"Quite so, John. I'll get Cyril on the phone." Tawney left the room.
"Fuck," John breathed, when the door closed. That was the problem with black operations. Sooner or later, some bastard flipped the light switch, and it was generally somebody you didn't even want in the room. How the hell has this one leaked? His face darkened as he looked down at his desk, acquiring an expression that those who knew it considered very dangerous indeed.
"Shit," Director Murray said at his desk in FBI Headquarters.
"Yeah, Dan, that about covers it," Ed Foley agreed from his seventh-floor office in Langley. "How the hell did this leak?"
"Beats the hell out of me, man. You have anything on this Popov that I don't know about?"
"I can check with Intelligence and Terrorism divisions, but we cross-deck everything to you. What about the Brits?"
"If I know John, he's already on the phone to `Five' and `Six.' His intel guy is Bill Tawney, and Bill's top-drawer in any outfit. Know him?"
"Rings a vague bell, but I can't put a face on it. What's Basil think of him?"
"Says he's one of his best analysts, and was a primo field-spook until a few years ago. He's got a good nose," the DCI told Murray.
"How big a threat is this?"
"Can't tell yet. The Russians know John pretty well from Tokyo and Tehran. Golovko knows him personally - called me about the Tehran job to compliment him on the job he and Chavez pulled off. I gather they hit it off, but this is business, not personal, y'know?"
"I hear you, Don Corleone. Okay, what do you want me to do?"
"Well, there's a leak somewhere. I haven't got a clue vet where it might be. The only talk I've heard about Rainbow has been people with codeword clearance. They're supposed to know about keeping their mouths shut."
"Right." Murray snorted. The only people able to leak stuff like this were the people you trusted, people who'd passed a serious background check done by special agent is of the FBI. Only a trusted and checked-out person could really betray his country, and unfortunately the FBI hadn't yet learned to look inside a person's brain and heart. And what if it had been an inadvertent leak? You could interview the person who'd done it, and even he or she couldn't reply that it had happened. Security and counterespionage were two of the hardest tasks in the known universe. Thank God, he thought, for the cryppies at NSA, as always the most trusted and productive of his country's intelligence services.
"Bill, we have a two-man team on Kirilenko almost continuously. They just photographed him having a pint with a chap at his usual pub last night," Cyril Holt told his "Six" colleague.
"That may well be our man," Tawney said.
"Quite possible. I need to see your intercepts. Want me to drive out?"
"Yes, as quickly as you can."
"Fine. Give me two hours, old man. I still have a few things on my desk to attend to."
"Excellent."
The good news was that they knew this phone was secure in two different ways. The STU-4 encryption system could be beaten, but only by technology that only the Americans had-or so they thought. Better still, the phone lines used were computer generated. One advantage to the fact that the British telephone system was essentially owned by the government was that the computers controlling the switching systems could randomize the routings and deny anyone the chance to tap into a call, unless there was a hard-wire connection at the point of origin or reception. For that bit of security, they relied on technicians who checked the lines on a monthly basis-unless one of them was working for someone else as well, Tawney reminded himself. You couldn't prevent everything, and while maintaining telephone silence could deny information to a potential enemy, it also had the effect of stopping the transfer of information within the government-thus causing that institution to grind to an immediate, smoking halt. "Go ahead, say it," Clark told Chavez.
"Easy, Mr. C, not like I predicted the outcome of the next World Series. It was pretty obvious stuff."
"Maybe so, Domingo, but you still said it first."
Chavez nodded. "Problem is, what the hell do we do about it? John, if he knows your name, he either already knows or can easily find out your location-and that means us. Hell, all he needs is a pal in the phone company, and he starts staking us out. Probably has a photo of you, or a description. Then he gets a tag number and starts following you around."
"We should be so lucky. I know about counter surveillance, and I have a shoe-phone everywhere I go. I'd lone for somebody to try that on me. I'd have you and some of your boys come out to the country, do a pick-and-roll, bag the fucker, and then we could have a friendly little chat with him." That generated a thin smile. John Clark knew how to extract information from people, though his techniques for doing so didn't exactly fit guidelines given to the average police departments. "I suppose, John. But for now there's not a damned thing we can do 'cept to keep our eyes open and wait for someone else to generate some information for us."
"I've never been a target like this before. I don't like it."
"I hear you, man, but we live in an imperfect world. What's Bill Tawney say?"
"He has a `Five' guy coming out later today."
"Well, they're the pros from Dover on this. Let 'em do their thing," Ding advised. He knew it was good advice-indeed, the only possible advice-and knew that John knew that, and he also knew that John would hate it. His boss liked doing things himself, not waiting for others to do things for him. If Mr. C had a weakness, that was it. He could be patient while working, but not while waiting for things to happen beyond his purview. Well, nobody was perfect.
"Yeah, I know" was the reply. "How are your troops?"
"Riding the crest of the wave, man, right in the curl and looking down the pipeline. I have never seen morale this good, John. The Worldpark job just lit everybody up. I think we can conquer the whole world if the bad guys line up properly."
"The eagle looks pretty good in the club, doesn't it?"
"Bet your sweet ass, Mr. C. Ain't no nightmares from this one… well, except for the little girl. That wasn't fun to watch, even if she was dying anyway, you know? But we got the bastards, and Mr. Carlos is still in his cage. I don't figure anybody else is going to try to spring his sorry ass."
"And he knows it, the French tell me."
Chavez stood. "Good. I gotta get back. Keep me in the loop on this, okay?"
"Sure will, Domingo," Rainbow Six promised.
"So what sort of work do you do?" the plumber asked.
"I sell plumbing supplies," Popov said. "Wrenches and so forth, wholesale to distributors and retailers."
"Indeed. Anything useful?"
"Rigid pipe wrenches, the American brand. They're the best in the world, and they have a lifetime guarantee. If one breaks, we replace it free, even twenty years from now. Various other things as well, but Rigid wrenches are my best product."
"Really? I've heard about them, but I've never used them."
"The adjustment mechanism is a little steadier than the English Stilson spanner. Other than that, the only real advantage is the replacement policy. You know, I've been selling these things for… what? Fourteen years, I think. I've had one break from all the thousands I've sold."
"Hmph. I broke a wrench last year," the plumber said.
"Anything unusual about work on the base?"
"Not really. Plumbing is plumbing. Some of the things I work on are rather old-the watercoolers, for example. Getting parts for the bloody things can be troublesome, and they can't make the decision to get new ones. Bloody government bureaucrats. They must spend thousands a week for bullets for their bloody machine guns, but purchase some new watercoolers that people will use every day? Not bloody likely!" The man had a good laugh and sipped at his lager.