“I think you should change hotels,” she said. “I’m taking every precaution, but obviously there are things they can do neither of us even knows about.”
Weird to call NSA “they,” and to refer to herself and this journalist as “us.” But that was how it felt at the moment.
“Yeah, you’re right. I’ve been wanting to move, but… I’ve been afraid to. They”—his voice cracked, but he went on—“they did some bad shit to me. Hey, how did you find me, anyway? You didn’t really answer before.”
“The man who saw you by Lake Tuz a few days ago. He—”
“Wait a minute. What man?”
She paused for a moment. What had Marvin been doing there? She’d asked, but he’d refused to say. But he’d looked so racked by guilt. And things were going so fast and it all felt so out of control, she’d barely paused to consider. Had he been sent to kill Hamilton, and then, for some reason, changed his mind? Was that what Manus was? Some kind of NSA assassin?
“I’m… not exactly sure who he is,” she said. “But he told me he saw you at Lake Tuz.”
“Big guy? Glasses? A beard?”
“He’s big, yes, but no glasses or beard.”
“It was a disguise, then. Is he deaf?”
Alarm bells went off in her mind and she was suddenly unsure how much to say. But if Hamilton knew something about Marvin, she wanted to hear it.
“Yes.”
“You know him?”
“He’s helping me.”
“Helping you? Oh, fuck, are you serious? You’re being played, lady. Assuming you’re not the one playing me.”
“What do you—”
“He’s the guy who fucking abducted me! He’s a sociopath, can’t you see that? I begged him, seriously begged him, and he looked at me like I was, I don’t know, a fly or something. And turned me over to… to…”
“To who?”
“I don’t know. Three sick Turkish assholes straight out of Deliverance. What was the point of that? Why would he do that?”
“I think the Turks were a cutout. I think they were supposed to get you to some third party, a jihadist group, something like that.”
“Yeah, well, I guess they were having too much fun to stick with the plan. But your friend got the party going, do you understand? You cannot trust that guy. Is he with you now?”
“No.” She hadn’t wanted to lie, but technically it was true — Marvin was in the other room. Besides, it was more important to calm Hamilton down.
“Jesus, I can’t believe I’m talking to you. Oh, my God.”
“It’s okay. He’s not here. It’s just me. But… what happened by Lake Tuz?”
“Your friend happened. He killed those Turks — I mean, fucking butchered them, I think with this axe he carries, you should have seen their bodies — and then he just left me.”
“Why didn’t he kill you, too?”
“How the hell should I know? Maybe he thought it was funnier to just let me die of thirst next to that goddamned salt lake. The point is, if you think he’s on your side, you’re even stupider than I am.”
She wondered whether he could be right about Marvin. Three men? With an axe? It sounded completely insane. On the other hand, had those been shots outside her apartment? Had Marvin killed someone there? But the details weren’t what mattered. What mattered was… who was he, really? And how could she know?
“I don’t think that,” she said. “I’m being careful. I promise.”
“Oh, man,” Hamilton said. “Oh, man.”
She needed to get him to refocus. “How long before Leed can publish?”
There was a pause, then, “A while. But that doesn’t matter. Once the drive is decrypted, she’ll upload copies to a dozen mirror sites. I should have done exactly that from Turkey, but Perkins was afraid something could be intercepted and he would be exposed.”
“I don’t know that he was entirely wrong about that.”
“Yeah, well, I don’t think things could have gone a lot worse than they have.”
“Fair point.”
“Anyway. Once the contents of that thumb drive are uploaded to mirror sites, the game is over. The cover-up will be useless. It’ll just be a question of spin. And I can’t wait to see these assholes try to spin their way out of what I got from Perkins.”
“Okay. I’ll contact your editor. But twelve hours… can you make it sooner? I don’t know how long I can stay ahead of the people coming after me.”
“If you think you can make it happen faster, great. I’ll call her in six hours. But if you haven’t closed the loop with her by then, the call is wasted. And every time I get on the phone, it’s exposure none of us wants. We need to make it count.”
She thought about it. Six hours should be okay. As long as…
“Do your people monitor SecureDrop? Or is something going to sit in there unattended?”
“Right now? They’re probably monitoring it in real time.”
“Okay, then. Call her in six hours. I’ll make it happen.”
“God, I hope you are who you say you are.”
“Well, you’ll know soon enough. Hang in there, Ryan. I’ll see you soon somehow, okay?”
“Yeah, let’s hope.”
She ended the call, signed out from the service, purged the browser, and closed the laptop. A partial success, she supposed. But it was hard to feel good about it. Their plan felt improvised and half-assed. And even if it worked, she wasn’t sure Hamilton was right when he said the game would be over. She was about to make some very powerful people into very powerful angry people. Maybe this was all just business to them, and maybe they would all just stand down if the business were done. But Delgado wasn’t like that, she knew. He wasn’t about logic, or cost-benefit, or anything else that could be subject to reason and negotiation. Business for him was an excuse. An excuse for what he was going to do anyway.
But she didn’t think she had another play. If this didn’t work, she was out of options.
Marvin appeared in the door and signed, How did it go?
He must have been watching from the room. But the way she was sitting on the tub, he would have been able to see her only in profile. He couldn’t have been reading her lips. And even if he had, she hadn’t said anything he didn’t already know.
Okay, I guess.
How is he?
She was a little surprised by the concern. Was it an act? Was he fishing, trying to learn whether Hamilton had told her about the deaf man who had abducted him?
Traumatized, I’d say. And scared.
He nodded and looked away. It was horrifying to know why he’d been so reluctant to tell her how he knew about Hamilton. Again, that feeling of violation, of an almost physical disgust, washed over her. Who was this man she had been so intimate with, so unguarded? Who had built her own son’s bed, who had been inside her body and occupied her mind?
But she couldn’t dwell on any of that here, while he was looking at her, watching her. She couldn’t trust him, but she needed him.
For now.
She briefed him on the conversation, leaving out Hamilton’s warnings.
He was still for a long moment after she was done. Then he signed, So the plan is to get his editor the thumb drive?
Yes.
Where is it?
She didn’t like that he asked. Somewhere safe.
There are a lot of people looking for you now.
Yeah. I got that.
And if you hid it anywhere that’s a known nexus, they could try to anticipate you there. You’d show up, you wouldn’t see them, you’d retrieve the drive, and they’d take you then. Probably take you right back to Delgado.