"Right."
"I agree," Aaron said. "It doesn't add up… unless they only showed him part of the video."
"I'm not following you," I said.
"They may have gotten more out of Mike than they shared with the team they sent after you. Maybe they wanted to see if what he got from your interrogation corroborated what they got from Mike. We've done that kind of thing before."
"Wait," I said, frowning. "You think they really interrogated Mike?"
"I don't know. I think you jumped to the conclusion that they didn't. We need to consider the possibility that they did, at least until we rule it out."
"And how would we do that?" I asked.
"I can ignore my instructions and call Mike. When he and Bob told you two to take some time off a few weeks ago, they gave me similar orders. But they did authorize me to have my people comb all the databases to see if we could find a trail for Lavrov, or whatever his name was."
Lavrov was a Russian agent who slipped away after we wiped out his election-tampering scheme.
"But other than that," Aaron said, "they didn't want to hear from me until they initiated contact. Same as with you."
"Why do you think they did that?" Mary asked, speaking for the first time.
"My guess is things were getting a little too hot. We eliminated the immediate threat to the election systems, so they figured we should let the dust clear. That's just speculation, mind you. They could have a lot of reasons why they wanted our part of the organization to go quiet for a while. Same reason the Russian disappeared — to let things calm down before we attracted too much attention."
"Where does that leave us?" I asked. "Out in the cold?"
"No, I have a way to reach them in an emergency, but let's get everything on the table first. Before you tell me more, let me put you on hold for a few seconds. I want to get somebody to work on that video." There was a click, and the connection went silent.
"What does he mean, work on the video?" Mary asked.
"I don't know. We'll ask him when he comes back. He's got all those computer people who can — "
"Hello?" Aaron interrupted. "You still there?"
"Yes. What are you up to on the video?"
"We still have access to a lot of the department's data. All the brains from the IT side came with me. Nobody back there has figured out how exposed they are. I just sent one of my hackers off to find that video. I want to see it, to see if it's real, and see what else they may have like that. Sorry to cut you off abruptly, but I wanted to get somebody on that in a hurry. Maybe they don't know their mission to question you failed, yet. If they figure that out, they may wipe some of their material. What else do you have?"
"That's about it on that topic, but there's something else we need to talk about that may be related."
"Okay. Tell me."
Mary told him about the exchange she had with her broker.
After she finished, Aaron asked, "Is there any way short of accepting the contract to find out who the target is?"
"Not really. There's the option of accepting and making an outrageous counteroffer, hoping the other side will back down. I could always do that, but that's probably the end of my relationship with the broker. And she might put out a contract on me if I did that. But I can deal with both of those things if need be."
"You said you could slow roll that for a few days, right?" Aaron asked.
"Yes."
"Do that. Let's see what I can find out. Does either of you have anything else?"
Mary shook her head.
"No," I said. "Are you going to call Mike or Bob?"
"I'll let you know. I won't do it unless we all agree that we should. You're the field operatives; I'm just the inside guy. But before we decide, I want to see what I can find out about that video, plus what's going on in the department. Like I said, I have access, still. Be careful, and if anything happens, call me. Let's keep using burner phones until we figure out what's going on."
"Good enough," I said. "Thanks."
"Yeah. Stay out of trouble. I'll be in touch."
I disconnected the call and put the phone in my pocket.
"Looks like we're in for another glorious Caribbean sunset," Mary said, as she filled our wineglasses.
After our morning phone call with Aaron, we stretched our hammocks under a tarp we rigged to shade the cockpit. We spent most of the day snoozing, recovering from having sailed all night. A few minutes ago, Mary put together an appetizer platter while I stowed the hammocks.
"To another rotten day in paradise," I said, raising my glass.
Smiling, she clicked her glass against mine and took a sip. "Nice," she said.
"It's good to be where French wines are easy to get," I said.
"Yes, but that's not what I meant. I was thinking about our life for the last few weeks. Is this how normal people live?"
"Well," I said, reaching for a cracker spread with double-crème cheese and topped with an olive, "I don't think so. Normal people don't have to worry about being killed by government hit squads."
"Oh, lighten up, Finn. We've spent three great weeks, just the two of us, with nothing to worry about. Don't overreact to one little glitch."
"Maybe it was just a little glitch to you. I'm the one they tried to kill."
"Yes, but — "
My burner phone rang. I glanced at the caller ID screen and saw that the calling number was the same one Aaron used earlier.
"Good evening," I answered.
"And to you. You both there?"
"Yes. Any news?"
"Yeah. We hacked into their system and downloaded that video. It was pretty much as your guy described it — Mike was talking about your history with the department. The stuff he gave them was almost verbatim from the classified files of your debriefings after a few of your more exciting missions. Nothing current, but enough detail to impress the hell out of an uninformed listener."
"Was it really Mike?" I asked.
"Yes, based on his appearance and voice, but we're running a few checks to verify that."
"What's that mean?" Mary asked. "Why are you hedging? Either it was Mike, or it wasn't."
"If you look at the man in the video and listen to his voice, it was Mike. Not only that, but he made a convincing case for your execution, Finn. Besides, he gave them a lot of background on your skills. Even our facial recognition software says it was Mike, but things aren't that simple. Not these days. You familiar with the term 'deepfake?'"
"I've seen the word in the online news articles about celebrities whose faces have been pasted into porn videos," Mary said.
"Me, too," I said. "But from the still photographs in the articles, deepfakes wouldn't fool anybody unless they wanted to be fooled. And what about voiceprints?"
"Good for you," Aaron said. "The techies are checking voiceprints, too. The audio is strung together from actual recordings of Mike's voice, processed in a similar way to the video. The department's using classified software. My folks were messing with it before we left there. It's almost flawless."
"So, you're telling me you can't tell it from the real thing?" Mary asked.
"Maybe. It's much more seamless than the deepfakes you see on the internet. Like I said, we're working on it. We tinkered with creating stuff like this before we left, but we never got around to trying to validate the resulting videos. It's that new. My computer geeks are having a field day looking for ways to discredit it."
"I have a non-technical idea that may discredit it," I said.
"Let's hear it," Aaron said.
"Simple question. Why go to all this trouble? That guy was a trained assassin, just like me. They could have just said, 'Go kill Finn.' That's what the man did for a living. They didn't need to show him a video of Mike talking about why I deserved to die."
"We hacked into the whole file on the 'Finn Project.' That's what they're calling it within the department; you should be flattered. The short answer to your question is that their new in-
house shrink told them that there might be a problem since you were the role-model for their assassins. The instructors used your exploits in all the training material, so the shrink thought the front-line troops might identify with you to the point where it caused a problem. You were their hero, in simple terms, so the powers that be needed to discredit you. Besides, there was an element of somebody wanting to play with these new toys — deepfake audio and video. It was a chance to try out the technology."
"So where does that leave us?" I asked. "Do you think it's time to ignore orders and make an emergency call to Mike or Bob?"
"I was going to suggest that, but then we picked up some intel that stopped me in my tracks. I need your reaction. You sitting down?"
"Yes. Tell us."
"First, you need to know this isn't gossip. It's gleaned from the department's internal network."
"But that network's all encrypted," I said.
"Yeah, but remember who designed and built it."
"You left yourself a backdoor?"
"It's more complicated than that, but that's the idea. Let's just say I can eavesdrop on them and read their email if I need to. I've held off using my access until now. They might spot the intrusion if I do it too often, or if the duration is too long. But this seemed like a serious enough situation to justify taking the risk."
"I can't argue with that. What did you learn?"
"Mike's on the president's short list of candidates to replace the Secretary of Defense."
"Whoa," I said. "Any clue what Mike thinks about that?"
"No, but there's more."
"What's that?"
"The department is putting together packages of compromising material on Mike and Bob."
"Bob, too?" Mary asked. "Why him?"
"The president's thinking about pushing the governor of Florida to appoint Bob to fill the rest of Senator Lee's term."
"Damn. I'm not sure how I feel about any of that," I said.
"Yeah. I hear you."
Mary and I killed Senator Lee a few months ago. Lee was on the Senate Armed Services Committee, which gave him access to information on the 'department.' He was the corrupt bastard who had my estranged daughter kidnapped to pressure me into giving up Mary. At the time, Mary was in possession of files that would have put Lee and some other important people in jail.
"Mary and I have been cut off from the news for a while. Has there been any public speculation about those presidential appointments?"
"No, not a hint of it anywhere."
"Do you think the president's really considering either of those things? Or is this just bullshit from somebody in the department?"
"We don't have any way of knowing just yet. We're playing with a few different scenarios. I'll walk you through them. Ready?"
"Sure. Let's hear them," I said.
"One is that the president is considering both moves. There are two forks that take off from that assumption. The first one is that the president is clean, and he's really considering the appointments. That's not out of the question; Mike and Bob are both good candidates for those jobs, and they both have the visibility and the track records to bring them to the president's attention. If that's the case, maybe the person running the department wants to have leverage over Mike and Bob. After all, the department head's boss would report to Mike, and Bob would have the same influence over covert operations that got Senator Lee in trouble. What do you think so far?"
"That's plausible. But how did the head of the department find out about the president's plans?"
"Good question. We don't know. We're working on that. An answer to that question could support or sink this theory. Ready for theory number two?"
"Yes," I said.
"Theory number two is basically the same, except the president is dirty, and he's involved in setting up the potential for blackmail to keep his new minions in line. He does like to have control over his appointees. We're checking that one out, too."
"Okay. Any more theories?" I asked.
"Yeah. Maybe the department head plans to use the deepfakes to torpedo the appointments. That would embarrass the president, whether he's clean or dirty."
"I can see that. Any other scenarios?"
"Yeah, but they're all variations on the ones I just gave you."
"Who's running the department these days?" I asked.
"Come on, Finn. Hacking only gets us so far. Even when we worked there, all you and I knew was our boss's voice. We didn't discover who she was until it all came apart. My guess is it's somebody who was already there — maybe somebody who worked for our old boss, or one of her peers."
"That's what I thought you would say, but I wanted to ask. What do you think about trying to reach Mike or Bob?"
"I think it's the next step," Aaron said. "Do you agree?"
"Yes. Go for it."
"All right. Have you heard more about your proposed target, Mary?"
"No, I'm staying away from that, still," Mary said.
"Anything else I should know about, Finn?" Aaron asked.
"No. If anything changes, we'll call you."
"All right. Let's ditch these burner phones and get new ones before we talk again. Use our normal protocol to set up the new ones."
"Okay. Good luck with Mike and Bob."
"Yeah, thanks. It could take a while. I'll be in touch."
Aaron disconnected the call.
"What do you think?" Mary asked.
"I'm confused. I think we should eat dinner and go to bed early."
4
Mary and I were finishing breakfast when my old burner phone pinged. We were by ourselves, sitting at an outside table in front of a favorite patisserie. Looking around to be sure no one would see or hear what I was doing, I took the phone from my pocket. There was a text message from a number I didn't recognize.
Looking for Elena. Know how to reach her?
I put the phone on the table and took a new prepaid phone from my other pocket. Mary picked up the old one and read the text.
"Aaron?" she asked.
"Yes."
"What's next? You going to call him back on the new phone?"
"Not yet." I was busy entering his new number into my new burner phone and typing a text response.
Nobody here by that name.
I held the new phone so that Mary could read my response.
"Aaron wouldn't accept a call from an unknown number without authentication," I said, as I sent the text.
"Clever," Mary said. "I'll remember this trick; it could come in handy."
"It's not foolproof, but it helps. Next step is to see if we recognize each other's voices."
The new phone rang. "Yeah?" I answered.
"I'm trying to reach Elena Howard," Aaron's voice said.
"I'm sorry, but you have the wrong number. I don't know an Elena Howard," I said.
"Okay, guess I entered it wrong."
"No problem."
"I'll try again."
"Wait. Maybe somebody here can help," I said, completing our ad hoc challenge and response routine.
"Thanks. I got in touch with Bob late last night," Aaron said.
"Hold on a second," I said, motioning for Mary to come around to my side of the table. She put her head next to mine so she could hear Aaron. Even though we were alone, I didn't want to use the speakerphone mode.
"Okay," I said. "Thanks. Mary can hear now. What did Bob say?"
"He was none too happy to hear from me, for starters. Remember how he would use that cold tone of voice back when we were brand new lieutenants? The one that made you feel like a moron?"
"Yes."
"Well, he can still do it. I started telling him what happened to you, but he cut me off before I got to the part about the video. He reminded me that we were supposed to stand down and stay out of sight until further notice. I told him that besides the attempt on you, there was a credible threat to Mike, and probably to him. He wouldn't let me discuss the intel my folks gathered about the d
eepfakes. He said he and Mike were in secure situations. By Mike's own choice, he's not where he can be reached by anyone. Bob told me to remind you two that we were all supposed to be quiet and lay low until further notice. He said, 'Until you three hear otherwise from me or Mike, Phorcys doesn't exist. Don't call me; we'll let you know when things are smoothed over.' That's all I got from him."
Mary and I frowned at each other. I saw a slight flicker of emotion in her eyes, but only because I knew her so well.
"Hey," Aaron said. "You two still there?"
"Yes," I said. "Sorry. We're stunned."
"Yeah. I'm a little shell-shocked myself. You got any ideas?"
"I need to think it over, but my reaction is that Mary and I should disappear for a while. We'll keep in touch with you. You remember that blind email drop we set up?"
"Yeah," Aaron said.
"Use that if you can't reach us on the burner phone. We may be out of cellphone range. Mike and Bob may not want to talk to us, but I have a feeling the department's not going to quit looking for me. What are you going to do?"
"I'm going to keep digging. We need to know what the department's up to, no matter what Bob and Mike say. Keep in touch. You got a satellite hotspot on the boat, still?"
"Yes. We'll be checking the blind email drop mornings and evenings. If you have anything for us, we'll get it that way."
"Good. I'll check mornings and evenings, too. Take care of yourselves."
"You can count on it," Mary said. "You stay safe."
"Yeah. Talk with you later." Aaron disconnected the call.
"Phorcys doesn't exist," Mary said. "Guess that makes us free agents."
"Don't overlook the 'Until you hear otherwise from me or Mike,' part of Bob's statement," I said.
"That's too one-sided for me, Finn. I'm used to being on my own; loyalty's a reciprocal thing for me. 'Don't call us; we'll call you' is bullshit."
"I understand how you feel, but… " I shook my head.
"I'm still on your side," Mary said. "And I've got Aaron's back, too, as long as he's looking out for us. But Bob and Mike are like Phorcys for now. They don't exist as far as I'm concerned. Don't forget that I have some history with Uncle Bob when it comes to this kind of thing. Back when I was a kid, he made that half-assed attempt to help me when I had nobody else. I told you about that. I haven't forgotten that he vanished from my life after my mother died. This scenario is all too familiar to me."
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