Ryan was able to do little more than squeak an affirmative. “Then you know what I am” McGarvey growled. “And didn’t your mama ever tell you not to piss off a killer”
It was nearly midnight. The light wind had died and the evening had become warm and humid. McGarvey stood on the side porch in the shadows watching the gravel road as it disappeared down into the woods toward the highway. Trotter had left four FBI officers here to watch after Lorraine Abbott’s safety. So far he had picked out three of them. One in an old pickup truck just down from the barn, another just off the road, a flash of his white face briefly visible in the starlight, and the third had actually lit a cigarette farther down in the woods. “I want to thank you” Lorraine Abbott’s voice came from the open window just behind him and to the left. “Go to bed, Doctor” McGarvey said.
“The name is Lorraine” McGarvey smiled to himself. “I thought your friends called you Dr. Abbott”
“None of them have any balls” He had to laugh. “Now you sound like one of the boys”
“Did you ever know a physicist who wasn’t”
“Not one who looks like you”
It had been a long time since McGarvey had been to the headquarters building. The last time he’d left in disgrace and had packed himself off to Switzerland. It was odd coming back like this.
Driving up the broad road from the main gate where Trotter had left him a grounds pass, he could see that the new section of the main building had been completed. The Russians, it was said, were adding on to their Foreign Operations Building on the Circumferential Highway outside of Moscow. When that building had been constructed in 1972 it had been a nearly exact copy of CIA headquarters. It was a safe bet that their new addition would closely resemble the CIA’S. Spying was a big business, and the KGB admired the Americans’ way of doing it.
He parked the Taurus in the visitors’ lot and walked across to the main entrance of the building, where he signed in and was searched with a metal detector. Trotter himself came down a couple of minutes later to fetch him. “Has she settled down” he asked on the way up to the seventh floor. “She’s still grumbling, but she’s beginning to understand. How about O’Sheay-do you think he’ll blow the whistle”
“No” Trotter said.
McGarvey hadn’t thought so either. The man had been cowed. But they had probably made some sort of a deal with him. After all, his job in a large measure depended on National Security Agency spy satellites. The NPT Inspection Service would be hard pressed to do without the KHII.
“How about her computer”
“Barker will have it to her by this afternoon. We’re just waiting for some of her research materials to come in from California” Trotter looked at him. “She’ll be all right out there, Kirk”
“Any word on Kurshin”
“No, he’s gone to ground again”
“If he’s found out about her, he might try something”
“That’s why you’re here” Trotter said. “We want him to come to Washington, after me”
“Which he will do, once you start poking around Baranov’s main source”
“He’s pretty good, John”
“Yes he is, but now we know his target”
“And he knows that we know”
McGarvey said. They had to sign in with the seventh-floor security people, where they were again subjected to a metal detector search before they were allowed across the corridor and through the glass doors into the huge outer office of the CIA’s director. Lawrence Danielle was just coming from his office adjacent to the general’s, a pleasantly neutral expression on his face when he spotted McGarvey. “Hello, Kirk.
Welcome back”
They shook hands. Danielle had headed the review board which had recommended McGarvey’s dismissal. McGarvey was surprised at his own self-control now. He had done a lot of thinking, though, and years ago he had come to the conclusion that it had been time for him to get out anyway. It didn’t matter that Danielle had made the decision for him.
“This go-around it’s just a part-time job”
“Yes, well, they’re waiting for us inside” The DCI’s secretary buzzed them through and they went into the general’s vast office with its magnificent view of the rolling hills to the southwest. Howard Ryan and another man were seated across from Murphy, who rose from behind his massive desk. “Kirk McGarvey, I assume” the general said. “Yes, sir”
McGarvey said, crossing the room and shaking his hand. “I don’t believe you’ve met Phil Carrara, our deputy director of operations”
“No”
McGarvey said. Carrara got to his feet and they shook hands. “A hell of a job you did for us in Germany” he said. “I had help”
“Yes, it’s too bad about Jim Hunte. He was a good man from what I understand”
“Yes, he was”
“I believe you know Howard Ryan, our general counsel” the general said.
Ryan didn’t bother to rise nor did McGarvey even look at him. “Yes, sir, we’ve met”
In the awkward silence that followed, Murphy waved them to the three vacant chairs. It was an odd little group, McGarvey thought. But then the need-to-know list for this operation would have to be kept very small. Washington was a town filled with ears, and Baranov had his share of them. A basic assumption of every secret intelligence service was that the enemy almost certainly had his own people on the payroll. Not very often the Kim Philbys, but certainly the odd reader or analyst here and there. Ultra-sensitive operations of necessity were often top-heavy with brass. “I’ve read John’s overnight report, which included Dr.
Abbott’s assessment of what you found at En Gedi” the general said.
“And I think we’re all agreed here-and the president concurs-that the Israelis do have battleready nuclear weapons, that they are stored beneath En Gedi, and that the Russians know about it and will certainly make their next attempt to destroy the facility on June thirtieth. That gives us eleven days” The date was something new. But McGarvey kept a poker face. “Not enough time for the Israelis to move the depot and maintain any kind of security. “No, nor have they confirmed or denied the real purpose of En Gedi. I have spoken with Isser Shamir, and the president with Prime Minister Peres. They’re angry, of course, that you got as far as you did, but when we explained our position-fully explained it-they agreed to your release. Contingent on two things”
“The first would be that the NPT Inspection Service was to be cut out of the deal” McGarvey said. “What about the second”
“That you’re to have help on this one” the general said. He glanced at Trotter. “Mossad”
“Yes” the general said. “I want you to understand something up front, McGarvey. I think you handled Germany brilliantly, but I think you fucked up at En Gedi. It was a damned fool stunt that could have gotten you killed, and certainly pissed off our only ally in the Middle East who is worth a danm”
“I got what I was sent to get”
McGarvey said. He’d expected the little morality speech. “I also want you to understand that the reason your name came up in the first place was because of the way you handled yourself two years ago” McGarvey leaned forward. “Let’s cut the bullshit, Mr. Director” he said. “We all know why I’ve been brought back into the fold. I’m to be used as bait for Baranov and his trigger man, Arkady Kurshin” Ryan started to say something, and Danielle was hiding a little grin, but the general held them off. “All right, we’ll cut the bullshit, McGarvey. You make me nervous, and it’s not because you’re a maverick who wants to do things his own way, but because you are an assassin. Very probably you are unbalanced, and certainly you are dangerous. “You’re most likely right, General, but at the moment I’m needed” McGarvey said, surprised at the hurt he was feeling. This was like coming back from Vietnam all over again. He touched his face, remembering the spit. “Yes, you are. But if you want out you have my word that no one on this side of the Atlantic will ever bother you again”