to reach for it. “The President must be convinced not to send an envoy as I originally suggested to speak with Yevgenni Tarankov.”
Murphy studied Ryan’s eyes. “If you feel that strongly about it, we’ll send someone else. I don’t think that will be a major stumbling block.”
“No, Mr. Director, we can’t send anybody to see him, unless or until he becomes President of Russia by whatever means. To do so would irreparably harm the United States, and this agency specifically. Something has come up.”
“Who knows about this?” Patterson asked softly.
“Tom Moore and Parley Smith.”
“Archives?”
Ryan nodded.
“No one else on your staff, or Smith’s staff knows anything?” Patterson asked.
“That’s correct.”
“What is it, Howard? What dark secret have you stumbled upon?” Danielle asked.
“I’ve come up with incontrovertible proof that in the seventies and early eighties Tarankov spied on his own government for the United States. Specifically for a case officer working out of Moscow Station under Bob Burns.”
“I’ll be damned,” Doyle said.
Murphy and Danielle exchanged glances. “It was before my time, Lawrence,” Murphy said. “Did you know anything about it?”
“No. It must have been a soft operation.”
“His code name was CKHAMMER,” Ryan said. “Someone thought he was important.”
“I didn’t know anything about it, Howard,” Danielle said mildly, but there was a dangerous edge to his voice. He’d played this game so often that he was a master at it. “What’s your point?”
“His operation was called LOOKUP, and over nine years we paid him nearly seventy million dollars for SDI information. All of it black. Money he used to buy the armored train he’s terrorizing the countryside with. It makes for some disturbing possibilities.”
“That puts a hell of a spin on the situation over there,” Murphy said. “How do you see it?”
“We certainly can’t open a dialogue with him now,” Ryan said. “It could backfire in our faces. He’d accuse us of trying to bring down Kabatov’s government.” — “He’s one of us,” Doyle said.
“Not any longer,” Ryan shot back. “But if Kabatov is successful in arresting him and bringing him to trial we’ll be out of the woods.”
“He wouldn’t use his relationship with us as a defense, that’s for damned sure,” Murphy said. “But he could end up asking us for asylum.”
“Which we’d deny him,” Ryan said.
“Doesn’t say much for how we treat the people who’ve worked for us,” Danielle suggested.
“Tarankov is no friend of ours,” Ryan replied sharply. “He never was. In those days we were helping a lot of questionable people. Batista
then Castro, No riega, Marcos. It’s a big number, and most of the decisions were poorly thought out. It gave us a bad reputation which we’re just beginning to live down. If the truth came out about our involvement with Tarankov it would push back the clock, and no one would come out smelling like a rose.”
“I’ll have to brief the President—”
“No, sir,” Ryan interrupted. “I think that would unnecessarily complicate matters. Let me work up a new proposal showing why sending an envoy to Tarankov isn’t such a good idea after all. He wasn’t all that keen on it in the first place.”
“You’ll come out with egg on your face for waffling,” Murphy warned.
“Better me than the agency.”
Danielle gave him an amused look of barely concealed contempt. “I’d like to see that proposal before we kick it over to the White House.”
“We’ll all take a look,” Murphy said, before Ryan could respond. “The President will have to be convinced that we must support Prime Minister Kabatov’s government.”
“At all costs,” Ryan said. “It’s our only course.”
“Is any of that file in the computer?” Danielle asked.
“No,” Ryan said. “Smith got this from the warehouse. It’s the only copy.”
“How about cross-references?”
“He’s pulling them now.”
“When he’s dug everything out, we’ll put a fifty-year seal on the material,” Danielle said.
“We’ll destroy the files,” Ryan said.
Danielle shook his head. “We’ve done questionable things, Mr. Ryan. But we don’t destroy records, because in the end we’re accountable to the public.”
“No—” Ryan said.
“I have to overrule you on this one, Howard,” Murphy said. “Lawrence is right. We’ll let the historians struggle with it fifty years from now, but we won’t alter the record.”
“As you wish, Mr. Director,” Ryan said darkly.
“Then we all have work to do. I suggest we get to it.”
Tom Moore came over when Ryan got back to his office. “Did they go for it?” he asked.
“They didn’t have any choice,” Ryan replied harshly. “As soon as Smith is finished with his search, I want everything hand-delivered to me.”
“Are we going to destroy it?”
“No. It’s going under a fifty-year seal.”
“Just as well,” Moore said.
“In the meantime I’ll put something together for Murphy to take over to the White House. I’ll need comprehensive reports on Kabatov’s government, on Yeltsin’s assassination, and a sanitized version of Tarankov’s background.”
“Will do.”
“I’ll need it yesterday, Tom.”
“I’ll get on it right away,” Moore assured him. He turned to go, but stopped at the door. “This business with the French and McGarvey doesn’t want to go away. How far do we want to take it?”
Ryan’s stomach knotted up, and he absently touched the scar on his chin. “Maybe it was McGarvey who killed Yeltsin. I wouldn’t put it past the bastard.”
“The timing is wrong. But the French are worried that the Russians have hired McGarvey to kill someone in France.”
“Arrest him, and put him on a plane back here. We’ll pick him up at the airport.”
Moore shook his head. “That’s just the problem. They can’t find him. Seems as if he’s gone to ground.”
Ryan looked up at his assistant deputy director with renewed interest. Hate for McGarvey still burned very hotly in his gut. “Has he broken any French laws?”
“Presumably not. They merely want to talk to him. He was living with a French intelligence officer who was keeping tabs on him, but he kicked her out and disappeared.”
Ryan could sense trouble. It was McGarvey’s pattern. When he was given an assignment the first thing he did was drop out of sight. The son of a bitch was back in the field. He still hadn’t learned his lesson.
“We need to give them all the help we can. Have Tom Lynch do what he can for them. But it’s a safe bet that some Russian has hired him to kill someone. Probably a mafia thing. Or, maybe he’s even decided to work for Tarankov, and is stalking Prime Minister Kabatov. With a man like McGarvey anything is possible.”
“I’ll call Lynch and talk to him personally,” Moore said.
“Wait,” Ryan said. He’d had another thought. “Correct me if I’m wrong, but didn’t we hire Elizabeth McGarvey as a translator over my objections a few months ago?”
Moore shrugged. “Is she some relation?”
“His daughter,” Ryan said. “Find out if she’s on the payroll. Maybe we’ll borrow her for this one.” Ryan smiled. “Who better to find a father, than his daughter?”
