Chapter 12 #3
“You don’t have to believe me about Bocharov, ma’am.
” He leaned forward. “The FBI doesn’t have to act on this information.
Maybe I’m wrong. Maybe I imagined it because of unresolved anger issues and grief triggered by someone who sounded similar to that evil sonofabitch.
But what if I’m not wrong? What if I’m right? ”
She didn’t interrupt so he carried on. “This might be our CIA/FBI pre-9/11 moment where information either isn’t shared or isn’t acted upon.
The biggest terrorist attack in history was about to take place, but they were all so busy protecting their own territory they didn’t see it coming. They didn’t stop it.”
He sat back. “We’re meant to be better than that now.
So when I observe a man I believe to be a supposedly dead arms dealer at a conference full of nuclear power experts, I have to report it even if it makes me look like a goddamned freak.
Just like I have to report that we were chased through the streets of Veracruz, shot at, a radio-tracker attached to my rental vehicle, afterwards.
” The implications of what Bocharov might be planning made his stomach clench.
“You don’t have to believe me. You don’t have to act.
But that doesn’t mean I’m wrong. In fact, I know I’m right.
Bocharov is alive, and he was at that conference meeting someone, planning something, and it wasn’t regarding clean energy. You need to bring in the CIA.”
Rhodes smoothed back her long, straight hair, looking less certain now.
“Do you want me to tell the Mexicans, the French, and the people from IAEA about my suspicions regarding Bocharov? This is what I wanted to check before I spoke with them again.”
“Of course not.” Her lips pinched. “If you’re wrong, I’ll look like a fool, and the president will be furious because I’ll have made him look like a fool too. He might want to share the Bocharov theory with the Mexican president though.”
“Who will tell his advisors. We don’t know if we can trust them.
We risk spooking Bocharov and letting him and whoever is paying him know that we’re onto them.
” Then he said the thing that scared him most. “If they have plans for a terror attack, it might make them accelerate their schedule before we have time to stop them.”
“You already said that Bocharov, if it was Bocharov, recognized you and knows you’re onto him.” She eyed him shrewdly.
“True.”
“What do you think we should do?”
“I think you should publicly reprimand me for leaving Mexico so quickly. Maybe suspend me.”
“Trust me, I’m considering it.”
He ignored her comment. “Then set up a secret task force based out of Quantico with me on it.”
She crossed her long legs. “I’m not sure that would be a good idea.”
“No one knows him better than I do. I’m the best resource you have, and we need to figure out what he’s planning, fast.”
Her foot tapped in the air. “It’s been ten years.”
“That old adage about leopards not changing their spots is true for a reason. No one can know about it, aside from whoever is in this car and who you decide to put on the task force.”
She looked intrigued now. “Why not?”
“Because if Bocharov did fake his own death, we need to figure out how he did it.”
“You really believe he had help from inside the FBI?”
“The DNA sample taken from the bomb site was attributed to Bocharov. Either the person who took it was a liar, or it was swapped out after it entered the chain of evidence, or whatever DNA we have in the databases for Bocharov was substituted for whoever was blown to hell in Russia. I don’t think he could do that from outside the system.
So, yeah, I think it’s possible he had help, and we need to figure that out. ”
She stared at him, intelligent eyes weighing him shrewdly. “Why didn’t he kill you? Why only attack your family? You were the one he was angry with. You were the one who betrayed him.”
Emotion burned, but he’d learned to control his grief rather than letting his grief control him. “I got close enough that he trusted me, confided in me, and the whole time I was an undercover FBI agent. Worse, a rookie.
“I humiliated him, made him look weak and foolish, and essentially helped destroy his US operation.” He still didn’t know how Konrad had figured out he was undercover.
“He sent a message. You mess with me, I’ll kill everyone you love.
Killing me would have been too easy. Konrad prefers his victims to suffer.
” He thought of his mother, grandparents, sister dying in those flames. “The fucker got what he wanted.”
Understanding finally began to filter through the director’s features. “Why would Konrad Bocharov kill this Francois Tremblay?”
“I have no clue. We need to dig into every aspect of the Frenchman’s life, research, and background, looking for potential links to terrorism.
” He leaned forward again and watched the bodyguard tense up, as if he couldn’t kill the woman in front of him with his bare hands before the bodyguard could reach his service weapon.
“One immediate problem, with all this media attention, some of which I suspect is bot-driven, means he’ll know Daisy and I are an item. I need to make sure she’s safe.”
“Yes, you wouldn’t want to lose another girlfriend the way you lost the last one.”
He flinched at the callousness of her words.
Blinked slowly. “Everything that happened to Ellen Mires was a self-inflicted wound. Daisy is an innocent. She’s a part of the FBI family by way of Kurt Montana and by way of me—and if you truly understood what it means to be part of the FBI, you’d understand that. ”
She glared at him.
“As much as I want to be on this task force—as much as that task force needs me—Daisy’s safety is my priority. Otherwise, I’m done. I’ll walk away.”
She looked skeptical. She didn’t know him. “She needs to answer questions. We can’t be seen to be hiding anything.”
He nodded. “Agreed.”
“Did you tell her of your suspicions regarding Bocharov?”
He shook his head.
The director drew her lips into a tight line, clearly unsure whether or not to believe him.
He pressed his case. “Her expertise is in a similar research area to Tremblay’s.
I think you should consider, at least temporarily, including her on the task force in an advisory capacity.
That way I can be on the task force and at the same time protect her.
Assigning her HRT bodyguards to accompany her when she leaves the base in the short term might work in our favor too.
It protects her, but also there’s a chance it will lead us to Bocharov if he decides to go after her.
” The thought of using her for bait made him want to vomit, but if she refused any other form of protection, it made tactical sense.
“I can persuade Ackers that we could use this as a training exercise because she can’t know they’re there or she won’t cooperate. ”
Director Rhodes stared at him, considering his arguments.
“If all goes to plan, we’ll catch this sonofabitch before he can hurt Daisy or anyone else. Before he can carry out some plan that involves nuclear terrorism. The ball is in your court, Director. What do you want to do?”