Warfield arrived at the ADC at twelve-forty that afternoon and was greeted by Aubrey Holden, the lieutenant he’d met when he had visited Joplan. As they walked to the interview room, Holden, now a captain, mentioned his brother again. “Tom’s here in D.C. now, the FBI Building.”
“Maybe I’ll run into him one of these days.”
Warfield didn’t know Ana on any personal level, but he knew she wouldn’t view him as a friend. Although he hadn’t testified at her trial, Ana knew he had been the impetus for her ordeal. And when reporters contacted him after the trial, Warfield had voiced contempt for her. “Ana Koronis did what spies do. Get the trust of somebody that’s got access to useful information and betray him. In Ana Koronis’s case, she got to the director of CIA.” Ana wouldn’t have missed that on TV, and she wouldn’t have forgotten it was Warfield who said it. He remembered how she stared at the jurors on the day of closing arguments and wondered if she was still as angry.
He was surprised at Ana’s appearance. She was frail at her trial but looked strong now.
Ana interrupted when Warfield started to introduce himself.
“We’ve met.” Ana looked straight at him but he read no emotion in her eyes.
“Yes, we have.”
They weighed each other for a moment.
“Being treated okay?” he asked.
“They complicate my social life some, and the air in here smells a little personal at times, but otherwise it’s not bad. But you’re not here to check on my well-being.”
“Ms. Koronis, an intelligence source contacted me with new information that might affect your case. I went to Paris to check it out. Maybe together we can make more sense out of it.”
“When you say, affect my case, do you mean it could help me?”
“It’s only a possibility.”
Warfield read her forced smile as an indication she didn’t believe a word he said.
“I’ve never had the feeling you were interested in improving my situation.”
“It was never personal. Hoped you were not involved. Still do.”
“Do you need to hear me say it? All right, I didn’t do it! Now what do you want me to do?”
Warfield studied her for a moment, then said, “I met Suri.” He watched for a sign of recognition.
“Suri? Yes, I knew her.”
“She turned against Seth. She’s on the run. A resistance group in Paris took her in and she’s been talking.”
Ana nodded.
“She involved in Seth’s operations?” Warfield asked.
“I don’t know. A girlfriend I think. Know why she left him?”
“Thought Seth was going to kill her. Suri said he’d murdered Hassan.”
“Hassan? I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised at anything in Seth’s world, but how does all of this help me?”
“Suri told us your reaction when your brother told you what he wanted you to do for him.”
Ana stared at Warfield.
He continued. “It’s only a start, but with Suri we have someone backing your claim that you rejected Seth and left him when you learned what he was involved in.”
Ana stood up and walked around the small room. The young lines on her forehead deepened. “Look, I’m not a criminal lawyer but I am a lawyer, and I know this information from the ex-girlfriend of an international terrorist is not going to get me out of here.”
“As I said, it’s a start.”
“That all she told you?”
“She knew about a meeting in Paris. Thinks it was one of Seth’s men and an American. The date was soon after we arrested Joplan, the CIA mole.”
“What do you make of the meeting?”
“I think Joplan told somebody how to contact Seth, and—”
“And that somebody is the person who met with Seth’s man?”
“Could be. Joplan’s contact needed a nuclear scientist and nuke materials. That’s what Joplan told me right before he was killed. The CIA has a list of post-Cold War Russians they consider security risks in that category. We know from your trial that Petrevich was on that list. Given the timing and other parts of the puzzle, it’s not too far out to believe Petrevich and the uranium left Russia as a result of Joplan telling someone who his contact was.”
“Someone who had access to that CIA file. A significant part of my trial.”
“Right.”
Both sat without speaking for a few seconds before Warfield stood up to leave. “If you don’t mind me asking, I…I’m curious…the name Seth—”
Ana smiled a little. “I think he was around seventeen — it was near the time he left our family here in the States and moved to Iran — when he adopted the name after reading about Seth in Egyptian mythology. The name our parents gave him is Ali.”
Back in her own quarters, Ana lay on her mattress pad and stared at the ceiling. She thought of Suri. “Yes!” she breathed.
Warfield sat in his car in the jail parking lot for twenty minutes, staring at nothing, mulling over the information he got from Suri and now from Ana. Ana Koronis was a cold number. To him at least. Was it because he tipped Joe Morgan about her, or was that her baseline?
He roughed out a timeline of events and made a few notes. It was time to play his best card. Risky because, while he had a few solid facts, he was shooting from the hip. He couldn’t see the target well enough to take direct aim, but this card might draw the mole into the open.
Back on the expressway, he phoned Paula Newnan and thanked her for setting up the meeting.
“Glad to help, Cameo.”
“Then you get another chance.”
“Thanks, mouth. Okay, what is it now?”
“Need to meet with Fullwood, Stern and Quinn. Together.”
“Any special time you’d like this. I’m sure they will cancel everything to make themselves available at your convenience.”
“Same as always.”
“I know. ASAP.”
“Subject is national security. They’ll ask.”
“I’ll see what I can do.”
“And no substitutes.”
“Substitutes?”
“Deputies won’t do.”
“Got it, Cameo.”
Warfield started to sign off, then said, “Oh, yeah, Paula, whadda you know about mythology?”
“Excuse me?”
“Seth. There’s a Seth in Egyptian mythology. Thought you might fill me in on him.”
“Sorry, can’t help with that one.”
Paula arranged the meeting for noon the next day and reserved a small room at the White House. Warfield briefed Cross on his agenda for the meeting before going to the conference room, but told the president he wanted to meet with Fullwood and Quinn alone. Otto Stern had cancelled.
Quinn was first to congratulate Warfield on his handling of the Yoshida matter. Fullwood grunted something about it but whatever he said wasn’t clear. Fullwood still held him in contempt.
Warfield opened by saying he wanted to give them information about Joplan’s contact.
Fullwood couldn’t wait. “Learned that at the Koronis trial, Kunnel. That why we’re here? So you can remind us that the terrorist Seth recruited his sister to steal secrets from Austin’s computer?”
“That’s what the trial came up with and I agreed with it. But now…maybe not.”
Quinn looked surprised. Fullwood, acrid still.
Warfield went on. “Seth’s girlfriend has turned against him, run away. She’s at a safe house in Paris now. I saw her two days ago.”