A Hostile State by Adrian Magson (reading eggs books txt) 📗

community. In this instance a physical threat against a contractor on CIA business automatically called for a warning to be sent out to others in the field to watch their backs and tighten up their personal security.

Then something occurred to her. ‘Would that include the Support Directorate?’

He gave a thin smile. ‘Ledhoffen was included to sit in on the briefing list for this one by the head of security in the Directorate, yes.’

He didn’t clarify further and Lindsay didn’t ask. It wasn’t their position to query what was discussed with other divisions or why.

‘Forget it,’ he said with a sigh. ‘There’s a lot going on here and we’re all on edge. Let’s focus on the task in hand.’

She was glad of the change of subject and said, ‘Sir, is there really nothing we can do to help Portman but wait?’

‘Not yet. The three-word code I just gave you is his current location in Lebanon. He and the MI6 officer, Hunt, are making their way to an eventual site in Cyprus. All we can do is wait and see if they make it safely past all the stops along the way.’

‘Can’t they be picked up and fly direct?’

‘Not easily. They would have to pass over heavily restricted areas and we know from experience that overflight permission would not be granted. An area further north offers a clearer corridor, and I just heard that the British are putting that in place right now. Once they’re on the island they should be home and dry.’

‘I hope he’s all right. I was thinking what you said about the snipers.’ Callahan’s mention of them earlier had stayed with her. He hadn’t included specific details, which she suspected was deliberate, but it added an extra dimension of threat when she thought about their methods of stalking, lying in wait and long-distance kills … and how their targets rarely knew they were coming until it was too late.

Callahan waved it off. ‘He’ll be fine. I can’t say the same for the two snipers, however.’ He gave a grim smile and murmured, ‘Sorry – forget I said that. I’d have the Support Section down on my neck for talking out of turn and frightening the children.’

She preferred not to think about it and blocked the unwelcome images from her mind. ‘I still don’t understand how they found him,’ she said. ‘The photo, I mean. I thought he was off the radar.’

‘He is – was. It’s a long story but these two appear to have been waiting for him … or, at least, they knew precisely where to find him, which is just as bad. We have to assume they might not be the only ones sent after him. We don’t yet know who sent them so we’re having to work on identifying the shooters from our database of known operatives. Hopefully it will give us a heads-up.’

Lindsay felt a chill wind about her that was almost personal. She’d spoken to Portman a lot on comms while supporting him and monitoring his activities and movements and, in spite of the clipped way they were forced to converse due to mission pressures, she felt they had established a friendly working relationship. She had met him only once, which had been in Washington. Callahan had asked her to debrief him after a particularly arduous mission, and she’d been surprised by how unremarkable he was.

For someone whose life had been on the line more than a few times in some of the world’s toughest trouble spots, times when she’d been able to talk him through a situation and even provide active back-up when needed, he seemed about as far from the usual man of action she had seen around Langley, such as in the Special Activities Division, as it was possible to get. But she knew enough about him to know that he was one of the most effective contractors out there.

‘Is it possible Portman made a mistake or was it bad luck?’ she asked. She knew Portman’s skill was in being able to move around covertly and avoiding being pinged or noticed. It was what made him invaluable to the CIA and other agencies, especially for missions where they either didn’t have enough of their own people or deniability meant bringing in a skilled outsider like him.

‘I’d like to think it was bad luck,’ Callahan said eventually. ‘But since both snipers had the same photo of him, it’s unlikely. It must have been pre-arranged. Who by, we don’t know, but it must have been someone with resources.’

‘But how would they have known where he was, if this assignment was set up at the last minute?’

‘That’s what we’re all asking. To date I don’t have an answer.’

Lindsay felt shocked by the stark possibility presented. She didn’t know anything about Portman’s mission in Lebanon other than what Callahan had told her. It would have been different had she been his comms support, as she would have had a detailed agenda of his movements and locations, tracked and filled in carefully on her screen so as not to lose sight of any potential threats in the same area of operations.

But the circle of other people involved would not have been extensive; the old need-to-know dictum beloved of security officials still counted for much. An individual or even a group would find it difficult to track a man like Portman without some serious back-up facilities. And that kind of pull fell into the realm of a state-operated agency rather than an individual player.

‘What else can we do?’ The question was out before she could stop it. ‘Sorry – I didn’t mean to imply you’re not already …’

Callahan smiled warmly. ‘That’s all right. There’s nothing we’re going to be authorized to do. But it doesn’t mean I’m prepared to leave him to his own devices. I owe him more than that.’ He reached for a small notepad and pen, tore off a sheet and wrote down three words with the date and time received and passed