Chapter 26
I paced around our hotel room like a stray cat thrown into a house for the first time, Jennifer ignoring me by pretending
to look at our laptop.
She said, “There’s a bunch of chain restaurants near this Embassy Suites within walking distance, or we could take the rental
a little farther for a steak house. No idea if it’s any good.”
I said nothing and she said, “Pike, if we want the steak house, I have to put in a reservation. We’re not going to get one
after the Oversight Council meeting.”
I stopped pacing and said, “I’m pretty sure I’m going to lose my appetite after that happens.”
We’d driven straight from the TO reservation to Tucson, and I passed on the information I had on the Ghost to the Taskforce
for further exploitation. Clearly, the Ghost had significant help, and I’d asked them to check all immigration ports of egress
from Mexico, because I was positive his “sponsors” weren’t setting him up with a condo in Cancún.
The good news was that the Oversight Council hadn’t blown a gasket when they’d found out I’d traveled to the TO tracking the
Ghost. Wolffe had even released the rest of my team to meet me in Tucson and had given Veep the Rock Star Bird to fly here.
A Gulfstream 650, it was a private jet that was leased to Grolier Recovery Services by a host of different cutouts and was ostensibly my private company jet but was actually owned by the Taskforce.
It looked like something a rock star would use—hence the nickname—but instead of champagne and stripper poles, it had pretty much anything we would need on a mission, from surveillance gear on the calm end to firearms and explosive breaching charges on the violent end.
It was a flying forward operations base that, along with its integrated communications suite, gave me pretty much everything I needed for any contingency.
Wolffe had stuck out his neck releasing it without Omega authority, and I appreciated it.
The bad news was that the Oversight Council wanted to meet to discuss what we’d learned before giving us permission to continue.
In their minds, the Ghost had better be planning something bad and not just fleeing. Killing a sheriff didn’t warrant the
risk of turning us loose when they could just rely on someone like Interpol to round him up twelve years from now. I’d asked
to VTC in for the meeting, to just hear what was discussed, and Wolffe had granted permission.
Jennifer said, “It won’t be that bad. They’ll be worried about what he’s doing out in the wild. Maybe someone will have something
before the meeting.”
Like magic, my phone vibrated. I looked at the caller ID and said, “Taskforce.”
I answered, waited for the encryption protocol to synch, and said, “Pike.”
I heard, “This is Creed. We got a hit on your name. One Tarek Navarro flew out of Mexico City with a one-way ticket to Buenos
Aires, Argentina, with an onwards connection to Puerto Iguazú.”
Argentina? Not Lebanon or the UAE or Qatar?
“Are you sure about that?”
“Yeah. It’s the single hit we got.”
“How can we confirm it’s our Tarek Navarro? Do they have any photos? Anything concrete?”
“No photos, but the passport used was from Lebanon, so that fits.”
Jennifer was looking at me expectantly and I held up a finger, saying, “I don’t believe that. It’s a trick. They’ve been very
good so far, and this is just another diversion.”
“Well, maybe so, but that’s all we’ve got.”
“Does Argentina use biometrics on entry?”
“Stand by.”
He put me on hold and I turned to Jennifer, saying, “They got him flying to Argentina, of all places.”
She said, “Why?”
“I think it’s a diversion. That guy is one smart mother fucker, and we’re being played.”
Creed came back and said, “Yep. They do.”
“Crack their system and check for his entry. Get the biometrics there and match it to ours. I’m betting it’s someone else.”
He said, “I’m going to need authority to do offensive network ops in South America. My acting authority ended in Mexico.”
I got a little aggravated, saying, “How hard is it? Are you going to have to risk exposure?”
“No, it’s easy if I get permission.”
“Then just fucking do it. If anyone bitches, tell them you thought the authority was for the SOUTHCOM region, not for the
country of Mexico.”
He said, “That’s what I have, but Mexico’s in NORTHCOM, so unless you want me to crack into Canada’s system, we’re out of
luck.”
I snarled, “Then tell them you’re stupid and you thought Argentina was NORTHCOM too.”
He backed off, saying, “Okay, okay, calm down. I’ll do it. They probably don’t know how any of this works anyway. They’re
like a bunch of Boomers trying to make a router work. I’ll say the information was passed to Mexico or something.”
“Good, good. I appreciate it. We may only get one chance at this, so while you’re rooting around in there, capture any biometrics
and passport data for anyone else who’s traveled to Argentina on a Lebanese passport in the last few days.”
I heard, “Pike, come on . . .” and hung up the phone.
Jennifer said, “That’s going to go over well when you brief it.”
“I’m not allowed to talk, and Creed thinks they’re too computer illiterate to realize he cheated. How much time do we have?”
“Five minutes.”
“Get the reservation at the steak house and then pull up the VTC.”
Two minutes later, the screen cleared and I could see the Blaisdell Consulting SCIF with the monitor on the far wall showing
the Oversight Council situation room. Wolffe heard the beep of me logging in and moved in front of the camera, saying, “You
on, Pike?”
I said, “Yeah. Got you five-by-five, but I didn’t get the Oversight feed. I’m on yours.”
“Yeah, I did that on purpose. I don’t want them knowing you’ve dialed in.”
“You mean you don’t want me to have the ability to break into the conversation.”
“Yeah, well, that too.”
I laughed and said, “You got my notes? About the sponsors?”
“I do, and Creed just told me about the Argentina thing, but Pike, I should warn you, this is going to be quick. The president
said he only had five minutes to spare before a trade delegation, and I don’t think they’re going to agree to let you fly
to South America.”
I said, “Well, just press them. You never know. They may have a momentary lapse in judgment.”