Max looked at the lawyer questioningly. He guessed that the lawyer would say no, but Max didn’t want to appear as anything other than cooperative. Let the lawyer be the bad guy.
Max said, “If it will help clear up this mess…”
The lawyer stopped and turned, hands folded across his chest. He sighed. “If Mr. Fend wants to continue to answer your questions, we can finish this at my office. Tomorrow. I need time to confer with my client.”
The FBI men looked at each other. One walked away with his phone to his ear, whispering into it.
“Fine,” Flynn said. “We’ll finish up tomorrow.”
Max could see the other agent on the phone in the kitchen area. He was making eye contact with Flynn. He held up two fingers.
Two minutes.
Special Agent Flynn nodded back to him.
What was happening in two minutes?
Max got up and the group of agents escorted him down the stairs. Flynn said, “Give him back his phone and personal items.”
One of the agents leaned in close to Flynn. Max tried to read his lips but couldn’t. It looked like he uttered the phrase “press charges.” As in, “Do you want to press charges?” Max knew that if one of the agents was asking that, then they were probably close to that threshold of evidence they needed to place him under arrest.
They couldn’t have that. Not unless there was something they weren’t telling him.
He didn’t hear Flynn’s reply. But he saw Flynn looking right back at him, shaking his head. The group continued to walk outside the building.
A maroon Lexus sedan was parked on the curb. The lawyer opened the door for Max. “We’ll be in touch,” he told the FBI agents.
Once Max was inside with the doors closed, the lawyer looked Max in the eyes. His expression changed.
Max heard some commotion outside the vehicle. The FBI agent that had been on the phone was running down the front steps of the townhouse. Holding up his hand, calling something out to Special Agent Flynn.
In the side mirror, Max could see them talking. Flynn turned and looked at the sedan. He held out his hand and yelled, “Hold up!”
The doors in the sedan locked and Max looked at the lawyer in confusion. The lawyer placed his hand on Max’s shoulder. “Listen to me.” His eyes were deadly serious. “I’m not a lawyer. And I’ve never worked for your father.”
A sinking feeling grew in the pit of Max’s stomach.
The driver said, “Someone set you up. That’s why the FBI is questioning you. And it won’t get any better.”
A knock at Max’s window. Flynn stood there, giving him a signal to roll down the window. His voice sounded muffled from outside. “Max, please step out of the vehicle.”
Max looked up at him. A group of agents were behind him. One was going around the driver’s side. Flynn’s hand began reaching down toward his holster.
The lawyer said, “Max, whatever information they just received, it’s false. But it’s something that could lock you up for years, and place your father and his company in peril. You need to get out now, while you can.”
“Right. Question — can you go back to the part where you—”
“Max, I need your consent. This will be your only chance. Come with me now, and I can give you a shot at freedom. You’ll have a chance to find out who set you up, and stop them. But you need to tell me now that you’re in. Otherwise, my orders are to release you back to the FBI.”
Max looked into the face of Agent Flynn. He didn’t look happy.
Max said, “Let’s go.”
“Strap in. We’re going to try and lose them.”
“Oh, hell.”
The lawyer slammed on the gas and peeled out, his Lexus tearing down the road. They left the FBI agents openmouthed and panicked.
4
At first, Special Agent Flynn had thought the lawyer was just a pompous ass. Coming in like he owned the place, happy to throw his weight around and force the FBI to play by the rules.
Flynn had been stuck between a rock and a hard place. He had taken a risk, asking Max to voluntarily come in to answer questions before the second arrest warrant was issued. The first warrant had been recalled as they were moving in to arrest him.
The Cyber Division had sent them evidence that morning, and his team had a location on Max Fend. A judge issued the warrant, and they began moving.
The evidence was obvious enough at first glance. Fend looked dirty. The Syrian hacker group on the other end certainly was. The electronic forensics data connected Max to the cyber intrusion. The Cyber Division had cross-checked it with their partners at the NSA, who in turn had shown it to the DNI’s office as a courtesy.
That’s when the trouble started. After the warrant was issued, the lawyers from DNI and the NSA had informed the Justice Department of some irregularities in the data. Flynn had seen this show before. The judge would recall the warrant. But by that time, his team was walking toward Max Fend and had likely been spotted. Pulling them back meant that they would be alerting Fend that they were on to him, and giving him a chance to flee.
Sure enough, the judge decided to cancel the warrant. Flynn’s team was already moving in on Max. He had to think fast. So he told them to see if Fend would come in voluntarily.
But Flynn needed corroborating evidence. So he reached out to the DST — the French domestic intelligence agency. They had responded to a request for information on Fend earlier. The French had records of Max taking meetings with men connected to the suspected hackers. Flynn needed those documents sent to the judge.
Flynn’s team received the evidence from the French and were taking it up the chain. They would have an arrest warrant within the hour. In the meantime, Flynn would ask Max Fend a few questions. If they were lucky, he might get spooked. Maybe he would admit allowing the hackers into the Fend computer network. If not, the French evidence would provide what they needed to place Fend under arrest before they had to let him go. That was the plan.
The Fend lawyer had changed everything.
Once he entered the picture, Flynn began to worry that any case he had would be thrown out because of procedural mistakes. He had stuck his neck out, and now his head was about to get chopped off. Flynn had attempted to take down wealthy guys like this Fend character before. Their lawyers always got them off on technicalities. That’s what the money paid for. Greatest judicial system in the world.
So Flynn went along with the lawyer’s suggestion to meet down at his office tomorrow. Better to play it by the book at this point and live another day. If the lawyer wasn’t going to raise a stink about taking Fend to the safe house for questioning, that was a good thing. The judge’s office was due to call back any minute.
Special Agent Flynn didn’t know what would make someone like Max Fend get involved with organized crime rings out of Eastern Bloc nations. But that’s what his file said. Fend had taken meetings with people who were involved in arms dealing, drugs, and human trafficking. He had close ties to some less-than-reputable Middle Eastern businessmen. Some were even on terrorist watch lists.
He was also plugged in to the young elite European crowd. Wealthy twenty- and thirty-somethings not unlike himself. Lots of flashy cars and pretty girls. Fend liked to have a good time, apparently. He worked as some type of high-end consultant — wheeling and dealing and living the high life in the South of France. Why he cavorted with criminals, Flynn didn’t know.
When the FBI asked Special Agent Flynn to investigate the potential hacking incident at Fend Aerospace last week, he would never have guessed that it would lead back to Charles Fend’s own son. But that’s what the evidence was telling him. The Cyber Division was dependable. They could really work some magic with their computers. And the more Flynn read up on Max Fend, the more it all fit into place.