by Mike Ryan
“No. Looks like he once belonged to a rebel/terrorist group in Ukraine.”
They read off Magareth’s qualifications and skills. After they were done, Joe looked at Nicole.
“Looks like you got off easy getting thrown through that table.”
“Tell me about it,” Nicole replied.
“What about the other one?” Bridge asked. “Marianne Werther. I’ll be surprised if that’s her real name.”
“I already did some checking on her,” the analyst said. He brought up Werther’s picture and profile.
“That’s her. That’s our little angel.”
“If she’s an angel, then god help all of us,” Joe said.
“What’s her story?” Nicole asked.
“Turns out, surprise, surprise, that’s not her real name,” the analyst said. “Her real name is actually Zara Dalton.”
“Ring any bells with anybody?” Bridge asked.
“Well, turns out, she’s a former MI6 agent.”
“Former?”
“Yes. She left MI6 over a year ago.”
“Roughly the same time that Kenny left,” Joe said.
“What’s also interesting is when I last checked Magareth’s movements,” the analyst said. “The last confirmed location I got on him was also about a year ago.”
“Where was that?” Bridge asked.
“Serbia.”
“A hotbed for illegal weapons,” Joe said. “So now you’re telling me that we have an ex-CIA agent, ex-MI6 agent, and a terrorist or whatever he is, all aligned with each other and probably have been for the last year?”
“Well, I mean, it kind of looks that way.”
“What do we have on this Dalton?”
“Not much, really. Good record. Left on good terms, presumably, from what I see.”
“What’s behind the curtain doesn’t always match what’s on the outside.”
Another analyst shouted from the other side of the room. “Sir, Greg Kenny’s name just popped up at the airport.”
“What? Are you kidding me?”
“Looks as though he just bought a ticket on the next plane to France.”
“France? What the devil’s he doing there?” Joe then looked to the younger man who escorted Bridge and Nicole in. “I want you to alert the FBI and inform them of what’s going on. You need to tell them only what we need them to know.”
“Yes, sir.”
As the man left the room, Bridge leaned back in his seat, his arms crossed and his thumb pressed against his lips. He was deep in thought.
Nicole nudged him. “What are you thinking?”
“I think you can forget about the airport.”
“Why’s that?” Joe asked.
“I mean, Kenny’s not stupid enough to use his name to try to fly out of here right now,” Bridge said. “He knows you’d be watching. You can send the FBI there if you want to, but I guarantee he’s not there.”
“Diversion?”
Bridge nodded. “I would think so.”
“For what? What’s his play?”
“He wants to draw you in one direction so he can go in another.”
“But which way?”
“If he wants to get out of the country, what’s the best way to do it? Assuming he wants to do it discreetly.”
“Mexico,” Nicole said.
Bridge’s eyes almost rolled out of his head. “Oh, don’t say it. Please don’t say it.”
“Mexico.”
“Ugh. Why do you have to torment me so?”
“That’d be my choice,” Joe replied.
“He’s got a long way to get there,” Bridge said.
“I agree.”
“So that means I gotta assume he’s gonna know the airport thing’s a trick. He’s also going to know we’re gonna assume Mexico’s his next play.”
“So why would he do it then?” Nicole asked.
“He won’t.”
“But you just said…”
“I said that would be the next logical progression. That’s why he won’t do it. He’ll get us chasing after him going five different ways, while he does nothing.”
Nicole put her hands over her head. “My brain hurts.”
“You think he’s gonna wait?” Joe asked.
Bridge nodded. “I do.”
“But why?”
“Too much heat. He knows he can’t get out with all these eyes on him. He’ll wait. Let things cool down. Then he’ll get out nice and easy.”
“What makes you think so?”
“Because that’s what I would do.”
“I don’t understand what he needs Abbott for, though,” Nicole said.
“Maybe he just plans on wiping out the entire family so there’s no more inquiries,” Joe said.
“I don’t think so,” Bridge said.
“Why not?”
“If he wanted Abbott dead, he could’ve done it back at that house. But he didn’t. He chose to take him with him. That means he needs him for something.”
“But what?” Nicole asked.
“I don’t know. What… that’s the question.”
14
It’d been five days since the encounter at the house. Since then, there’d been very little action regarding anything by anybody. Bridge was working the phone all day, trying to get some type of lead. So far, nothing had materialized. He called Joe to see if his people had come up with anything, but they hadn’t. He called Happ to see if he had heard anything, but he hadn’t either. Everything was quiet. Too quiet for Bridge’s liking. But there wasn’t much else he could do except continue to plug along and hope for the best. After getting off the phone and letting out a loud sigh, he rejoined Nicole in the living room. She could hear his frustration.
“I take it the news is the same as the last few days?”
“Yeah,” Bridge replied. “None.”
“Well, I guess we can take it as a small positive.”
“Yeah? Why’s that?”
“At least it means that Abbott’s not dead yet.”
“Yet. Yet is the operative word there. If we don’t find him soon, I’m sure that won’t hold up forever. Unless he’s the surprise ring leader, as soon as they’re done with whatever they need him for, they’ll dump him.”
“You don’t suppose, do you?”
“Suppose what?”
“That this has all been orchestrated… by him?”
“Who?”
“Abbott?”
“You mean he’s actually in charge of this mess?”
Nicole shrugged. “Just a thought.”
“Now that’d be all kinds of messed up.”
“Wouldn’t be the first time.”
“Nah, I can’t see it. Can you?”
“No, not really. I just thought I’d throw it out there.”
“I mean, what would be the point of drawing us in?” Bridge asked.
“I agree.”
“If he was in charge, he’d have had an easier time of it if we weren’t involved, so, no, I can’t see him pulling the strings on this.”
“I agree. Just a thought.”
“Question is, what do they need him for?”
“We’ve been pondering that question for days, Luke.”
“And we’ve still got no answers.”
Bridge sat down and started thinking, trying to figure out what Kenny would want with Chris Abbott. It was something that he needed him alive for. But what? They weren’t involved in the same business, and Chris didn’t have any idea what his brother was into as far as being mixed up with the CIA. So what would the connection be? Bridge went over to his computer and started going over all the information again. After a little while, he brought up pictures of the two brothers, putting them side by side on the screen. He stared at them for a few minutes before it finally hit him.
“That’s it.”
Nicole heard him saying something and looked over at him. “What?”
“That’s it.”
“W
hat’s it?”
“I think I know what they want him for.”
Nicole came over to Bridge and looked at the screen. She didn’t see it, though. “What?”
Bridge pointed at the two pictures. “Look. They look similar.”
“Well, they are brothers, you know.”
“I know. That’s the point. They’re brothers. They look similar.”
“And?”
“And that’s why they want him. They need someone who looks like Gary Abbott. Since that’s obviously not possible, they need someone who looks just like him. Who would that be?”
“Chris Abbott,” Nicole answered. “I mean, I get your logic, but I don’t understand why. What would they need his face for? They didn’t work together, so, I… I don’t know what the point would be.”
Bridge put his hand over his mouth as he leaned back in his chair and thought about it. He took a few deep breaths. “Here’s a few possibilities.”
“OK?”
“They need his face to access something. To pretend he’s his brother so they can get something. Maybe money? Maybe something else, I don’t know.”
“Or?”
“Or maybe they will play it off like he’s his brother and exchange him for something. A ransom, reward, debt, something like that.”
“I don’t think that’ll stand up. With all of the ways you can identify people’s identities these days, plus the fact that I’m sure Chris wouldn’t just willfully go along with it, they wouldn’t be able to fool anybody for more than a day at most.”
“Which would bring us back to the other point. They need him, his face, his presence, something, to get something for them.”
“But what? They obviously didn’t know each other.”
Bridge sat there staring at the screen. Then another thought hit them. What if they were going about this case the wrong way? Maybe they had the whole thing wrong from the get-go.
“What if they did?”
“What?” Nicole said. “If Abbott, Gary, was blowing the whistle on them, then…”
“What if he wasn’t?”
“Huh?”
“What if it’s all wrong? What if Kenny wasn’t the mole Abbott was talking about?”
“I don’t understand.”
“Just a guess that I’m throwing out here, but what if Abbott was actually in business with Kenny somehow? Then Abbott throws out some mole story, that may or may not actually be true, getting the CIA to look more heavily into that, then whatever it was he and Kenny were doing.”
“I dunno, Luke, we’ve looked at the records, the CIA’s looked at the records, there’s nothing to suggest the two knew each other. There’s nothing to even suggest that Abbott was into anything nefarious.”
“I know, I know. But we know Kenny’s reputation. He’s a master manipulator, can hide anything or anyone.”
“But… and I say but… if that’s the case, and they actually were in bed together, then why would he kill him? What sense would that make? And why wait a year to get his brother if that’s what he needed him for?”
Bridge shook his head. “I don’t know. I don’t have any of those answers. I’m not even sure I have any of the right questions. It just seems like maybe that’s a better theory than what we’ve been working with.”
“It doesn’t really make sense any which way you slice it. Either the way we’ve been thinking or now. I dunno. Maybe he doesn’t really need Chris for anything. Maybe we just haven’t found his body yet.”
“No, I don’t think so. If he was planning on killing him, he could’ve done it already. Back at the house, or even before the house, wherever it was that they took him from. They didn’t need to take him with them. But they did. Why? ‘Cause they need him for something. And the only reason I can think of, is that they need him to finish something that his brother started. And if that’s the case, they must have been in cahoots.”
“Maybe Kenny is just aware of something that Abbott was into.”
“How would he know unless he was involved?”
“I don’t know. I’m not liking this very much.”
“Join the club.”
Bridge was just about to call Pinnacle One with his theories when his phone suddenly rang. He was surprised to see it was the same number he was about to call.
“Joe, we must be reading each other’s minds. I was just about to call you.”
“Regarding the same thing, I take it?”
“I’m not sure. What are you calling for?”
“I’m calling about Kenny and company slipping out of the country.”
“What?”
“I take it that’s not what you had to say then?”
“No, it wasn’t. What happened?”
“Not sure. We just found out a few hours ago.”
“There goes my theory about waiting a while,” Bridge said. “How’d they get out?”
“As far as we can tell, it happened two days ago. We’ve been backtracking their steps to figure out how they did it. They must have travelled down to North Carolina by car. They took a flight from there to Brazil. And then from Brazil to Paris.”
“Smart. They avoided the obvious places we’d look. But their names still should have popped up somewhere.”
“Would’ve if they used them. They had aliases and fake passports for everybody.”
“Including Abbott?”
“That’s affirmative.”
“That would indicate that this has been in the works for a while. You can’t just pick up a fake passport anywhere. And someone like Kenny would only use someone he can trust or knows well. That would tell me that he’s on a schedule.”
“Possibly.”
“I’ve been thinking this past week that he took Abbott because of the pressure we were putting on him, but maybe that’s not it at all. Maybe this is what he was planning all along. That’s why he didn’t wait a while before moving. He couldn’t. It’d throw off his plan.”
“Which we still don’t know what that is.”
“How’d you get wind of this?”
“Our partners at MI6 alerted us to them getting a hit on Magareth at the airport in France. They did some digging, wound up getting some pictures of him, Dalton, and Abbott all coming out of the airport together.”
“Not Kenny?”
“Not in the picture, but you can be certain he was there. We’ve done some digging on the flight manifests, and there was a party of three that travelled from North Carolina, to Brazil, then to Paris.”
“Magareth and company.”
“Correct. We also found a solo passenger, male, who also took the same flights at the same times.”
“Kenny.”
“Also correct. We’ve traced that name to a seldom used alias that we believe is him.”
“So they all used fake names. Any hits or connections to those?”
“We are currently running down all possible avenues in relation to that, but so far we haven’t gotten anything.”
“Probably won’t either. I doubt they’d use names that we could trace back to them in another capacity.”
“You’re probably right about that.”
“It was smart of them to split up like they did,” Bridge said. “They know a party of four would come under scrutiny. And the usual split-up of two and two would cause an eyebrow to be raised too.”
“Even if they stayed together, we wouldn’t have found out about it until after they were gone anyway with the names that they used. They just went the extra mile for it.”
“What’s the connection to Paris, do you think?”
“We can’t deduce that there is one. Right now, as it appears, it might have just been a convenient place to fly in to.”
“Where’d they go since then?”
“Unknown. We haven’t been able to pick them up since.”
“Rental car?”
“Negative.”
“Which means they had a car waiting,” Bridge said. “And probably a fourth me
mber of the team.”
“Quite possibly. You said you were thinking about calling. What was your news?”
“Well, wasn’t really news. Just kind of some theories that I’ve been kicking around.”
“Might as well spill them. Can’t be any worse than some of the ones we’ve been sitting on. Maybe you’ll hit on something.”
Bridge then told him everything that he’d come up with. As he talked about it, he became even more convinced that he may have been right. He had no proof of anything yet. But he had that nagging feeling deep in his gut that this went deeper than the current prevailing theory.
“Only one problem with that,” Joe said.
“What’s that?”
“We’ve already cross-referenced Gary Abbott and Kenny to see if their paths had crossed anywhere.”
“I take it that they didn’t?”
“They did not. At least not that we’ve dug up. We haven’t found any evidence that they were ever in the same location at the same time.”
“What about Magareth?”
“Well, we’ve connected him and Kenny to Ukraine, but nothing between him and Abbott either.”
“What about Abbott and Dalton?” Bridge asked.
“You know, that’s one we haven’t checked on yet. Since we found out her identity the other day, we’ve been focused on finding her current location.”
“Understandable. But if we found out where she’s been, we might find out where she’s going.”
15
Bridge and Nicole were led to the elevator by the same man as the last time they’d been there.
“I could kind of get used to this,” Nicole said.
“Don’t.”
“It’s not so bad.”
“I beg to differ,” Bridge said.
Once off the elevator, they went to the same room as they’d been in before. Joe was already in there waiting for them. He shook each of their hands as they came in.
“Looks like we’ve learned some more information,” Joe said.
They all followed him over to a computer, with the same analyst as the last time they’d been there.
“What’d you find out?” Bridge asked.
“First off, it’s a connection we never would have found out about if it hadn’t been for you finding her the other day since she wasn’t on our radar.”