yours too far. We could save a lot of time if you’d just tell us what you know.”
“I’ve explained why that isn’t wise,” Jake replied. “We are following a path that I know works. That is more important than making this easy. In the past I haven’t been constrained. Any mistakes, like the one you almost caused by running off on your own, and we might not be able to recover. I don’t know what would happen if I was placed in a situation where I’d need to back-track.”
“We’ll see what Raul comes up with,” Susan said, sensing the tension between Laney and Jake. She’d heard about the aborted attempt that Laney had made to sneak into the mosque independent of the main assault force. Even though Laney now understood a little of what Jake could do, or had been able to do in the past, he didn’t understand the ramifications of his knowledge. Even Susan wasn’t always certain about matters Jake considered important, but then only Jake had actually made the loops and was aware of what had happened and been circumvented by his interference.
Another knock, and Susan’s secretary waved a manila folder that she held in her right hand. She stepped in and handed it to Susan, then left closing the door behind her.
Susan opened the folder and stared briefly at the contents. Then she slid a pair of photos across the table to Jake and Laney.
“Dick Baldwin,” she said. “Twenty-two years old, son of a fairly well-to-do banker from Pittsburg. Formerly a college student in political science. The one on the right is how he looked today. The one on the left is how he looked two months ago when he was arrested with a couple of other members of the mosque.”
The more current picture showed a cleaned up, but defiant Baldwin in an orange prison jumper, his short red hair and clean face looking bruised, the eyes angry and defiant. The older picture showed a man with a scraggly long beard wearing a robe and sandals.
“He joined the mosque over a year ago after dropping out of college,” Susan read from the summary.
She looked up at the others. “For some reason he has chosen to change his appearance back to his former self, yet he is clearly aligned with those in the mosque.”
“He won’t stand out that way,” Laney said, agreeing with what Jake had said when they saw the young man. “He’s helping them. Maybe he would be more willing to talk than the others?”
“According to this, he’s already been turned loose. His family came with their family lawyer and had him released. He wasn’t involved in the shooting, and therefore they couldn’t hold him.”
“We have to assume there are others like him helping out,” Jake said. “It might be informative to see what your files show for other Americans who had a close affiliation with local mosques, especially the ones who are known to be militant and a bit radical.”
Susan looked closely at Jake and nodded. She couldn’t help wondering if he was passing a clue that would prove to be important.
The next morning Laney, Jake and Susan met in her office prior to the daily meeting. It was six AM, and all of them suspected it would be another long day. Laney had received a call while driving to FBI headquarters from Karl Peterson, the head of maintenance at the Air and Space Museum.
“He comes to work at five each day,” Laney explained. “After our visit, he claims he has made a point of going onto the roof and checking first thing each day. Someone was there last night. They installed several additional canisters last night. He says that it looks like they weren’t finished, because a mounting was partially done in one of the remaining units, but there isn’t a canister in place. He suggested they might be coming back again.”
“We need to get a team over there to disarm the new units,” Carlson said. “It might be best if you two head over and miss the morning meeting and have a look at what he has found. If you agree with Peterson that those responsible could come back to finish up, we might want to set up surveillance tonight.”
“It’s like the last time,” Peterson said, obviously upset that the building he was responsible for had been violated once again. “The alarm wasn’t triggered, and there is nothing in the log that says someone other than me went up on the roof