Ethan stared at Lopez, who shook her head in disbelief.
‘I know,’ she said, ‘I couldn’t believe it either. He’s got to have spoken to somebody high up, somebody with enough weight to pull this off’
Ethan nodded, thinking furiously. If Donovan had somehow managed to look them up, maybe contacted police departments in Chicago or Idaho, then he might have attracted the attention of government agencies. The National Security Agency’s immense wire-tapping and surveillance could have detected keywords or vocal-resonance signatures, which would have flagged alerts up at the Barn and quite possibly at the FBI. Inter-agency alerts would have brought the traces to the attention of those concerned at the CIA or perhaps even MK-ULTRA, if they had a dedicated complex.
Amid the seething digital maelstrom of communications, the names of Ethan Warner and Nicola Lopez could have landed right on the doorstep of the very people they had been trying to avoid.
‘It’s worse than that,’ Ethan said. ‘The cell that Jarvis gave me is being monitored by him.’
‘So?’ Lopez asked.
‘I couldn’t call you directly to warn you about Donovan,’ Ethan explained. ‘That’s why I called Tom’s apartment instead and I used Joanna’s cell. It’s a burner, too.’
Lopez stared at Ethan for a moment. ‘I told you so.’
Ethan nodded. ‘Even now, after all that’s happened, he’s playing us.’
‘You think he’s in with Donovan?’ Karina asked.
‘No.’ Ethan shook his head. ‘He’ll be playing a much bigger game,’ he said as he looked at Joanna. ‘He said repeatedly that we wouldn’t be tracked by the CIA because he’d cut a deal. I think I know what he traded.’
‘Me,’ Joanna guessed. ‘Only way he can protect you is to sell me out.’
‘But how would he know you’re even here?’ Karina asked.
Ethan retrieved from his pocket the burner cell that Jarvis had given him and turned it over. He prized the back cover free and peered inside. A small, glossy black device lay taped to the battery pack, which was only half the size it should have been.
‘It’s got a bug in it,’ he explained to Lopez. ‘GPS tracker, very small, very sophisticated. Enough to track me in case Joanna showed up. Jarvis knew that our paths might cross on this eventually. He’s probably had somebody tailing us since we met him at the motel.’
‘Son of a bitch,’ Lopez uttered. ‘He’s always got a motive. We can’t trust him, Ethan.’
‘There isn’t anybody else we can trust!’ Ethan pointed out.
A silence hung in the air for a moment around them, and then Lopez stepped slowly forward and looked up at him. ‘We trust each other,’ she said simply.
Ethan stared at her for a long moment, and then Joanna stepped forward alongside Lopez.
‘And me.’
Karina looked at him and nodded. ‘We’re all in this now. Let’s do it our way.’
Ethan’s gaze fell on Tom Ross, who seemed to have returned to the present as he looked at his four companions. As if finally realizing all that had been done and all that had happened in the last three days, he stepped forward with a glitter of new resolve, burning like a distant star in his eyes, as he looked at Joanna.
‘What do you want with me?’ he asked.
‘To expose what the CIA has done to me,’ Joanna said. ‘You’re the wraith, Tom, but what’s happening to you is similar to something that they did to me. Been having any bad dreams lately?’
Tom swallowed. ‘Like what?’
‘Like being alone in the darkness, hunted and angry, for what feels like a thousand years but could have been moments? They’re called near-death experiences, Tom, and I suspect you’ve been having quite a few.’
Tom held Joanna’s gaze for a moment before he spoke.
‘It’s time,’ he said softly, ‘to finish this. All of it.’
Ethan looked at each of them and felt his shoulders fall. ‘Okay.’
‘Donovan wants us to meet him at Hell Gate,’ Karina said. ‘Says he wants to work this all out. If I can speak to Glen, I might be able to turn him, get him to come clean and end all of this. Christ, if this wraith is hunting for revenge then he’s as much of a target as Donovan.’
‘It’s too dangerous,’ Lopez insisted. ‘Donovan’s not going to fold now. He’s in this for the long run.’
‘It’s the only way,’ Karina insisted. ‘Donovan won’t try to attack me if Glen’s there, he wouldn’t just stand by and do nothing.’
‘We need to protect Tom,’ Joanna said. ‘It’s him they’re after. Their biggest threat now is the wraith, not us. First chance they get, they’ll ice him and then run.’
Ethan nodded slowly and handed the bugged cellphone to Karina. ‘Then we’d better make sure that doesn’t happen.’
54
Jarvis watched through the tinted windows of his vehicle as he drove slowly along 26th toward the shoreline. He was alone this time, knowing what was at stake and what he intended to do. If his own people saw that he was willing to sacrifice allies in order to achieve agency goals, it might bring their own loyalty into question.
Besides, this was personal. Jarvis wanted to finish this himself, not hide behind his men.
Despite the galling sense of betrayal that seethed like an infection in Jarvis’s guts, he knew that this was the safest way. If he let Wilson come alone then the agent would almost certainly take the opportunity to eliminate Ethan, Lopez and most probably Joanna Defoe and Tom Ross, too. But this way was safer, with Jarvis on the scene and ready to intervene should Wilson even think about taking down Jarvis’s people.
The plan was simple: Tom Ross into protective custody; Ethan and Lopez out of the city; Joanna Defoe into the hands of the CIA and Donovan under arrest.
He glanced at Ethan’s tracker. Moving north, toward Hell Gate.
Jarvis’s vehicle pulled into the abandoned lot, the nearby warehouse looming against a dark gray sky of scudding clouds, the afternoon light fading fast. A faint drizzle dusted the windshield. Another of New York’s vigorous nor’easters would hit the mainland within the hour and darkness would fall.
He pulled up discreetly alongside the warehouse, turning around so that the vehicle pointed back toward the exit but was out of sight of the main lot, and shut the engine off.
Jarvis watched the rain spill in ripples down the windshield and the wind rumble and gust past outside. Another vehicle turned into the lot, a low-slung sedan that swung around and parked out of Jarvis’s view. Jarvis wasn’t close enough to see the faces of the two men inside, but he guessed by their silhouettes that he was looking at Donovan and Glen Ryan.
Jarvis climbed out of his vehicle, pulled his collar up against the bitter wind gusting off the East River, and walked to the edge of the lot for a clearer view.
He saw the tiny, unmoving shape of a man standing amid small trees on one side of the lot. Invisible, unless you were looking for him. Wilson was taking no chances, remaining under cover until the last moment. His actions confirmed Jarvis’s suspicions. Apprehending Joanna Defoe was of prime importance to the CIA’s director, and yet here was Wilson all on his own. Instead of sending a small army of agents, one man was taking all the chances. William Steel was keeping the entire event off the books at the CIA, doing everything possible to cover his own ass. That put Wilson at a disadvantage, and he knew damned well how Wilson would deal with that. Shoot anybody who crossed his path, in order to achieve his objective. Then, this would all be over.