‘MK-ULTRA,’ Larry Levinson read from the notes. ‘She’s been talking about that all day.’
‘CIA program from the seventies,’ Rikard confirmed. ‘Was cancelled after a congressional investigation. Natalie claimed that some or all of the program is probably still active, perhaps under a different name, and that she had the evidence to prove it.’
‘Can’t be that easy,’ Larry pointed out reasonably. ‘Something like that would be buried deep.’
‘She’s been to the archives office,’ Rikard noted, flicking through pages of recently printed documents tagged with the NARA logo. ‘What if she managed to find some piece of evidence, something forgotten in the original cover-up? It might have generated new leads, uncovered new information. Natalie was willing to punch me in the face and lose her job rather than lose this investigation. Whatever she found it must have been colossal.’
‘Huge enough to get Ben Consiglio killed,’ Larry replied softly.
Rikard nodded, and looked up at Larry. ‘Enough to get us killed. You can go home if you want, Larry. I can find Natalie from here.’
Larry shook his head. ‘I’m in, all the way. Let’s finish this. How will you figure out where Natalie’s gone?’
Rikard grinned and stood up. He grabbed a pad from Natalie’s desk and a pen.
‘She wrote down a series of names on this pad,’ he said, ‘then took it with her. Child’s play to reveal what she wrote.’
Rikard rubbed the pen over the blank page on top of the pad, and instantly revealed the impressions from Natalie’s scribbles on the now missing page. He was about to read it out when his cell rang in his pocket. He pulled it out and answered. Doug Jarvis’s voice sounded muted and distant on the line.
‘It’s Jarvis, you got anything yet?’
‘She’s gone to an address in Coral Hills. That’s a housing project just north of Edwards Air Force Base. There’s a name: Anderson.’
‘Excellent work. Get out of there now, both of you. We’ll go after Natalie.’
The line went dead, and Larry stood up from the desk.
‘You think we should do that?’ Larry asked. ‘Surely we’re not in any danger?’
‘That a chance you’re willing to take?’ Rikard challenged. ‘No, this goes to the Capitol. I’d better call the Investigator General, let them know we’re bringing this data in.’
Rikard fished out his cellphone and hit a quick-dial number.
He frowned as his phone buzzed in his ear, and looked down at it in confusion.
‘Line’s out,’ he said, and pocketed the phone.
Rikard got up and picked up the hefty stacks of paperwork from Natalie’s desk, then dumped them into his briefcase.
‘Maybe we should finish collating everything else she’s worked on first,’ Larry suggested. ‘We need a solid case before we take this further.’
‘There’s too much paperwork here,’ Rikard said. ‘By the time we get through it all and figure out what’s really been going on, it could all be over. I’ll take this to the Investigator General right now, get his people on it.’
Larry stood up. ‘You sure that’s the right thing to do?’
‘It’s the only thing to do,’ Rikard said. ‘That’s what this department is for. Too much has happened to risk keeping this under the carpet now and we’re out of our depth. Jarvis virtually said it himself: we need to blow it open before Natalie or anybody else gets hurt.’
‘You mean like Ben did?’ Larry said.
‘Exactly like that,’ Rikard replied and closed the briefcase. ‘Somebody in this office was watching what was going on. We need to get this data out of the office and into safe hands.’
Larry stood up, his features taut.
‘And what if you’re the mole?’ he suggested. ‘You could take all of that and disappear. Whoever killed Ben must have been informed of his location from this office and it was you who sent him out to Virginia.’
Rikard stared down at Larry and grimaced.
‘Seriously?’ he uttered. ‘I’ve worked for the GAO for twenty years. If I was in the business of selling out I’d have done it long before now, believe me.’
Rikard turned for the office door. Larry shifted position and blocked his way.
‘I can’t let you do that, Guy,’ he said.
Rikard glared at the little man in his way. ‘Natalie could be in danger, Larry. The longer we leave this the greater the chance she’ll get iced just like Ben.’
‘And if you’re the mole,’ Larry countered, ‘then you’ll ensure that everything Natalie and Ben have done and sacrificed will be for nothing.’
‘Jesus, Larry, that’s crap and you know it!’ Rikard snapped. ‘Whatever Natalie’s onto here has been running for decades. This could be bigger than Watergate. God knows how many people in this office might have been under observation since the investigation started. Even you might have been watched.’
Larry grinned. ‘Yeah, just in case I go all Julian Assange on them.’
Rikard laughed out loud and clapped a hand on Larry’s shoulder. ‘Yeah, something like that. Come on, let’s go together: that way, nobody’s in danger of losing anything.’
Larry grabbed his jacket and an expensive pair of Ray-Bans as he turned to follow Rikard for the office door. They were halfway there when Rikard slowed down, his brow furrowed.
‘What?’ Larry asked.
‘Something I just said,’ Rikard replied. ‘Anybody could have been watched in this office. Ben drove out to Virginia, so his killer must have been informed. But how could the killer have known when Ben would leave the orphanage in Aden, to hit him like he did on the road?’
‘Maybe he didn’t,’ Larry suggested. ‘Maybe the killer was lying in wait somewhere along the road?’
‘But then why not hit Ben’s car before he got to the orphanage and remove any chance of his making any discoveries?’ Rikard persisted. ‘Unless the killer wasn’t informed of Ben’s visit until later and had to hurry to make the—’
Rikard stopped walking. Larry took another pace before stopping between Rikard and the office door. Rikard stared down at Larry.
‘You were working with me in the office for almost an hour after Ben left,’ he said. ‘You couldn’t make the call. You wanted to leave to make a call but I kept you here.’
Larry shook his head. ‘That’s ridiculous, Guy. You’re getting paranoid now.’
Rikard’s features hardened.
‘Get out of my way or I swear I’ll put you on your ass.’
Larry, his features twitching nervously, stood his ground.
Rikard snarled and swung the briefcase in his hand around at Larry’s head.
To Rikard’s surprise, Larry didn’t flinch. The little man hopped inside the swing of the briefcase, then jammed his right arm under Rikard’s and whirled. Rikard felt his body flip over Larry’s as he was hurled over the smaller man’s shoulder and slammed down onto the carpeted office floor.
The hard surface knocked the wind out of Rikard’s lungs. He saw Larry grab his wrist with terrific speed and yank it around on itself. White pain bolted through Rikard’s arm and shoulder as the tendons were strained within. His hand flexed open as he cried out in agony and the briefcase toppled from his grasp.
Larry’s right shoe slammed sideways into Rikard’s face, the cartilage in his nose crunching beneath the impact as blood spilled into his mouth. The back of Rikard’s head smacked into the floor and stars sparkled before his eyes as he felt the pressure on his arm vanish.
Rikard squinted up and saw Larry standing over him with the briefcase in his hand, blocking the way to the office door. The nervous, twitchy expression was gone. The small man looked down at Rikard with a face devoid of emotion as though examining a small insect, his eyes hidden behind the Ray-Bans. In his other hand, he held a cellphone to his ear. He began speaking as Rikard hauled himself away toward the opposite wall.