Removing you would create conflict, a distraction. I thought it might open your contracts to other bidders.”
He nodded. “A reasonable guess. Most of my business is built on long-standing relationships. But I don’t believe that I am the target. Besides, these men already have access to me.”
“With her, their hands would be clean.” She corrected herself quickly. “Clean er.” They were already dirty to some degree. Otherwise, Trask wouldn’t suspect them.
He considered this before dismissing it. “No. It is someone else and for some other purpose. They have access to our technology. They could take the company down by corrupting our resources.”
“You found out you’d been compromised by reverse engineering the situation,” she said. She was in this far with her pushing. She might as well go all the way. “How did you identify the personnel?”
He grinned. “Reverse engineering the situation,” he said. “I like that. It’s exactly what we did. Found our technology, and instead of suing the Chinese company, we infiltrated their plant, found the source of the leak, traced it back to our R amp; D division, known, ironically enough, as MoleS-Molecular Studies. They’re responsible for making electronic relays from single molecules.”
She probably looked as surprised as she felt. She thought single-molecule wires and conjugated molecular on-off switches were still mostly theory.
Back to silent mode, Muloni decided. She was out of her element on all fronts.
“We do not know if the industrial saboteurs are aware that we know what they’ve done,” Trask went on. “What’s more, though they have been watched here, their personal communications monitored, there appears to be only one connection between them and the escape of Ms. Rassin. The Pakistanis on board the incoming flight were using our Minotaur secure phones. Two separate systems, interfaced internally, impossible to crack without the exact code because the components separate if there is any unauthorized access. The electronic bridge between receive and transmit literally breaks down, sealing memory from even the user. Those phones were hacked. The arrival time of the jet was known, the movements of the Pakistanis were also known, and they were slain inside the terminal where you searched the prisoner. Their bodies were found two hours after takeoff-by which time the jet had landed at JFK. We assume your target is still there. Otherwise, why fly her to such a heavily monitored area when a smaller airport in another city would have sufficed?”
Because it’s easier to stay lost in a crowd, for one thing, she thought.
Trask drained the water glass. She had a sudden image of him as a cactus, lean and thirsty, with invisible thorns. Maybe it wasn’t just noblesse oblige this man was about. Maybe she was sensing something dangerous.
“If they are aware of us watching them, that does not mean they are aware of you,” he went on. “Security personnel come and go frequently. That shouldn’t raise any red flags.”
“Unless someone links me to Rassin,” she pointed out.
He grinned. “That will make your hunt a little easier, not to mention more exciting. But I don’t think that has happened. We had people at the airport, looking for anyone who might be tracking Elisabeth. Your pickup was clean. They will be there when you depart to make sure it stays that way.”
He put the glass on the tray and rose. She did as well. Apparently, the audience was at an end.
“Thank you for making the trip,” he said, offering both hands again. “I wanted to meet you and to tell you personally how important this is to me, to my business, and to our nation.” He locked her hand in his again. “You will have whatever resources you need to carry out your assignment, the only caveat being that you keep this to yourself.”
“Mr. Trask, there is someone I’d like to talk to.”
His face and body locked. He did not release her hand. He was like a machine that had died suddenly. “Who?”
“I would like to consult with a colleague at the FBI about his operational checklists.”
“You have none of your own?”
She smiled a little smile. “Our organization is not chartered for domestic surveillance as such. I don’t want to miss any potential red flags the target may throw off.”
“You may talk to your associate discretely,” Trask said.
“Thank you, sir.”
“You understand,” Trask went on, his voice thicker, her hand still his prisoner, “we will be dealing with the industrial sabotage on our own. What I’m concerned about-all you need be concerned about-is your target. You will kill to protect it. You will die, if necessary, to protect it. Those points may not be in your friend’s checklist.”
“Fully understood,” she replied. Something about the way he said that chilled her. Then again, everything about this man was a little off-putting. ”But there may be tracking mechanisms embedded in the MoleS operation that can lead us to Rassin. Some angle, some component my colleague might think of. Something I can pass along to your people to investigate.”
She said that a little stubbornly, she hoped.
It took a moment but Trask relaxed. The smile returned. He released her hand. He studied her for what felt like an interminably long time. “Do you understand the instructions, or must they come from your Director?”
A man did not go from being a wealthy dilettante to a major power broker without having a will of iron.
“I understand, Mr. Trask,” she replied. She did not want her disobedience booted up to the director.
“And you’ll follow those instructions?” he added. It wasn’t so much a question as a command.
“Of course,” she said-a little too obediently to sit well on the conscience, but that was what was needed. Muloni also appreciated-despite the part of her that hated the reality of it-that she was an African American woman of Muslim heritage who was being given an opportunity to land some very big game. That was the kind of takedown that made careers and helped to dispel Islamophobia inside the Company and out.
Trask continued smiling “You will wait at your hotel until we receive an update on your target.”
“Hotel, sir?”
“In New York,” he said. “There is no time to waste. Elisabeth has the details of your flight, your hotel, and the number of the taxicab that will be waiting for you. The driver’s name is Shrevnitz. He will have a weapon for you. There are clothes and cash already in your room. There will also be a Minotaur phone in a desk drawer. Please use that for any calls pertinent to the mission.”
“Yes, sir,” Muloni said. She turned and retrieved her telephone. When she turned back, Trask was already at the door.
“Have a safe and successful trip,” he said.
“Thank you,” she replied to his back.
Robinson eased in as Trask strode out.
Something dangerous indeed, she thought. But then, people didn’t achieve what he had by being sweet and yielding.
Still, it was her life that was at risk. And whether he liked it or not, she might need to contact Reed Bishop.
Trask went to his study, which was at the far end of a long corridor. His footsteps fell lightly, briskly on the cherrywood floor. On the walls of the corridor were historical documents signed by each of the fifty-six men who signed the Declaration of Independence, a collection that ranged from a ship’s multi-language passport signed by John Adams to a receipt for hay signed by Arthur Middleton. Trask often stood in contemplation here, going from name to name, considering how these men of diverse backgrounds overcame their differences to agree on a defiant statement of liberty; how they risked their lives and the well-being of their families to turn a vision, an idea, into a reality.
That was how Jacob Trask had always lived his life, from the first aluminum spring trap he built as a young teenager to the fragmentation bullet he invented to help his sight-impaired grandfather bring down deer. That was what he was doing now.
He shut the heavy oak door and picked up the phone. He pressed a familiar speed-dial assignation.
“Yes, sir?” the voice on the other end answered.
“She’s on her way,” Trask told him. “Employ her as our lion if you can, as a lamb if it becomes necessary.”
“She was deferential?”
“Only to a point, as you said,” Trask told him. “She was prepared to challenge me on the mute order.”
