Page 79 of In Too Deep

“Go on.”

“If Vidic offered Kane big bucks, Kane is going to stay in Vidic’s shadow until he gets his hands on the cash. So we find Vidic, you find Kane.”

—

Reacher figured thatsince a federal agency had dragged him to the hotel, it was only fair to order room service breakfast on the government’s dime. Pancakes, bacon, and coffee. He dragged the desk over to the window and gazed out while he ate. He could see the Arch. The swell of the river beyond it, heavy and thick and dark. And all the way over into Illinois, far away on the eastern side. He finished the food. Emptied the coffee jug. Took a shower and got dressed. He had been back at his vantage point for ten minutes when there was a knock at his door. It was his babysitter. The guy said, “Time to move. Agent Devine is holding a debrief in a conference room, second floor, starting now. You’re invited. Come on.”

The conference room was like a scene from a business furniture catalog, Reacher thought. The walls were paneled with cherry wood.It was polished to a deep shine. There were framed oil paintings hanging every six feet, showing well-stocked wagon trains setting out from the historic heart of the city, bound for the West. The tables were formed into a horseshoe. They were perfectly aligned and exactly parallel with the walls. The chairs were made of black mesh material and shiny chrome. A projector was mounted to the ceiling and a screen had been lowered in front of the window, which was hidden by vertical blinds.

Devine was sitting at the head of the table. The agents Reacher had last seen in the lobby the evening before were lined up along both sides. The downtime had done them good. That was clear. There were no more scowls. No more sagging shoulders or slouching backs. Determination was evident on most of the faces. Enthusiasm, even, on a couple.

Knight had taken a chair midway along the far side of the table. The one opposite was open so Reacher lowered himself into it and poured himself a glass of water.

Devine cleared her throat and said, “Folks, let’s get under way. I have information for you. There are some tired eyes in Quantico this morning, I can assure you. I’ve asked Detective Knight and Mr. Reacher to join us for a few minutes out of respect for the contribution they’ve made to this case. We’ll share what we can, then let them take their leave so that we can move on to some of the more official aspects. Any questions before we jump in?”

No one raised their hand.

Devine said, “Some people like to keep good news until the end, but not me. So here’s our headline. The techs worked all night with the data they pulled off the memory stick that was recovered from the bench at the pavilion. The one Vidic left, and the man in the hoodie tried to take. It contained one thing. A document that was stolen when a server belonging to a company—Cone Dynamics—was illegally accessed. The techs were able to confirm that the document is genuine. All I can say in this forum is that the contents are extremely—and I meanextremely—sensitive from a national security standpoint. In other words, we were up to our eyeballs in the worst kind of shit. Now we’re not. We’re free and clear. The nature of our work means that the public will never know what you’ve done for them. But the Bureau does know, and it will not forget. You should all feel very proud of yourselves.”

The agent who was sitting next to Reacher raised her hand. She said, “I don’t want to sound like Debbie Downer here, but Vidic is still free. His sidekicks are still free. So what’s to stop them from copying this document onto another memory stick and hitting the market again? We could be back at square one by lunchtime.”

Devine shook her head. “I’m not a techie so I can’t give you the specifics, but this document was formatted in a very unusual way. It uses technology similar to what underpins NFTs, apparently. Non-fungible tokens. I don’t know how, but the good news for us is that it means we can be sure it’s the original, and no copies have been made.”

“What if they hack Cone’s computers again? Steal something else?”

“You can never saynever. But this incident was a major wake-up call for the company. I’m not exaggerating when I say they have executives facing jail time over it. As soon as the breach came to light, they pulled all their systems offline. They’re still offline and that won’t change until they get the green light from the Department of Energy. They’ll need Secretary level authorization.” Devine let that thought hang in the air for a moment. “Any other questions about the memory stick?”

Heads shook all around the table.

Devine said, “OK, then. Let’s move on to our second piece ofgood news. We’ve picked up a record of a plane ticket that was booked in the name of Kevin Richardson.”

She was met with a wall of blank faces. Everyone’s except Reacher’s.

She said, “Kevin Richardson is one of the aliases Vidic set up for himself. A seat has been booked in that name on a flight from Chicago Midway to Anchorage, Alaska. One way. This afternoon. And get this. Only two other seats on that flight are one-way. One is in another man’s name. One is in a woman’s name. Both were booked within a minute of Richardson’s. And all three bookings came from the same IP address.”

Devine caught the look on Reacher’s face and said, “That means the same computer was used. Or phone, or iPad, or whatever.”

An agent at the far end of the table said, “We’re thinking this is Vidic, Kane, and Paris?”

“We are. Vidic used another name from the same set of aliases for the flight into St. Louis. We located him at both the arrival and departure airports on that occasion. We’re going to do it again at Midway. The three of them will be off the street by dinnertime.”

—

Devine wrapped upthe first phase of the meeting and escorted Reacher and Knight to the elevator lobby at the end of the corridor. Before either of them could hit the call button she crossed her arms and said, “First, thank you, again. Without you that report would not be sitting safely in a locked drawer in Quantico. It would be in the possession of goodness knows who. Someone with a very poor disposition regarding the United States, I’m certain.”

Reacher said, “Do you know who the wannabe buyer was?”

“No. Not yet. The man in the hoodie was a local loser who thoughthe was getting a year’s pay for an hour’s work. It didn’t take long to find him, but he hasn’t spilled anything useful yet. We have people working with him. Sketch artists. Hypnotists. Our counterintel guys are all over this now. Don’t worry. One way or another we’ll figure it out. But the most important thing is, our secrets are safe.”

“I’ll drink to that.”

“Now, one last thing. This doesn’t need to be said, but I’m going to say it, anyway. Everything connected to Cone Dynamics is top secret. You need to forget you ever heard the name. And you absolutely must not breathe a word about a report getting stolen or a network getting breached. Are we clear?”

Reacher nodded.

Knight said, “Got it.”

Devine said, “Thank you, Detective. I’m sure you’ll find your shield waiting for you when you get back to Arizona. And I’m sure you’ll hang on to it this time. As long as you don’t do anything stupid. Anythingelsestupid, I should say. Like googling Cone Dynamics again. Or leaving them any more convoluted messages.”

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