Prichard said, “I agree with your assessment so far, Nick. I assume I can expect you to put something together to help us out?”
I took this as the go-ahead to keep my team in place — for a fee, of course. But I didn’t want to give away my hand just yet.
“Yes, I can help you out, but as I said, I expect the FBI and the sheriff will want to take care of it.”
“I’m sure you and your team will work together with them in a collaborative manner.”
The way Prichard said it left no doubt in my mind that he wanted me to walk that tightrope between being subordinate to the FBI and working on my own.
“I can get a team in here to help you, yes. My recommendations will include the name of someone to lead the team.” I knew that wasn’t going to be received well. Prichard was familiar with me now, even though he didn’t know me well, and it was only natural that he’d want and expect me to take charge of this. So his look of surprise was to be expected, even if it didn’t happen too often.
“I assumed you’d lead the team. Was I mistaken in my thinking?”
“I have other commitments, sir.”
“I’m sure whoever you recommend would be very competent, especially if you recommend him. But I prefer you to take charge of this situation for us.”
Prichard said it in a way that would normally leave his listeners with the impression that he’d made a decision and that was the end of it.
“I’m sorry, sir. As I said, I have other commitments. I’ll get you a name as soon as possible.”
With that, I gave Marti a slight smile, stood up and extended my hand to her. She paused only briefly, and then took it in her own. When our hands meet, I found hers was warm, although a bit clammy with perspiration. As if she could tell what I was thinking, she pulled her hand away quickly. Blood rushed to her face and gave her cheeks a nice rosy color. She turned her eyes away from mine, no doubt embarrassed by the uncontrollable physical response. She probably hoped I didn’t notice, which I found strangely attractive. My face softened with a hint of a smile, but she was no longer looking at me to see it.
Choosing not to embarrass her any further, I turned to shake hands with Prichard. I looked him in the eye for a moment longer than necessary, hoping to silently convey a message. I was hoping he took notice of how I closed the issue in spite of his insistence that I be involved. He was an intelligent man and I didn’t want him to pursue this any further right now. So when he shook my hand and said, “Thank you for all your help,” and nothing more, I knew he got the message.
“No problem.” With that, I left the room without looking at Marti again.
With Nick gone, Prichard sat back down in front of Marti. “So what’s next?” he said, not really expecting her to answer but ready to move on. He didn’t want to explain his ideas to her. Not just then anyway.
Marti was unprepared for all of this. It appeared to her that her comment about the feds owning the situation had momentarily left others with the belief that perhaps she, as the federal government representative, had a plan — a perception that couldn’t have been further from the truth. She was a courier only but she didn’t want to appear weak right now.
“I’ll get back in touch with NSIR in Washington and see what they’d like to do.”
This was about as noncommittal as she could be while still saying something that sounded action oriented.
Prichard said, “That’s fine,” as he stood up, signaling the end to the meeting. “Please let me know when you’ve got more. I’ll need input as soon as you have it.”
All Marti could think of was, “Yes, sir. Where will you be when I get some information?”
“I’ll probably be right here. If not, please call my cell. And Marti?”
“Yes?”
“Thanks for your help with this. This is going to be a trying few days, and I appreciate your support.”
Prichard had a way of making people feel good about helping him. He did that very well, whether they actually helped him or not. And it appeared to work. The compliment eased some of the discomfort Marti was feeling.
“I’ll be in my office if you need me,” she said.
Walking down the hall to her office, she felt light-headed. Fear or excitement, perhaps. Intoxicating to be sure.
CHAPTER 23
Driving back to the cabin, I got on the phone to Prichard. He answered the phone immediately, suggesting to me it was apparent he was expecting the call and understood what I was trying to tell him a short while ago in his office.
“Thanks for calling, Nick. I assume you have a plan that you didn’t want to share in front of Marti?”
I didn’t exactly have a plan, but I did have a strategy, and that was good enough for the time being. We needed to get moving and let the pieces fall into place as we went along.
“Let’s say I’ve got a few ideas. What’s important right now is that we need to stay ahead of the FBI and local law enforcement. They’re not going to want us involved. And if they find out about us, they’ll do everything within their considerable power to shut us down. So we’re going to have to work under the radar. Are you okay with that?”
“I guess I’ll have to be, won’t I?” he said with irritation in his voice. “I’m sure you know that I’m going to have to at least appear to be cooperating with the feds and the locals, don’t you?”
“I wouldn’t expect anything less.” What I didn’t tell him was that I was counting on it. The FBI was predictable, if nothing else. Knowing what they intended to do and when they intended to do it would help me. Feed the beast and they’d be right where I wanted them to be.
“All you have to do is say the word. My men and I are ready to go. For the time being, the less you know about what that means, the better. There’re leaks in your organization, and we can’t risk someone finding out what we’re doing. So in case anyone asks or is paying attention to my whereabouts, I won’t be involved.”
Prichard was going to need to walk a fine line on this one. He had responsibilities, legal and otherwise, to the corporation that owned The Headlands. He didn’t need to explain that to me. All he needed to do was give me the go-ahead and be prepared to fund the effort.
“You’re going to need information on what’s going on here, from time to time. How do you propose we do that?”
“I’ll either call you or Marti. Depends on what I need. But for now, I have what I need.”
“How’s this going to go down?” Prichard couldn’t help asking. “We don’t know much right now, and I’m not sure who to trust around here.”
“First things first. Let me get some assets in place, gather some intel, and then we’ll talk again. In the meantime, I suggest you do nothing to arouse suspicion. Keep it business as usual — at least as much as the FBI will let you.”
I’ve worked with vice presidents of these big nuclear stations before. They’re conservative decision-makers most of the time. My take on Prichard was that he was no different. He wanted to do things that would provide the least amount of risk to his station. My being there presented him with a choice: do nothing proactive and let the feds take over, or keep my team and I in place, whether the FBI knew about us or not. I knew that my being involved would lessen the risk of whatever was going on, though he could only take that on faith. Hope and luck are generally not a good strategy, and definitely not the way he would choose to run the nuclear power plant. That was, if he had a choice.
“I’ll do my best,” he said. Then, almost as an afterthought, he added, “I don’t know if this is important to you, but you made a statement a while back, that it would help if you knew who was behind all this. I don’t know if this is relevant or not, but the Chinese are trying to get into commercial nuclear power in a big way. We’ve been sending our people over there to help them and also to learn more about how they run their nuclear program. It’s better for the US nuclear industry to help them do it right than to ignore them altogether. But every time we send people over there, we’ve found that they’re corrupting our computers and cell phones. They would much rather steal our information than ask for it outright. That’s why I was in Washington when we met. This is a significant issue for us and one that I wanted to discuss with the Department of State.”