“He can take care of himself.”
“Any idea why he disappeared?” Alex asked, though he knew the answer.
“It’s because they dug up a grave at Arlington Cemetery. His grave, apparently.” She watched Alex closely, presumably to see how he would react to this. “Did I pass your little test?”
He nodded. “Oliver must really trust you if he told you about that.”
“Let’s put it this way: I thought he did trust me, but it turns out he didn’t.”
“I heard Bagger can be pretty ruthless.”
If she was startled by this Annabelle didn’t show it. “What’s a Bagger? You mean like at a grocery store?”
He handed her one of his cards. “Oliver called me and told me to help you while he was otherwise engaged.”
This news did startle her. “He asked you to help me?”
“He insisted on it, in fact.”
“And you do what he tells you to?” she said.
“He said he’d trust you with his life. There aren’t many people he says that about. I happen to be one of them. We tend to look out for each other.”
She hesitated, before slipping the card in her purse. “Thanks.”
Alex watched in silence as she walked back to her car.
CHAPTER 59
CAMP DAVID, though it was often used as a working retreat, was also a place that allowed the president of the United States to get away from the stresses of the most impossible job on earth. The White House Press Office had issued a notice to journalists covering the president that this weekend was only for the president and his family. That was a lie, or at least a subterfuge, as statements issued by the press office sometimes were. The president was receiving a visitor, a very special visitor, and complete secrecy was necessary.
“Thank you, Mr. President, for seeing me so swiftly,” Carter Gray said as he sat down across from the man in his private office at the camp. As much as Gray had come to enjoy his bunker life, there was something to be said for venturing aboveground every once in a while.
“I’m just glad you’re all right,” the president said. “A very narrow escape for you.”
“Well, I can’t say it was the first time, but I hope it is the last. And I appreciate the latitude you’ve given me, on an unofficial basis of course, to pursue this matter.”
“I could sense its urgency when we spoke by phone. But I’d like a fuller understanding.”
“Of course.” Gray gave the president a thumbnail history of Lesya, the treachery of Rayfield Solomon and the recent murders of the Triple Sixes. “And now we come to the last member of that unit, John Carr.”
“The fellow who they dug up at Arlington? I’ve been briefed on that.”
“Yes, well, that coffin did not hold the remains of John Carr.”
“Who was it, then?”
“Not important, sir. What is critical is that John Carr escaped thirty years ago.”
“Escaped? Was he a prisoner?”
“No, a traitor. He worked for us, but we had cause to terminate his association with CIA because of his actions.”
“Terminate? Why not just prosecute him?”
“There were extenuating circumstances, sir. A public trial would not have been in the best interests of this country. So we had to take matters in our hands. Duly authorized of course by your predecessor.”
The president sat back and fingered his teacup. “Different times back then, I suppose. Dirty business.”
“Yes sir. That sort of thing is no longer done, of course,” Gray said quickly. “However, the termination attempt failed. And now I think it’s come back to haunt us.”
“How so?”
“It seems clear that the man behind the deaths of the three former CIA agents is Carr.”
“Why do you think that?”
“They were the ones who turned him in. And now he’s exacting his revenge.”
“Why would he wait three decades for that?”
“I can only speculate there, and that would hardly be a good use of your time, sir. However, there’s only one man who had grievances against all three, and that’s John Carr.”
“And he tried to kill you? Why?”
“I managed his unit. I was the one who brought him up on internal charges, in fact.”
“You ordered him terminated?”
“My superiors did with, as I said, all appropriate authorization.” Gray told this lie as though it was perfectly true. Perhaps he had convinced himself it was.
“Are these superiors still around?”
“No, all dead. As is, as you know, the president in office at the time.”
“How does this tie into Solomon and this Lesya person?”
“That was the reason Carr was terminated. We believed he’d been turned by Solomon and Lesya.”
“But Solomon died. Suicide, I think the report said.”
“Yes, but presumably Lesya is still out there. And I recall that Carr and Lesya had grown especially close. They could be working together now.”
“Why would this Lesya help Carr kill the CIA’s former Triple Sixes?”
Inwardly Gray sighed. This president was not as stupid as others he’d served under. “Let’s put it this way, sir. Rayfield Solomon officially committed suicide. But that’s only the official version. It could be that he had help.”
“Help? From us?”
“He was a traitor, sir. He cost many Americans their lives. He would’ve been executed in any event. He’s on the ‘Wall of Shame’ at Langley next to Aldrich Ames and other spies. The lives he cost this country, incalculable. A venomous traitor if ever there was one.” It pained even Gray’s hardened conscience to say these things about his deceased friend, but Solomon was dead. Gray wanted to remain alive.
“So we terminated him, too!”
“It was, as you said, a different world then. I for one applaud the more open and public face of the CIA and the government in general that we have today. But back then we were fighting against the possible annihilation of the world.”
“So Carr and Lesya may be out there. Anyone else on their target list?”
“Only one-Roger Simpson.”
“That’s right, he was with the CIA way back. So Roger was involved with this?”
“Only tangentially. We’ve taken appropriate precautions to ensure his safety.”
“I certainly hope so. We don’t have much of a majority in the senate. Every vote counts.”
Gray’s features remained inscrutable, but his mind did reflect for a moment on the president’s concern for maintaining a majority in the Senate over the life of an individual senator. “Certainly,” he said. “I can see why that’s important to you.”
The president said quickly, “Of course a man’s life has to take priority.”
“I never doubted that,” Gray said. He suddenly wondered if there were recorders in the room and the commander in chief was making that statement for posterity.
“So what do you propose? John Carr’s name has been all over the news. The man must’ve heard about it by now. I don’t think I would have done it that way, Carter. I would’ve kept it on the QT while I hunted for him.”
The president didn’t know that Gray knew exactly where John Carr lived and that he was now known as Oliver Stone. Stone certainly would have found out by now that his grave had been dug up and his secret exposed. He was no doubt now on the run. As quick-witted as the man was, he’d also probably deduced that Gray was alive and actually plotting against him. Gray could have kept it on the QT, and then simply gone to Stone’s cottage and arrested him. Or killed him. But he couldn’t do that, because Stone had a piece of incriminating evidence against him. And Gray wanted it back. Now he had something to bargain with: the evidence in exchange for letting John Carr live. He had wanted Carr to know. He had wanted Carr to go on the run, with Gray’s men keeping him on a long leash. It would make him more amenable to negotiating.