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“Yeah, we can,” Baxter said.
Letty: “You know, if the different branches of the government would cooperate with each other...”
Baxter made a farting sound with his lips: “Like that’s gonna happen.”
Nowak was up,showered, and dressed when they got to her room. She was happy to get the phones, and happier to get the names of the two Tom Boyadjian operators. She got information on Boyadjian from an NSA database and said, “We’ll have the FBI go over and chat with him. If you’re right, his company has been instrumental in both murder and espionage. He’ll cooperate.”
“What about this Stepashin guy?”
“Nothing on him, yet, except that the FBI has heard the name.”
“Are we all headed back to Washington?” Cartwright asked.
“I need you to hang on for a day or two—I’ve reserved rooms for you here. You’ve got a lot of information in your heads about who is doing what to whom,” Nowak said. “We may want you to see if Ordinary People would be willing to go after the Russian rail system again.”
Letty to Cartwright and Baxter: “There. She finally said it.”
“Said what?” Nowak asked.
Cartwright: “Said what we’re really doing out here.”
“And if they’re not interested in going after the trains?” Letty asked.
“We could show them a picture of a cell at ADX Florence,” Nowak said. “The federal supermax. That should have an encouraging effect. I mean, they’re criminals.”
Letty: “Do that, and we’d have to tell them who we really are.”
“That may be necessary, although... you wouldn’t have to tell them exactly which agency,” Nowak said.
Baxter: “They’d be my friends if I weren’t at NSA. I really don’t want to put them away.”
“Then you’ll have to convince them to go after the Russians,” Nowak said.
They sat and looked at each other, then Nowak said, “Listen, people. The United States is not about to go to war with Russia. Neither is NATO. Russia’s got nukes and quite possibly an unbalanced dictator running the place. When Russia invades Ukraine, we’ll send the Ukrainians some weapons, maybe, but we won’t be dogfighting with Russian jets, or putting A-10s on their supply lines. Everything we do will be by remote control. That means slowingdown resupply by trains. If an illegal consortium of hackers chooses to go after the Russian rail system, well, that’s not the United States of America doing it. The Russians won’t have a lot of room to complain, given what their hackers do to us.”
“You need to be deniable,” Cartwright said.
“That’s exactly the right word,” Nowak said. “We’ll deny, deny, deny, but we won’t be unhappy to see Ordinary People back at work.”
Baxter looked at Letty: “Sovern would be the key. From what I get from Able, he’s the genius behind the train hack, while Loren and Brianna coordinated it.”
“If we can find him,” Letty said. Her eyes clicked over to Baxter, who dropped his eyelids.
“Gotta hope the Coast Guard can find him,” Cartwright said, now catching Letty’s eyes. “As far as we know, he could be on his way to Hawaii. But if they can spot him, we’ll talk to him.”
“Whatever we do, we’ll want to keep Ordinary People out of the bureaucracy, away from the FBI,” Nowak said. “We don’t want any reports written about this.”
“The FBI is already pissed at us—and at you,” Letty said.
“Yes. They are. I’ll deal with that when I get back to Washington—and believe me, I can deal with it. Some people very, very close to the President and the joint chiefs are trying to figure out how we can help the Ukrainians, without kicking the hornet’s nest.”
Cartwright’s eyebrows went up. “So we’re cleared to do what we fuckin’ well please, to get the job done.”
“Try not to blow up any buildings. Not large buildings, anyway,” Nowak said. She stood up and wheeled her suitcase toward the door. “We’ve been told in no uncertain terms to get this done, to stop the trains, whatever it takes.”
Twenty
Raoul, the well-dressed attorney, dark pinstripe suit, French shoes, silk Hermès necktie, pointed the couple known as Bob and Sue at the black Chrysler 300 and said, “There’s your ride.”
