“You really believe that the Frenchies will set their dogs on us in London?” Ffoulkes said.
“I have no doubt of it,” said Finn. “Pitt says that they’ll be sending an accredited representative to England. You can be sure that he will be a spy.”
“Well, we’ll be sure to tweak his nose for him,” said Ffoulkes, grinning widely.
“You will do no such thing,” Finn said. “When this representative arrives, I expect you to treat him with all due respect, regardless of your feelings. Don’t make the mistake of thinking you’ll be safe in England. Don’t underestimate the French. A good card player never gives away his hand, Andrew. The French won’t send a fool.” He got up from the table. “I’ll be upstairs. Let me know when Briggs arrives.”
He went up the stairs and, a moment later, Rico followed after him.
“Grim-looking fellow,” Dewhurst said.
“When was it that you met him?” Ffoulkes said, watching Rico ascend the stairs.
“I can’t recall, exactly. We must not have spoken long, otherwise I’m sure I would remember.”
“I hear all those Italians carry knives,” said Ffoulkes. “He looks the type.”
“If he is, then he’s our man,” said Dewhurst. “St. Just is a bit too delicate for our sort of work. That chap looks like he might be handy in a pinch. I don’t envy him having to stay in Paris, though.”
“Well, better him than either one of us,” said Ffoulkes. “Paris is a nice place to visit, but I’d hate to have to live there.” He sniffed. “Too many of those French girls never wash.”
Andre entered the room and softly closed the door behind her. She worked her jaw around in an irritated fashion. “I hate this damn beard,” she said. “I don’t see how you men can eat with them. The hairs trap all the food.”
“That’s so you won’t grow hungry later on,” Finn said with a chuckle. “Relax, you’ll be able to take it off as soon as we’re away from Ffoulkes and Dewhurst. We’d better leave your hair dark, though. Fitzroy hasn’t seen you more than once or twice, but I don’t want to take any chances.”
“I’ll make certain that he won’t see me at all,” said Andre. “I still can’t believe that he might actually be Mongoose.”
“Well, we don’t know for sure,” said Finn, “but if you knew Mongoose, the whole thing would actually make a crazy kind of sense. Fitzroy’s the last person we would have suspected, so of course that makes him the logical candidate.”
“But Fitzroy was the one who clocked back to Plus Time and reported Mongoose. We know he did that because Cobra is here with his team of investigators.”
“And an assassin or two,” added Finn. He nodded. “You’re absolutely right. If Mongoose has assumed Fitzroy’s identity, he could have done so afterward. Even if he didn’t, it would appeal to his sense of sportsmanship to clock back to Plus Time and report himself to the one man who would want to get his hands on him more than anybody else.”
“But the new director of the TIA didn’t even know about the altered records until Fitzroy brought the whole thing to his attention by telling him about the fake Observer, what was his name?”
“Jack Carnehan.”
“That’s it. If Carnehan was Mongoose, then how could Fitzroy-”
“We only have Fitzroy’s word that there was ever such a person as Captain Jack Carnehan. Remember, we never saw him.”
“But that doesn’t mean that there was no Carnehan,” said Andre.
“No, it doesn’t. Which is why you’re going to Paris, to find out for sure. The really funny thing is that Jack Carnehan really does exist. There’s no open file on him as a member of the Observers or the Temporal Corps, which is why the new director drew a blank, but there is a classified dossier on a Lt. Col. Carnehan. Jack Carnehan is Mongoose’s real name.”
Andre looked at him with astonishment. “But that’s impossible! The new agency director would have known that. He had access to Mongoose’s records-”
“Which Mongoose had altered, “ Finn said, pointedly.
Andre frowned. “Yes, all right, it could have worked that way, but then the old director, the one who resigned-”
“Darrow.”
“He would have known because he knew the old dossier. He would have recognized Carnehan’s name!”
Finn nodded. “I’m sure he did.”
“Then, why…?”
“Because Darrow’s title as Director of the TIA was a cover. He really was the administrative director of the agency before he resigned, but he was also the head of covert operations, the agency within the agency.”
Andre sat down, shaking her head. “I yield,” she said. “It’s all too much for me.”
“Lucas and I felt the same way when Cobra laid it out for us,” said Finn. “Consider the fact that Darrow resigned his post as agency director. The official reason for his resignation was that the covert agency’s attempt to take over adjustment jurisdiction from the Temporal Corps failed. He took the fall for it and he also resigned in protest over the Referee Corps assigning control of the TIA to the Observer Corps because the agency had gotten out of hand. However, the fact that he resigned served to protect him from the investigation being conducted by the new administration. The director’s post is primarily an administrative job. When the new administration took over, they found out that the director had been little more than a figurehead for years. If it’s a known fact within the agency that the director doesn’t really run things, where’s the best place to hide the person who really gives the orders?”
Finn spread his hands out. “In the director’s office, naturally.”
Andre blinked several times and gave her head several quick, jerky shakes. “So the director who doesn’t really run things is actually the man-”
“Who really does run things, “ said Finn.
“What worries me is that I think I’m beginning to understand all this,” Andre said.
“Cobra realized that Darrow had to be the head man in covert operations, or one of the head men, when he found out that Darrow didn’t say anything when he found out about Jack Carnehan. Carnehan was a code-named agent and the head of field operations to boot. Darrow had to have access to his dossier when he was in the director’s office and he had to know his real name.”
“But then he would know that Cobra would also know-”
“No, he wouldn’t,” Finn said. “Spooks are ultraparanoid. Agents are supposed to know each other only by their designated code-names. Mongoose and Cobra worked very closely together and developed a special relationship. As a gesture of trust, they broke regulations and privately told each other their real names.”
“It seems to have backfired on Carnehan,” said Andre.
Finn shook his head. “No, it didn’t. How do we know about Carnehan? That was the name he gave Fitzroy, assuming that Fitzroy is genuine. Otherwise, it was the name Fitzroy gave us when he made up this fictitious pseudo-Observer. Either way, Mongoose or Carnehan was virtually certain that Cobra would be the one sent to bring him in. By using his real name, which he knew would be passed on to Cobra, he was doing two things. He was issuing an open challenge to Cobra, his old partner, and at the same time, he was warning him to watch out for Darrow.”
“But by doing that, he also gave himself away,” said Andre. “If he’s Fitzroy, he’d have to know that Fitzroy would be the first person Cobra would suspect.”
“That’s assuming he’s Fitzroy,” said Finn. “Even if he is, making himself the logical suspect is something that would amuse him. We’re really in no position to do anything without proof and he knows that.”
“If Mongoose really is Fitzroy,” said Andre, “what happened to the real one?”
“Maybe Carnehan has him stashed away somewhere,” said Finn. “Or maybe he’s killed him. Or maybe there never was a real Fitzroy. The problem is that he’s got that chronoplate. With all his years in the agency, he has to have his own contacts. Cobra might know some of them, but he wouldn’t know them all. If we start to get too close and Mongoose gets wind of it, all he needs to do is to clock out, visit some cosmetic surgeon he’s had an old arrangement with, get a new face, come back, and start again. You were complaining that you didn’t have enough responsibility on this mission. Well, you now have the most responsible job of all. You’re going to have to be the one to tell us the truth about Fitzroy.”