His long hours at the CIA prevented him from having a dog, but he would often borrow the next-door neighbor’s golden retriever and go for long jogs. He also found the dog made it easier to meet women at the local park. Usually he told them he worked for the Department of the Treasury as a quality inspection specialist. No one really wanted to ask questions about a job title like that.
Right now, he had his personal cell phone in his pocket, hoping Derek Walsh would call him back. The 60-inch Sony TV was on CNN as he listened to the news coming in from around the world. He always got the bulk of his news from U.S. stations, then watched the BBC for a different view. He had found the foreign stations were not necessarily more accurate, but it certainly gave him a better idea of how the rest of the world looked at the United States.
Some of the initial protests had petered out in New York, but there were still the ongoing lone wolf terror attacks, not only in New York but across the entire country. Rosenberg had a hypothesis that these attacks had been scheduled to happen around the same time and he believed the first wave of these attacks were spent. The pace and targets indicated that.He was certain more attacks were on the way.
So far the attack that had captured the most attention today was a man who wore an explosive vest and detonated it in the ticket line for Disneyland in Anaheim, California. That struck at the heart of American fears. Dozens of children were injured, but a quirk of engineering, a pillar the man was standing next to, had absorbed and directed much of the blast. It saved dozens of lives; even so, nine people were confirmed dead, and several major theme parks had closed their doors for security reasons. It was that sort of activity that had emboldened terrorists. Everyone liked to use the phrase “If we restrict people’s rights, the terrorists win.” More accurately it was “If Americans cave in to terrorist demands, the terrorists win.” It was a subtle but important distinction.
There was the usual nonstop debate about the president’s address, but in this case very few people felt it was a positive message that sent any sort of reassurance out to the American people. Police forces across the United States were trying to figure out what they could do to keep people safe. The plans made so feverishly after the September 2001 attacks had slowly become obsolete. Technology and population shifts and a lack of money to update the plans had left most cities unprepared for attacks like these. Experience was one of the best teachers, and luckily there were still cops and administrators who remembered the lessons from 9/11.
Rosenberg’s phone rang, and he grabbed it immediately. He felt a wave of relief mixed with apprehension when he heard his friend’s voice. All he could blurt out was, “Jesus Christ, Tubby, what the hell happened?”
“I gotta tell you the truth, Mike, I have almost no more information than when I talked to you earlier. One thing that troubles me is that Russians are involved.”
“What do you mean, Russians?”
Rosenberg listened while Walsh laid out everything that had happened to him over the last few hours. It sounded like a spy movie, but he knew his friend wasn’t given to exaggeration.
Finally Rosenberg said, “We’ve got to bring you in where it’s safe.”
“Bring me in? I’m not a spy. Right now all I am is a goddamned fugitive. I trust you, but I don’t trust what the FBI would do. They want to wrap this up, and I’m the only suspect. I can’t even give them anyone else as a bargaining chip. Someone thought this out really well.”
“If you stay out there too long, you can do something that’s a real crime. You can get yourself in more trouble. You’ve got to find a way to turn yourself in safely. You could come down here and I’ll walk you into our headquarters. This is enough of an international issue that we could claim some sort of jurisdiction. You’d get a fair shake.”
“I have a plan, Mike. It’s gonna take me a day or two to work it out, and if I blow it, then maybe I’ll come down to you. I’d ask you to put me and Alena up, but I don’t want to screw up your whole career for helping a known fugitive. Besides, what I need to do is here in New York.”
“Right now I’m young enough to start a new career. What I am worried about is keeping you alive. Is there anyone you can trust in New York?”
There was a long pause on the phone.
Rosenberg said, “That’s what I thought. The two guys you can trust are in Virginia and Germany right now. And my bet is Bill Shepherd has his hands full.”
Walsh said, “You believe me when I tell you I didn’t do it, right, Mike?”
Rosenberg didn’t hesitate. “You don’t even have to tell me you didn’t do it. I know you. I know you didn’t do it.” He sensed that Walsh had to pause as relief washed over him.
“Thanks, I needed to hear that. But I also need to figure out who did it.”
“I’m working on a few angles from my office. Maybe I’ll be able to find something. Call me tomorrow night about this time.”
Rosenberg had to sit down after the call. Even when he was deployed in Afghanistan he didn’t worry about his friends this much. He started considering different ways to attack the problem. Just like any good marine would.
18
Anton Severov was surprised Fannie could slip out of his room without him knowing it. It just showed how exhausted he was from preparing for this operation and the effect of his vigorous bout of lovemaking with the beautiful French Muslim. He wanted to believe she had some sort of feelings for him, but based on how she described her relationship with an American marine officer, he wasn’t about to let any vital information slip. She was giving him an insight into the Muslim mind, and maybe he would understand the Georgian, Chechen, and other Muslim troops under his command a little better. They always seemed distant and defiant, but maybe they really believed they had reasons for that sort of attitude.
He got dressed in the crowded, tiny room and shoved his few pieces of clothing and a notebook into a worn-out duffel bag he’d carried across the border into Estonia. He needed to make a report and would use the special phone he was told was secure, although as with much of the equipment issued in Russia, claims of its effectiveness were almost always exaggerated.
It was still early, barely seven in the morning, and he hoped he’d beaten Fannie and Amir by at least an hour. He needed some quiet time to make more notes and the phone call. First he had to get a little food in him, and the tiny café attached to the hotel offered a good selection of rolls and Danish. The TV behind the counter where a heavyset woman poured him some coffee was set on the BBC and broadcast in English. He wondered if that was because of the expanding tourist trade. The European Union had worked wonders for Eastern Europe, and the conversion to the euro had made travel considerably easier for some of the wealthier residents of Europe. Estonia, with its good Internet infrastructure and ability to reach out to other parts of the continent, had gotten more than its share of eager tourists interested in the history and culture of the former Soviet Union satellite.
The reports on TV showed the rest of the continent in disarray, especially Great Britain and Germany. That was exactly what Severov wanted to see. If those two allies of the United States were seeing such violence, it would make it harder for the military to come to the aid of Estonia. He had seen a few protests on the streets during the drive, but overall the quaint country had been quite peaceful and calm. Sometimes he felt as if he were on a vacation rather than an assignment, and he would have to thank his commander when he returned home. The old man had gotten it exactly right.