Tom Clancy's Op-Center_ Divide and Conquer Part 19

"Secondhand evidence," Fenwick said. "Besides, I spent a day trying to open a dialogue with Teheran about an intelligence exchange. The bottom line is that they don't trust us, and we can't trust them."

"That is not the bottom line!" Hood snapped. He stopped. He had to watch that-showing anger. He was frustrated, and he was extremely tired. But if he lost control, he would also lose credibility. "The bottom line," Hood continued evenly, "is that misinformation has been pa.s.sed regularly between the NSA, the CIOC, and the Oval Office-"

"Mr. President, we need to move on," Fenwick said calmly. "Iran is moving warships into the Caspian region. That is a fact, and it must be dealt with immediately."

"I agree," said the vice president. Cotten looked at Hood. There was condescension in the vice president's eyes. "Paul, if you have concerns about the actions of personnel at the NSA, you should bring your proof to the CIOC, not to us. They will deal with it."

"When it's too late," Hood said.

"Too late for what?" the president asked.

Hood turned to the president. "I don't know the answer to that, sir," Hood admitted. "But I do believe you should hold off making any decisions about the Caspian right now."

Fenwick shook his head. "Based on hearsay from Russians who may themselves be moving planes and ships into the region."

"Mr. Fenwick has a point," the president said.

"The Russians may indeed have designs on the Caspian oil," Hood agreed. "That in itself doesn't repudiate General Orlov's intelligence."

"How long do you need, Paul?"

"Give me another twelve hours," Hood said.

"Twelve hours will give Iran and Russia time to position ships in the Azerbaijani oil regions," Gable said.

The president looked at his watch. He thought for a moment. "I'll give you five hours," he said.

That was not what Hood wanted, but it was obviously all he was going to get. He took it.

"I'll need an office," Hood said. He did not want to waste time running back to Op-Center.

"Take the Cabinet Room," the president said. "That way I know you'll be done by seven. We'll be moving in then."

"Thank you, sir," Hood said.

Hood turned. He ignored the other men as he left the Oval Office. The hostility was much greater now than when he had come in. Hood was certain he had hit a bull's-eye. Just not with enough firepower.

It would have been too much to expect the president to buy everything he was telling him. Even after their earlier conversation, Lawrence was still obviously struggling with the idea that Jack Fenwick could be a traitor. But at least the president had not dismissed the idea entirely. Hood had been able to buy himself some time.

Hood walked down the quiet, green-carpeted hallway of the West Wing. He made his way past two silent secret service officers. One was posted outside the Oval Office. The other was standing down the hall between the doorway that led to the press secretary's office on the northwest end of the corridor and door to the Cabinet Room on the northeast side.

Hood entered the oblong room. There was a large conference table in the center of the room. Beyond it, in the northern end of the room, was a desk with a computer and a telephone. Hood went over and sat down.

The first thing Hood would do was contact Herbert. He had to try to get more information about the Harpooner's contacts with the NSA. Yet even having the exact time and location of the calls would probably not persuade the president that there was a conspiracy.

Hood needed proof. And right now, he did not know how he was going to get it.

FORTY-FIVE.

Saint Petersburg, Russia Tuesday, 10:20 A.M.

When he was a cosmonaut, General Orlov had learned to read voices. Often, that was the only way he learned whether there was a problem with a flight. Ground control had once told him that all was well with his Salyut s.p.a.ce station mission. In fact, pitting from micrometeoroid dust and a chemical cloud dumped by the s.p.a.cecraft's own thrusters had corroded the solar array. The panels had been so seriously compromised that the station was going to lose power before a Kosmos ship from Earth was due to ferry them home.

The first hint of trouble came from the voice of the liaison in ground control. His cadence was a little different from usual. Orlov already had an ear for voices from the years he spent as a test pilot. Orlov insisted on being told what the problem was with the Salyut. The entire world heard the conversation, embarra.s.sing the Kremlin. But Orlov was able to shut down noncritical systems and conserve power rather than wait for scientists to figure out how to realign the remaining panels while also shielding them from further corrosion.

Orlov trusted Natalia Basov. Completely. But he did not always believe her, which was not the same thing. There was something in her tone of voice that worried him. It was as if she had been concealing something. Just like the liaison at ground control.

Several minutes after they spoke on her cell phone, Orlov called the phone registered to Odette Kolker at her apartment. It rang a dozen times and no one answered. Orlov hoped that meant she had taken the American with her. Twenty minutes later, he called back again.

This time a man with a slurred voice answered. In English.

Orlov looked at the readout on the telephone to make sure he had the correct number. He did. The woman had left without the American.

"This is General Sergei Orlov," he said to the man. "Is this Mr. Battat?"

"Yes," Battat replied groggily.

"Mr. Battat, the woman who rescued you is my subordinate," Orlov went on. "She has gone out to try and apprehend the man who attacked you on the beach. You know who I am talking about?"

"Yes," Battat replied. "I do."

"She has no backup, and I'm worried about her and about the mission," Orlov said. "Are you well enough to get around the city?"

There was a short delay. Orlov heard grunts and moans.

"I'm on my feet, and I see my clothes hanging behind the door," Battat replied. "I'll take one step at a time. Where did she go?"

Orlov told the American he had no idea what Odette's plan was, or if she even had one. Orlov added that his team was still trying to get into the hotel computer to find out which rooms were occupied by single males.

Battat asked Orlov to call him a taxi, since he did not really speak the language.

Orlov said he would do that and thanked him. He gave Battat his telephone number at the Op-Center and then hung up.

Orlov sat still. Save for the faint buzz of the fluorescent light on his desk, his underground office was dead silent. Even s.p.a.ce was not this quiet. There were always creaks as metal warmed and cooled or b.u.mps as loose objects struck equipment. There were sounds of coolant moving through pipes and air rushing through vents. And every now and then there was someone talking in his headphone, either from Earth or somewhere else in the ship.

Not here. This was a lonelier-feeling place by far.

By now, Odette had probably reached the hotel and gone inside. He could phone her and order her back, but he did not think she would listen. And if she was intent on going through with this, he did not want to rattle her. She needed to know she had his support.

Orlov was angry at Odette for having disobeyed orders and lying to him. His anger was tempered by an understanding of what had driven the woman. Her husband had been a loner as well. A loner who had died because of someone else's carelessness.

Still, she would not stand in the way of Orlov's job. And that job was not just to capture or kill the Harpooner.

It was to make certain that Odette did not end up like Viktor.

FORTY-SIX.

Baku, Azerbaijan Tuesday, 10:31 A.M.

There was a great deal of traffic, and it took Odette twice as long as she expected to reach the Hyatt Hotel. She parked on a side street less than a block from the employees' entrance. She did not want to park out front. There was still a sniper out there somewhere, the person who had shot the American diplomat outside the hospital. The killer might be bird-d.o.g.g.i.ng the hotel for the Harpooner. He might have seen her car at the hospital and could recognize it again.

It was a sunny morning, and Odette enjoyed the brief walk to the front of the hotel. The air tasted richer and seemed to fill her lungs more than usual. She wondered if Viktor had felt this way while he was in Chechnya. If simple moments had seemed more rewarding when there was a real risk of losing it all.

Odette had been to the rear entrance of the hotel twice before. Once was to help a cook who had burned himself in a skillet fire. Another time was to quiet a man who was complaining about charges on his dinner bill. She knew her way around the back. Unfortunately, she didn't think she would find the Harpooner here. Odette a.s.sumed that when the Harpooner came and went, he used the front entrance. Sneaking out a delivery door or first-floor window might call attention to himself. Smart terrorists hid in plain sight.

And smart counterterrorists waited for them rather " than charging into their lair, she thought.

But Odette had no idea when the Harpooner would be leaving. It could be the middle of the night. It could be early afternoon. It could be three days from now. She could not be here the entire time. She also had no idea whether or not he would be disguised. And for all she knew, he might even hire a prost.i.tute to pose as his daughter, wife, or even his mother. There were some old prost.i.tutes in Baku. Some very young ones, too. Odette had arrested a number of them.

There were many possibilities, all of which made it imperative that Odette get to the Harpooner before he left. The question was how to find him. She had no idea what his name was or what name he might be using.

Except for the Harpooner, Odette thought. She laughed to herself. Maybe she should run down the halls shouting that name. Watch to see which doors did not open. Anyone who did not need to see what the uproar was about had to be the Harpooner.

Odette rounded the corner and walked toward the front of the hotel. There was a kiosk around the comer. A newspaper extra was already announcing the Iranian buildup in the Caspian Sea. There were aerial reconnaissance photos of Iranian ships setting sail. Baku had always been relatively insulated from military action. This was something new for the nation's capital. That would help to explain the traffic. Most people lived in the suburbs. Many of them probably came to work, heard the news, and were getting out of town in the event of attack.

There was just one person standing beneath the gold and green awning. A doorman in a green blazer and matching cap. There were no tour buses, though that was not surprising. They usually left by nine A.M. Tourists who had entered the country as part of a group probably could not opt for early departure and had almost certainly gone ahead with their plans. In any case, checkout was not until noon. People who did want to leave were probably on the phones trying to book plane, train, or car reservations- Of course, she thought. she thought. The phone. The phone.

Orlov had said that the Harpooner made a call using a secure phone. That would mean he probably had not made any calls using the hotel phone. She would look for a single male occupant with no phone charges on his bill.

Odette entered the hotel. She looked away from the front desk as she crossed the lobby. She did not want to risk being seen by the manager or any of the clerks who might recognize her. The first thing she did was turn to the right, toward the corridor that led to housekeeping. The long, simple office was located in the back of the hotel. There was a desk with a supervisor in the front of the office. Behind her was an array of cleaning carts. To her right was a Peg-Board with keys for all the rooms. A row of master keys was located on the bottom. These were given out to the cleaning staff each morning. Two keys remained.

Odette asked the elderly clerk if she could have more shampoo. Smiling pleasantly, the clerk rose and went to one of the carts. While the woman's back was turned, Odette took one of the master keys from the wall. The clerk returned with three small bottles of shampoo. The woman asked if she needed anything else. Odette said that she did not. Thanking her, Odette returned to the lobby and walked to the bank of telephone booths that lined an alcove in the back.

As she was walking, her phone beeped. She tucked herself into one of the booths, shut the door, then answered it.

Orlov said his team had broken into the hotel compuer and they had five possibilities. Odette wrote down the names and room numbers.

"We might be able to narrow it down a little more," Orlov told her. "If someone wanted to get out of the country quickly, he would a.s.sume a nationality the Azerbaijani would not want around."

"Iranian," Odette said.

"No," Orlov countered. "Iranians might be detained. Russian is more likely. And there are two Russians at the hotel."

Odette said she might be able to narrow it down even further by checking the room telephone records.

"Good thinking," Orlov said. "Hold on while we're checking. Also, Odette, there's one thing more."

Odette felt her lower belly tighten. There was something about the general's voice.

"I spoke with Mr. Battat a few minutes ago," Orlov said.

Odette felt as if she'd run into a thick, low-lying tree branch. Her momentum died and her head began to throb. She did not think she had done wrong, leaving a sick man at home. But she had disobeyed an order and could think of nothing to say in her defense.

"The American is on his way to the hotel," General Orlov continued evenly. "I told him to look for you in the lobby. You're to wait until he arrives before you try to take down your man. Do you understand, Odette?"

"Yes, sir," she replied.

"Good," Orlov said.

The woman held on as Orlov's staff checked the records. Her palms were damp. That was less from nervousness than from having been caught. She was an honest woman by nature, and Orlov's trust was important to her. She hoped he understood why she had lied. It was not just to protect Battat. It was to allow herself to concentrate on the mission instead of on a sick man.

According to the hotel's records, two of the five men staying there had not made any calls from the room. One of them, Ivan Ganiev, was Russian. Orlov told her they were also checking the computer's housekeeping records. According to the last report, filed the day before, Ganiev's room, number 310, had not been cleaned in the three days he had been there.

Meanwhile, Orlov went to his computer and asked for a background check on the name. It came up quickly.

"Ganiev is a telecommunications consultant who lives in Moscow. We're checking the address now to make sure it's valid. He doesn't appear to work for any one company," Orlov said.

"So there's no personnel file we can check for his education or background," she said.

"Exactly," Orlov said. "He's registered with the Central Technology Licensing Bureau, but all it takes to get a license is a bribe. Ganiev does not have family in Moscow, does not appear to belong to any organizations, and receives his mail at a post office box."

That made sense, Odette thought. No mail collecting in the postbox, no newspapers piling up on the stoop. None of the neighbors would be certain whether he was there or not.

"Hold on, we have his address," Orlov added. He was silent for a moment. Then he said, "It's him. It has to be."

"Why do you say that?"

"Ganiev's residence is a block from the Kievskaya metro stop," Orlov told her.

"Which means-?"

"That's where we've lost the Harpooner on at least two other occasions," Orlov said.

Battat walked into the lobby just then. He looked like Viktor did after ten rounds of boxing in the military amateurs. Wobbly. Battat saw Odette and walked toward her.

"So it looks as though he's our man," Odette said. "Do we proceed as planned?"

This was the most difficult part of intelligence work. Making a determination about life and death based on an educated guess. If General Orlov were wrong, then an innocent man would die. Not the first and certainly not the last. National security was never error-free. But if he were correct, hundreds of lives might be spared. Then there was the option of attempting to capture the Harpooner and turn him over to Azerbaijani authorities. Even if it could be done, there were two problems with that. First, the Azerbaijanis would find out who Odette really was. Worse, they might not want to try to extradite the Harpooner. It was an Iranian rig he had attacked. And Russian buildings. And American emba.s.sies. The Azerbaijanis might want to make some kind of arrangement with him. Release him in exchange for his cooperation, for help in covert actions of their own. That was something Moscow could not risk.

"You're going to wait for the American to arrive?" Orlov asked.

"He's here now," Odette said. "Do you want to speak with him?"

"That won't be necessary," Orlov said. "The Harpooner will probably be traveling with high-tech equipment to go with his cover story. I want you to take some of it and any money he's carrying. Pull out drawers and empty the luggage. Make it look like a robbery. And work out an escape route before you go in."

"All right," she said.