into the narrow drive. "Anything you'd like me to take care of while you're briefing the EAD, boss?"
Wilson grabbed the handle and said, "Check in with the Go Team. I want everyone on that plane and their gear stowed when we arrive. We should have been in the air an hour ago."
"I'll let them know, sir."
Wilson closed the car door and proceeded up the brick-lined walkway. He glanced through what looked like the dining room window and could see the faint glow of a light in what he presumed was the kitchen. The front stoop was small - enough for two people. Wilson reached out to press the doorbell and then caught himself. Probably better to knock at this hour. He held his left hand up to the door and rapped his knuckles twice on the green door. He waited a long moment and then heard the locking mechanism turn. The door cracked to reveal the high forehead of Samuel Hargrave. Without so much as a nod, Hargrave opened the door and motioned for Wilson to enter.
The senior man closed the door and started down the center hallway to the back of the house. Wilson took in the black leather slippers, the Black Watch plaid pajama bottoms, and the navy blue robe. The man looked as if he'd stepped off the set of a Cary Grant movie. Wilson started to ponder what it was like to be born fifty years too late, but before he got too far Hargrave asked him if he'd like a cup of coffee.
"No, thank you. I've already had my fill and I have a long flight ahead of me."
Hargrave stared at him for a moment, dissecting the words, trying to decode the shaded message. He poured himself a cup of black coffee and sat at the small four-person kitchen table. After a sip, he asked, "Long flight . . . where are you headed?"
"Afghanistan." Wilson offered nothing more.
"Afghanistan is a big country. Any place in particular?"
"Jalalabad."
"Jalalabad," Hargrave mused. "I think this is a first."
"A first?" Wilson frowned. "I don't understand, sir."
Hargrave had told him to call him Sam a hundred times, but Wilson still refused. It was a control thing, he knew, but Hargrave wasn't willing to make a big deal out of something so petty. Still, it was one more reason to worry that his acting director of Counterintelligence was someone who needed close monitoring. If he played these kinds of games with him, what must he be like with his colleagues and subordinates? How were his convictions when it came to following the law? Hargrave had learned long ago that these little things could eventually spell big problems for the Bureau.
"In all the years I've been doing this, I've been pulled out of bed for a lot of reasons, but no one has ever told me they're flying to Jalalabad." Hargrave set his cup down and rubbed his eyes. "We really have become a global law enforcement agency."
No shit, you moron, Wilson thought. Where the hell have you been for the last decade?
"So why Jalalabad?"
"Joe Rickman." Wilson had a bigger target in mind, but Rickman would do for now.
Hargrave was familiar with the name. He'd heard some rumblings that the covert officer had become a bit of an obsession with Wilson. He could tell the temperamental Wilson was on edge so he chose his words carefully. "What has Mr. Rickman done now?"
"I received a tip three hours ago that he was kidnapped from a safe house in Jalalabad."
Hargrave did not speak for several moments. His mind was occupied with all of the ramifications of someone like Joe Rickman's falling into the hands of America's enemies. To say that the men and women at Langley would be distraught would be an understatement. "Do you know who took him?"
"No, but I find the timing suspicious."
"Suspicious?" Hargrave asked with a curious tone.
"I have been investigating him for the past two months." Rickman as well as a few others, but Hargrave didn't need to know that.
"Excuse me?" Hargrave asked, not quite sure he'd heard right.
"Starting almost a year ago I began to receive some disturbing information about Mr. Rickman. Accusations that he was siphoning off large amounts of money from his covert fund and that he was getting a little too close to some nefarious individuals."
Hargrave closed his eyes and then held up his right hand. "You've known about this for almost a year and didn't bring it to my attention?"