“How ’bout Tex?”
Valentina cursed at Ames.
“We all want you to die, Ames,” added Gillespie. “Doesn’t that bother you? When the bullets fly, we’ll use you as a human shield.”
Ames opened his mouth, but Hansen shouted, “Enough! Now, we either sit here on our hands, or we try to figure out what the hell’s going on.”
“How do we do that without them knowing about it?” asked Valentina. “We can’t use our network or our personnel. They’ll want to know why we’re querying.”
“She’s right,” said Ames. “We’d need someone outside of 3E but maybe still inside the NSA.”
“Or the CIA,” said Hansen, lifting his brows. “I have a friend. I owe him a favor, but maybe he’ll make it one more for me, and I’ll pay him back triple.”
“What do you have in mind?” asked Noboru.
“If Grim and Fisher are talking, it must be through a cutout, and there’s a chance that my CIA contact can drop a few names. Some of these guys in Europe work for more than one three-letter agency. If we can get the name of this cutout, maybe we can pay him or her a visit… ”
“That’s a long shot,” said Valentina. “It’ll be like going to talk to Chenevier. The cutout won’t hand over Fisher.”
Hansen snorted. “Maybe, maybe not. But apparently, we have nothing else to do — until Moreau calls with a sudden and miraculous update.”
“I’m all for it,” said Ames. “Best idea you’ve had in, like, forever.”
“You don’t want to complain?” asked Hansen, dumbfounded.
“Hell, no. Call your buddy right now. But you can’t use any of our cell phones. We need to get you one without Uncle Marty finding out.”
Valentina opened her purse and tossed a cell phone to Hansen. “Try this.”
“Yours?”
She cocked a brow. “Don’t ask too many questions. And by the way, our Tridents should be here in an hour or so.”
“How’d you pull off that?” asked Hansen.
She hardened her tone. “Like I said, don’t ask too many questions.”
Ames was very enthusiastic about finding Fisher because earlier in the day, when they’d stopped to buy lunch, he’d gone into the restroom and contacted Stingray.
Word from Kovac was that Ames could not allow Fisher to get anywhere near Vianden, Luxembourg. Fisher must be stopped before he got there.
The
He couldn’t tell the team that he knew where Fisher was going because he’d be unable to explain how he knew, which, in turn, would threaten his cover and his security as a mole.
But this… this was unexpected and quite beautiful. He would fuel Hansen’s frustration and goad him into learning the truth about Sam Fisher’s real mission — and Ames felt certain that Fisher’s mission directly involved Kovac, which raised the stakes to the highest level of their organization.
And when you played a game that important, you’d be a fool not to have an insurance policy. Ames had already made certain that if Mr. Kovac decided to make him the fall guy, then together they’d take an express train straight into hell. Now all Ames needed to do was find a way to reveal the Vianden link via Hansen’s desire for the team to investigate on its own. Or maybe Hansen wasn’t the key… Maybe someone else was…
Hansen used Valentina’s phone to call his buddy back at Langley to see if the good old CIA could bail out the good old NSA — not, ahem, that there was any rivalry between those organizations. Hansen had to leave a message. Valentina and Gillespie went to their room to change. They were going down to the restaurant for dinner.
Ames ordered a T-bone from room service, and he raided the liquor, finishing off a couple of small bottles of whiskey before he realized how drunk he was getting.
Moreau came down and rattled off a list of possible leads on Fisher’s whereabouts, and he reported that there was nothing yet from local police on the Range Rover. Hansen, Noboru, and Ames barely paid any attention to him. Moreau asked why they weren’t following up on the leads immediately, and Hansen answered him with two words: “Just chill.”
Mr. Moreau’s gaze grew harder. He nodded, then left the room. Ames checked his OPSAT simply for the time, but the screen was blurry. “What time is it?”
“Almost midnight,” answered Noboru.
“Are we doing anything else tonight except waiting around for your buddy to call?” asked Ames.
Hansen shook his head.
“That’s good. I want to rent some porn.”
Noboru glanced to Hansen. “Do we have to?”
“No, we don’t.”
“Aw, come on. You guys are going to sit there and tell me you don’t like porn?”
Hansen lifted a brow. “Not as much as you.”
Valentina ordered the vegetable plate and Gillespie decided that sounded good and ordered the same. They sat there, drinking sparkling water, staring at their vegetables, and wondering what the hell they were doing.
“I’m thinking about going back to being an analyst,” Gillespie said out of nowhere.
“Maybe I’ll join you.”
“I thought we’d be doing something… I don’t know… more dangerous.”
“Yeah, I know what you mean,” answered Valentina.
“And I sure as hell didn’t think I’d be working on a team. No way.”
“I hate your guts,” Valentina said abruptly, then flashed a grin.
Gillespie smiled. “I hate you, too — because you’re smart and pretty.”
“And you’re not?”
“You think I’m a slut.”
“You’re not a slut. I can understand how you feel.”
Gillespie frowned deeply. “Oh, really?”
“Yeah.”
For a moment, Gillespie’s thoughts raced, and then she finally built up the courage to ask, “You slept with Fisher, too?”
Valentina began chuckling. “No.
“Then, what?”
“I’m just saying I know what it’s like to have feelings for a teacher or a coworker.”
Gillespie bit her lip. “I wish I could take it back. Had I known it would come to this…”
“Don’t have regrets. Just move on.”
Gillespie nodded. “You know, I don’t hate you as much anymore.”
“Yeah, but I’m sure the boys would love a good cat fight.”
“At least Ames helped us out. We both hate him more than we hate each other,” she said through a chuckle.
“That’s right. So, let me ask you, if Ben decides to follow up on this without Moreau and Grim, are you going along?”
“You mean break off from them and go find Fisher ourselves?”
“Yeah.”
“Sounds crazy, but, you know what? I’m in. I think we’ll call Grim’s bluff and she’ll be forced to turn over what she knows.”
“That could happen.”
