113

HOUSTON, TEXAS—2 JUNE

Three days later, Marcus and his team were still in Houston.

They had been working eighteen- to twenty-hour days, yet neither they nor the five hundred other federal agents spread out across the city had discovered, much less captured, any Kairos operatives.

That said, there was no question the NEST teams had found convincing evidence of radiological devices in both an apartment building and its parking garage. What was particularly odd, and deeply troubling, was an analysis by the top nuclear scientists at both the Defense Department and the Department of Energy verifying that the particular uranium signature detected was from material originally produced in Russia.

That finding, highly classified and known only to nineteen people in the entire federal government, had been a thunderclap. However, on a secure videoconference of the National Security Council, Defense Secretary Cal Foster cautioned that this apparently damning evidence did not necessarily mean the Russians had given uranium to Kairos. Foster noted that the traces could very well have come from uranium that Moscow had once provided to Iran for their civilian nuclear reactor at Bushehr. The IRGC, in turn, might have provided it to Abu Nakba. At this point there was no way to be certain.

It was then that Marcus felt compelled to share the new information that he had learned from Oleg Kraskin and had been trying to confirm for the past several days. By hacking into the Kremlin’s computer system, the Raven had uncovered evidence that the FSB had bankrolled Kairos in its early years with a series of complicated wire transfers through various shell corporations in the Caribbean. The transfers totaled more than 100 million rubles. While that was the equivalent of only about one million U.S. dollars, it was still a bombshell to the National Security Council given all the Americans Kairos had already murdered and Kairos’s attempt on President Clarke’s life in Jerusalem.

“I thought Kairos was being bankrolled by the Iranians,” Hernandez said over the secure conference line.

“They are, sir,” Marcus confirmed, “but what the Raven has uncovered indicates Abu Nakba has been soliciting funds from multiple sources. I’ve suspected this for years, but this is the first hard confirmation we’ve ever found.”

Martha Dell and Annie Stewart verified that the Raven’s evidence was airtight and had been cross-checked by the Agency’s top Russia analysts.

The revelation sparked an intense debate over what this meant and how to handle it. Foster, the SecDef, argued this was an act of war. Whitney agreed but laid the blame at the feet of former Russian dictator Luganov, not Russia’s current president, Mikhail Petrovsky. Annie suggested that Hernandez send Whitney to Moscow immediately to confront Petrovsky both with the evidence of his predecessor’s support for Kairos and the evidence of Russian uranium being used by Kairos to build one or more dirty bombs.

“The last thing I want to do is start a war,” Hernandez said.

“Exactly, sir,” Annie replied. “The secretary can make it clear that you want a fresh start with Moscow. But to do so, you need Petrovsky to help us identify and stop these terrorists—immediately. And she should also make it clear that if a nuclear device made with Russian uranium is detonated on American soil, you will consider this an attack by the Russian Federation on the United States of America.”

Marcus concurred but suggested a slight alternative. “Mr. President, I’d recommend that Director Dell fly to Moscow instead. A visit by Secretary Whitney would attract too much attention. But Dell can go quietly and serve as a back channel. No press. No leaks. Just lay out the facts, as Annie suggested, and present a crystal clear ultimatum. If Petrovsky is serious about peace, he can help us stop these terrorists immediately without the public knowing. If he refuses, Mr. President, then we’ll all know what we’re up against.”

This, too, sparked a heated debate. Telling the Russians what the U.S. now knew about the imminent Kairos threat posed a serious risk. What if the Kremlin was, in fact, using Kairos to retaliate against the U.S. for alleged U.S. complicity in the assassinations of former President Luganov, former FSB chief Dmitri Nimkov, and former Prime Minister Maxim Grigarin? If so, they might verbally agree to help the Americans thwart any coming attack yet not actually provide any useful information. Worse, they could tip off Abu Nakba to accelerate his attack.

But they were fast running out of time, and both Marcus and Annie argued that Petrovsky, while no friend of the U.S., was not as evil as Luganov. He certainly didn’t want to spark a nuclear war and could very well have intel about Kairos that might prove critical.

In the end, Hernandez was persuaded and ordered Dell to fly to Moscow immediately. Then he apologized for having to end the NSC call. The pontiff’s plane had just landed on American soil and he would be arriving at the White House within the hour.