Teeth of the Tiger

'Your guess is as good as mine. The Station Chief in Bahrain is saying that he needs more personnel to make it happen, and the personnel weenies at Langley are probably batting that back and forth right now.'

'My dad liked to say that the government is really run by accountants and lawyers.'

'He ain't far wrong on that one, buddy. God knows where Ed Kealty fits in that, though. What does your dad think of him?'

'Can't stand the son of a bitch. He won't talk in public about the new administration because he says that's wrong, but if you say something about the guy over dinner, you might end up wearing your wine home. It's funny. Dad hates politics, and he really tries hard to keep his cool, but that guy is definitely not on the Christmas card list. But he keeps it quiet, won't talk to any reporters about it. Mike Brennan tells me the Service doesn't like the new guy, either. And they have to like him.'

'There are penalties for being a professional,' Wills agreed.

And then Junior lit up his computer and looked at the night traffic between Langley and Fort Meade. It was a lot more impressive in its volume than its content. It seemed that his new friend, Uda, had—

'Our pal Sali had lunch with somebody yesterday,' Jack announced.

'Who with?' Wills asked.

'The Brits don't know. Appears Middle Eastern, age about twenty-eight, one of those thin — well, narrow — beards around the jawline, and mustache, but no ident on the guy. They spoke in Arabic, but nobody got close enough to overhear anything.'

'Where'd they eat?'

'Pub on Tower Hill called 'Hung, Drawn and Quartered. ' It's on the edge of the financial district. Uda drank Perrier. His pal had a beer. And they had a British plough-man's lunch. They sat in a corner booth, made it hard for whoever was watching to get close and listen in.'

'So, they wanted privacy. It doesn't necessarily make them bad guys. Did the Brits tail him?'

'No. That probably means a single-man tail on Uda?'

'Probably,' Wills agreed.

'But it says they got a photo of the new guy. Not included in the report.'

'It was probably someone from the Security Service — MI5—doing the surveillance. And probably a junior guy. Uda isn't regarded as very important, not enough for full coverage. None of those agencies have all the manpower they want. Anything else?'

'Some money trades that afternoon. Looks pretty routine,' Jack said, scrolling through the transactions. I'm looking for something small and harmless, he reminded himself. But small, harmless things were, for the most part, small and harmless. Uda moved money around every day, in large and small amounts. Since he was in the wealth-preservation business, he rarely speculated, dealing mostly in real-estate transactions. London — and Britain in general — was a good place to preserve cash. Real-estate prices were fairly high but very stable. If you bought something, it might not go up very much, but it sure as hell wasn't going to have the bottom drop out. So, Uda's daddy was letting the kid stretch his legs some, but not letting him run out and play in the traffic. How much personal liquidity did Uda have? Since he paid off his whores in cash and expensive handbags, he must have his own cash supply. Maybe modest, but 'modest' by Saudi standards wasn't exactly modest by many others. The kid did drive an Aston Martin, after all, and his dwelling was not in a trailer park… so—

'How do I differentiate between Sali's trading his family money and trading his own?'

'You don't. We think he keeps the two accounts close, in the sense both of being covert and near to each other. Your best bet on that is to see how he sets up his quarterly statements to the family.'

Jack groaned. 'Oh, great, it'll take me a couple of days to add up all the transactions, and then to analyze them.'

'Now you know why you're not a real CPA, Jack.' Wills managed a chuckle.

Jack nearly snarled, but there was only one way to accomplish this task, and it was his job, wasn't it? First, he tried to see if his program could shortcut the process. Nope. Fourth-grade arithmetic with a nose attached. What fun. At least by the time he finished, he'd probably be better at entering numbers into the numeric keypad on the right side of the keyboard. There was something to look forward to! Why didn't The Campus employ some forensic accountants?

* * *

They turned off Route 2 onto a dirt road that wound its way north. The road had seen a good deal of use, some of it recent, judging by the tracks. The general area was somewhat mountainous. The real peaks of the Rocky Mountain chain were off to the west, far enough away that he couldn't see them, but the air was thinner here than he was accustomed to, and it would be warm walking. He wondered how far that would be, and how close they were to the U.S. border. He'd heard that the American-Mexican border was guarded, but not well guarded. The Americans could be lethally competent in some areas, but utterly infantile in others. Mustafa and his people hoped to avoid the former and to make use of the latter. About eleven in the morning, he saw a large, boxy truck in the distance, and their SUV headed toward it. The truck, he saw as they came closer, was empty, its large red doors wide open. The Ford Explorer came to within a hundred meters and stopped. Pedro switched off the engine and got out.

'We are here, my friends,' he announced. 'I hope you are ready to walk.'

All four of them got out, and as before they stretched their legs and looked around. A new man walked in their direction, as the other three SUVs parked and disgorged their passengers.

'Hello, Pedro,' the new Mexican greeted the lead driver, evidently an old friend.

'Buenos dias, Ricardo. Here are the people who want to go to America.'

'Hello.' He shook hands with the first four. 'My name is Ricardo, and I am your coyote.'

'What?' Mustafa asked.

'It is just a term. I take people across the border, for a fee. In your case, of course, I have already been paid.'

'How far?'

'Ten kilometers. A modest walk,' he said comfortably. 'The country will mostly be like this. If you see a snake, just walk away from it. It will not chase you. But if you get within a meter, it can strike you and kill you. Aside from that, there is nothing to fear. If you see a helicopter, you must fall to the ground and not move. The Americans do not guard their border well, and, oddly enough, not as well in daylight as at night. We have also taken some precautions.'

'What is that?'

'There were thirty people in that van,' he said, pointing to the large truck they'd seen coming in. 'They will walk in ahead of and to the west of us. If anyone is caught, it will be them.'

'How long will it take?'

'Three hours. Less, if you are fit. Do you have water?'

'We know the desert,' Mustafa assured him.

'As you say. Let us be off, then. Follow me, amigo.' And with that, Ricardo started walking north. His clothes were all khaki, he wore a military-style web belt with three canteens attached, and he carried military-style binoculars, plus an Army-style floppy hat. His boots were well worn. His stride was purposeful and efficient, not overly fast for show, just to cover ground efficiently. They fell in behind him, forming a single file to conceal their numbers from any possible trackers, with Mustafa in the lead, about five meters behind their coyote.

* * *

There was a pistol range about three hundred yards from the plantation house. It was outdoors, and had steel targets, a set just like those at the FBI Academy, with head-plates, circular and roughly the size of a human head. They made an agreeable clang when hit, and then they fell down, as a human target would do if hit there. Enzo turned out to be better at this. Aldo explained that the Marine Corps didn't emphasize pistol shooting too much, whereas the FBI paid particular attention to it, figuring that anybody could shoot a shoulder weapon accurately. The FBI brother used the two-handed Weaver stance, while the Marine tended to stand up straight and shoot one-handed, the way the services taught their people.

'Hey, Aldo, that just makes you a better target,' Dominic warned.