hand in the pot, he’d be interested. Any luck on your end?”
“I think we might have enough horsepower to get the AG to back down but not enough to keep Driscoll in uniform. When you get back from Chicago, go pitch him.”
Clark nodded.
“Call them back in, Sam.”
As Chavez and the Carusos reentered, Brian said, “Hey, since we’re finally getting proactive about this shit ... The URC had that Dirar mutt killed for a good reason. Any more thoughts on us going to Tripoli and shaking the tree?”
“What do you expect to fall out?” Granger asked.
Dominic answered this one. “Either Dirar got whacked by the URC directly, or they had an affiliate do it. Either way, we find who did it and we’ve got another piece of the puzzle—maybe a peek at communication protocols, funding routes. . . . Who knows?”
Hendley nodded. “Draw your documents and get Travel working on itineraries. We’ll see if you can scare up a contact in Tripoli—somebody at the embassy who doesn’t mind having a hats-off chat. Also see if we can get Brian and Dominic a briefing—Jack, maybe that new deal you and Gavin have been working on?”
“Can do, boss.”
Hendley stood up and looked around the table. “Okay, gents, do your thing. We need a corner, something we can peel back and turn into leverage.”
Each man would need a motel room of his own, Hadi knew, all within an hour’s driving distance of the facility and none lavish enough that a ten- to fourteen-day stay would arouse curiosity. Foreigners coming to a new country looking for work didn’t have enough money for fancy accommodations, and while it might make sense for friends to stay together on such a trip, four Arabic-looking males staying in one place together might pique the interest of local law enforcement.
There were plenty of two-star motels in São Paulo; Hadi wasn’t worried about finding those, but this was his first foray into fieldwork and he wanted to leave nothing to chance—just as they’d left nothing to chance with their cover stories.
Each of them had studied or knew enough about the industry that their arrival and subsequent job inquiries would draw little attention, at least for the short time they planned to be in the country. Brazil’s new boon had seen an influx of workers, many of them from the Middle East and tired of being paid poverty-level wages for exhausting and dangerous work. No, Hadi thought, as long as they did nothing to distinguish themselves, four more Arabs going about the business of finding work would not be noticed.
The difficult part would be reconnaissance. There were many miles of track and hundreds of cars to survey; there were schedules and routes to double- and triple-check; topography and infrastructure to study. The facility itself, while far from impregnable, did have its own security force, and Ibriham’s preparatory research had suggested that the facility routinely conducted drills that involved both the military and the police, each of which maintained a quick-reaction force. Of course, such forces would be useful only up to a point. If he and the others planned well and remained steadfast under Allah’s guiding hand, nothing could stop them.
59
STEVE HAD PASSED the most recent test with flying colors, Allison decided. She had at the last minute canceled their rendezvous in Reno, claiming that her boss had asked her to take his place at a pharmaceutical-rep conference in Sacramento. The conference was real enough, as were her business cards and the drug samples and the literature she carried in her leather briefcase whenever they met for sex, but that’s as far as it went. She liked him well enough, but in her business, such things were gauged on a sliding scale. Steve wasn’t repulsive, or abusive, so that put him nearer to the upper end of the scale. Not that that would have mattered to her performance, but it certainly made their meetings tolerable.
As predicted, Steve had been upset and disappointed at her last-minute cancellation, and just as predictably, he’d immediately offered a solution: He would take time off from work and fly to Sacramento for the weekend so they could spend time together. She could attend the conference during the day, and they would have the nights to themselves. Allison showed the appropriate level of surprise and gratitude at his suggestion, and promised to make their first weekend getaway something to remember. At some point during the weekend, she would set the hook a little deeper, coyly suggesting that he