Hanley said, “You know why. This facility is the domain of Support. They aren’t read in on Anthem, or Poison Apple, but they are responsible for this place, and this place got wiped out. Hell, FBI is here, and they don’t know what the hell is going on either.”
Brewer said, “It will make finding Anthem a lot harder if Support is nosing around.”
“I’ll talk to Wheeler, he’ll back off. Renfro, on the other hand, is always a pain in the ass. If he learns anything about Poison Apple then he could make a lot of trouble for us.”
“Agreed.”
Hanley changed gears. “When you called you said Violator was in pursuit of the prisoner in the UK. Any more word?”
“No, sir. He hasn’t called back, and I’ve been too busy here to reach out to him.”
“These two situations can’t be related, can they?” he asked.
“How can I answer that, Matt? I don’t even know who the prisoner on the Gulfstream was.”
“A banker. We picked him up in Luxembourg yesterday. He managed a private account that wired a total of three hundred thousand dollars’ worth of Bitcoin in three payments to a computer terminal at the Agency. All three payments coincide with the three compromises to Agency aircraft over the past few months.”
“So you are saying this banker knows the identity of whoever is passing information about Support activities to everyone who has targeted the three Agency flights before tonight, and . . . and whoever the hell snatched the prisoner tonight? He facilitated payments directly to the traitor?”
“It looks as straightforward as that, yes.”
“Why would the traitor use a computer here at Langley?”
Hanley replied, “There is only one reason. He or she is trying to frame someone else.”
“So you are saying you know whose computer received the Bitcoin?”
“I do, but I’m not going to tell you, because I am certain this person is innocent.”
“But—”
“The person implicated is innocent, Suzanne. We have to find the real culprit. End of story,” Hanley said flatly.
Brewer didn’t press. Instead she said, “If this leak came from the Agency, why were we handing the witness over to MI6?”
“The director ordered me to deliver him to the Brits because the nominating entity of the private account was in the name of a business registered in London. He was trying to keep this as aboveboard as possible in case we had to turn this all over to the FBI for a criminal prosecution of the Agency employee, but . . .”
His voice trailed off.
“But what?”
“I asked you to recall Court Gentry to the States because I didn’t want to see the traitor arrested.”
Brewer understood slowly. “You were . . . you were going to task Violator with deleting an Agency employee?”
“He’d have done it, too.” He shrugged his big shoulders. “But now he has to find the banker and get him away from the men who took him, because the banker’s our only link to the traitor.”
“Sir . . .” Brewer drummed her fingers on the table. She looked across to Hanley, seated where Anthem had sat six hours earlier. “I’m just going to say it. Poison Apple is a ticking time bomb. Both assets in the program now, Violator especially . . . are highly unstable. Completely untethered. Anthem isn’t even an official member, but she was weeks away, and already she detonates.”
Hanley leaned forward in his chair and put his thick arms on the table. “I know you don’t like your assignment, Suzanne. I am aware you’d much rather be on the seventh floor making executive decisions, or on Capitol Hill influencing legislation, or at some embassy as chief of station. Not here with me, handling hard assets on the sharp end of the spear. I know you don’t believe the risks in these initiatives are worth the potential reward. But you’re here for a reason. My confidence in you to put a lid on all this remains, even though you have reservations about the sub rosa project I’ve put you in charge of. I’m not reassigning you, so get that out of your head. You’re stuck with me for now, because you’re the right person to run Poison Apple.” He added, “You might just want to consider making the best of it.”
She looked down at the table. “Yes, sir.”
“Now,” Hanley said. “We have to send a description of Zoya out to local law enforcement. But do not release a photo.”