Agent X - Boyd Noah (серии книг читать онлайн бесплатно полностью TXT) 📗

“Why not?” Kate asked.

“This doesn’t leave the room.” He looked at each of them to make sure they understood. “Langston reviewed the matter, watched the video, and made the decision, almost arbitrarily, that the second individual had nothing to do with Gulin.” Kalix set the player down in front of Kate and pushed the Play button.

Everyone crowded in behind her and watched. The secreted camera bounced as it followed the Russian. Finally the target stopped and turned around. Kalix hit Pause. “That’s Gulin,” he said. “Ever seen him before, Kate?”

She studied the image for a moment. “Not that I remember.”

“Now watch when he stops in front of that bench.” Kalix hit Play once more. Gulin’s back was again to the camera, and a man walked up next to him, his back also to the camera. Then the man turned around, and they could see his profile. Kalix reached over Kate’s shoulder and hit Pause. “What do you think, Kate? Do you recognize him?”

She leaned forward. “It does look like Rellick. Maybe if I saw him move around a little more.”

Kalix hit Play again. The individual turned his back to the camera and appeared to be discreetly talking to Gulin. Then he casually looked to his right and abruptly turned to his left. He lowered his head and said something brief. For an instant the camera jerkily panned over to the right, trying to film whatever it was that had caught his attention. “I think it is him,” she said. Both men on the screen then separated and walked off in different directions.

Kalix hit the Stop button. “I spent an hour looking at his photo and then the at video. It’s hard to tell if you don’t know the person, but it looked like a match to me.”

Kate replayed the video a couple more times. “I’m almost positive that’s him,” she said. “Does this mean I’ll be cleared?”

“It would be better if we could be positive it’s him. What do you think, Steve?”

Vail didn’t answer but instead reached over and backed up the DVD. Then he pressed the Slow Motion button. When the camera panned over to what had distracted the individual believed to be Rellick, Vail hit Pause. Kate gasped. “That’s Jennifer. And me.” The woman she had identified as the friend she’d been at the mall with was near the edge of the frame, and half of Kate was next to her. They’d been all but invisible when the video was run at normal speed. “He must have seen me, and that’s what spooked him.”

“Then all this was to protect Rellick,” Kalix said. “He thought you could put him with his Russian handler.” He laughed. “All this to get rid of you, and you never even saw him. He must be a very good source for them to go through all this to protect him.”

“But why now?” Kate asked. “That was a couple of years ago.”

Vail said, “Maybe it was your momentary appointment to Counterintelligence AD. Even though you turned it down, they probably figured it could happen again at any time.”

Bursaw said, “I hate to be the bearer of grim reality, but we’ve still got to prove that Kate is innocent. We can’t go to the prosecutor, because Kate is in escaped status, Steve is wanted, and if I show my face, they’ll know who the colored guy was. Even if you took this back to the Bureau and got everybody on board, John, wouldn’t surveillance and wiretaps take months or longer?”

Vail said, “Luke’s right. You’re the only one with any mobility, John. Can you go back to your CIA contact and give him what we’ve found so far and let them run with it?”

“I can, but they’re going to do the same surveillance and wiretaps that the Bureau would do. And don’t forget it’s their agency, so they’re not going to be in any hurry to prove that one of their own has gone over. Eventually, because there’s no hard evidence, it could get swept under the rug. In the meantime Kate is still wanted.”

Vail said, “We have one weapon we’re ignoring—the petty jealousies between the Bureau and the CIA. When is Langston due back?”

Kalix said, “He and the director should be returning tomorrow afternoon.”

“Go tell your contact that you’re repaying him for his information and the photos. Give him everything. But tell him that the director and your boss are due back the day after tomorrow, and then you’ve got to give it to them. Tell him he’s got two days to make a move against Rellick if he doesn’t want the FBI to make the arrest.”

“That just might work. They would do anything to prevent that embarrassment,” Kalix said. He unplugged the DVD player and put it in his case. “I’ll give you a call as soon as I talk to him.”

Bursaw said, “I’ll walk you out, John. I want to take a quick stroll around the neighborhood and make sure our friends from the Marshals Service aren’t watching us.”

After they left, Kate asked Vail, “How’d you see Jennifer and me on that DVD?”

“As good-looking as she is, how do you not see her? To tell the truth, I didn’t even notice you.”

Kate laughed. “Then how did you know it was Jennifer? You’ve never met her.”

“Like I said, I just saw a pretty girl and wanted to see more of her.”

“She’s a very good friend, but I’ve got to tell you, she’s very particular about who she dates. White-collar only, so reel it in, bricklayer.”

“I’ll bet you used to say the same thing.”

“Okay, we’ll go with ‘used to.’ ”

24

The phone rang. Bursaw picked it up and pushed the Speaker button. “Go ahead, John. We’re all here.”

“My guy went for it. In two months Rellick is being posted to a foreign assignment. He wouldn’t say exactly where, but it sounded like someplace critical. They’re about to start a reinvestigation of him, including a polygraph, which is routine with any sensitive assignment. It may be another reason he’s still worried about Kate. Anyway, they’re going to ambush him with the polygraph first thing tomorrow morning, making some excuse about an upcoming shortage of polygraphers that necessitates it being done now. Once they get him strapped in, it’ll be all ahead full on the video and Gulin. That, along with the usual questions about contacts with foreign nationals, accepting money, et cetera, should blow the needles off the box.”

“Are you going to be there?”

“Yes. I told him I’d like to watch, just out of curiosity, but I think my pal suspects it’s because I want to make sure that they’re pushing it. Otherwise we’d have to take over.”

“We’ll wait to hear from you.”

Vail disconnected the line. “Let’s hope he breaks.”

“And if he doesn’t?” Kate asked.

“I’m turning you in for the reward.”

“In that case you should take me to dinner tonight. You know, the condemned, a hearty meal and all.”

Bursaw said, “There’s a couple of decent restaurants within walking distance.” They both looked at him as if they’d forgotten he was there. “No, no, I’m not inviting myself.”

“Please come, Luke,” Vail said with mock insincerity.

He laughed. “Just for that, I should go along. But I have a life of my own to screw up.” He got up and slipped on his topcoat. “I’ll be by first thing in the morning—unless there’s a tie on the doorknob or U.S. Marshals crime-scene tape across the jamb.”

Dusk added to their anonymity as Kate and Vail strolled down M Street, ignoring the falling temperature. She had ahold of his arm and pulled herself closer with each sharp gust of wind. “Sure it’s not too cold to walk?” he asked.

“After three days in a cell, it feels good.” They were early for their dinner reservation and turned into a brick courtyard that housed several small shops and art galleries to window-gaze. One of them displayed several sculptures and ceramic works. “Anything you like?” she asked idly.

She was wearing Luke’s sister’s navy camel-hair coat. There was something about the color that made her hair and skin luminous. Her long, dark lashes contrasted her flashing blue eyes perfectly. He took a half step back to look her over. “As a matter of fact . . . there is.”