Gambit by David Hagberg (manga ereader .txt) 📗

stock up with whatever perishables we need and then settle in at the house.”

“We don’t have any surveillance out there, except for the perimeter Otto set up a couple of years ago. And now that the real Lou’s gone, we don’t have any contacts or procedures to borrow satellite time from the NRO.”

“All of it’s stored in one of Otto’s darlings, plus a couple of extra names and passwords Mary came up with.”

“If whoever is coming after us has half a brain, they could get past all of that,” Pete said. “We have on more than one occasion.”

“I know,” McGarvey said. “But we’re not going over for some R&R, so it’ll be watch on watch. You sleep at night, and I’ll sleep during the day.”

“For how long?”

“I think whatever’s going to happen is in the works right now.”

Pete shivered. “I wonder if the Chinese couple on Casey Key figured that taking us out would be their last op? Maybe they were planning on retiring, but they just took one last job, and it turned out to be the wrong one.”

“And?”

She took a moment to answer, and when she did, she looked into Mac’s eyes as if she wanted him to understand how serious she was. “What about us? Time to get out?”

He understood her pain and fear, things he’d felt for pretty much his entire career, and especially since the death of Katy. He took Pete in his arms and held her close for several moments. “Believe me, I’ve thought about it. Making a life for ourselves that would have some semblance of normalcy makes sense.”

“Good,” she said into his shoulder.

“But for now, we have to keep our eye on the mission.”

“Saving our lives.”

“Yes. And I have a feeling that you’re right about the Chinese couple thinking it was time to get out, and it’s why they made some mistakes that cost them their lives.”

“Let’s not do the same,” Pete said. “And then we’ll go on a real vacation and figure out what’s next.”

McGarvey smiled. “Scout’s honor,” he said. It was one of Otto’s boyish phrases.

“Looks like you have company just outside,” Lou said.

McGarvey took his pistol out of its holster at the small of his back and went to the front window and looked across the street as a man was getting out of the driver’s side of a Caddy SUV. “Anyone we know?”

“Clarke Bender.”

The Cadillac’s windows were deeply tinted. “Anyone with him?”

“No.”

Bender locked the car door and looked up at McGarvey’s window, nodded, then came around the front of the car and started across the street.

McGarvey holstered his pistol and buzzed the front door to let the man in.

“I wonder what that little prick wants now,” Pete said. She was still keyed up.

“He may be a prick, but he’s just trying to do his job,” McGarvey said. “And he’s probably come here to try to talk some sense into us. So play nice.”

Bender took the elevator up, and McGarvey met him at the door. The CIA officer’s tie was loose, his collar button undone, the effect theatrical. And he smiled a little. “May I come in for just a minute, Mr. Director?”

“One minute,” McGarvey said. “We’re a little busy at the moment.”

“Packing. It’s what I wanted to talk to both of you about. That and offer my apology for coming off a little strong this morning.”

McGarvey stepped aside and let him in. “Apology accepted. What can we do for you?”

“The Bureau wants to offer you its help. We know that you’re going to your place in the Aegean to make a stand, but we sincerely hope it’s not Custer’s. And we think we can make sure that doesn’t happen.”

“I explained to you and your boss that whoever’s coming next will be good. If you guys send over a team, it’ll just be more targets lined up in a row. But if it’s just the two of us, they’ll have to concentrate their forces, giving us a shooting gallery.”

“What do you think is going on?” Bender asked. “Who do you think is coming after you and why?”

“I don’t have an answer to either of your questions, except that whoever it is has deep pockets.”

“At the government level?”

“I think that would be too risky.”

“So do we. It’s a rogue operation, but do you think it’s someone here in Washington who wants you eliminated, maybe for something they may think of as past transgressions?”

“I don’t know.”

“You spread the word at the DIA and even the White House, for God’s sake. You were being provocative at the very least.”

There was no answer to that, and McGarvey didn’t reply.

Bender was getting frustrated. “Look, I came here to offer the Bureau’s help, and not necessarily in the form of a strike team, but information. We’ve traced money, and in one case gold payments, to three different banks around the world, just prior to the three attempts on your and Mrs. McGarvey’s lives. The gold was sent to a bank in Geneva, we believe to finance the Casey Key team.”

“Yes, we know.”

Bender nodded. “Otto Rencke,” he said. “But does he know that all three payments were made from blind accounts in three different banks, none of which we believe came from Russia, North Korea, or Pakistan, your three biggest enemy states? But we think it’s a real possibility that they may have come from the same source.”

“Otto?” Pete said.

“Good morning, Mr. Bender,” Otto’s voice came from out of the air.

Bender was startled, but he didn’t miss a beat. “Have you come up with a source?”

“We’ve identified a little more than two thousand possible sources, a half dozen from a Russian GRU group based in Amsterdam.”

“We discounted any with government connections.”

“These hackers work independently, much like the hackers who meddled with our elections a while back.”

“Ultimately, do you think the three attempts made on the McGarveys was an arm’s-length, Russian-directed operation?”

“We’re working on it,” Otto said.

“What else can you share?”

“One name, though it’s a remote possibility, so slim we’re only giving it less than 4