WASHINGTON, D.C.,
AUGUST 15, 5:55 P.M. EDT
Olivia had attempted to reach James Brandt upon leaving the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, but his secretary said he was still in a meeting with Iris Cho, President Marshall’s chief of staff. Olivia took a cab back to her office at the OEOB, where she searched for any and all reports she could find that might shed some light on the troop movements on Laura Casini’s screen.
James Brandt, exercising his best judgment, could discount the importance of a slight increase in activity at Russian industrial sites. He could dismiss the possibility of any correlation between such increased activity and the shootings in Georgia that bore a familiar, if not unique, signature. But with the addition of Russian troop movements, Olivia was confident Brandt would bring the matter to the president’s attention.
None of the intelligence summaries spanning the last week, however, revealed anything out of the ordinary, nothing that would shed light on what was going on in the satellite images on Laura Casini’s screen. In fact, the summaries contained no mention of any unusual or unexpected Russian military maneuvers. According to the reports, it appeared everything in Russia was business as usual.
No matter, thought Olivia. Russian troops near the borders of Baltic nations might not be unusual; Russian troops moving southward along the Caspian was strange, to say the least. From the outset of their collaboration, dating back to her undergrad days at Stanford, James Brandt had taught Olivia to take seriously any strange or unusual Russian behavior. There was rarely, if ever, an innocuous explanation for such behavior.
Olivia was prepared to log off her computer and call Brandt’s secretary again when a footnote in one of the summaries caught her eye. But for the satellite images Olivia had just seen, the footnote might otherwise be anodyne. In the last week there had been increased Russian naval presence at Bandar Abbas, the Iranian Persian Gulf port on the northern coast of the Strait of Hormuz. There was no description of the Russian vessels other than they appeared to be part of the Russian Pacific fleet out of Vladivostok.
Olivia dialed Laura Casini’s number.
“Casini.”
“Laura, take a look at Bandar Abbas for me, will you? Time lapse the last week. Let me know what you see, okay?”
“On it.”
Olivia hung up. “There are no coincidences in this business,” Dwyer had said. The coincidences were piling up. She looked at the time on the lower right corner of her computer screen. Brandt’s meeting with Cho had to be over by now. Iris was famous for terseness and time management.
Olivia called Brandt’s cell. It went to voice mail. Olivia terminated the call and dialed Brandt’s secretary, Jess, who picked up on the first ring.
“Jess, it’s Olivia. Is he available?”
“He wasn’t feeling well and cut short the meeting with Iris, Olivia. He left a while ago and is probably over the bridge by now. Did you try his mobile?”
“Straight to voice mail.”
“Oh, well, is there anything I can help you with?”
“If he calls in, please ask him to call me. Tell him I think I have some new information that he’ll find interesting.” Olivia thought for a moment. “Information that’s important.”
“He may not be in tomorrow. I have a feeling he may be working from home. It will be a while before he gets there, though.”
“I’ll try him there a bit later. Thank you, Jess.”
Frustrated at being unable to reach Brandt, she dialed Dan Dwyer’s number. Although she had to be circumspect talking with a civilian, even one privy to certain classified information, she had to talk to someone. The new information on the Russian movements was beginning to instill in her a vague sense of urgency. And the buzzing in her ears persisted.