'He got double the increases everyone else got. Who has that kind of sway with congress? Not President Lawrence, that's for sure. He's not conservative enough for the budget group.'
'No, he's not,' Hood agreed.
'Bob, find out if Matt can get into Fenwick's phone records and calendar. See who he might have talked to and met with over the past few days and weeks.'
'Sure,' he said.
'But it's going to be tough to draw any conclusions from that. The NSA head meets with practically everyone.'
'Exactly,' Hood said.
'I don't follow.'
'If Fenwick were part of a black-ops situation, he would probably meet with his team away from the office. Maybe by seeing who he stopped meeting with, officially, we can figure out who he's been seeing on the sly.'
'Nice one, Paul,' Herbert said.
'I wouldn't have thought of that.'
'But that isn't what has me worried,' Hood went on. The phone beeped.
'Excuse me. Bob. Would you bring Mike up to date on this?'
'Will do,' Herbert said. Hood switched lines. Sergei Orlov was on the other end.
'Paul,' Orlov said, 'good news. We have your man.'
'What do you mean you have him?' Hood asked. The Russian operative was only supposed to keep an eye on him.
'Our operative arrived in time to save him from joining his comrades,' Orlov said.
'The assassin was dispatched and left in the hospital room. Your man was taken from the hospital to another location. He is there now.'
'General, I don't know what to say,' Hood told him.
'Thank you.'
'Thank you is good enough,' Orlov said.
'But what do we do now? Can he help us get the Harpooner?'
'I hope so,' Hood told him.
'The Harpooner must still be there. Otherwise, he would not have had to draw these people out and assassinate them. General, did you hear what happened in the Caspian?'
'Yes,' Orlov said.
'An Iranian oil rig was destroyed. The Azerbaijanis are probably going to be blamed, whether they did it or not. Do you know anything more about it?'
'Not yet,' Hood said.
'But the operative you saved might. If the Harpooner's behind this attack, we need to know. Can you arrange for the American agent to call me here?'
'Yes,' Orlov said. Hood thanked him and said he would wait by the phone. Orlov was correct. Suspicion would fall on Azerbaijan. They were the ones who disputed Iran's presence in that region of the sea. They were the ones who had the most to gain. But the Harpooner had done most of his work for Middle Eastern nations. What if Azerbaijan wasn't behind the attack? What if another nation was trying to make it seem that way? Hood got back on the phone with Herbert. He also patched in Mike Rodgers and briefed them both. When he was finished, there was a short silence.
'Frankly, I'm stumped,' Herbert said.
'We need more intel.'
'I agree,' Hood said.
'But we may have more intel than we think.'
'What do you mean?' Herbert asked.
'I mean we've got the NSA working with Iran,' Hood said.
'We have a president who was kept out of the loop by the NSA. We have a terrorist who works with Iran taking out CIA agents in Azerbaijan. We have an attack on an Iranian oil installation off the coast of Azerbaijan. There's a lot of information there. Maybe we're not putting it together in the right way.'
'Paul, do we know who in the CIA first found out the Harpooner was in Baku?' Rodgers asked.
'No,' Hood said.
'Good point.'
'I'll get someone to find that out ASAP,' Herbert said. Hood and Rodgers waited while Herbert made the call. Hood sat there trying to make sense of the facts, but it still was not coming together. Concerned, confused, and tired. It was a bad combination, especially for a man in his forties. He used to be able to pull allnighters without a problem. Not anymore. Herbert got back on.
'I've got someone calling the director's office. Code Red-One,' he said.
