State Of The Union

Harvath placed his right elbow upon the conference room table and pinched the bridge of his nose between his thumb and forefinger. He wished they would get to the point.

Sensing his frustration, Vaile offered, “Maybe I can be a little more clear. Toward the end of the time Gary and Heide were operating in Europe, Berlin in particular, we suffered some major intelligence losses. Somebody provided the Russians with highly sensitive information.”

“And you never caught the person,” said Harvath.

“Correct. We looked at everybody, including the Lawlors-”

“Who obviously were cleared.”

“At the time yes, but in light of recent events, Heide’s death has been drawn into question.”

Harvath was incredulous now. “Are you trying to say you think Gary had something to do with it?”

Vaile put up his hand to silence Harvath. “The Lawlors were working on agents from different parts of Russia and the Eastern Bloc and as such, reported to different supervisors. Shortly before Heide’s death, she mentioned to her supervisor that she was concerned about Gary.”

“How do you know this?”

“It took some digging, but I was able to track down a copy of her report in our files at Langley. She said Gary had changed somehow. She suspected he was working on some sort of project outside of his normal duties. He would disappear in the evenings and sometimes even for days at a time. He claimed it was work-related and he couldn’t discuss it, but when Heide’s supervisor looked into it, he informed her that there was nothing he could find to support Gary ’s story. Shortly thereafter, Heide was killed.”

“This is ridiculous,” said Harvath. “ Gary must have been questioned up and down afterward.”

“He was and he appeared very distraught over her death. It seemed genuine. It wasn’t until he saw a copy of the report from Heide’s supervisor that he started talking. At first, he said that he didn’t want to sully his wife’s good name. A couple of days later, Gary claimed that Heide had been growing paranoid before her death, that she had even been taking medication for it. She didn’t know whom she could trust and she had even started disbelieving him. It was a difficult scenario for us. It washe said, she said, but she was dead and couldn’t corroborate or deny anything Gary was telling us. We debriefed him extensively, but everything held up. A private doctor even confirmed that he had been treating Heide for paranoia and depression and that he had also been prescribing pills for her. Case closed.”

“So what’s the problem?” prodded Harvath. “You don’t actually think he was up to something he shouldn’t have been?”

CIA Director Vaile took a deep breath before responding, “At this point we have no idea what to think.”

“All of this because there’s been a string of murders of Army Intelligence operatives who were in Berlin at the same time Gary was? While I’ll grant you that the murders are obviously connected to each other, you’ve failed to make the biggest connection of all- Gary to the victims.”

“Actually,” replied Driehaus, “we have made the connection.”

Harvath was stunned. “What is it?”

“Several of the victims placed calls to Gary right before they were killed.”

Chapter 6

PETROZAVODSK, RUSSIA

Impossible!” growled Sergei Stavropol into his satellite phone, careful not to draw the attention of the various technicians and scientists working around him. “I don’t care if that body is inside a wolf, a bear, or some farmer’s hungry pig, I want you to find it, cut it open and bring me the bones. Do you understand me?”

Milesch Popov, the twenty-two-year-old, knife-scarred entrepreneur on the other end of the line, was pissed off. Who the fuck did this man think he was talking to? “You paid me to retrieve the cars from the lodge in Zvenigorod. I could have sold those cars for a lot of money, but our deal was for them to disappear, permanently, and that’s what I made happen. Then, you call me and ask me to goback to Zvenigorod to see what the police were up to. They were everywhere, but I went anyway and I took a look like you asked me to. That I did for free, out of good customer service, but what you’re asking me now is out of the question because I-”

Stavropol cut to the chase and interrupted the young Moscow Mafioso, “How much?”

“This isn’t about money.”

“Don’t be ridiculous. This is the new Russia. Everything is about money.”

“Stolen cars are not exactly in the same category as dead bodies,” said Popov, lowering his voice and readying himself for a tough negotiation.

“You are trying my patience, Milesch. I am a busy man. Name your price,” demanded Stavropol.