'It would be interesting to know if your secretary did keep a list,' said Khalehla, arching her neck, thinking.
'I'll phone her.'
'Not from here you won't. Besides, I'm not finished… So you went to State to find Swann, which means you checked in with security.'
'Naturally.'
'Did you check out?'
'Well no, not actually, not at the lobby desk. Instead, I was taken down to the parking area and driven home in a State Department car.'
'To your house?'
'Yes, I was on my way to Oman and had to get some things together—’
'What about the driver?' interrupted Khalehla. 'Did he address you by name?'
'No, never. But he did say something that shook me. I asked him if he wanted to come in for a snack or coffee while I packed, and he said, “I might get shot if I got out of this car,” or words to that effect. Then he added, “You're from OHIO-Four-Zero.'”
'Which means he wasn't,' said Rashad quickly. 'And you were in front of your house?'
'Yes. Then I stepped out and saw another car about a hundred feet behind us at the curb. It must have been following us; there are no other houses on that stretch of road.'
'An armed escort.' Khalehla nodded. 'Swann covered you from minute-one and he was right. He didn't have the time or the resources to trace everything that had happened to you minus-one.'
Evan was bewildered. 'Would you mind explaining that?'
'Minus-one is before you reached Swann. A rich, angry congressman using a chartered plane to Flagstaff makes a lot of noise about getting to Washington. He's turned down, so he flies to Phoenix, where he no doubt insists on the first flight out and pays with a credit card, and starts calling his secretary, who has the instincts of an alley cat, telling her to find a man he doesn't know but is sure exists at the Department of State. She makes her calls—frantically, I think you said—reaching a number of people who have to wonder why. She gets you a narrowed-down quorum—which means she's reached a lot of her contacts who could give her the information and who also had to wonder why, and you turn up at State demanding to see Frank Swann. Am I right? In your state of mind, did you demand to see him?'
'Yes. I was given a run-around, told he wasn't there, but I knew he was, my secretary had confirmed it. I guess I was pretty adamant. Finally, they let me go up to his office.'
'Then after you talked with him he made his decision to send you to Masqat.'
'So?'
'That tight little circle you spoke of wasn't very little or very tight, Evan. You did what anyone else would do under the circumstances—under the stress you felt. You left a number of impressions during that agitated journey from Lava Falls to Washington. You could easily be traced back through Phoenix to Flagstaff, your name and your loud insistence on fast transportation remembered by a lot of people, especially because of the time of night. Then you show up at the State Department, where you made more noises—incidentally, checking in with security but not checking out—until you were permitted to go up to Swann's office.'
'Yes, but—’
'Let me finish, please,' interrupted Khalehla again. 'You'll understand, and I want us both to have the full picture… You and Swann talk, make your agreement of anonymity, and as you said, you're off and running to Masqat. The first leg was made to your house with a driver who was not part of OHIO-Four-Zero any more than the guards in the lobby. The driver was simply assigned by a dispatcher and the guards on duty were merely doing their jobs. They're not in the rarefied circles; nobody up there brings them in on top secret agendas. But they're human; they go home and talk to their wives and their friends because something different happened in their normally dull jobs. They might also answer questions casually put to them by people they thought were government bureaucrats.'
'And one way or another they all knew who I was—’
