Hurtubise knew where his friend was leading. “That is not a problem,
He returned to the list that Pinsard had provided. “Hmmm… gas masks, good. Small arms and ammunition, heavy machine guns, very good. Oh, maybe not enough body armor for everybody.”
“Enough for you and me.” Pinsard smiled.
Hurtubise appreciated the man’s humor — and priorities. “What about motion detectors?”
“I have some but we should talk to your captain. I am not sure that they will work on a ship. I mean, they should work, but too well. All that rolling, and water coming over the deck.” He shrugged. “I would not count on them being very useful. Too many false alarms.”
Hurtubise pocketed the list and looked at the van. “All right, let’s get everything loaded. I want to leave tomorrow or the next day.”
65
Derringer and Carmichael huddled with Leopole for an update on the deployed teams.
The former Marine officer began, “Jeff Malten is taking the SEAL cadre to Israel. He’ll arrive today and meet Bosco and Breezy, who’ve been there a few days. Jeff’s coordinating with Alex Cohen on intel and he’ll be our go-to guy when we learn about the ship. If the yellow cake heads east, we know it’s Suez and Jeff’s team will follow. If we learn the ship’s headed west, that means Gibraltar and the long way around.”
“There could be false leads,” Carmichael said. “You know, disinformation.”
“Affirm. We expect that. But between Dave Dare’s shop and what we get from State and elsewhere, we should be able to shake things out.”
“Okay, then,” Sandy replied. “Let’s hope it’s Gibraltar. That’ll give us a big breather.”
At length, Derringer spoke up. “You know, one thing really bothers me. About the intelligence, that is. Yes, we’re getting reports from Dave and State and DoD, but we don’t know how independent the sources are.”
“How’s that, Admiral?” Leopole asked.
“Dave and his spooks are good at what they do — really good. But without access to the raw data, we could be relying on just one or two actual sources. You know the routine: A tells B; B tells C; C tells A. It looks like three reports, but actually it’s one.”
Leopole’s forehead wrinkled. “Admiral, we already talked about sources. Dare’s working group is supposed to get raw data when we request it. That’s how the operation was set up.”
“Yes, but I talked to Dave this morning. That’s one reason I wanted to meet with both of you. So far, he’s got nothing more than what we see from government sources. He said that worries him, because usually he can get inside the loop in a matter of days and at least conclude whether data is original or filtered. So far, he thinks most reports come via Israel.”
Carmichael set down her coffee cup. “Well, things happened so fast that we didn’t have much time to establish a more thorough network. But you’re right: we don’t know if the intel so far is raw or not. It could be doctored.”
“That’s what I’m saying,” Derringer said.
Leopole rubbed his crew cut. “Well, we need to let our operators know that.”
“Yes, but it’ll need some delicate handling. Alex is in the loop and…”
“My God,” Leopole exclaimed. “You’re saying he might be the reason…”
“We have to consider it.”
Carmichael resisted the impulse to bite one of her manicured nails. “Sir, maybe we’re overlooking an obvious source.”
“Yes?” Derringer replied.
“Well, Iran.”
The two males exchanged wide-eyed looks.
“Sure,” Carmichael continued. “If I understand it, all our information so far comes from our own sources but maybe it’s all from the Israelis. Well, you know them. They’ll share what’s in their interest to share and not much more. But if we could tap into one or two Iranian sources, that’d tend to confirm or deny what we’ve heard so far.”
Leopole raised his hands, palms up. “Sandy, that’s a primo consideration. But presumably anything originating in Iran would come to us via NSA or the CIA or State or whatever.”
“Yes, Frank. But we don’t know. That’s why it’s so important to see raw data, and Dave Dare is saying he can’t break it out. I’m just wondering who else we can call on.”
Leopole slapped his knee. “Under our noses.”
“What?”
“Omar.”
Derringer grinned. “Get him.”
66
“Hey, there’s Jeff!”
Breezy turned at Bosco’s exclamation and glimpsed Jeff Malten walking through the hotel lobby.
Bosco could not help himself. “Hey, we’re a circus act!” The ex-Army men extended their arms like Joan Rivers, clapping their hands and balancing imaginary balls on their noses. “Arf arf! We’re trained SEALs!”
Malten looked at his Navy friend. “Some things you can always count on in a changing world.” He shook hands with his colleagues and introduced his partner. “Bosco, Breezy, this is Scott Pfizer. He’s another trained SEAL.”
Breezy allowed himself to grin. “Trained? Does that mean you balance balls on your nose or do you do water tricks?”
Pfizer was short, muscular, and businesslike. “Well, I’d say that I do tricks. By the way, how far can
“Depends on what I see,” Breezy quipped. “But I met this Greek gal the other night and she could hold her breath longer than—”
Bosco interrupted his friend’s reverie with an elbow to the ribs. “Jeff, what’s the rest of the team look like?”
Malten swiveled his head. “I think we’d better talk in one of the rooms. This Cohen guy was supposed to make reservations for us.”
“Yeah, we met him. He seems to have things organized. C’mon, we can talk in our room until he gets back.”
Following Brezyinski down the corridor, Malten asked, “Where’d he go?”
“Damn if I know. He comes and goes all the time, like he’s the only one involved but there has to be other people. Maybe the Israelis just like to keep their contacts to a minimum.”
In their room, Bosco helped himself to the refrigerator and offered drinks to the others. Malten passed while Pfizer accepted a ginger ale. Dropping Breezy’s wet trunks on the floor, Malten occupied the chair and organized his thoughts. “Are you guys in contact with Arlington?”
Bosco sipped his beer and nodded. “We check e-mail at least twice a day. We have a phone card but we’re not supposed to use it if we don’t have to.”
“Well, then you’re probably pretty much up-to-date. Vic Pope is running the other team, and he’ll take the ship if it goes the long way around. I’m getting another SEAL and four other guys to start, with maybe a couple more besides. It’s real loosy-goosy, but I guess it has to be until we know more. If the ship goes via Suez, we’ll get
