Walsh sighed. “Aw hell, you’re confusing me with this goddamn time zone crap, Dobbs.”
“I’ll give you a crash course on time zones afterwards,” said Fox. He turned to Dobbs. “Go on.”
“Sure. As I was saying, we don’t know why he’s there, but I took the liberty to track his latest movements. It turns out that he boarded a plane in Minsk at 12:00 PM earlier today, which is in the same time zone as we are. He only made one connecting flight in Moscow, under a different alias, before he reached Tokyo. He travelled light, one bag of luggage and a briefcase.”
Bell chuckled. “Son of a gun. What are the chances of that?”
“That’s all he needed,” said Fox.
“What’s that?” asked Dobbs.
“A briefcase,” Fox replied. “If he was involved in what happened back there, then he could’ve smuggled a sample of Pandora with him, like the one I travelled with.”
Dobbs smiled. “It’s pretty neat, because we currently have a model type of the briefcase that Valerik was most likely travelling with. It’s designed to hide the contents. Does a hell of a job fooling x-ray machines. They’ve been around for quite a while. First, we had one model and then the Russians developed their version and then the Germans. Of course the British had to-”
“I’m sure they’re very nice briefcases, Bill.” General Downing sank back in his chair.
“Valerik’s probably getting help from Hexagon Pharmaceuticals to reproduce Pandora. They’d be equipped to do so,” said Walsh.
Fox breathed a sigh of relief as he held out the picture of Valerik. “Our missing link. So who’s the agent who spotted him? I assume we’ll be meeting him.”
Downing attempted a half smile as he turned to Fox. “You mean she. And it’s someone you should know pretty well.”
“Right,” said Dobbs. “Well, there’s a man also, but the actual one who spotted him was a woman. The man who’s assisting her is a computer specialist like me and-”
“I’m sure he’s a nice guy, Bill.” Fox turned from Downing and looked at Dobbs. “Who are they?”
Dobbs sighed and dropped his arms beside him. “I was just getting to that. For Pete’s sake, why do you guys keep interrupting me all the time? Anyhow, the man’s name is Tomas Levickis.” Dobbs picked up the manila folder and fingered through the documents until he found the pictures of both agents. “And the woman is Dr. Nita Parris.”
Fox raised an eyebrow and looked at Dobbs. “Doctor who?” He didn’t wait for him to answer. He got up, walked over to Dobbs and snatched the photograph from him.
“Uh, I said, Dr. Nita Parris. She’s a biochemist and used to be a weapons analyst. She’s working under NOC at Hexagon.” Dobbs’s referral to NOC was an acronym for Nonofficial Cover — agents that worked worldwide as employees for companies, real or fake, and also as students.
“Their mission was to find out everything about their brainwashing experiment. I haven’t met her myself, but I heard she’s got nice set of calves. She’s also-”
“Born and raised in Barbados and graduated with top honors from Princeton University,” said Fox. “She was three-time Ivy League Conference champion in the sprint hurdles both in the indoor and outdoor seasons. She was also pretty quick over the 200-meter dash.”
He couldn’t take his eyes off the black and white photograph. All CIA photographs were recent. She had not changed a bit since he last saw her. Was she a field agent when I met her? Sure, he could ask Downing and just get the that’s-classified response. Somehow he felt that she wasn’t, she appeared to be too honest with him. Then again, he’s trained to appear the same way to people too.
Downing smirked. “I sent Dr. Parris and Levickis over there to gather intel on her boss, Dr. Hideaki Hashimoto. I want to know what’s really going on at Hexagon. I suspect that Japan’s Boeisho is looking into them, but I feel more comfortable having our own operatives over there, just in case the Japanese neglect to tell us something.” His referral to Boeisho was the acronym for the Self Defense Forces, or Boeisho Boeikyoku. “Come to think of it, I forgot to mention this to them.”
Dobbs turned to Fox. “So you’ve worked with her before?”
Fox was a bit hesitant before answering. He remembered the night that he stood her up, only to learn after that she was carjacked on her way home. Although he learned that she survived the ordeal, it only brought a bit of comfort. But now she was going to be back in his life, and he’d have no choice but to respond to what he did to her. “Well, not exactly.”
Walsh chuckled. “Probably dated and dumped her, too.”
There was a short silence as he looked at Fox, who looked back at him briefly, and then turned away.
Walsh’s head dropped into his hand and he shook his head. “Jesus H. Christ, Fox! I can’t believe you.”
“It was a few of years ago. She told me she was a researcher.”
“And you probably told her you were a travelling salesman. I’m sure she’s looking forward to seeing you again.”
“She’ll forgive me.” Yeah right, dream on. A few hours ago he was going to officially resign from CIA. Now with Hiller’s death, the possibility that an Ares agent has gone rogue, and the involvement of an old flame of his, it’s as though life was testing him.
Downing cleared his throat loudly. “You two can straighten that out when you meet. I’ll contact my secretary, Ms. Vasell, and have her make the travel arrangements for all three of you. I’m putting you three in charge of tracking down and capturing Valerik. I’m also interested in knowing what’s going on at Hexagon Pharmaceuticals. There’s other details that you’ll just have to catch up on in the briefing you’ll receive, Any questions?” Nobody answered. “Then this meeting’s adjourned.”
Dobbs was the first to leave as Walsh came up to Fox. “Who’s your friend?”
“Who, Dobbs? He’s one of the geeks from the Office of Science and Technology. He’s an expert in anything with a circuit board and high-caffeine consumption. I heard that his wife’s seven months pregnant.”
Walsh chuckled. “Looks like he doesn’t get out much. I got to say, you know some mighty weird folk.”
Fox looked Walsh in the eye. “Yeah, you’re right. It’s funny how they always wind up working with me.”
Walsh’s smirk disappeared, and before he could reply, General Downing called out to Fox. “Fox, hang around a minute.”
Colonel Bell turned to Downing. “I’ll see you later.”
“Sure thing, Fred.”
Fox stood where he was, and he heard the Colonel close the door behind him.
“I want you to share your thoughts with me. You’re the only one who found it strange that the culprits would use that particular dagger and leave it behind.”
“It doesn’t make sense, sir. If someone wanted to cover their tracks, why would they unleash Pandora, risking their own lives, and leave the dagger. Another thing I didn’t bring up in the meeting-it was reported that the culprits spoke Russian. Were they actually heard in the background speaking Russian when the SOS was sent? Why would they risk being heard when our voice recognition computers could isolate their voices and potentially identify them? Anyone in Ares wouldn’t have been so careless.”
Downing nodded approvingly. “You’re right.”
“We should consider the possibility that someone’s trying to mislead us, and is attempting to send us on a wild goose chase.”
Downing rocked in his chair and smiled. “This is what I like about you, Ridley. When you’re on the ball, you’re really on it. And that’s the reason why I haven’t reassigned you yet.” Downing stopped rocking in his chair. “Now, I’m not going to ask much of you, but just that you keep your emotions out of what happens from here on. Or else, assuming you do come back alive, I may have you re-evaluated and reassigned. Is that understood?”
“Yes, sir.”
As Fox turned away, Downing looked up at him. “Oh, Fox?”
Fox turned back to him. “Yes, sir.”
“Is there anything else you want to talk to me about?”
Fox hesitated for a moment. He knew what the General was referring to, but now wasn’t the time to discuss it. He couldn’t afford to miss the chance of finding Hiller’s killers. And he wouldn’t be able to sleep knowing that Parris was also connected to a major player. “No, sir. You were very clear on the situation at hand and what needs to be done.”
