“So the wrap-up went well?” I asked.
“That’s been delegated to Agent Leeds, and not what we need to discuss. No, we need to talk about the future.”
“You don’t want to debrief us first?”
“No, I want to get this other part over with. Then we can dive headlong into the paperwork.”
Val took sip of her coffee.
“Why do I sense bad news?”
Looking down at the tabletop, smiling that grin of hers, Tammy shook her head.
“I think I’ll miss your incredible ability to read a situation most, Valerie.”
“I see.”
“Yes. First thing is, the A.D.D.T. units are being disbanded. Most of us have already received our reassignments, but Val, you and Ron will be dismissed.”
“This takes effect immediately?” I asked.
“Yes. As you know, there’s no severance for freelancers. You’ll be issued travel vouchers to return to the States and you’ll be paid what you’re owed. I can get that money to you in cash, or Zach can wire transfer it to your US accounts.”
“Wire the money.”
“Fine,” Wakefield said. “Zach if you will, please.”
“What about the rest of you? What happens to you now?” Val asked looking at Leecy.
“I’m not allowed to talk about the posting I’ve been offered,” Leecy said, “but I can say if I were to accept the post I also have to agree to the sanctions that come with it. You know, because of the use of lethal force.”
“Sure,” I said. “When do you have to make the decision?”
Leecy walked toward the window.
“I already did. I’m not staying on with the CIA.”
In the corner of my left eye, I saw Zach’s head snap to attention and his hands freeze above his keyboard, and I knew. I’d been right all along about him and Leecy. The truth was on full display and written across his face in bold type. I could see the struggle as they tried not to stare at each other.
“And Zach,” I said, “what about you?”
“Oh, I, uh, am considering a promotion I’ve been offered, but I don’t know. I need time to weigh all my options.”
“I guess that leaves Ryan. Where is he, by the way?”
“Okay,” Tammy said, ignoring my question, “Ron and Zach, let’s move into the other room. Ladies, the forms you need are over on the sidebar. I think you know what to do while Zach and I video Ron’s post-mission interview. It’s going to be a long day, so let’s get started.”
Pushing off the couch, I was following Zach through the double doors when a knock on the door of the suite sent a shockwave through the room. Tammy wasn’t expecting anyone, not even Ryan, and I knew she always registered in hotels as a foreign dignitary, citing her religious beliefs to prevent hotel staff from entering her room. With everyone present and accounted for, who was at the door?
“Zach,” Tammy said, “see who it is.”
Zach opened the door after checking the peephole, and Brit Interpol agent Leeds entered the room. His face was ashen gray, and his eyes bloodshot and his formerly tailored appearance was now wrinkled and disheveled.
“Robert, are you all right?” Tammy asked. “What’s happened?”
“They’ve vanished.”
“Who? Come in. Sit down,” she said, taking him by the hand and leading him to a chair. “Would you like something to drink?”
“No,” he said, pulling away from her. He placed his hands on his hips and paced back and forth. “I need you to listen to me.” He paused and wiped his hand over his mouth before returning it to his hip. “Last night, after you and Zach drove away, I went to see Laird and explain to him what was happening to his daughter.”
“Yes, I remember.”
“Well that turned into quite the ordeal. He called lawyers and the local police. It was just a mess, and took me forever to clear it all up. I just finished. I was going to my room to have a bit of a rest when I realized I’d never heard from Hodges or the pilots. So I started calling. No answers. Then, I phoned the airport and they told me the plane I was calling about was still on the tarmac. I thought about calling my boss, and yours,” he added, nodding at Tammy, “but decided against it and came here instead.”
“When’s the last time you saw Hodges, and where?” Leecy asked.
“We were moving the MI5 hardware into the van. I guess that was after eleven last night.”
“Zach,” Wakefield said.
“Already there. I’m pulling up the recordings I made from the bank’s security camera feed we were tapped into last night,” he said, typing. “I didn’t shut it down till after I was finished in the server room. Here it is. Let me rewind to the correct time, and okay.” Grabbing the TV remote with his left hand and typing with his right, he powered on the TV. “It’s coming up right now.”
“Yes,” Leeds said. “There we are walking toward the van. See? We’re carrying the gear.”
“Who’s that?” I asked. “Pause it, and back up a couple of frames. Can you enlarge that image?”
“Sure,” Zach said.
“That’s Taka. Tia’s assistant. What’s he doing there?”
“Don’t know,” Leeds answered, “but we didn’t pursue him given the manpower issues and schedule we were being asked to keep.”
“That’s understandable, but where’d he go?” Wakefield asked.
“Don’t know. He disappeared around the corner or something.”
“I showed Hodges the escape door,” I said, “but when I did, it was locked. Ryan looked for Taka inside the building, but he couldn’t have been hiding anywhere. He used the door after we left. I think that’s obvious.”
“If we assume Taka was in and out of the building,” Val explained, “then it’s safe to assume he had a reason to risk being discovered, right?”
“Okay,” Leeds chimed in, “but still not following you.”
“Yeah, I see that. Zach?”
“Checking all outbound communications for the building’s hard lines. No emails were sent, but one phone call was placed. The number called is 492.219.0000. It’s a local number. Running it down.”
“Leecy,” Wakefield said, opening her computer and entering her security code, “jump on my laptop and start tracing the van’s movements. Zach’s got a link saved on the home screen that will put you directly into the city’s CCTV system.”
“On it.”
“The phone number is a dead end,” Zach said. “It dumps into a Beijing voicemail service that’s completely untraceable.”
“I’ve got the van,” Leecy announced. She looked at Zach. “You want to take over?”
“Sure,” he answered, trading seats with Leecy. “I’ll put it up on the TV. These CCTV video archive records are recorded over every twenty-four hours so we should be able to track Hodges’ every move.”
“Let’s look for him near the airport first,” Wakefield said. “If we don’t see the van there, then we know he never made it that far and can eliminate it.”
“Sure thing, boss, just give me a second, here.”
“There he is,” Leeds said, pointing at the van Hodges was last seen driving. “But what’s he doing? He’s driving past the exit. Can you follow him?”
“Nope, that’s the last of the cameras on that stretch of highway.”
“Zoom in on the van, and replay that part right before he merges right,” I instructed.
“See the blinker?” Leecy asked, gesturing at the replay. “It stays on long after he merges right, like he’s signaling he’s going to exit.”
“Maybe he forgot to turn the damn thing off,” Leeds said. “He did miss the exit.”
“He’d never leave a blinker running like that,” Leecy said.
“That’s true. I agree. But there’s nothing on that exit,” Zach said.
“What’d you mean?”
“I mean if Hodges takes the next exit there’s nowhere for him to go. It’s unfinished, not paved. There’s a dirt road that wil
l eventually circle back to the airport, buts it’s nowhere near completion.”
“Can you jump ahead, say, five minutes?” Val asked. “See if the van comes back toward the airport?”
“No problem,” Zach answered. He skipped ahead five minutes, then ten. Just before the fifteen-minute mark, we saw the van enter the highway, driving toward the airport.
“Now where is he going?” Leeds asked. “Driving in that direction there’s no construction, so he should take the second exit for the airport, but he’s taking the first. That leads to the maintenance entrance.”
“That’s odd,” Wakefield said. “Why would he do that?”
“A better question is what was he doing for the fifteen minutes we didn’t see him?” Val asked.
“Agreed,” I said. “There’s a real good chance Hodges isn’t even driving the van anymore.”
“Don’t say that, Ron,” Wakefield said, pulling on her jacket. “I don’t even want to think about that right now.”
“Here’s another question,” Leecy said. “Why was Hodges alone with three prisoners?”
“My call,” Wakefield said, walking toward the door of the suite. “Last night, we took Ryan into custody. And with Franks having been killed, we were short-staffed. The forensic guys from Langley were overwhelmed, and instead of sending Zach with Hodges I pulled him off transport duty, putting him to work helping the computer guys.”
“Hold on,” I said. “Ryan’s been arrested?”
“Let’s go find Hodges. Ryan’s situation is above your pay grade, anyway.”
“Right. I don’t have a pay grade anymore.”
“Zach,” Tammy said, “I want you searching the airport cameras. All of them. And call my mobile with anything, and I mean any little thing.”
*
Future exit 27B was just as Zach described. Incomplete. Finding the reflective tape Hodges must’ve driven through, and the orange cones he’d driven over at the bottom of the ramp, indicated to me that he’d been in distress when he exited the highway. Hodges never disobeyed traffic laws; a legacy from his father, an Arkansas State Trooper. The Hodges I knew wouldn’t drive through a barricade.
Wakefield parked our van at the edge of the asphalt.
“Take a look around. Maybe we’ll get lucky.”
The dirt road resembled a South Georgia hunting trail. It was overgrown with dead weeds made brown from the nightly cold temperatures. There were a couple of excavators and one bulldozer parked and waiting in a small clearing about five hundred yards past the end of the asphalt, but nothing else to indicate work being done.
“Look,” Leecy said, pointing toward the ground fifty feet from the edge of the asphalt, “fresh tire tracks.”
“He was here, then.”
“Yes, it looks like he drove along the trail for about a hundred yards,” she added, squatting to look down the right-hand rut of the two-rut trail.
“Come on, kid,” I said, patting her on the shoulder. “Let’s see what else we can find.”
“Follow me and pay attention,” Wakefield said to Leeds, who was leaning against the hood of the van. “You’ll want to see this.”
“See what?” he asked, walking beside Wakefield.
“Just watch.”
Squatting where the tire tracks ended, I stared at the dirt, then looked right. “Here’s where it happened,” I said.
“What?” Leeds asked.
“The van stopped here,” Leecy said, showing him the abrupt nature of the front tire marks and the slight skidding action of the rear tires.
“Okay, so the van stopped,” he said, rubbing his face with both hands. “So what?”
“Just listen,” Val suggested.
“See how the weeds are mashed down in this area? Someone was lying down here,” I said, waving my open right palm over the dead weeds to the right of where the van had come to a stop.
“See the blood?” Leecy asked, pointing to the dark brown dots on the ground. “And look at these boot prints.”
“Too deep to be one guy,” I said.
“One guy carrying another guy, maybe?”
“Yep, I think so.”
“What are you saying?” Leeds asked.
Ignoring his question, I stood shoulder to shoulder with my daughter, surveying the area for a few seconds.
“I don’t think so.”
“Me, either,” she said. “Too risky to dump the body out here.”
“Will one of you be so kind as to catch me up as to your current line of thinking?” Leeds asked.
“Sure,” Val said. “I’ll be happy to. See, there was a fight. Someone was knocked down near the side of the van and killed, but the body was moved.”
“We know they went to the airport because we saw them on the CCTV cameras. And you two think the body is in the van?” Tammy asked.
“Not the body,” Leecy said, “bodies. You’re forgetting about the pilots. Leeds told us the plane Hodges was supposed to board with the three prisoners is still sitting empty on the tarmac. Where are the pilots, and where are the prisoners?”
“You’ve got to be bloody kidding me,” Leeds said before the ringing of Tammy’s mobile cut him off.
“Wakefield, here,” Tammy said, placing the call on speaker. “What’ve you got for me, Zach?”
“Not much, I’m afraid. It’s like she knew where the cameras were at the airport and did everything she could to avoid them. There are no cameras on the tarmac. The cameras I did find with partial views of the planes are too far away to do us any good.”
“So you’ve got nothing,” Leeds said.
“I didn’t say nothing. What I do have is a blurred image of a man driving away from the FBO office last night on a golf cart, and behind it, way off in the distance, I think I can see the van we’re looking for. The timing is right in our window of events, and I think the guy could be Taka.”
“Thanks, Zach,” Wakefield said. “I know where to look next. Get in your electric car and bring your gear. Meet us at Laird’s hangar.”
“What?” Leeds asked.
“Come on,” Tammy said, running toward our van. “We might still have a chance at finding someone alive.”
“Where?” Val asked.
“Hangar 17 is owned by Laird. I went there looking for you three yesterday.”
Arriving a few minutes ahead of Zach, we didn’t jump out of the car and hurry to look inside the hangar. There was no reason to. The hangar doors had stopped a foot short of being fully closed, and we could see the rear of the van clearly through the opening.
Zach arrived, and Wakefield told him to hack the keypad so we could gain entry. It took him longer than normal to perform what he’d always called an easy hack, but maybe that was because the kid’s hands were shaking the entire time.
“Okay,” Wakefield said, “let’s see what we’ve got.”
Opening the doors of the van Hodges had been driving we found the three bodies as I’d feared. Hodges and the two pilots were unceremoniously dumped on top of each other. The duffel bags of money were gone, as were the highly-coveted MI5 computers.
“Where’s Ryan?” Zach asked.
“Where are Tia and Lee?” Leecy asked him by way of an answer.
Leeds’ phone began ringing and he said, “Excuse me a moment,” before walking away to answer the call.
“I suspect Lee is either with Tia or running from her,” I said.
“And Ryan?” Zach asked again.
“Leecy,” Val said, ignoring Zach’s question for a second time, “check Hodges’ pockets for his personal effects.”
“Sure,” Leecy said, walking toward the van. She reached around Hodges’ legs, patting down his pants pockets and his jacket pockets. “Nothing here.”
“And the pilots?”
“Just a second,” Leecy said. “Phones, wallets, and keys all present and accounted for.”
“Sorry about that,” Leeds said, rejoining the group, “but the locals picked up Lee a few hours ago hitchin
g on the highway. They’ve got him in a holding cell if we want to talk to him.”
“He can’t help us,” I said. “You did say you tried calling your pilots earlier, is that right?”
“Yes, I did.”
“Did you try Hodges?”
“Yes, several times. No one answered.”
“What are you thinking, Ron?” Wakefield asked.
“I’m wondering why the other guys have all their personal stuff and Hodges doesn’t. I’m wondering if someone is trying to tell us something.”
“Tell us what exactly?” Leeds asked.
“I don’t know, but let’s see if we can find out,” I said, pulling out my cell.
Dialing Hodges’ number, I put the phone on speaker and waited.
“Damn,” Ryan said, answering the call, “that’s impressive. You found him in less than eight hours. You guys work fast. I told the little lady you were real good.” Wakefield motioned to Zach to start a trace as Ryan said, “Don’t waste your time trying to trace this call. Tia’s got this thing bouncing off satellites. So let’s just talk. You got me on speaker?”
“Yes,” I answered. “Why’d you kill Hodges?”
“Whoa. Hold on, Big Guy. I didn’t kill Hodges, but does that really matter now? I mean he’s dead; we can’t change that. Let’s talk about something we can control, okay? Before I get started, tell me, is everybody there and listening?”
“Yes.”
“Okay, good. Here’s how it’s going to work. You guys are going to forget about me.”
“I can’t do that,” Wakefield said. “You have to answer for Hodges, Franks, the pilots, and so much more.”
“No, I don’t. Focus, Tammy. We’re not talking about the dead guys right now. No, I want to talk about your boy, Peter. I want assurances he isn’t coming for me, and I’ll even tell you why you’re going to do what I want.”
“Go ahead,” I said. “We’re listening.”
“I have a head full of secrets. Secrets I’m more than willing to share for the right price. You guys come after me, I start the bidding. I start selling your real identities to people. For the right price, I’ll tell people all about you, Peter Heely, and your crew. I’ve read your file, and I know exactly which people to approach with the information I have. There are people out there that would kill you if they knew who you really were and where to find you. Now, I ask you, is that a good enough reason to leave me alone?”
Bloody Truth: A Granger Spy Novel Page 19