‘You really think,’ Bedford said, ‘that you’re running the show now.’
‘I am. And I don’t want my dad put at risk,’ Evan said. ‘Anything happens to him, you get nothing.’
‘I envy your dad, having your loyalty,’ Bedford said. ‘But your dad’s already at risk, because I’m quite sure Jargo has no intention of letting you leave that meeting alive.’
‘I’ve considered that possibility. I have a fallback. We’re doing this my way.’
Bedford put his hands flat on the table. ‘Would y’all please excuse me and Evan for a moment?’
The others got up and left, Carrie shaking her head. She waited for Palmer to step out, then said to Evan’s back, ‘If you love me, you’ll trust me. It’s not a complicated equation. Don’t fight us. Let us help you.’
He didn’t look at her. She closed the door behind her.
Bedford said, ‘This room isn’t bugged. But it is sound-proof. Just so you know.’
‘Palmer’s not taping?’
‘No, he’s not.’ Bedford took a sip of water. ‘If you’ve arranged a trade of these files on this laptop for your father, I assume you’ve spoken with your dad.’
Evan nodded.
Bedford said, ‘Tell me what he said to you. Word forword.’
‘Why?’
‘Because, Evan, I have had a contact among the Deep operatives for the past year. No one else in the CIA even knows I had a contact, including Carrie. I don’t know his real name. Your father might be my contact, and he might have sent me a message through you. He knows we would be searching for you until we had conclusive evidence that you were dead.’
Evan listened to the silence in the room: his own heartbeat, the hum of the heater fending off the wet cold outside.
‘You’re lying. You’re just trying to get me to cooperate with you.’
‘Remember I asked you about what your father said on the tape Jargo played at the zoo. I wasn’t so interested in the story Jargo peddled to your father; I was listening for code words. Just in case your dad was my guy.’
‘No.’ Evan’s voice rose. ‘If Dad was your contact, you would have already known about Goinsville. About the other Deeps. About how to find Jargo and Khan.’
Bedford shook his head. ‘The contact approached me. I’ve never met him. We spoke on the phone; he mailed me cell phones, to be used once, then destroyed. He was extraordinarily careful. I don’t even know how he knew to find me, that I was the one charged with finding the Deeps. But he did. He agreed to work with me on a highly limited basis. I wanted to force his hand to do more – to tell me who he was, to tell me more about the Deeps – but he refused. I didn’t even know his location, where he lived. God knows I tried to trace him; he always hid his tracks. He gave me nuggets that proved his good intentions: a warning about an Albanian terrorist cell planning an attack in Paris; the location of a Pakistani nuclear scientist who wanted to sell secrets to Iran; the hideout of a Peruvian criminal ring. Every bit of evidence he gave me was correct. There was never face-to-face contact. We never paid him for his services.’
‘Why would he help you?’
‘My contact said he disagreed with certain missions Jargo assigned him. He thought they were harmful to American interests. It seemed like he had a complicated relationship with Jargo; he wanted the operations to fail, but he didn’t want to hand Jargo over. So he contacted me. I provided him with disinformation to feed back to Jargo’s clients.’ Bedford shook his head. ‘My contact doesn’t know where the other Deeps are to be found. The network remains highly compartmentalized. But he fed us valuable information about what kind of work Jargo did, the nuances and shifts in the underground market for corporate and government secrets.’ Bedford poured himself and Evan glasses of water, pushed a glass toward Evan. ‘I had an escape clause with my contact – that when it was time to run, he would identify himself to me and I would get him and his family out. Away from Jargo. To safety. It’s what your mother wanted for you. I can’t help your mother but I can help you.’
‘You could have told me about my dad before.’
‘I don’t know if your dad is my contact, Evan. And I wasn’t going to let anyone know I had a contact close to Jargo unless I had absolutely no other choice. We’ve reached that point. Tell me whatever your dad said. Word for word, if you can.’
Evan pulled the PDA from his pocket, unlocked it with his thumbprint, tapped the Voice Memo application. The conversation with Dezz, then Jargo, then his father, spilled out from the PDA, loud and clear. The two men stared at each other while Mitchell Casher’s voice filled the small room. When it was done, Bedford closed his eyes.
‘Look at me,’ Evan said. ‘Is he your contact? Is he?’
‘Yes.’
A tightness seized Evan’s chest. ‘If Mom and Dad had just trusted each other…’ He didn’t finish the sentence. Mom would have known Dad was helping the CIA. Dad would have known Mom had stolen Jargo’s client list as a shield to protect their son. They could have stopped Jargo without a shot being fired, and Mom would be alive.
‘Lies were integral to their lives,’ Bedford said. ‘I’m so sorry, Evan.’
Silence filled the room until Evan spoke. ‘Okay. So he’s your contact. He’s in trouble. What do you do to help him?’
‘Did he give you those Graham Greene novels?’ Bedford asked.
‘What?’ The question wasn’t what he was expecting. ‘Yes. Before I started at Rice. He said I should read really brilliant books before I had to wade into the crap you read in college.’
‘Did he ever mention the “if one loved, one feared” line?’ Bedford leaned forward.
‘I don’t remember it if he did. But Greene is his favorite author, so he always talked about the books with me. The line sounds vaguely familiar.’
‘The quote is from The Ministry of Fear. It’s a bitter truth. We always risk when we love. It’s also a code phrase I established with your father.’ Bedford folded his fingers over his lips.
‘Tell me what it means.’
‘It means, Forget me. I can’t be rescued. ’
Evan felt his poker face crack. ‘No. No. Your code doesn’t matter now. You have to help him.’
Bedford straightened his stance, with quiet confidence that suggested the battle between them was over. ‘Evan. In this business you lose people. It’s war. It’s sad. I would have liked to have met your dad face to face, to have known him. I believe that I might have even liked him. But he’s telling me to walk away. I don’t know if he believes Jargo, that the CIA killed your mother. It may not matter what he believes. He expected if the CIA caught you, you’d be brought to me, and I’d ask you about anything unusual that he said. Whatever Jargo is setting up in this meeting is a trap. I can’t risk it. My team is too small. We’ll have to wait for another chance.’
‘You can’t abandon him.’
‘I can’t risk resources to save a dead man. He’s warning me off. I’m sure to save you from being anywhere near Jargo.’ Bedford stood. ‘My sympathies. We’ll head to Washington instead of Miami. We’ll get you in a protection program. The government is extraordinarily grateful for what you’ve done.’
Evan stayed in his seat.
‘I know this is hard for you to hear. You’ve lost your mother. But, son, you have Carrie.’
‘I know.’ Evan stared at the warm mahogany of the tabletop.
‘I give you every assurance we can hide you successfully. Think about where you might want to live. Ireland, or Australia, or-’
Evan looked up at Bedford. ‘No. We’re going to Miami.’
‘I’m sorry, Evan, but no. Out of respect for your father-’
‘The laptop. Through my film connections, I found a very good hacker. We already removed and hid the files. You’ll never find them. You try and access the laptop without the right password, it reformats itself. Only I know where Jargo’s client list is. And I’m not telling you unless you get my father back.’
‘Evan, listen to me-’
‘The discussion is over.’ Evan stood. ‘Are we going to Miami or not?’
