are heading for the airport, you buy the tickets. You have your luggage with you already, because this was obviously your plan all along. But if it was, why not have the tickets purchased beforehand?”
“Because they didn’t want them to be flagged?” suggested Tong.
Leroux shook his head. “No, they aren’t in the system yet, and they certainly wouldn’t have been before the robbery. There was no reason to not book the tickets ahead of time. What if something had gone wrong and they lost their data connection and couldn’t purchase the tickets from the car on the way there? There are any number of things that could have gone wrong in purchasing those tickets. Hell, there might not have been any seats.”
“So, we have an anomaly.”
Leroux nodded at Tong. “Exactly. I think something else happened. There’s no way they planned on assaulting two people during that robbery. They’re not the type to hurt innocent people. I think they went in, stole the ring, and they were supposed to meet with the Saudis to exchange it for Professor Karlsson.” He pointed at the display, the agency used to purchase the tickets shown. “And that’s not their regular agent.” Leroux shook his head. “I don’t think they bought these tickets at all. I think they were bought for them after something went wrong.”
“You mean the two people assaulted.”
“Exactly.”
“But how would they know right away?” asked Tong.
Leroux spun in his chair. “Remember, Acton didn’t want any contact. They’re obviously under very close observation, and if our man in Stockholm is right, it’s in the form of pins stuck to their shirts.”
Child frowned. “Yeah, that didn’t exactly work out.”
Leroux agreed. “No, but we did learn something that will hopefully prove valuable later.” He stood, stepping toward the large displays. “But back to these tickets. If they were bought because something went wrong, then that means there was no reason for them to have their luggage with them.”
“Maybe they went back to the hotel?” suggested Tong.
Child shook his head. “No time. They definitely went straight to the airport from the university. No stops or detours.”
“Then someone must have brought them the bags.”
Leroux snapped his fingers at Tong’s suggestion. “Exactly! Check the footage, see if you can find them arriving. Maybe we can see who did the handoff to them, and get a face. We need someone we can track, and someone we can link back to the Saudis.”
Child continued to be confused. “But why bring the bags? I don’t understand. If this is some kidnap for ransom thing, why bring a change of clothes?”
Leroux smiled slightly at him. “Because what happens when a passenger on an international flight shows up with no luggage.”
Child leaned back in his chair. “Aaah, that’s it! You get flagged!”
“Exactly. They needed their bags to look like legitimate passengers, otherwise they might have been flagged by security, and asked questions they couldn’t answer. It could have risked the entire operation.”
Tong pursed her lips. “That’s what this is, isn’t it? An operation.”
Leroux paused, considering her words. “Yes, I suppose it is. The Saudis are definitely pulling out all the stops to get this ring and the Actons out of the country. There’s just one problem.”
“What’s that?” echoed Tong and Child.
“They’ll be arrested the moment they land.”
Child tapped at his keyboard. “Yup, you’re right. Their names just went out on Interpol. They’ll know pretty soon just where they are.”
Tong frowned. “And they’ll notify the Dubai authorities, who will arrest them and return them to Sweden for prosecution.”
Child cursed. “Aborting this carefully planned operation, and killing Professor Karlsson and any other loose ends that might be still dangling out there.”
Leroux tapped his chin, staring at the screen. “Carefully planned is the key.”
Child stopped his chair in mid-spin. “What do you mean?”
“There’s no way the Saudis wouldn’t know they’d be arrested the moment they arrived.”
“So, they’ve planned for this?”
Leroux nodded. “They must have.”
“Which means they’ve got people on the inside in Dubai and in Interpol.”
Leroux frowned. “Anything is possible with these people in that part of the world.”
“What can we do to help them now?”
Leroux pursed his lips, thinking. “Okay, you’re right. The game has changed. We now have an American citizen and a British subject about to be arrested in Dubai, after having committed a serious crime in Sweden that I don’t think it takes a rocket surgeon”—Child snickered—“to figure out they were coerced into, and I’m sure after the fact we’ll find lots of proof to clear them. Before, it was just Professor Karlsson involved, but now that there’s definitely an American, and it’s this American, we might be able to get some real assets involved.” A thought occurred to him, and he smiled. “Where’s Sherrie? I mean, Agent White.”
Tong blushed, tapping her keyboard. “She just landed in Baghdad.” She regarded him, her eyes narrowing. “What are you thinking?”
“I’m thinking if our professors land in Dubai and we don’t do something, they’re going to be dead before the sun rises.”