Termination Orders(100)

Morgan walked up close to him and spoke in a menacing whisper. “You sent an assassin after me and my family. That’s not something I’m going to forgive and forget.”

“I sincerely hope you will put yourself in my shoes one day and change your mind about that. But I am truly sorry, Cobra. I hesitated to believe that there was a mole, because I did not want to believe that such a grave breach had happened on my watch. It was my mistake, and I openly admit that.”

Morgan swung his fist and let him know what he thought of Boyle’s apology, and his point hit the director right in the jaw. Morgan was tackled to the floor and restrained by four agents.

“Let him go,” said Boyle, touching his jaw tenderly. “That was a freebie, Cobra, because I happen to be in an apologetic mood. I recommend that you don’t try it again.”

Morgan glowered at him. As Boyle’s eyes then focused somewhere behind him, Morgan turned around to see that a lean and muscular woman, dressed professionally and with a no-nonsense, close-cropped haircut, had just walked in from outside.

“Ah, Julia, just in time,” said Boyle. “Cobra, this is Julia Carr. She was Kline’s second-in-command at the NCS. Julia, it seems you just got a battlefield promotion. You’ll be taking over Kline’s duties provisionally as Deputy Director, effective immediately.”

“Is that why I was called in? What happened to Harold?”

“You will be filled in on everything shortly. Now please ensure that these two gentlemen are debriefed.”

Julia Carr nodded.

“Gentlemen,” she said, and the three of them walked together into the bowels of the CIA.





CHAPTER 46


Morgan was up most of the night going over in excruciating detail everything that had happened since Eric Plante visited him at his home. Earlier that evening, they had let him contact Jenny and Alex, who had been staying at an out-of-the-way motel in Pennsylvania. There was no harm in disclosing their location at this point and no reason to prolong their anxiety and discomfort. Two agents were sent to pick them up. Morgan would have liked to go himself, but they wouldn’t let him leave. He also told them where to collect Natasha’s body.

At about 3:00 A.M., they gave him some fresh clothes, a cot, and an electronic ankle monitor, the kind used for people under house arrest. He resented being treated like a prisoner, but it was no use arguing with them. Then they told him to get a few hours’ sleep. He couldn’t, so he lay on his cot, still in his undershirt and pants, thinking about the chip he had taken from Natasha. They had taken it on his arrest, but promised to give it to Lowry for analysis.

“I’ve seen this before,” said Lowry the next morning, turning the chip over in his hand. He had also been kept overnight but had managed to find a shower and a change of clothes. They were now in his office, which was about as big as a broom closet and was plastered with comic strips clipped from the newspaper. “Data storage, but far from your garden variety USB flash drive.”

“So what can we expect to see here?” Morgan asked.

“On a chip like this? The more advanced ones can store upward of one terabyte of data.”

“Which means?” asked Morgan.

“Which means she could have put everything on there. Documents, recordings, video. You can fit more than a hundred DVDs’ worth of video in a terabyte. I assume this was her insurance, something to keep the people she works for from disposing of her. So there might be some seriously damning evidence in here. This might be everything we need. To put the final nail in Kline’s coffin and get Nickerson.”

Then this was it. This little thing could put an end to this whole situation for good.

“It’s got some impressive hardware-based encryption,” Lowry continued. “Very difficult to crack.”

“Can you do it?”

A sly smile played on Lowry’s face. “We’ll have to brute-force it. Luckily, we have just the tool for the job.”

“How long will it take to decrypt it?”

“On your average home PC? About thirty years.”

“Thirty years?”

“Yeah,” said Lowry. “But don’t worry. In our machine, it shouldn’t take more than a couple of days. I just have to log it in, and we’ll get it started.”

“Log it in?” asked Morgan. “You mean, tell them about it?”

“There’s no way I can keep this a secret, Cobra. I’m here, but I’m on thin ice. They’re watching my ass so closely, they’ll know if I get a wedgie before I do.”

“Lowry—”

“What are you afraid of, anyway? It’s over already, Cobra. Relax. Everything will be fine.”