around to take the fall for it.”
“What do you mean?”
“I got a call while en route. BfV raided an apartment belonging to one of the Quds men killed in front of the embassy yesterday. They found some notes about a second attack on the embassy. It indicated that Mirza himself would lead this wave.”
“With other personnel?”
“Affirmative.”
“How many?”
“We are estimating a force of about twenty-five strong.”
“That’s a hell of a lot more than yesterday. Small arms, again?”
“And suicide vests.”
Court thought about this. “AKs and S-vests sounds like something the Marines can handle.”
Hanley responded, “But the embassy has to go into lockdown until it happens.”
“If they go into lockdown, it won’t happen.”
“Which buys us time to find Haz Mirza. We are proceeding with the mind-set that the man might be working as a rogue agent for the SIA, and not for Quds Force. The entire Shrike operation was to eliminate German informants around Mirza, to find official cover operatives for Iran in the city, and to create fake linkage between them and Mirza.”
He added, “Stopping al-Habsi won’t prevent the attack, but stopping Mirza just might.”
Court felt like he was back on firmer ground now. A riddle he could solve. “If I capture Annika Dittenhofer, take her to a cold cellar somewhere, I’ll get you Haz Mirza.”
Hanley nodded slowly at this, then said, “Approved. Travers and his boys are here, too. If you need them, they’re yours.”
“Good.”
“Although,” Hanley said, and his tone of voice turned suddenly accusatory. “From what I hear, you are already getting a little help.” Court did not respond, so Hanley said, “Caracas station, what’s left of it, found out Zack Hightower was released to a former member of Russia’s foreign intelligence services. A female.” After a pause he said, “I guess Anthem just happened to be in the neighborhood.”
“Guess so.”
“And how did she know Zack was in the care of our friends in Venezuela?”
Now Court came clean. “I told her about Zack. I also told her to get out of here. That’s where she went, apparently.”
Hanley said, “Court, you do good work, but you are more than a little . . .”
Court thought about what Dr. Kaya had said to him three nights earlier. “Relentless?”
Hanley shook his head. “I was going to say impulsive. But instead I’ll say you are a loose cannon rolling around the deck of my battleship. You are a potent, vital tool, but first I have to get you tied back down and pointed in the right direction.”
“I’ll get you intel on Mirza, and Zack will help me. Then we get Chris and his boys from Ground Branch, and we go take Mirza and his crew out.”
Hanley snickered. “You make this shit sound so easy.”
Court shrugged. “The hard part will be al-Habsi. Be thinking about him, and what we do when Mirza is no longer the top item on our to-do list.”
Hanley stood up from the table, letting Court know the meeting was over. “I will.” He added, “Good luck. You don’t need me to tell you, but remember . . . Hightower can run one hell of a tough interrogation.”
“I was thinking the same thing.”
“And also remember,” Hanley cautioned, “Zack is a blunt instrument. You are a sharp instrument. Sometimes a hammer will work, sometimes a scalpel is called for.”
“Got it.”
The men shook hands. “Good luck, Violator. Let’s get this done, and then let’s go home. You look like shit.”
“Yeah, well, I’ve been stabbed twice and I have a raging infection. What’s your excuse, boss?”
SIXTY-ONE
Annika Dittenhofer pushed a hand out of the bedsheet and reached for the phone, both to answer the infernal ring and to see what the time was. In her line of work it was hardly out of the ordinary to get a late-night call, but since she’d told her technical team that she was taking a few days off, she really didn’t expect them to bother her on the first evening of her hiatus.
She answered. “Dittenhofer.”
“Miriam? Hi, it’s Moises.”
“What time is it?”
“It’s almost eleven. Were you asleep?”
Annika sat up. “Yeah. What’s going on?”
“I know you said you were taking leave, but I just wanted to ask your opinion.”
“On what?”
“We broke off coverage of Mirza yesterday, like we’d been instructed, but about an hour ago his phone started pinging its location.”
“The burner phone? The one he got rid of?”
“We only thought he got rid of it. It stopped pinging its location midafternoon yesterday. But it’s back on. Yanis thinks Mirza might have put it in a Faraday cage before the operation