In the Grey (36 page)

“
I’ve had intelligence
officers crawling up my ass,” the Admiral said. “I’ve had to fly to
Germany to have a ‘secure’ conversation, and you think Hutchins and
Carmichael would do the trick?”

Alex stood at
attention.

“
Oh Christ,” the Admiral
said. “At ease, Lieutenant Colonel. You may speak.”

“
Should I have sent Chief
Tubman?” Alex asked.

“
God damn it, Alex,” the
Admiral said. “I hate intelligence officers.”

“
Yes sir,” Alex said. “I
thought it might be a relief to see a few of your own,”

He gave Alex an irritated
stare, and she shrugged. She gestured to the table in front of her
and he sat down in the chair across from hers. She sat down beside
her laptop.

“
Coffee?” he
asked.

Alex poured him a cup from
the drip coffee maker on the table.

“
I brought it from Paris –
beans, fresh cream, and maker, sir,” Alex said. “I have pastries as
well. Would you like one?”

Alex gestured to a paper
bag on the table. He pulled the bag over and looked in.

“
You do love me,” the
Admiral said as he pulled a chocolate-filled croissant out of the
bag. “I love these.”

“
Yes, sir,” Alex
said.

“
Run through it while I
eat,” the Admiral said.

“
Sir . . .”

“
Just humor me,” the
Admiral said. “Pretend you’re talking to your superior officer and
run through it.”

“
Agent Rasmussen and I
arrived in Paris on Saturday morning with our families,” Alex said.
“We had a relaxing few days, during with we took in a few sights
and mostly stayed in the condo to avoid the rain. Our families left
early Monday morning. Agent Rasmussen and I were in intelligence
meetings all day. Monday evening, we went to Le Fée Verte for
crepes and then went dancing. We only visited the secure dance
clubs on the list.”

“
Yes, I saw the list,” the
Admiral said. “None of those private clubs that you
love?”

“
No, sir,” Alex said. “We
opted for something more secure, sir. We arrived at the condo
around four. Agent Rasmussen took a shower. He was going to nap
until the team arrived at eleven.”

The Admiral wiped his
mouth on his white starched handkerchief and nodded for her to go
on.

“
I couldn’t sleep, so I
thought I would go down to the storage vaults under Le Fée Verte,
under the condos,” Alex said. “As you know, I wanted to look again
to see if I possibly missed something. I assumed that I would be
safe because of the increased security on the units and the time of
day. Due to the extensive security, my attention was on a potential
threat outside the door rather than inside the door.”

Alex clicked a button on
her laptop and turned it around. The Admiral watched the security
video of her interaction with Cooper. His eyebrows shot up when
Cooper’s personality split the first time. He leaned forward to get
a better look. When the video ended, he leaned back in his
chair.

“
When she collapsed, I
called emergency services, Agent Rasmussen, and Dominic,” Alex
said. “He called his assistant Y, and
she . . .”

Alex nodded.

“
You saw an object thrown
under the ambulance?” the Admiral asked.

“
Yes, sir,” Alex said. “We
retrieved footage from the surveillance cameras on the street. You
can see this person . . .”

Alex turned the laptop
around to face her and clicked a few buttons. She rotated the
laptop back to him.

“
The Préfecture de Police
found him floating in the river,” Alex said. “Honestly, sir, we
don’t believe he knew what he threw.”

Alex reached around to run
the video. The video showed a hooded young man toss what looked
like an aluminum canister under the ambulance. When the object
exploded, he reeled back in horror. Too shocked to move, he watched
the ambulance fly through the air and land on its gas tank. When
the gas tank exploded, he ran out of the frame.

“
That’s no soldier,” the
Admiral said.

“
No, sir,” Alex said. “The
prefect believed they would find him . . .
alive.”

Alex shrugged.

“
Another dead body,
another dead end,” the Admiral said.

“
Yes, sir.”

“
And Cooper?” the Admiral
asked.

“
She has no family,” Alex
said. “Agent Rasmussen was able to find a record of her flight to
Paris. We are in contact with the Denver Police. They interviewed
her colleagues at the Central Library yesterday. They thought she
was going on a vacation to Paris. I guess she’d been talking about
going for a few years. She never mentioned to them that Paul was
killed there. She may not have remembered. She had booked a room at
one of those hotels that caters to tourists. She made no efforts to
disguise herself or her trip. On paper, it looks like a tourist
trip.”

“
Why did she faint?” the
Admiral asked.

“
She was most likely
programmed to faint when she was done with me. That’s a fairly
common procedure,” Alex said. “It’s also exhausting for the
personality to do all of that switching. You can pick the reason
you like best. Either will work.”

“
And the ambulance?” the
Admiral asked.

“
The gas tank was either
not well maintained or booby trapped,” Alex said. “We believe the
latter, as does the company which maintains the vehicles. There’s
not enough of the vehicle left to determine one way or the other.
Ambulances of the same make are going through maintenance right now
to be certain it’s not a design flaw.”

“
How are you?” the Admiral
asked. “I heard you and Agent Rasmussen sat in the rain for more
than an hour. No one could get you to budge.”

“
We’re bruised and
suffered minor cuts from the second explosion of the ambulance,”
Alex said. “But nothing major. We are fit for duty,
sir.”

“
Emotionally, mentally,”
the Admiral said.

“
Yes, sir.” Alex fell
silent while she thought about his question. “If I may speak for
Agent Rasmussen, we are experiencing a kind of stunned shell-shock.
The assault was . . . years ago, but it’s still very
fresh in our minds. Everything on that street has changed. The
restaurants are different, the buildings . . . and
still, this pressure and threat remain. It’s . . .
unnerving.”

“
And this book or paper
or . . . ?” the Admiral asked.

“
When I return to Paris,
the team and I will look through the vaults again,” Alex said. “I
had wanted to do that alone. I realize now that was
foolish.”

“
Foolish?” the Admiral
asked. “At the very least.”

“
Yes, sir.”

“
I’ve put another team on
finding Captain Ramirez’s cousin,” the Admiral said. “Agent
Rasmussen’s report is clear. Captain Ramirez is one of the barriers
to getting to you. I’d like to have him reinstalled.”

“
He’s resolved the
bioweapons issue at Pelican Bay,” Alex said.

“
He has?”

“
Yes, sir,” Alex said.
“They’re made in solitary confinement by prisoners and smuggled out
by dipping their lunch bags in the stuff. It turns out that his
cousin set the whole thing up.”

“
Have they moved on the
perpetrators yet?” the Admiral asked.

“
No sir,” Alex said.
“Agent Vega and the warden want everyone involved inside the
prison. They’ve been able to isolate a few of the guards, but not
all of them. A DHS team is working to determine the sales chain
outside the prison. Meantime, Captain Blanco is guarding Captain
Ramirez to make sure he doesn’t come to harm. We’re hoping to move
Captain Ramirez to the Florence Supermax where we believe he’ll be
safer.”

The Admiral
nodded.

“
Sir, I have a couple of
questions for you,” Alex said.

“
Go ahead.”

“
Do you remember telling
me about attending a lecture while you were in graduate school?”
Alex asked.

“
Less than a week ago?”
the Admiral smiled. “Yes, Lieutenant Colonel, I
remember.”

“
We have intel from
Captain Olivas that indicates that the most recent goal for the
nanodrones is to ‘flick a switch and everything burns.’”

The Admiral’s face went
blank. He blinked at her.

“
The nanodrones were sold
as tracking devices,” Alex said. “They vibrate, which we knew. The
purchase of the drones included a subscription for satellite time.
That’s how Hector found Dahlia and the boys.”

The Admiral continued to
blink at her. Uncomfortable with his silence, she
continued.

“
Someone could purchase a
drone as a tracking device,” Alex said. “They might want it to find
a person or keep track of someone even for protection purposes.
Imagine if every head of state and high-level intelligence
operative had a nanodrone on them. All they’d have to do is flick a
switch and burn every target.”

“
You’re serious,” the
Admiral said.

“
Yes, sir,” Alex
said.

“
And your
questions?”

“
The most obvious is, who
was the lecturer?” Alex asked.

“
Josef Yakovlev,” the
Admiral said.

“
Yakovlev?” Alex asked.
“Why is that name familiar?”

“
His younger brother was a
famous Russian aeronautical engineer,” the Admiral said. “Josef was
an engineer, physicist, and philosopher.”

“
You said he came over in
Operation Paperclip?” Alex asked.

“
They would have preferred
his brother, Alexander,” the Admiral said. “They probably thought
Alexander would follow Josef, but Alexander preferred to work under
Stalin.”

“
As you heard, sir, the
men who came for Cooper . . . ,” Alex
started.

“
Were from Texas,” the
Admiral interrupted. “Yes, I heard that.”

“
Operation
Paperclip . . .”

“
Yes, they were mostly
housed at Fort Bliss,” the Admiral said. “Dr. Yakovlev was there as
well.”

“
Sir . . .”

“
I also grew up in Texas.
In fact, I’ve been fascinated with Operation Paperclip since my
childhood in Texas. Those funny foreign men would show up at the
strangest places,” the Admiral said. His voice rose in anger, “Is
that what you’re getting at? Are you asking me if I brainwashed
this young woman into trying to kill you? Wouldn’t it have been
easier if I’d killed you one of the many times we’ve been alone
together?”

Alex didn’t respond. The
Admiral’s eyes scolded her in a way he would never do with his
voice.

“
What does Cee Cee Joiner
have to do with Dr. Yakovlev?” Alex asked.

“
Other than the fact that
I thought of it?” the Admiral asked.

“
Yes, sir,” Alex said.
“I’m wondering why you thought of it.”

“
Why do you ask?” the
Admiral glared at her. “If anyone else asked me this
question . . .”

“
Yes, sir,” Alex said. “I
appreciate the trust you place in me by answering my
questions.”

The Admiral let out a
controlled breath. Alex felt the anger emanate from his body. His
eyes reviewed her face. He lowered his eyes for a moment and then
looked up again.

“
The truth is that I don’t
know,” the Admiral said. “I don’t know why I thought of it all
those years ago, or just the other day.”

“
Did Dr. Yakovlev say
anything that reminded you of Cee Cee Joiner?” Alex
asked.

“
No,” the Admiral said.
“I’ve met Cecil Joiner, twice, I think.
He . . .”

“
Cee Cee Joiner did not
believe Cecil was his biological father,” Alex said. “Cee Cee
stated that Cecil had a bioidentical, single zygotic twin who
tortured Cecil’s wife and murdered her parents when Cee Cee was
three. My team has been able to track Cyril Joiner, the twin,
through a number of small prisons throughout the southwest and
Texas. Cee Cee indicated that Cecil killed his twin after the twin
found oil on the in-laws property. We have not had a chance to
speak with Cecil, but we will do that on our way home.”

“
Twins; split
personalities,” the Admiral shook his head.

“
Yes, sir,” Alex nodded.
“It’s hard to fathom.”

“
Did Cee Cee Joiner know
the Jaspers?” the Admiral asked.

“
Not according to Helen,
sir,” Alex said. “We haven’t acquired the proper leverage to pry
any information out of Jasper, Sr.”

“
Could Cee Cee Joiner have
been at the Yakovlev lecture?” the Admiral asked.

“
I’m not sure, sir,” Alex
said.

“
Where were you in the
mid-1990s?” the Admiral asked.

“
I’d just joined the
military,” Alex said. “I was deployed in Bosnia on a UN
mission.”

The Admiral
nodded.

“
We’ve explored the
possibility that our experiences in Bosnia were the beginning
of . . . all of this,” Alex said.