Isaac looked into the man's eyes sternly and then turned and walked toward the kitchen. The man followed. Once the door to the kitchen was closed, Isaac said, "You were supposed to get here first."
The man finally took his hat off. "Yes sir, I know. But I had to make a detour to Rome first."
Isaac raised his eyebrows. "Rome? Why Rome?"
"I watched the transaction as planned. But I wasn't alone. There was another guy who had followed Dalton to Trieste."
Isaac's interest was now rightfully peaked. He gestured for the man to sit at a small booth near a convex window with a view of the sculptured back garden and pond. It was the only garden on the estate well maintained and out of view of Varazdin's lower class. "Please, tell me more."
"I followed the man to a nice residential area in Rome. The car and apartment belong to a woman named Toni Contardo. I couldn't find out who the man was."
"Who is she?" Isaac asked quickly.
The man paused for a second. "CIA."
"What? How do you know?" Isaac asked.
"About two years ago, when I was still assigned to the Southern NATO intelligence acquisition, I ran across her path. She's one of the agents who cracked our NATO plans scheme. She planted the disinformation to our guys, who then turned it over to the KGB. When the Kremlin found out the plans were useless, our two agents were killed."
"Yes, yes…I remember," Isaac said. "So then we must assume that the other man who followed Dalton is CIA also."
The man shrugged.
Isaac tapped his forehead and then looked at his man directly. "You must make sure they don't stop Dalton. We can't have anything go wrong now. I thought that getting rid of Cecil, her boss, would be enough. But I guess we'll have to get rid of a few more. Do what you have to do. Use whatever means required. I want it done quickly, and with as little commotion as possible.
The man smiled and shook his head.
"You have a problem with that?" Isaac asked.
"No, sir. It's just that Contardo is quite the looker. It will be a terrible waste of beauty."
"That's never stopped you before. Use as many men as you need. Don't confuse her beauty with a lack of competence. The CIA doesn't hire just anyone. She has to be good."
The man needed no more guidance. He rose and departed through the back door.
When Isaac returned to the study, Vitaly was stuffing the last of the bread into his mouth. Isaac poured himself a cup of coffee and took a slow sip.
"Is everything all right?" Vitaly asked, his voice muffled by the bread.
Isaac heard the words, but neglected their meaning. He looked at Vitaly carefully. He was eager to please without question. When Isaac left Hungarian Intelligence for early retirement, his men slowly resigned with him to keep from arousing suspicion. Government service had at one time meant a prestigious position, but had quickly become a mire of bureaucratic stagnation. Vitaly should be beyond the scrutiny of question, Isaac thought. But there was far too much at stake to disregard a double-layered operation. Even Vitaly had to be watched.
"Yes, Vitaly. Everything is just fine." Isaac sat back in his chair and brought his hands together to his mouth as if praying.
CHAPTER 28
Jake slowly opened his eyes to a darkened room. The shades were drawn, but a glint of light seeped through; only enough to make out objects of furniture in Toni's living area. He pressed the light to his watch; sixteen ten. That was more sleep than he expected to get.
He switched on a small lamp on the table next to the sofa; his bed. Toni had left him a note. She and Kurt had gone to check on Jason Dalton, and would return by five p.m. He checked his watch again. Less than fifty minutes away. Milt should be on his third cup of coffee and halfway through the Sunday paper by now, he thought.
Jake picked up the phone and dialed Milt's number.
"Hello," Milt answered.
"Jake Adams," he said.
"Jake, where are you?"
"Italy." Jake yawned.
"You sound tired. Did you drive down?" Milt asked.
"Yeah. I just woke up. Has anything happened since we talked last?"
"Well, yes." Milt paused. "The government is giving me shit. They say the leak is still in place aboard the USS Roosevelt."
"How's that possible? I take it you've heard about the bombing in Genoa a week ago?"
"Yes."
"That may have been to cover someone's tracks. I'm not sure who. But we're working on it."
"We?" Milt asked.
"Yeah, I still have a few friends in Italy. Milt, are you alone? Is Steve Carlson there with you?"
"I'm alone. Steve took an unexpected vacation. Something about a sick aunt out East. I briefed him before he left, though."
"Sorry to hear that. Milt I'll track down the Roosevelt and see what I can come up with. Who's the tech rep onboard?"
"A guy named Burt Simpson. But he's trustworthy. Steve hired him personally about two years ago."
"I don't trust anyone," Jake said sternly. "Trust can get you killed at this stage of the game. But I'll find him and get as much information as I can from him."
"Milt, I've got a theory. Bundenbach Electronics was moving in a number of different directions up until about five months ago. At that point, they cut loose all of their research and development people except for those working on transputer technology." Jake waited for some response.
"Go ahead."
"Well, I think that Bundenbach decided to shift all its efforts to transputers, but then came up with the same problem that the other European companies have run across. The transputer processing is fast, but it comes with trade-offs. To make it truly outstanding, say a breakthrough equivalent to the Cray One back in the early eighties, they had to overcome memory direction problems. With the speed and storage capabilities of your chips, they can overcome all of their problems. They'll have a computer with an ironclad networking scheme at one fourth the price of any supercomputer. They could put a lot of companies out of business with a super transputer like that. But even more scary would be to shift production of transputers to the personal computer level. I don't even want to think about what would happen then."
Jake paused again to listen for a response.
"Milt, are you still with me?" Jake asked.
"Shit. I wish we'd thought of that. Are you sure you don't want to come to work for me permanently?"
Jake laughed. "No, thanks anyway. Computers are just a hobby with me."
"Yeah, right. I wish we had a few more hobbyists in our company."
"Do you think my theory has relevance then?"
"Yes, unfortunately," Milt said. "I wish you were wrong, but I doubt you are."
"Thanks for the confidence. Milt, this case is taking some strange twists. I'm sure that I'll have it wrapped up in no time. But…." He thought about his own motives.
"What's the matter, Jake?"
"I don't know. This case really pisses me off. And when I get pissed, I do things that may hurt others. It would be okay, but sometimes those people are close to me."
"Do what you have to do," Milt said, and then paused. "There's a lot to be said for self-preservation. Sometimes you have to hit people over their head to get their attention. Let's hope it doesn't come to that."
That's the problem. Jake had a bad feeling about this case. Getting shot at during his first days in Germany didn't help dispel that feeling. He thought things would change for the better, but keeping one step ahead of Gunter and his men had been nearly a full-time job.
"Milt, I'll do my best," Jake said with confidence.