“I don’t understand.”
“We were set up. Locke is nothing more than a decoy. We must act fast. It may already be too late.”
“You think they know who we are?” the woman asked fearfully.
“Once they discover our identity, they will destroy us.”
“The corpses, none carried IDs.”
“They have been using other methods to flush us out all along. They have dangled Locke on a string and pulled him back when we got close. They have distracted us enough to buy themselves time. If they learn who we are, time won’t matter. We will become the hunted.”
“God …”
“We aren’t finished yet,” the big man insisted, his one eye narrowed. “Our base in Spain is secure, our remaining soldiers safe. We will turn our attention to the conference and strike at them there.”
“And then?”
“If we fail, there will be no ‘then.’ Not for us,” he told the woman. “And not for South America.”
The Commander laid his newspaper on the table at his regular café on the Champs-Élysées as he addressed the man across from him.
“You have made an admirable recovery.”
Keyes grunted an acknowledgment. Words came hard for him. The ruined cartilage along his voice box smothered them before they could emerge. Syllables gurgled from his lips as if he had a mouth full of water, and each one burned the linings of his throat.
“I would like to give you an assignment,” the Commander told him. “Are you up to it?”
Keyes nodded.
“The hand will not impede you?”
Keyes glanced down at the black glove pulled tight across his ruined hand to hide the twisted damage Dogan had done. Only time could help him now, the doctors told him. Fuck time, Keyes thought.
He shook his head.
“I want you to find Grendel and kill him. He has become an outcast and we wish to be rid of him.” The Commander hesitated, relishing the perfect match of the man to the assignment. Word had been passed that a restricted quarantine had been placed on Dogan. But the Commander knew that was not quite sufficient. “I felt you would appreciate the assignment,” the Commander resumed. “Of course, everything is unofficial, no reports to be filed or anything so trivial. Such things aren’t done every day. Thus you will not have to provide explanations for any actions undertaken during the course of this assignment. Do whatever is necessary but do it fast. Understood?”
Keyes smiled.
Part Six:
Florence and San Sebastian,Tuesday Afternoon
Chapter 19
Locke couldn’t believe it when Dogan presented him with his passport Monday night.
“A Russian friend of mine retrieved it from the train station at Vaduz” was all he said. “Without it, travel at this point would prove extremely difficult.”
“I thought you guys had contacts all over the world who could whip one up in no time.”
“And all of them are being watched hoping I’ll do just that.”
“So I remain Sam Babbit.”
“Felderberg was the only one who knew you under that name so it should be safe to keep it.”
“Burgess knows about it too,” Locke reminded him. “He set the identity up, and you expressed reservations about him before.”
“But from what you’ve said, I doubt we have anything to fear from him. Besides, we haven’t got much choice.”
“Then maybe I should call the contact number and fill him in.”
“No. By now someone has probably linked him to Charney, which means they’ll be watching him. You’ll only throw Burgess into more danger and risk exposing yourself at the same time.”
Locke lowered his eyes to the ceramic floor of his room’s balcony. “I suppose the same can be said about contacting my family.”
“Even more so,” Dogan said softly, trying to comfort Locke as best he could. “They would ask questions you couldn’t answer, ask for reassurances you couldn’t give. Worse, contacting them could place their lives in jeopardy.”
“And what if that’s already the case?” Locke demanded suddenly. “The Committee stops at nothing — you said that yourself. My family are sitting ducks for them.”
“Only as leverage against you, leverage they didn’t think they needed until yesterday and leverage that means nothing since they have no idea where you are. The Committee stops at nothing, true, but none of its motions are wasted. You can count on that.”
“Excuse me if I don’t.” Locke sat down wearily. “God, this is crazy. A week ago I hated my life. Everything was falling apart and I would have grasped for anything just for the sake of change. That’s probably what drove me to accept Charney’s offer more than anything else. Now I find myself trapped in a labyrinth, and everywhere I turn there’s another wall. This may sound nuts, but all of a sudden I realize maybe I didn’t have it so bad. Maybe my problems at home weren’t worse than anybody else’s.”
“I know how you feel.”
“Do you? Do you have a life back in the States that you’ll probably never make it back to?” Locke challenged, feeling guilty even before the hurt appeared on Dogan’s face.
The agent looked away. “A family never meant much to me, just something to tie me down. We can’t have that in my profession, can we?”
“Brian tried. It didn’t work.”
“It seldom does. The profession has to be everything.” A bitter tone entered Dogan’s voice. “Especially for me because I was the best. But the only thing being the best does for you is set you up as a target, for the opposition and for your own people. And it’s your own people who are the worst. When you’re too good, they start to fear you’ve gained too much control. That’s when you become expendable. You work your whole career to attain something and then they take it away because to them you’re just a machine; no, less than a machine — a number, a number they can delete from the central computer with one touch of a key. Then you don’t exist anymore because maybe you never did in the first place.”
Dogan was breathing uncharacteristically hard. Locke found himself smiling.
“Is this the moment we cry on each other’s shoulders?”
Dogan chuckled, then checked his watch. “Not if I want to make my plane. It leaves for Bogotá in an hour and yours leaves for Rome tomorrow morning. After landing, you’ll enjoy a scenic train route north into Florence. I’ve already contacted the Dwarf’s people. He’s expecting you.”
“So I just walk right into his office and tell him you sent me….”
“Hardly. Something seems to have spooked the little man rather badly and he’s gone into hiding. You can bet it won’t be easy to get into see him. He’ll have you checked out carefully. It may be a long afternoon.”
“I’ve heard Florence is beautiful this time of year.”
“That’s good because you might be seeing a lot of it. Standard procedure in this situation dictates you’ll be run around a bit to make sure you’re alone. Just follow their instructions. The Dwarf takes precautions, but if you cooperate, you’ll see him.”
“And then?”
“Back to Rome and the Hilton Hotel, where a reservation for you has already been made. You’ll stay put there until you hear from me. We’ll set up a contact code through the hotel manager. I’ve worked with him before and he’s very reliable. If he doesn’t present a warding-off signal, I’ll know it’s safe to come in. I don’t expect to be in San Sebastian long anyway. I should be in Rome by late Wednesday with any luck.”
“We haven’t had much yet.”