Page 35 of Shadow of Doubt

She couldn’t believe they had opened Jadot’s phone before MoMo could open the flash drive. Picking it up, she began scrolling through it. “Did you learn anything?”

“A little bit,” said Gibert, taking a sip of his Sazerac. “We know he spent the weekend at his cottage in Brittany. We know what train he took to Paris from Saint-Malo. And we can map his movements via the Métro as he made his way to Robert et Louise from the Gare Montparnasse.”

“And you’re pulling all the corresponding CCTV footage?”

“Again, one step ahead of you.”

Brunelle continued to look through Jadot’s phone. “Anything else?”

“Have you looked at his calendar yet? He had a breakfast meeting this morning, which he obviously didn’t make.”

Clicking over to today’s date, she read the name of the man Jadot was to have met with and her eyebrows went up.

“So,” said Gibert, marking her expression, “you recognize who his rendezvous was with.”

“Ray Powell,” she replied, nodding in a bit of disbelief. “The CIA’s Paris station chief. Why would the two of them be having breakfast together?”

“I asked my guys at the DGSE the same question. They couldn’t figure it out either. But they did tell me something interesting.”

“What was that?”

Leaning back in his chair, Gibert raised his glass to finish off what was left of his drink and responded, “Powell was in Beirut at the same time as Jadot.”

CHAPTER 16

OSLOFJORD

NORWAY

In the age-old tradition of how Russians built trust, Grechko picked up the bottle from the dining room table and poured them each another shot of vodka.

“Za zda-ró-vye,” the man said.

Harvath clinked his small glass against his and replied, “Za zda-ró-vye.”

They had a decision to make. Remaining at the cottage was not an option. Eventually, the Norwegians were going to find them. Once that happened, there was no way of knowing how far behind the next team of assassins were. The attack on the safehouse in Oslo had been so massive, Harvath didn’t doubt there’d be more to come. Grechko didn’t doubt it either. But he also knew he had leverage at this moment. He didn’t intend to waste it.

“Explain to me,” the Russian said, “if we go with your plan, how you see all of this playing out?”

“I contact the CIA station chief in Oslo, she sends a team down here to pick us up, and we all go back to the U.S. Embassy compound.”

“And what does your fiancée tell her people at the Norwegian Intelligence Service?”

“As little as possible,” Harvath replied. “Until she gets to the bottom of who the leaker is, it’s the only way to keep you safe.”

“Which you believe you can do at your embassy.”

Harvath nodded.

“Let me ask you something, Mr. Harvath. If the Norwegian Intelligence Service has a mole, what makes you believe that your embassy doesn’t?”

It was a fair enough question, but it was a hypothetical that could be applied to any organization. “Right now, I think it’s the safest place we can put you. We’ll limit who knows you’re on-site. The fewer people in the loop, the better.”

“And then what?” Grechko asked. “An embassy isn’t a hotel. If yours has a medical unit, maybe you’ve got one or two hospital beds. Or perhaps there are a few army cots that have been tucked away someplace in case of a crisis. Not exactly a sustainable solution.”

“Our first objective is to keep you alive. We can worry about everything else later.”

“If bylateryou’re envisioning whisking me off to the United States, I’m not interested.”

---