Chapter 45
H arvath and McGee, back at Harvath’s kitchen table, sat and ate their dinner as they tried to figure out what to do. As Harvath had done previously with S?lvi, both his phone and McGee’s were sealed in the faraday bag, in a desk drawer, in his office.
“Worst-case to best-case, we should rank what we’re looking at here,” the former CIA director suggested.
“It’s all worst-case,” Harvath replied. “There is no upside.”
“Agreed, but if we can’t grade this, we’re not going to be able to come up with the best possible plan.”
The man was right. Without getting a handle on what they were most likely dealing with, there was no way to formulate the most foolproof response.
“Starting from what we know,” said Harvath, “ex–probationary Ground Branch members crossed paths in some shape or form at CIA with Hale, who took the retirement buyout and left under a cloud involving shoulder-fired weapons. The attacks on the residence of Ambassador Rogers Tuesday morning and on a Secret Service motorcade this afternoon carrying delegations to Friday’s NATO Summit appear to be connected, orchestrated by Hale, and committed by these Ground Branch guys.
“Authorities have not yet publicly identified the attackers. We don’t know if these two groups of attackers are connected to the attack outside the Vice President’s Residence, though at this point it is not something we can, or should, rule out.
Also, the finances of the attackers seem to be connected. ”
“A depressing, but succinct, summation,” said McGee.
“So, who’s the next rung up from Hale?” Harvath asked. “Somebody has got to be pulling his strings.”
“And what is that person or persons’ end goal? Are they just getting warmed up? Is there something bigger coming? A coup? A decapitation strike? That’s what I mean when I say we need to rank this stuff.”
“Why does it need to be us ranking it? We’ve ID’d two sets of attackers. Why not hand it over?”
“To whom? Secret Service? FBI?” McGee asked. “We have no idea how high up any of this goes.”
“That’s my point. We don’t have the resources to chase this through every single agency in D.C. What’s more, Hale may have another attack in the pipeline, ready to go. If we don’t do anything and more people die, that’ll be on us for sitting on it.”
“Then we don’t sit on it. Whether Nicholas is in or out, we need to get to Hale, tonight. We need to get him to talk so we can get our arms around whatever this is and begin to understand what we’re dealing with. Only then can we start thinking of who to take this to.”
Harvath didn’t like hitting the pause button, but McGee’s position made sense.
If they tipped off the wrong person, all of the key conspirators could vanish, or worse—they could accelerate the conspirators’ timetable and launch some horrific, endgame attack and even more lives could be lost. From a tactical perspective, he really couldn’t see a better option.
They had to go after Hale, and it had to be tonight.
The biggest issue now was whether Nicholas was going to play ball. Harvath needed to let him know that McGee’s source had identified the attackers who had hit the motorcade. Hopefully that would be enough to sway him.
Excusing himself once again, Harvath walked back to his office and retrieved his phone. Opening the app they used for encrypted conversations, he sent him a quick update. Seconds later, Nicholas called via the video feature.
“You’re positive?” Nicholas asked.
“McGee is,” Harvath replied. “His source at Langley ran it down.”
“I’d be very careful how much intel you share with that source.”
“Why is that?”
“Because the deeper I dig, the more CIA dirt ends up on my shovel.”
“What kind of dirt?” Harvath asked.
“You and McGee were correct about the dead attackers being on Hale’s payroll. He makes it hard to trace the money, lots of shell companies and the like, but he was paying them all like regular employees.”
“What does it say on their 1099s? That he was paying them to be domestic terrorists?”
Nicholas shook his head. “The stuff for Hale, while convoluted, appears to be legit security work—or at least enough of it that if the ex–Ground Branch people needed to apply for a loan or have proof of employment, they could point to their work for him. But that didn’t appear to be their only source of income. ”
“There was more?”
“A lot more, but it’s going to take some time to unpack.
It looks like the CIA has a bunch of Dark Web, cryptocurrency accounts that have been paying out monthly.
If I had to guess, Hale was paying his ex–Ground Branch people equivalent salaries for jobs in the private security industry, and then someone was making up the difference to them via crypto.
My guess is that the new people McGee’s source has identified will show the same pattern. ”
Harvath had to get him to back up. “A CIA crypto account? Meaning someone at Langley is actively involved?”
“I have to keep digging, but right now, that’s the direction all of this is pointing to.”
“Shit.”
“Not the word I used, but close,” said Nicholas. “Do you still want to go after Hale? Tonight?”
“According to McGee, he leaves in the morning, so it’s our best shot. I know the property. I also don’t want to let any more time pass only to see another attack. If that happens, we’ll all have blood on our hands.”
Nicholas was silent for several moments before finally saying, “You remember that the water is the best way in, right? You can’t get a boat close enough without tipping them off, but you could swim it.”
“I remember,” said Harvath, glad to have him on board. He decided to keep it to himself that he had already begun making plans on how to infiltrate the estate.
“What do you need from me?”
“I can get myself to the shore, but I’ll need a clear path up to the carriage house. Ground sensors, IR cameras, anything like that is going to have to be disabled.”
After taking a deep breath, Nicholas exhaled.
“Everything on the Willis property is state-of-the-art. At least everything we recommended to them in our review. It’s all self-contained and supplemented by AI.
I can’t hack my way into their systems and shut things off.
Even if we attempted to cut the power, they still have a backup for that. ”
Harvath didn’t like where this was going. “In a perfect world, if you could pull any tool from your toolbox, what would it be?”
Nicholas smiled. “I’d detonate an EMP right above the estate. Fry everything.”
“Something tells me it’s going to be pretty hard to get our hands on one of those between now and tomorrow morning. I think we should narrow our focus and think a little bit smaller.”
“That’s it,” Nicholas said, a spark igniting in his brain.
“What is?” asked Harvath.
“Something smaller . I know how we can do this.”
“I’m all ears.”
Nicholas smiled once again, running the plan through his head. “It’s an old trick of mine. In fact, the first time you saw it, was the very first night we met.”