Page 64 of Trust No One

Graciella smiled, nodded and climbed out of the car. She ran at one of the massive arched doors, yanked it open and disappeared into the station.

“Jesus H. Christ,” Dev said. “Kingsley hired that kid to break into our rooms, then he was going to kill her. He’s a soulless monster. A waste of flesh.”

“All that and more,” Mel said. She took a deep breath, watching when someone opened the door for a glimpse of Graciella. But she was gone, lost in the sea of nameless humanity.

“Navigate me back to the car rental place?” he asked.

“On it,” Mel said. When he reached the end of the curved drive, she said, “Turn left.”

Chapter 22

Thirty minutes later, Dev grabbed their suitcases and guided her to a silver SUV, a larger model than their previous car. “I told the people at the desk that two more people were joining us,” Dev said. “Told ‘em we needed a bigger car for more luggage and more leg room.” He smiled. “Didn’t give me any grief at all. I think they were happy we were getting a more expensive car.”

“Smooth, Dev, you sly operator,” she murmured, sliding into the front seat, her heart still beating too fast from their encounter with Kingsley. “That was perfect. We heading to the airport now?”

“Yeah,” he said. He nodded at the phone in her hand. “Navigate me there?”

“On it,” she said. Her fingers flew over the keys and finally she hooked her phone up to the car’s navigation system. The route to Reagan National flashed onto the screen.

They parked in the cell phone lot, and Mel typed a text to Gideon, telling him where they were and asking him to let them know when he was off the plane. Twenty minutes later, he sent a text, telling her where to meet him.

“He’s here,” Mel said, sliding her phone into her pocket. “Meet him at Terminal A, Door four.”

By the time they arrived at the door, Gideon was waiting at the curb, holding a small suitcase and a computer bag. As they eased to the curb, he walked to the car, opened the rear door and climbed inside.

“Hey, Mel. Dev,” he said. “How’s it going? Any progress with that dirt bag Kingsley?”

“Oh, yeah,” Mel said. “Just before we picked you up, Dev pistol-whipped him in the Anacostia neighborhood to keep him from killing a kid.”

“What the hell?” Gideon said, leaning forward to rest his arms on the backs of the seats.

Mel turned and explained what had happened. “The young woman, who’s probably in her early twenties, is at the train station, getting on a train to Chicago to stay with her sister. I have her number, in case someone in the CIA wants to talk to her. But I hope we won’t need that.

“We have videos of him killing a Marine colonel. That alone is enough to bring him down. But we need to turn the videos over to someone we can trust. Not as easy as you might think.”

As Dev drove, Mel filled Gideon in on what they’d seen and discovered. She handed him her phone so he could watch the video, and he shook his head. “Wow,” he said, handing it back to her. “That’s damning. Why don’t you take it to the head of the CIA and let him handle it?”

“Because we don’t know if he’s clean,” Mel said. “He probably is, but that’s not good enough. Dev and I know a guy from Afghanistan. Simon Livingston. He and his wife are both CIA. Last night we met with them. Gave them a flash drive with this video and one Dev took. The CIA put them in a safe house. This morning, Simon was targeted as he drove to work. Hit and run. He’s in the hospital with a broken arm, broken ribs and a possible concussion.”

Gideon whistled. “Yeah, I wouldn’t trust the CIA, either.”

“We were hoping that you could vouch for the director of the FBI. Get us in to see her, so we can ask her to put Simon and his wife Caroline in an FBI safe house.”

Gideon looked from Mel to Dev. Back to Mel, who swiveled to face him. “The Director is solid,” he said, no doubt in his voice. “I’ve known her since I started at the FBI, and I can vouch for her integrity.” He frowned. “I have a few friends there that I trust, but no one ever found a link to anyone in bed with the Bratva besides Kramer and the guy he gave up. Kramer’s in prison, and I’m guessing the other guy is, too, but who knows who else was involved with the Russians? I’ve always thought there were more, but they’re apparently keeping their heads down, because no one’s been able to expose them.”

“I’m betting Kingsley knows who they are,” Dev said. His hands gripped the steering wheel tightly. “The video you just saw is Kingsley meeting yesterday with a Marine Colonel named Larrimore. Larrimore’s the dead guy. Bree was in Larrimore’s unit when she was in Afghanistan, and Larrimore was as dirty as Kingsley – taking money from a Russian guy for the locations where Larrimore’s patrols were going to be.”

Gideon gripped the headrest supports tightly. “Sounds like Larrimore got what was coming to him.”

“Yeah, he did. But it would’ve been better to take him alive,” Mel said. “I’m sure he had lots of information. Maybe he knew the Russian assets in the FBI.”

Gideon looked from Mel to Dev, then back to Mel. “I have mad skills. I found lots of interesting stuff on the dark web,” he said. “I was able to log in under Kingsley’s nom de fuckery, and I found a whole bunch of people he was talking to. I’ll show you the list when we get to wherever we’re going.”

“Have you had any luck identifying them?” Mel asked, swinging around to study him.

“Oh, yeah,” he said, his voice grim. “Apparently they all felt safe on the dark web, so they were pretty open.” His teeth clenched together, and Mel saw anger flash in his eyes. “Two people in the FBI that I know. A couple more names that I know are in the Bureau, but I don’t know them personally. And I suspect there were some CIA people there, too.”

“What are you going to do with those names?” Mel asked him.

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