Briffaut’s Viano van stopped and started through the Paris morning commuter traffic. De Payns watched the director of Y Division reacting with annoyance and fatigue as he jumped from one phone call to the next.
‘We have to get in front of what the Libyans are planning,’ said de Payns, as his boss ended a call. ‘I can’t believe we’ve had no hits on something as big as an assassination in Europe by al-Kaniyat.’
Briffaut’s phone rang again, and he answered. ‘No, Marie, I’m coming to the Cat,’ he snapped. ‘See you in thirty minutes, reserve a SCIF. Thanks, goodbye.’
He hung up and turned back to de Payns in the facing seat. ‘I want you on Zeitz and I want answers about Vulcan and what exactly we’re dealing with.’
Briffaut keyed his phone. ‘Mattieu,’ he said to his 2IC, Mattieu Garrat, ‘Aguilar is escalating Operation Ellipse, on my authority. I want the budget and the approvals signed in advance. Whatever he needs, he gets, and I’ll deal with the Cat when they complain. Got it?’
There was a pause, and Briffaut’s face hardened. ‘Tell them there’s no slow-walking on Keratine’s new ID, and yes, there’s three of them: father, mother, son.’
The Châtelet Metro loomed, and when the van stopped, de Payns got out and trained and bussed to Noisy, where Tranh and Lolo had just taken over from the night shift duty techs. When de Payns sat down in the Y-9 security area, he could see several screens were being monitored.
‘Starkand,’ said Lolo, pointing at one screen, ‘and Zeitz,’ he said, pointing to the second. ‘Starkand’s phone pinged twice in the last few hours. It’s in Paris.’
‘Still pinging?’ asked de Payns.
‘No,’ said Lolo. ‘And we picked up activity on Zeitz’s phone last night. Brent and Thierry are on IMSI alert in the spinner vans, either side of the river.’
De Payns nodded, knowing that a fresh hit from the phones would allow the spinner vans to get there quickly, perhaps establish a big bubble and then attempt to isolate the users down to a small bubble created by the phone’s IEMI. He spied a third set of laptops sitting on Tranh’s desk, running graphic programs. ‘What’s that?’
‘An associated number for Zeitz,’ said Lolo. ‘The activity logs show a number that’s been called from her phone. We thought we’d do a phone environment on this one too.’
‘Excellent,’ said de Payns. ‘Let me know when we get something.’