“Just that. Nothing more.”
“Yes,” Murphy said. “We’ll see.”
Howard Ryan, the Company’s general counsel, came in and handed a thin file folder to Murphy. He avoided looking at McGarvey for the moment. Their animosity toward each other went back several years.
“Stick around, Howard. We might need a point of international law,” Murphy said.
He extracted a printed form from the file folder and handed it across to McGarvey.
It was a memo outlining the National Secrets Act and the penalties for divulging classified material to anyone not authorized. “Sign that and we can get started.”
McGarvey laid the memo back on Murphy’s desk. “If I decide to take the assignment, I’ll sign it.”
“You’ll sign it now, or we’ll have you in jail,” Ryan blurted.
McGarvey lanquidly turned to him. “On what charge, counselor?”
“Complicity in the murder of one hundred fifty-one crew and passengers aboard the Airbus, and a half-dozen assorted others on the ground.”
This was a setup, of course, to try to get him to inadvertently admit something.
Murphy and the others were not interfering for the moment. It had always been the same. He’d been a pariah here since Santiago, yet he’d been recalled time after time to help out. They hated themselves for their dependence on him, and consequently they despised and mistrusted him.
“How do you figure that?”
“You knew that we had people aboard that flight, and you knew that an ex-STASI officer by the name of Karl Boorsch was at the airport-you can’t deny that you were following him for one reason or another. And yet although you had every opportunity to give the warning, you failed to do so. Makes you a party to an act of terrorism.”
“I see,” McGarvey said.
“Well?” Ryan demanded.
“I deny the charge, although I admit I thought I recognized Boorsch, but only after I’d cornered him in the VIP lounge.”
Ryan started to protest, but Murphy held him off. “Why didn’t you tell Tom Lynch about Boorsch? It was important.”
“Because I wasn’t sure.”
“That you recognized him?” Ryan asked.
“I wasn’t sure about Tom Lynch or the entire Paris station, which has had problems ever since our embassy was destroyed last winter.”
“You were going to tell us about him this morning?” Murphy asked dryly.
“Yes,” McGarvey said. “As well as my talk with Phillipe Marquand. You’re familiar with that name?”
Murphy nodded.
“And the real reason you went first to Switzerland?” Carrara asked.
“That too,” McGarvey said. “Marquand told me that the STASI had formed a freelance group with bank accounts in Zurich and Bern. Boorsch was a member of the organization, and Marquand hoped that if I showed up in Switzerland the others might get nervous and come after me, exposing themselves.”
“What happened?”
“Absolutely nothing. I only got as far as Lausanne before the Swiss Federal Police arrested me and kicked me out of the country.”
Murphy and the others exchanged glances. “Howard?” the DCI asked the Agency counsel.
“What were you doing at Orly that morning?”
“Seeing an old friend off.”
“How’d you know we had people aboard that flight?”
“I didn’t, although I knew they were there at the airport. I spotted their car out front. I thought they might be following me again. It’s happened before.”
“And Boorsch?” Carrara asked.
“If you check my file downstairs you’ll see that he and I had a couple of near-misses a few years back.”
“Are you saying that Boorsch may have recognized you as well?” Doyle asked, speaking for the first time.
“Almost certainly.”
“Which means it’s possible that the others would know your face as well,” the Deputy Director of Intelligence said.
“That was Marquand’s thinking. The French, by the way, don’t feel as if we’re cooperating with them.”
Murphy seemed to have made a decision. He turned again to the Agency’s counsel. “Well?”
“Have him sign the memo before you proceed. But if you want my opinion, I say lock him up and throw away the key. He’s a dangerously outmoded relic, and has been for some time. If we go ahead and use him again, we’ll be just as guilty by association.”
Ryan got to this feet.
McGarvey looked up, made a gun out of his forefinger and thumb, pointed directly at the man and let the hammer fall.
Ryan shook his head, turned on his heel and left the DCI’s office.
Taking a ballpoint pen out of his jacket pocket, McGarvey signed the Secrets Act memo, then sat back in his chair. “I’m assuming you want me to go after this STASI organization, and you believe that I’ll have a better chance than you of digging them out because they’ll recognize me.”
“Something like that,” Murphy said. “Your starting point, of course, will be their bank accounts in Zurich and Bern.” He turned to Carrara. “We’ll have to get him back into the country. Do you foresee any problem?”
“I’ll manage that on my own,” McGarvey broke in. “If and when I need help I’ll ask.
But as soon as I get started I’ll answer only to Phil Carrara. Personally.”
Lawrence Danielle, who had sat silently through the entire discussion, suddenly looked to Murphy. “Do you think that’s wise, Roland?”
“What’s your point, McGarvey,” Murphy asked.
“No point,” McGarvey said. “It’s just the way it’s going to be.”
“Do you think there is a leak among one of us?” Danielle asked in his soft voice.
He was nearing retirement, and he looked and sounded tired, but he was still a power to be reckoned with.
“I don’t know. But when my life is on the line I’ve learned to keep very close tabs on exactly who knows what I’m doing and how I’m going about it.”
“Fair enough,” Murphy said after a slight hesitation.
“But before I start, or even agree to take this assignment, General, you’re going to have to answer a couple of my questions. If I think you’re lying to me, or not telling me the entire truth, I’ll back out.”
Murphy nodded.
“Two of your people were aboard one-four-five. The STASI wanted them eliminated.
Why? What were they involved with?”
“They were investigating the possibility that the East German group had targeted the Swiss firm of ModTec. One of their engineers, a man by the name of DuVerlie, claimed to have information about it. Phil will show you the file.”
“What were the STASI going for?”
“ModTec designs and builds a number of components for nuclear weapons,” Murphy said.
“The STASI may be after the technology, or perhaps even an entire bomb, is that what you’re saying?”
“We don’t know that yet,” Danielle cautioned.
“But it’s possible?” McGarvey insisted.
Murphy nodded. “Yes.”
“Were they successful at ModTec? Did they get what they wanted?”
“We don’t know,” Carrara said. “DuVerlie never had a chance to tell us.”
“Did you send someone else over there to find out?”
Carrara exchanged glances with Murphy before he answered. “Yes, we have a team investigating the company.”
