“We don’t—”
Sheridan unfolded his arms and took a step closer to her. “You don’t know what you’re talking about, policewoman.”
“I’m not a police…”
“No, you’re not! You didn’t have the brains to make it into the Agency, so instead thought you’d play at being a cop.”
His last comment genuinely shocked Marsha. She tried to think of a retort, but was lost for words.
Alistair wasn’t. “Mrs. Gage has personally removed from American streets three serial killers, fourteen murderers, eight kidnappers, four extortionists, and two foreign spies. You haven’t. And during that time, she has also raised two children. Oh, and I nearly forgot: she got the Stanford University School of Law’s highest grade point average in twenty-seven years. Had she chosen to apply to the Agency, she would’ve sailed through its selection and training program.”
Marsha glanced at Alistair, wondering how he got that information and why it was that his chivalry constantly caught her by surprise. “Actually, it was twenty-six years.”
Alistair placed his fingertips together while keeping his cold gaze fixed on Sheridan. “During which time I know for a fact that Stanford’s law exams had become progressively tougher.”
Sheridan waved a hand dismissively. “I don’t give a shit. She hasn’t got what it takes. Too by-the-book. Too much snooping into matters that are way over little missy’s head.”
Patrick said with deliberation, “Little missy has a reason for wanting to know the Ferryman clearance list. Obviously, you know why.”
Sheridan was silent.
Alistair smiled. “Please tell me that your superior intellect comprehends the purpose behind Marsha’s enquiry.”
Sheridan’s gaze flickered between the three people in front of him, but his eyes failed to conceal his confusion.
Patrick asked in a voice that mimicked Sheridan’s poor attempt at sounding British, “Come on, old boy, surely this isn’t beyond your capabilities?”
Sheridan now looked like a schoolboy who hadn’t done his homework. “I don’t answer to you!”
“No, you don’t!” This came from Marsha. “But you’re a dead man if you don’t answer my question.”
“Dead?”
Marsha nodded. “Dead.”
Alistair closed his eyes while keeping his fingertips pressed together. “Dead, dead, dead.” He opened his eyes. “Will Cochrane will tear you and anyone else privy to Ferryman to pieces to get answers. He won’t stop. You’re dead. So we’d like to put you and everyone else on the Ferryman list under protective custody.”
Marsha smiled. “We will put some expert Bureau heavies around you and your pals. Cochrane comes to you for answers. We get the drop on him. Simple.”
Sheridan frowned. “You want to lay us out as bait?”
“Yes.”
“You’re crazy.”
“Maybe.” Marsha drummed her fingers over her leg. “But I’m told that in days, maybe even hours, you’re a dead man walking.”
“I can look after myself.”
Patrick smiled. “Against Cochrane? Good luck with that. He’ll butcher you.”
Uncertainty was showing on Sheridan’s face. Only one thing was more important to him than Ferryman, and that was his neck. Clearly, the three people in front of him had realized that and had pressed the one button that could make him talk. In any case, he reckoned Patrick would easily be able to access Agency databases to find out who was on the Ferryman clearance list. Sheridan wouldn’t be betraying anyone or anything by answering Gage’s question. “Senator Colby Jellicoe, me, Ed Parker, an analyst named Helen Coombs, the head of the Agency, the British prime minister, and the American president are cleared to know every detail about Project Ferryman. Others know what it can deliver, but the aforementioned are the only ones who know the key players in the mission.”
Marsha nodded. “The premiers are obviously already taken care of, but the rest of you need to be taken out of the equation.”
“Equation?”
“Away from danger. Protected.”
Alistair pointed a finger at him. “Marsha’s original idea was to put Project Ferryman Agency personnel under discreet surveillance. But Patrick and I thought that was far too dangerous, and Mrs. Gage has agreed with us.”
However, Marsha didn’t know the real reason why Patrick and Alistair had tweaked her idea — that 24-7 protective custody would stop Sheridan from hunting Ellie Hallowes.
Alistair continued. “You can come and go from here as much as you like.”
Marsha smiled. “So long as you realize that you’ll have armed men around you at all times.”
Sheridan nodded. “I’m fine with that.”
His observation made Alistair and Patrick frown.
Within the café, Will was motionless and silent as he listened to Ellie recount what she’d read in the Ferryman files.
She told him that a high-ranking Russian SVR officer called Gregori Shonin had been recruited by a CIA officer who was on a posting with his wife in Prague in 2005. Though Shonin was a fabulous asset in his own right, his true value was that he had direct access to his SVR boss, the spymaster Antaeus. Shonin’s recruitment had been complex, because he was insistent to his Agency handler that he needed to pretend to Antaeus that he’d recruited an Agency officer and could obtain from that officer American secrets. The CIA officer quite rightly reported these terms to the head of the Agency, who in turn sought clearance from the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence to pass Shonin chicken-feed U.S. secrets that wouldn’t damage American interests.
Shonin was given the code name Ferryman.
During the subsequent decade, Ferryman had produced invaluable intelligence, and three people in particular had their careers accelerated on the back of the project. In 2007, Ferryman had supplied the Agency with the name of an American double agent who’d been working for the USSR and subsequently Russia for years. Colby Jellicoe, then a CIA officer, expertly interrogated the traitor, got him to confess, and established every piece of intelligence he’d supplied to the Russians. Jellicoe’s career subsequently escalated to director level, and thereafter he became a senator working on the SSCI. In 2009, Russia had discovered that the Americans had built a listening post underneath the political district in central Moscow. Ferryman told the Agency that Russia knew about the post and was likely to find it within forty-eight hours, at which point it would announce the discovery to the world and cause a diplomatic disaster between the two countries. CIA officer Ed Parker was immediately deployed covertly to Russia and, at great risk, took command of the listening post team, expertly dismantled the post, and covered up all of America’s tracks. In 2011, Ferryman had told the CIA that Russia had tasked an assassination squad to hunt down and kill a Russian dissident who intended to go to the press with information that could compromise Russia. The dissident was in hiding in Georgia. CIA officer Charles Sheridan volunteered to rescue him, infiltrated Georgia, located the dissident, and got the man safely out of the country while being pursued by the assassins. During his exfiltration, Sheridan debriefed the dissident and established that the man had a stolen an encrypted computer stick containing data on Russian political intentions toward its neighbors and the West. Once decrypted by the Agency, the data on the stick provided a vital tactical advantage to America on a raft of political negotiations with Russia. For his actions, Sheridan was awarded the Intelligence Star medal.
Three years ago, the CIA had learned that MI6 was planning to assassinate Antaeus. The Agency pretended to assist British Intelligence, whereas in truth it wanted to establish the minutiae of the operation so that it could forewarn Antaeus of the plot via Ferryman. It did precisely that, seconds before Will Cochrane’s bomb blew up Antaeus’s car. According to Ferryman, Antaeus was disfigured by the blast but survived. His wife and six-year-old daughter did not.