Page 94 of The Devil's Ransom

“I’ve got the original Branko cell phone. Well, at least the clone we made.”

“What do you want?”

“I want to know where this phone has been in the past. That’s it.”

“Do you have a date? Something to zero in on?”

“Uh, no. I need a couple of months, but you can skip anything that involves a store, bar, or other establishments. Focus solely onbed-down locations. And you can skip Zagreb, Split, and Korcula. We know them, so it’s unnecessary. Focus on new cities, but only here in Croatia. If he’s got a safehouse in Serbia or Bosnia, that’s out of my reach.”

“Pike, I don’t know about this. I just told you we were called off.”

“Creed, I’m not asking you to do any manipulation of the cell network. Just look at this phone. Any direct action will come from me.”

He said, “Plug in the phone.” I looked at Jennifer, and she already had it slaved to her computer, the laptop itself tied into her own Taskforce phone’s VPN. I said, “Jennifer’s sending linkup now.”

He said, “Okay, I see it. Give me a little time,” then, “Shit. Don’t say I’m doing anything.”

“What?”

I heard him say, “Hey, sir, it’s Pike. I just told him we’d been turned off.”

I heard the phone shuffle, then Blaine Alexander came on, saying, “Hey, Pike.”

Taken aback, I said, “Sir, what’s going on back there? I tried to call Creed and our line was redirected. I got Marge.”

I heard him sigh, then, “Yeah, your op has been turned off. Wolffe was given a direct order to pull you. Honestly, we were sort of hoping another phone ping wasn’t necessary and you’d have this guy in a bag before we could tell you to back off. We delayed telling you for that reason. I was supposed to release a message at noon today, sixp.m. your time. I’m assuming by the call you have no joy?”

I ignored that question, saying, “What’s POTUS thinking?”

“Apparently, the expert we used to find Branko in the first place is coming in today with proof of who’s doing the attack, and it’s not the original ransomware team Dark Star. They’re just using the name.”

“That’s bullshit. Too much of a coincidence. Too many things that don’t add up for a completely new team to do this. Especially since they’re using the Dark Star name. What’s Wolffe think?”

“He thinks like you. Well, he thinks that pursuing Branko can’t hurt. If it ends up being a nation-state, so be it, but letting Branko go might be like missing the flight training in Florida before 9/11.”

“Couldn’t agree more. What do the others think? What about the NSA and Cyber? They’ve had a day to look at it.”

“They’re chickenshits. So far they’re just nodding their heads at what Dylan Hobbes says. He has a lot of referent firepower because he worked at both places. He’s apparently a genius and they know it. If he’s wrong, they’re happy to let him take the fall. If he’s right, they’re agreeable to saying they concurred.”

“And Kerry Bostwick? What’s CIA saying?”

“He thinks it’s bullshit. But he’s on his own with that.”

“Well, that’s something. Did you get anything on the Afghans? They’re a wild card in this whole thing.”

“Afghans? What could they do with this? They can barely work a computer. Why do you keep bringing them up?”

“Because they’re running around here chasing Branko, and they killed the Afghan national security advisor, all for some treasure. If you had something on them, it might lead me to Branko. It’s another thread.”

“Forget about them, Pike. Trust me, I know how you feel.We’ve all lost a little bit of our life over there, and I know you want some vengeance, but they aren’t doing any of this. Let them go.”

“I’mnotdoing this for vengeance. Jesus, sir, they’re at the heart of this and they don’t even know it. They’re running around blind chasing Branko and don’t even know the threat that he’s created. You give me a thread on those guys and I’ll find Branko. They’re tracking him right now, I promise.”

“Pike, far be it from me to say you’re crazy, but you’re crazy. Now, if you’d found some Iranians or North Koreans chasing Branko, that might be a different story.”

I gave up. “Okay, okay. One final question—if I hang up right now, and don’t check my messages until I bed down tonight, can I take the day?”

“What do you have?”

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