Robie thought, they hadn’t been given her real name.
He looked at the room numbers and pointed to one. “The woman in that room,” he said. Blue Man had been very clear: ICU, Room 7.
The woman still said nothing.
“Did she die?” he wanted to know.
Another woman came up to him. She looked like a supervisor of some sort. Robie put the same questions to her.
The woman took him by the elbow and led him over to a corner. Robie showed her his creds, which she scrutinized.
She said, “That patient’s condition and current location are unknown to us.”
“How can that be? You’re a hospital. Do you just let people take critically injured patients out of here?”
“A re you the woman’s associate?”
“Why?”
“Because I’ve been working in this area for a long time. And we get all types. And the type that this woman was, I believe, is highly classified. They gave no name. And they came and took her early this morning. They didn’t tell us where. I assume that they have appropriate medical care for her.”
“Who took her?”
“Men in suits with badges and ID cards that scared the hell out of me, if you want to know.”
“What did the badges and ID cards say?”
“Homeland Security.”
It was Robie’s turn to stare blankly.
DHS was involved. CIA and DHS did not play nice together, that was just how it was. But for DHS to get DiCarlo out of this place they had to do so with Langley’s blessing. So the two federal behemoths had defied all odds and were working together.
Robie refocused on the woman. “And they didn’t say where they were taking her?”
“No.”
“Was it safe to move her?”
“As a nurse with twenty years’ experience in the ICU, I would say emphatically no. But they did it anyway.”
“How badly injured was she?”
“I can’t get into that with you. It’s confidential.”
“I was with her last night when she got shot. I was the one who got her away from the people trying to kill her. I was sent here by my agency to check on her condition. You can understand that I’m surprised that she’s not here. I know there’s confidentiality involved, but you don’t even know her name. She was just the woman in Room 7. I don’t see how you would be violating any HIPAA regs.”
The woman mulled over this and said, “It is an unusual situation.”
“No truer words have ever been spoken.”
She smiled briefly. “She was in the ICU. And she wasn’t going to be leaving here anytime soon. The wound she suffered had done a lot of internal damage. The surgery removed the bullet, but it had hit a lot of things inside her. She’s going to have a long rehab. If she pulls through. That’s all I can tell you.”
Robie thanked her and left.
On the way to his car he called Blue Man and relayed this news. He was listening carefully to Blue Man’s reaction. Robie wanted to know—no, he needed to know—if Blue Man was already aware of this.
The man’s next words made Robie feel confident that he wasn’t.
“My God, what the hell is going on?”
“I’ll let you know if I find out,” answered Robie.
He clicked off and got into his car.
There were a number of ways he could pursue this, but only one was the most direct. And right now, Robie needed to be direct.
He punched the gas and cleaned out the fuel injectors on the Audi.
When you wanted real answers, sometimes it was best to go straight to the top.
CHAPTER
36
EVAN TUCKER’S MOTORCADE PULLED OUT from his house and headed down the street. The lead SUV suddenly screeched to a halt and men with guns jumped out.
Blocking the road was an Audi 6. Standing in front of the Audi 6 was Will Robie. In an instant, he was encircled by five security agents.
“Hands up, now!” shouted the lead agent.
Robie did not put up his hands. “Tell your boss that unless we have a chat right now, my next stop will be the FBI, where I will tell them all I know about everything. And he won’t like that. Trust me.”
“I said to get your hands up. Now.”
Robie turned to look at him. “And I’m telling you to go get your boss. Now.”
The agents moved in to tackle Robie. One ended up on the hood of the Audi. A second was thrown flat down on the pavement. A third agent was about to try his luck when a voice shouted, “Enough!”
They all turned to see Evan Tucker standing next to