The ride home was uneventful; the couple talked of mundane things while most of Thornhill’s mind was focused on the phone call from Howard Constantinople. Losing his men had been a blow to Thornhill, both personally and professionally. He had worked with them for years. How all three had been killed was beyond his comprehension. He had people down in North Carolina right now finding out as much as possible.
He had not heard anything further from Constantinople. Whether the man had run was unknown. But Faith and Buchanan were dead. And so was the other FBI agent, Reynolds. At least he was almost certain they were dead. The fact that no newspaper reports had come out regarding at least six dead bodies at a beach house in an affluent area in the Outer Banks was particularly troubling. It had been over a week, and nothing. It might be the Bureau’s doing, covering up what was quickly building to a PR nightmare for them. Yes, he could see them doing that. Unfortunately, without Constantinople he had lost his eyes and ears at the Bureau. He would have to do something about that soon. It would take time to cultivate a new mole, yet nothing was impossible.
Well, the trail could never lead back to him. His three operatives had cover buried so deeply that the authorities would be incredibly fortunate if they managed to dig through even the surface layer. They would find nothing after that. Well, the three had died heroes. He and his colleagues had toasted their memory in the underground chamber upon learning of their deaths.
There was one more troubling loose end: Lee Adams. He had gone off on his motorcycle, presumably to Charlottesville to make sure his daughter was safe. He had never arrived in Charlottesville, that Thornhill knew for a fact. So where was he? Had he come back and managed to kill Thornhill’s men? And yet one man taking out all three of them was incomprehensible. But Constantinople had not mentioned Adams in the call.
As the car drove along, Thornhill felt much less confident than he had at the beginning of the evening. He would have to watch the situation very carefully. Perhaps there would be some message waiting for him at home.
As the car pulled into their driveway, Thornhill glanced at his watch. It was late, and he had an early morning. He had to testify tomorrow before Rusty Ward’s committee. He had finally tracked down the answers the senator wanted, meaning he was prepared to throw out so much bullshit that the room would have to be fumigated after he had finished.
Thornhill disarmed the security system, kissed his wife good night and watched as she went up the stairs to her bedroom. She was still a very attractive woman, slender, fine-boned. Retirement would be coming soon. Perhaps it wouldn’t be so bad. He’d had nightmares about it; his sitting in agony at interminable bridge games, country club dinners, fund-raisers; or hacking his way through infinite rounds of golf, his insufferably perky wife at his side for all of it.
However, as he watched the woman’s nicely shaped backside gliding up the stairs, Thornhill suddenly saw more enticing possibilities for his golden years. They were relatively young, wealthy; they could travel the world. He even thought he might turn in early tonight, and take advantage of the physical urges he was suddenly feeling as he watched Mrs. Thornhill gracefully ascend the stairs to their bedroom. He liked the way she slid her high heels off, exposing black-hosed feet; moved a hand along her curvy hip; let her hair down in back, her shoulder muscles tensing with each movement. Those hours at the country club certainly hadn’t all been wasted. He would just pop in his study to check his messages and then head upstairs.
He clicked on the light in his study and went over to his desk. He was about to check for any messages on his secure phone when he heard a noise. He turned to the French doors that opened out onto the garden. The doors were opening and a man was stepping through.
Lee put a finger to his lips and smiled, his gun pointed directly at Thornhill. The CIA man stiffened, his eyes darting left and right, looking for escape, but there was none to be had. If he ran or screamed, he would be dead; he could see that in the man’s eyes. Lee crossed the room and closed, then locked the door to the study. Thornhill watched him silently.
Thornhill received a second shock when another man stepped through the French doors, closing and locking them too.
Danny Buchanan looked so calm as to be almost asleep, yet a high level of energy danced behind his eyes.
“Who are you? What are you doing in my house?” Thornhill demanded.
“I expected something a little more original, Bob,” said Buchanan. “How often is it that you see a ghost from the very recent past?”
“Sit,” Lee ordered Thornhill.
Thornhill eyed the gun one more time, then went over and sat on the leather couch facing the two men. He undid his bow tie and dropped it on the couch, trying, with some difficulty, to assess the situation and decide on a course of action.
“I thought we had a deal, Bob,” Buchanan said. “Why did you send your team of killers down? A lot of people lost their lives unnecessarily. Why?”
Thornhill looked at him suspiciously and then at Lee.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about. I don’t even know who the hell you are.”
It was clear what Thornhill was thinking: Lee and Buchanan were wired. Perhaps they were working with the FBI. And they were in his house. His wife was upstairs undressing, and these two men were in his house asking him these sorts of questions. Well, they would get nothing for their troubles.
“I”—Buchanan stopped and glanced at Lee—“we came here, as the sole survivors, to see what sort of arrangement we can work out. I don’t want to keep looking over my shoulder for the rest of my life.”
“Arrangement? How about I yell up to my wife to call the police? You like that arrangement?” Thornhill eyed Buchanan closely and then pretended recognition. “I know I’ve seen you somewhere before. In the newspapers?”
Buchanan smiled. “That certain tape Agent Constantinople told you was destroyed?” He slid his hand in his coat pocket and pulled out a cassette. “Well, he didn’t get it exactly right.”
Thornhill stared at the cassette as if it were plutonium about to be shoved down his throat. He reached into his own jacket.
Lee raised the pistol.
Thornhill gave him a disappointed look and slowly edged out his pipe and lighter, taking a moment to light up. Several soothing puffs later, he eyed Buchanan.
“Since I don’t even know what you’re talking about, why don’t you play the tape? I’d be interested to know what’s on it. It might explain why two complete strangers have broken into my house.”
And if that tape had me talking about killing an FBI agent, neither of you would be here, and I’d already be under arrest. Bluff, bluff, bluff, Danny.
Buchanan slowly tapped the cassette against his palm, while Lee looked nervous.
“Come now, don’t tease me with something and then pull it away,” said Thornhill.
Buchanan dropped the cassette on the desk. “Maybe later. Right now I want to know what you’re going to do for us. Something that will make us not go to the FBI and tell them what we know.”
“And what might that be? You talked about people getting killed. Are you insinuating that I might have killed somebody? I’m assuming that you know I’m employed by the CIA. Are you foreign agents attempting some sort of bizarre blackmail scheme? The problem with that is, you need to have something to blackmail me with.”
Lee said, “We know enough to bury you.”
“Well, then I suggest you go get your shovel and start digging, Mr. . . . ?”
“Adams, Lee Adams,” Lee said with a fierce scowl.
“Faith is dead, you know, Bob,” Buchanan said. As he said this, Lee looked down. “She almost made it. Constantinopole killed her. He also killed two of your men. Payback for your killing the FBI agent.”
Thornhill looked suitably bewildered. “Faith? Constantinople? What the hell are you talking about?”
Lee came and stood directly in front of Thornhill. “You bastard! You kill people like stepping on ants. A game. That’s all it is to you.”
“Please put the gun away and leave my house. Now!”
“Damn you!” Lee aimed his pistol directly at Thornhill’s head.
Buchanan was next to him in an instant. “Lee, please don’t. That won’t do any good.”
“I would listen to your friend if I were you,” Thornhill said as calmly as he could. He had had a gun pulled on him once before, when his cover had been blown in Istanbul many years ago. He had been lucky to get out alive. He wondered if his luck would hold tonight.
“Why should I listen to anybody?” Lee growled.
“Lee, please,” Buchanan said.
Lee’s finger hovered on the trigger for an instant, his gaze locked with Thornhill’s. Finally, he lowered the gun, slowly.
“Well, I guess we’ll have to go to the Feds with what we have,” Lee said.
“I just want you out of my house.”
“And all I want,” Buchanan said, “is your personal assurances that no one else will be killed. You’ve got what you want. You don’t have to harm anyone else.”
“Right. Right, whatever you say. I won’t kill anybody else,” Thornhill said sarcastically. “Now if you’ll please leave my house. I don’t want to upset my wife. She has no idea she’s married to a mass murderer.”
“This is no joke,” Buchanan said angrily.
“No, it really isn’t, and I hope you get the help you so obviously need,” said Thornhill. “And please take care that your gun-toting friend doesn’t hurt anyone.”
That should sound very nice on the tape. I am actually caring about others.
Buchanan picked up the cassette.
“Not leaving the evidence of my crimes?”
Buchanan swiveled around and eyed him severely. “Under the circumstances, I don’t think it will be necessary.”
He looks like he wants to kill me,
Thornhill thought.
Good, very good.
Thornhill watched as the two men hurried down his driveway and disappeared onto the darkened street. A minute later he heard a car start up. He raced toward the phone on his desk and then stopped. Was it tapped? Was this whole thing a charade to trick him into a mistake? He stared at the window. Yes, they could be out there right now. He hit a button under his desk. All the drapes in the room descended and then a small whooshing sound commenced at each of the windows: white noise. He slid open his drawer and pulled out his secure phone. It had so many security and scrambling features that not even the NSA jocks could lift a conversation on it from the air. Similar to the technology used on military aircraft, the phone threw out electronic chaff that jammed attempts to intercept its signal.
So much for electronic eavesdropping, you amateurs.
“Buchanan and Lee Adams were in my study,” he said into the phone. “Yes. In my home, dammit! They just left. I want all the men we can spare. We’re only minutes from Langley. You should be able to find them.” He paused to relight his pipe. “They sang some bullshit song about the cassette tape where I admitted to having the FBI agent killed. But Buchanan was just bluffing. The tape is gone. I figured they were wired, and I played dumb with everything. It almost cost me my life. That idiot Adams was two seconds away from blowing my head off. Buchanan said Lockhart was dead, which is good for us, if it’s true. But I don’t know if they’re somehow working with the FBI. But without that tape they’ve got no evidence of what we’ve done. What? No, Buchanan was begging for us to leave him alone. We could go ahead with the blackmail plan, just let him live. It was pitiful, actually. When I first saw them, I thought they had come to kill me. That Adams is dangerous. And they told me Constantinople killed two of our men. Constantinople must be dead, so we need to get another spy at the FBI. But whatever you do, you find them. And this time no mistakes. They are dead. And after that, it’s time to execute the plan. I can’t wait to see those pitiful faces on Capitol Hill when I hit them with this.”
Thornhill clicked off and sat at his desk. It was funny, their coming here that way. A desperate act. From desperate men. Did they really think they could bluff a man such as himself? It was rather insulting. But he had won in the end. The reality was that tomorrow or soon thereafter they would be dead and he wouldn’t be.
He rose from behind the desk. He had been brave, cool under pressure.
Survival is always intoxicating
, Thornhill thought as he turned out the light.
The Dirksen Senate Office Building was bustling as usual on this crisp morning. Robert Thornhill walked with special purpose down the long hallway, swinging his briefcase cavalierly at his side. Last night had been quite something, a success in many ways. The only downside was that they had failed to find Buchanan and Adams.
The rest of the night had been simply marvelous. Mrs. Thornhill had been impressed with his animalistic zeal. The woman had even gotten up early and made him breakfast, dressed in a sheer, clingy black outfit. That hadn’t happened in years—making his breakfast or the clingy number.
The hearing room was at the far end of the hallway. Rusty Ward’s little fiefdom, Thornhill thought derisively. He ruled with a southern fist, meaning velvet-gloved, yet with granite knuckles underneath. Ward would lull you to sleep with his ridiculously syrupy drawl and when you least expected it, he would pounce and shred you. His intense gaze and oh-so-precise words could melt the unsuspecting foe right in his uncomfortable, government-issue hot seat.
Everything about Rusty Ward painfully assaulted Thornhill’s old-school, Ivy-League sensibilities. But this morning he was ready. He would talk death squads and redactions until the cows came home, to borrow one of Ward’s favorite lines; and the senator would be left with no more information at the end of the day than when he had started.
Before entering the hearing room, Thornhill took one energizing deep breath. He envisioned the setting that he was about to confront: Ward and company behind their little bench, the chairman pulling at his suspenders, his fat face looking here and there as he rustled through his briefing papers, missing nothing in the confines of his pathetic kingdom. When Thornhill entered, Ward would look at him, smile, nod, give him some little innocent greeting intended to disarm Thornhill’s defenses, as if that were even a possibility.
But I guess he has to go through the motions. Teaching an old dog new tricks indeed.
That was another of Ward’s stupid little sayings. How dreary.