The Greatest Good

  Karla jostled her head side to side. “It could work.”

  I thought about it further and said, “Let’s go back to the car and make the call from there. I’ll put the call on speaker so you can hear her reaction and explanation.”

  Karla looked around. “I think we’re clear. Nobody’s investigating the noise.”

  I grabbed her hand and hauled her off the bench. As we walked toward the convenience store, we held hands for two steps, then we suddenly let go at the same time. It was awkward and natural at the same time. Neither of us said a word about it.

  A minute later, I hopped into the driver’s seat and Karla into the passenger one. Flipping open the phone, I turned to Karla and said, “It’s worth a shot.”

  She gave me the fingers crossed sign as the phone rang. I pushed the speaker button and waited. On the sixth ring, Eva picked up.

  “O’Connor.”

  “Eva, it’s Chase.”

  “Chase? What number are you calling from? It said unlisted.”

  “Does it matter?”

  “Do you have me on speaker? It sounds like it. Why would you have me on speaker? Is someone else there?”

  I thought quickly. “No, I just got into my car.” I cranked the ignition to keep up the ruse. The car purred to life. “I don’t have Bluetooth or ear buds. The last thing I need is to get pulled over for talking on a cellphone.”

  She sighed. “Listen, I ducked out of an important meeting for this. An emergency meeting, in fact. That’s why I’m at work so late. I have to get back, unless this is incredibly important.”

  “It’s important, trust me.”

  I paused, suddenly realizing I should’ve thought more about how to transition into accusing her.

  “Garrison, please, speak or I’m going to hang up and get back to my meeting.”

  I suddenly blurted, “Stanley told us everything.”

  A split-second pause, then she said, “Everything about what?”

  I took a quick breath. “About your supposed ‘field test’. About you being the chairman of the Special Collection Service. About the Facebook death threats. About framing me, and how you sent my best friend to kill me and burn down my house, then kill the kid. About—”

  “Stop, Garrison. I have to go somewhere private if we’re going to have this conversation right now. I’m putting the phone down.”

  I wondered if she was stalling for time, which would be a pretty wise tactic. She was on the move, however, and not standing still and thinking. The cell must have been by her thigh because I could hear the constant swishing of her skirt as she moved somewhere fast. She didn’t walk far. After a few moments of skirt swishing, I heard a door shut.

  “A ‘field test’?” she said. “That’s what Stanley came up with to explain everything? I can’t tell if that was ingenious of him or a pathetic attempt at a story.”

  I didn’t say anything.

  “Your silence suggests that you’re buying his story. Maybe it was ingenious of him after all.”

  “So Stanley’s lying?” I said. “Is that it? You didn’t convince him that I’d applied for an SCS position and you wanted him to help in my vetting?”

  “Garrison, let me ask you, before Stanley told you whatever crazy story he made up, how many times had he lied to you?”

  I didn’t respond.

  “How many?”

  She waited, but I didn’t say anything because I knew where she was going.

  “By your lack of response, I’m assuming a lot. Now how many times have I lied to you?”

  “Your point?”

  “My point is, at least give me the benefit of the doubt, more so than Stanley Tuchek. I’m already on better ground than him. You should hear me out before making any sort of judgment. Trust me, you have no idea what Stanley Tuchek is capable of. You’d be surprised.”

  I looked at Karla. She motioned for me to carry on. “Point taken about the lies,” I said. “Tell me everything then.”

  “Actually, I’m interested in how Stanley spun all this. You said he claimed this was a field test. How so? What else did he say?”

  As a man who made his former living as a spy, I wasn’t about to fall for her trick. Or at least what I thought was a trick. Eva probably wanted me to tell Stanley’s story, which would give her time to think and respond appropriately to whatever I said.

  Karla sensed it as well. She shook her head and mouthed the words ‘don’t do it’.

  “Actually,” I said, “I need to hear your version of what’s going on.”

  Eva didn’t respond right away. She didn’t sigh or breathe heavily either, nothing but silence from her end. She was probably debating whether to continue the battle of wills over who should go first.

  “Fine,” she said with a huff. “Stanley was recruited by the NSA, at a pretty young age if I remember correctly.”

  “He was,” I said.

  “He did well in his summer training program, top of the class in fact, so he was promised he could start his career in the division of his choosing. To our surprise, he chose the SCS. We’d never had any student ask that before, and we certainly had no intention of following through with the request. So we denied him right away, to get that idea out of his mind, but he was pretty insistent about it. The little brat then accessed a highly secure and confidential database on our servers. He probably didn’t tell you about that, right?”

  “No,” I said, “he did actually. Said he accessed a database and got some information about the SCS, mainly just the names of the agents involved. That’s how he found out you were the chairman.”

  Eva laughed, a rarity for her.

  “That wasn’t all, Garrison, not by a long shot. He had all the names and positions of agents, management, an organizational chart, information about past missions and their outcomes. All kinds of classified information he shouldn’t have had. It jarred us, to be frank. Sent us spinning, in fact.”

  I glanced at Karla. Her mouth was open and she was shaking her head.

  “You have to understand,” Eva continued, “we weren’t dealing with a run-of-the-mill employee, or a civilian for that matter. This was the governor’s son, so we had to tread lightly. Any other person and we would’ve dealt with it pretty severely.”

  “Arrested them?”

  “Probably not. We wouldn’t have wanted to draw attention to an internal breach of security like that.”

  “What would you have done?”

  “It doesn’t matter. What we did do is buy some time with Stanley.”

  “You promised him a position with the SCS, right, but not until his eighteenth birthday?”

  “Exactly.”

  “But you had no intention of letting him work for the SCS.”

  “True.”

  “So why lie and string him along like that?”

  She paused for a second, then cleared her throat. “We wanted to track his every move, see what he did, what he was capable of outside of the Agency. If he continued hacking secure computers and breaking the law, we could deal with it more effectively as an external threat. And, as you said, maybe arrest him if need be. Then we wouldn’t have to deal with him wanting to join the SCS. We could make it go away quietly, without involving the authorities or the governor.”

  “Okay, makes sense. So the kid turned eighteen and then what happened?”

  “I knew he’d contact me on his birthday. But after a year of monitoring him we didn’t have much evidence against him. Stanley had been a pretty good boy until his eighteenth birthday.”

  I furrowed my brow at Karla. “What changed?”

  “Just after his birthday I discovered he was hacking a TV network’s server. He was downloading information from that Gilligan’s Island parody. He had access to all the writers’ and producers’ emails as well as the scripts for the show. Bet he didn’t say anything about that to you. Am I right?”

  I didn’t respond, just stared at Karla. She gritted her teeth and made a fist, as mad as me at S
tanley. He’d conveniently left out that piece of information.

  “I take it from your silence, Garrison, that he didn’t mention the domestic spying. Anyway, a couple of months went by and we had a solid case against him. Not only was he hacking into the network’s database, but he was also profiting heavily from it. Millions were involved. When he met with me and demanded to join the SCS, I confronted him with the evidence and told him we’d drop any domestic spying charges if he stopped the SCS demands and went away quietly. We promised him that his father and the authorities would never know a thing, but he had to stop his demands and walk away from the NSA for good.”

  “Did he take the deal?”

  She sighed. “I thought so. When I confronted him with the domestic spying evidence, I thought he was embarrassed. He went completely red and couldn’t speak. As I look back on it, considering what he ended up doing, I now know he was furious with me, not embarrassed by it at all. I totally misread his emotions. That was my mistake.”

  “What did he end up doing?”

  “Another thing he obviously didn’t tell you. He broke in to my personal work computer and planted evidence on it, in an attempt to frame me.”

  I ran my hand over my sweaty head. “Let me guess, the evidence he planted had to do with arms dealing.”

  “How’d you know?”

  “He told me about that.”

  “He admitted to that?”

  “No, not at all. According to him he found the evidence on your hard drive. Didn’t say anything about planting it, obviously.”

  Eva scoffed. “Right, I’m an arms dealer. I have ties to Hamas, ISIS, and Russian-backed separatists. Please. How does this fit in with Stanley’s field test story? I don’t get it. What exactly did he tell you?”

  “The kid said that after he’d found the arms evidence on your computer, he confronted you with it. He also confronted you about the Facebook death threats. Did you really threaten his life?”

  A brief pause. “That I wasn’t too proud of. Yes, I did threaten his life. Technically it was cyber bullying and, of course, I wasn’t going to follow through with it. When I found out that the kid had broken into my computer and planted evidence on it, I got livid. In an emotional fit, I sent those threats. It was a mistake, a total unprofessional move on my behalf, but I needed him to back off and I wasn’t thinking straight at the time. But back to Stanley’s story. In his twisted version, how did I respond to the arms evidence?”

  “You responded by saying it was fabricated evidence that the SCS kept in case they needed to frame someone. Stanley said you told him you were in the middle of vetting me for a top SCS position under the code name ‘Operation Crucible’, and you wanted the kid’s help with my vetting. You asked him to plant the faked evidence on my computer, to see if he has the skills to manipulate evidence like that. That was his test and, if he passed, you promised him a position with the SCS.”

  “I take it back,” Eva said. “That was pretty ingenious of him. But still a complete lie.”

  “What happened then? Did Stanley blackmail you with the planted evidence? How did he get that arms evidence anyway?”

  “I don’t know how he got it, seriously, but he indeed blackmailed me with it. He said he wouldn’t tell anyone about it—can you believe that?—as long as I made him an SCS agent. To make a long story short, Stanley Tuchek was ushered out of the building and told never to step foot in the Agency again. He was told if he pursued anything further, he’d be arrested on the spot.”

  “Were you worried about the evidence he’d planted?”

  “Not really. I have an entire agency at my disposal, and was pretty sure one of those computer experts could prove that Stanley hacked into my computer and planted the evidence. I wasn’t entirely sure, to be honest, so that’s why I had him ushered out and not arrested. I honestly thought I’d never hear from him again.”

  “But you did.”

  “But not directly.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Stanley was furious with me, and out for revenge. That’s the only theory I can think of for why he wouldn’t let this go. Now that you’ve told me his story about the field test, everything makes sense.”

  “So Stanley’s behind all this. Stanley Tuchek?”

  “I told you you’d be surprised.”

  “You really think he’s behind this?”

  “He is. Garrison, Stanley had access to my personal computer, so he could send an email in my name. Plus, he had previously accessed the secure SCS database. And part of the highly secretive and confidential information he downloaded was our directives and kill codes. So he had the ability, and the proper information, to send the kill directive against himself and to set these events in motion. Stanley’s revenge was to say I was as a traitor, and that I’d used one of my own agents to try and kill him because he’d found out that I was dealing arms. He even had evidence that I sent those death threats to back up his story.”

  I looked at Karla. She was looking my way, but staring right through me. I could tell her mind was spinning.

  “Okay,” I said. “So Stanley is furious with you for repeatedly denying his request to join the SCS. For the sake of argument, as you said, let’s say his motive is revenge, to make you pay or whatever. If this is all true, and Stanley is behind everything, why did he pick me for protection and then issue my kill order?”

  There was silence on Eva’s end for about fifteen seconds, then she said, “Three reasons, I think. First, to keep his story realistic, he would want protection. To add more credibility to his story, he’d also want the protector to be targeted as well. Second, and this is undeniable, Cranston was under my command and Stanley had the list of all agents under my command. That’s a fact, part of the information he stole off my computer. Third, and this is my theory, but the most important part, Stanley probably researched my agents. He likely discovered that you and Cranston had worked together and were friends. I bet he chose you because he knew Cranston wouldn’t believe you were part of a national security threat, so Stanley knew Cranston wouldn’t kill you or actually burn down your house.”

  “But Mick’s directive included killing Stanley. You’re basically saying that Stanley sent Mick a kill order that included killing himself.”

  “I think so. I know it’s hard to believe, but after all, Stanley was right, right? Cranston couldn’t kill either one of you. Stanley knew Cranston wouldn’t act irrationally. Stanley’s much smarter than you’re giving him credit for, Garrison. Maybe he took a risk, but it was a calculated risk in his mind. And it worked out for him. Remember, Stanley’s story frames me as the traitor who needed to cover up everything and tie up the loose ends. And Stanley was the loose end who needed to be disposed of. So, of course, he had to be part of the kill order.”

  Karla mouthed something to me, but I didn’t understand. I think it had something to do with Mick.

  “Garrison, if you don’t believe me, you need to talk with Stanley. You know he’s lied to you many times already. Ask him about the SCS evidence he downloaded and exactly what information he had access to. Ask him about spying on the TV network and how he made his millions through domestic spying.”

  “Trust me, I will. You think Stanley set this in motion for revenge? That’s your take?”

  “Partly. But I believe he was also scared of doing jail time for spying on the network, and I had evidence that proved his guilt. So he wanted to frame me for revenge, but also as insurance against being incarcerated. That’s his major motive.”

  I thought about it. “What about this? Maybe in his twisted mind this is all about proving to you that he has the ability to be an agent. From the beginning he’s been trying to convince you that he has the requisite abilities to be an SCS agent. Twice before he’s tried to demonstrate his abilities to you.”

  “Sure, but it’s gone way too far now for me to believe that’s his main motive.”

  “Maybe the kid can’t stop what he got rolling.”


  I heard a faint tap on Eva’s end of the phone.

  “Hold on,” she said. “Someone’s at the window to this office.” She muffled the cellphone.

  A few seconds later, she was back. “I’ve gotta go, Garrison.”

  “No way, Eva, we have more to talk about.”

  “I know, but I have to go. I’ve already been gone too long. They just sent someone to locate me. Everyone’s waiting on me. Let’s meet later.”

  “Absolutely.”

  “Listen, Stanley’s called me twice in the last hour so I’ll make sure he comes to the meeting. I may have to lie to get him there. We’ll clear up everything at the meeting, then arrest Stanley. I think we need to meet somewhere private.”

  “Private? Why private?”

  “We’re dealing with the governor’s son, Garrison, who is himself a public figure and recognized by many people. And, from what I understand, you’re a wanted man right now and can’t be in public. We need to be secretive. I know a place in Long Beach. It’s an old federal dead drop place that hasn’t been used for years.”

  She had a point. “You’re not going to ask me to come alone, I hope.”

  “Bring whoever you want. In fact, be sure to bring Agents Cranston and Dickerson. I insist.”

  I glanced at Karla. “You bet I will.”

  “Good. The dead drop is at Pier 42, right by the Long Beach docks. There’s an old abandoned warehouse near the end of the pier. It’s big and private and you can’t miss it. How about 3:00 a.m.?”

  “We’ll be there.”

  Eva hung up without saying goodbye.

  I dropped the phone and looked at Karla. “I don’t know what to believe anymore.”

  She nodded. “I’m going to kill that kid.”

  CHAPTER 27

  Ishook my head at Karla. “Not before I do. If Eva’s telling the truth, we’ll have to fight over who gets to the kid first. I’m thinking about strangling him; it’s more personal. You?”

  “Holding him under water until he drowns. But back to reality, this is a lot to take in, right?”

  “It is,” I said. “By the way, you were trying to ask me something a moment ago.”