“He ordered me to kill Wind. You said that wasn’t authorized. So the guy’s a traitor. You don’t reassign traitors. If you had him in custody you wouldn’t need me telling you what happened and theorizing why. That means the handler has disappeared. Along with whoever else he was working with. How many are we talking?”
Blue Man sighed. “We think at least three other people in the chain, but there might be more.”
Robie just stared at him.
Blue Man looked down, fiddled with a silver-plated spoon on the immaculate white linen tablecloth. “It’s not good, certainly.”
“Understatement of the year. What exactly do you want me to do?”
“We have to keep tabs on the investigation without seeming to. So officially you will be a special agent with DCIS, but you will actually be reporting to me. We’ll provide you with all the cover and creds you need. They’re being placed at your apartment as we speak.”
Robie’s face darkened. “You say you’ve got at least four traitors. What if you actually have more? And what if one of them is at my apartment right now?”
“These agents were pulled from an entirely separate division. They’ve had no contact with your handler. Their loyalty is above question.”
“Right. Forgive me if I think that’s bullshit.”
“At some point you have to trust, Robie.”
“No I don’t. And everyone is okay with me joining the hunt?”
“DCIS is on board. Would you like to talk to the national security advisor? Or the deputy director of CIA?”
“Right now it wouldn’t matter to me what they said. But why me?”
“Because you didn’t pull the trigger, ironically enough. We trust you to do the right thing, Robie. There aren’t many I can say that about right now.”
Robie had thought of another possible reason why they wanted him involved.
I was there. Which means I’ll make the perfect fall guy if this goes to hell.
But he said, “Alright.”
His reasoning was straightforward. He would prefer to work the case himself and bring some sort of resolution and sense of justice to it, rather than wait for someone else to do it, and maybe screw it and him beyond repair.
If I go down, I go down by my own hand.
Blue Man rose and put out his hand. “Thank you. And good luck.”
Robie didn’t shake his hand. “It’s almost never about luck. We both know that.” He turned and walked out of the Hay-Adams, back into a world that seemed a little more unfamiliar and daunting than when he had walked in.
CHAPTER
25
EVERYTHING WAS WAITING for Robie when he got back to his apartment. That was not entirely comforting.
None of my traps were tripped.
He looked over the file, the creds, and his background information.
He had to come up to speed on this case as fast as possible. But fast-tracking something like this meant that mistakes could be made.
And probably will be.
Then it became a case of how fast his support from Blue Man would fade away.
Faster than the party and financial support of a candidate with plummeting poll numbers.
It was just how the town worked.
The name Will Robie stared back at him from the creds. Ironically, his real name was the safest one to use for this sort of assignment.
Robie picked up the badge and ID card pack and put it in his jacket. Also waiting for him was a fresh Glock G20 and a shoulder holster. He was glad to rid himself of the .38 throwaway. He strapped it on and buttoned his jacket.
As he headed out, Robie looked down the hall and watched as she unlocked her door. Annie Lambert turned to him. She was in a black business suit and sneakers with white ankle socks.
“Hello, Will,” she said.
“Don’t usually see you here in the middle of the day,” he said.
“I forgot something. Lunchtime was the first chance I’ve had to come and get it. What are you all dressed up for?”
“Just a meeting. How did your chill session go?”
“What? Oh, it went fine.”
The inquiries into Lambert triggered by her contact with Robie had turned up nothing. Not surprising. To work at the White House one had to be squeaky clean.
He said, “Sorry I left so abruptly. I was just tired.”
“No problem. I was too, actually.” She hesitated and said in a subdued voice, “But maybe we can have that drink sometime.”
“Yeah, maybe we can,” said Robie, who was thinking of all that lay ahead of him.