DENVER
Ben Matthews checked to make sure no one was eavesdropping on their conversation and said, “She’s got someone following me? Since when?”
Dean Pence tore the top off another pack of sugar and dumped the contents into his coffee. “Since she gave you the phones to plant.”
Ben couldn’t believe it. He hadn’t seen anyone. But if Pence said he was being followed, then he was definitely being followed. “So now we know she’s not operating alone.”
“I told you she’d screw up.”
“How many people does she have on me?” asked Matthews.
“At least two that I’ve been able to ID so far.”
“Damn it. I should have seen them.”
Pence motioned for him to relax. “I almost didn’t pick up on them either. These guys are good; real good.”
“So, this operation against the airport is much bigger than we thought.”
“That’s what it looks like.”
Ben leaned forward. “Dean, we’ve got to go back to Mumford right now. We’ve got to tell her what we’ve learned.”
“Already done,” said Pence.
“What?”
“I already spoke with her.”
“Without talking to me first? Are you nuts?” demanded Ben. “We haven’t even gotten our stories straight yet.”
“Well, we’re going to get them straight now,” replied Pence.
“How much did you tell her?”
“What am I, new? How much do you think I told her?”
Ben massaged his eyes with the heels of his hands. “Shit,” he said. “It’s all over, isn’t it?”
“Like hell it is,” replied Pence. “I’m not about to sink one of the biggest espionage cases of the decade. I told you, this is going to make our careers, not end them.”
“So, you lied to Mumford is what you’re telling me.”
“I don’t like the word lie.”
Matthews chuckled.
“I was selective with the truth,” said Pence. “Listen, I told her what she wanted to hear. You know how she is. This is all about her career. Now that she realizes what she stands to gain from all of this, she’s behind it.”
“Now you’re lying to me. There’s no way you could have explained this to her in such a way that she would have completely gone along with it. No way.”
Pence nodded. “There’s going to be some disciplinary action, yes, but-”
Ben leaned back in the restaurant booth. “Now the truth comes out.”
“But we’re still on the case. She’s allocating extra resources now and everything. We can have anything we need.”
“Including our choice of lethal injection or firing squad.”
“You’re speaking metaphorically, I hope,” said Pence.
Matthews reached for his coffee. “I’m speaking about our careers, Dean. We’re done.”
“Ben, we’re not done. Our careers are more than intact. Stop worrying. As far as anyone is concerned, we haven’t broken any laws. Mumford doesn’t know anything about the warrantless eavesdropping.”
“How about me falsifying my employment application to TSA?”
Pence sucked some air in between his teeth and nodded. “Yeah, she knows about that.”
Ben threw his hands up in the air. “Fabulous. Did you take responsibility for anything?”
“Actually, I did. I told her that this was my idea and that I put the entire thing together. And that whatever you had done, you did because I told you it was the right thing to do.
“Then I explained that while we might have bent a few regulations here and there-”
“Dean, we did more than bend a few regulations.”
“She doesn’t know that,” said Pence, “and she’s not going to. I copped to the stuff that we couldn’t cover up. The rest of it never happened.”
“So what’s our story?”
“If you give me five minutes, I’ll explain.”
They actually spent the next forty-five minutes discussing what Pence had told their boss and how the SAC had decided she wanted them to proceed.
When Pence was through, he looked at Ben and said, “So you’re supposed to assume that you’re under complete surveillance, got it?”
Ben nodded. “I understand.”
“That means you don’t stop by the office, you don’t call in, you don’t email. You’re to remain completely in character; completely undercover. Okay?”
“I got it, Dean. I know what not breaking cover means.”
Pence held his hands up in mock surrender. “I’m just trying to help.”
“You’ve helped plenty.”
The elder FBI man looked at his partner. “We did the right thing, you know.”
“No we didn’t, Dean. We’re the good guys. We’re supposed to play by the rules.”
Pence shrugged. “Fine. Beat yourself up all you want. I’m glad we’re going to stick it to those Russian bastards.”
Ben looked at him. “If we’re going to stick it to them; if we’re going to load Suffolk’s listening devices up with phony conversations and data, why do I have to even bother with this charade? Who cares how deep I go into the bowels of that airport? Why can’t I just sit my ass in the TSA’s crappy little break room and lie to her?”
Dean Pence returned his partner’s gaze. “Because you’re not exactly a good liar. That’s why.”
“What are you talking about?”
The elder FBI agent took a deep breath. “I know you’ve been sleeping with her, Ben.”
His immediate instinct was to deny the accusation, but Matthews was tired of lying. Instead, he remained silent.
“You’re not the first guy in the Bureau to have slept with a foreign intelligence agent, so don’t feel bad.”
“I don’t.”
This time, it was Pence who chuckled. “It’s written all over your face, Ben. You’re a good man, and good men make lousy liars. Listen, Mumford doesn’t want to risk tipping Suffolk off. For all we know, she’s got a way of monitoring the movement of the devices. Suffolk needs to believe, without the slightest hint of doubt, that you did what she asked. It’s the only way she and the Russians will believe the information that we’ll plant on those phones.”
“And who’s going to do that?”
Pence shrugged. “NSA? CIA? I have no idea. All I know is that this’ll be over soon and we can lock that crazy chick up and all will be well with the world.”
As the waitress came by and topped off their coffee, Ben Matthews hoped his partner was right, but the same voice that told him he never should have slept with Victoria Suffolk was now telling him that he was in a lot more danger than he possibly could have realized.