Page 120 of Edge of Honor

“And Operation Black Line,” said Harvath.

The FBI man nodded. “We’re still looking for a connection, but haven’t been able to find anything yet.”

“Sounds like you’ll be busy for a while.”

Again, Gallo nodded. “It’s about to get even busier. Blackwood was using a penthouse apartment belonging to one of his donors for his coup meetings. Somebody, my guess is the Russians, bugged it. Videos of the meetings were given to60 Minutes. They’re doing a special prime-time exposé tonight.”

Harvath was stunned. “More chaos.”

“Lots more. It’s going to shatter America’s already shaky faith in its institutions.”

“And give birth to oceans of conspiracy theories. They’ll be saying ‘If high-ranking people in the government can do this, what can’t they do?’?”

“There’s no reason for your name to come up in any of this; we still haven’t released your name or Sølvi’s from the Naval Observatory attacks, but I thought you’d want to know.”

“Thank you,” said Harvath.

“One other thing,” said Gallo, rather matter-of-fact. “As you know, Hale and Conroy were both found dead at Conroy’s house.”

“You don’t say.”

“Mm-hmm. Investigators believe they were arguing, pulled pistols at the same time, and shot each other.”

“That sounds extremely violent,” Harvath, who had spent more time getting rid of the traces of duct tape afterward and staging the scene than he had interrogating Conroy, replied.

“According to Hale’s employer, he disappeared under very strange circumstances, along with their very expensive Mercedes, which only recently was found abandoned.”

“Sounds like he was a bit unstable.”

“That’s the line investigators are taking. Of course, once this60 Minutespiece drops and Conroy gets exposed, all attention will be on the coup. This’ll probably look like anger or payback for the failed attack at the Convention Center. Bottom line: As long as there’s no evidence tying you to Conroy’s house or the Willis estate, you should be fine. There isn’t, is there?”

Harvath shook his head. “Nope.” He had already returned to reclaim his wetsuit, the inflatable dingy, and all the other dive gear he had left behind. The Goblins Nicholas had placed near the security building came complete with a tiny tungsten charge that had fried their insides soon after Harvath had fled the property. He was completely clean.

The most personal piece of information for Harvath had to do with Ambassador Rogers, and it was one of the last items he had extracted from Conroy.

Though Rogers had been critical of the Mitchell administration on TV, it was his connections to their national security team that had earned him the ire of Blackwood and his cabal.

Along with the secretaries of state and defense, Rogers was seen to be exhibiting too much influence inside the White House. They were seenas holdovers from the last administration who wouldn’t leave—“swamp creatures,” as the cabal called them—responsible for Mitchell softening his stances, particularly on things like NATO and not involving American defense contractors in the Sky Shield missile system.

The sheer magnitude of the plot, as well as the depth of the anger toward Mitchell, was still stunning to Harvath. While he abhorred the injuries and the tragic loss of life, if the Russians had pulled this off without a single fingerprint, it would have marked an incredible leap forward for one of America’s most dangerous enemies.

It wasalmostenough to make him want to stay in the game, at least long enough to get even. But by the same token, he had fifty-million-and-one reasons, including Sølvi, not to.

After finishing their beers, Harvath had walked the men out to their cars, wished them a Happy Fourth, and, after asking Gallo to relay his regards to Carolan and Fields, watched them drive away.

Returning to the house, he found Sølvi in the kitchen. She had just come up from the dock and was putting a plan together for dinner.

Holding up her phone, she showed Scot a news story.

“What’s that about?” he asked.

“Some D.C. lobbyist named Claire Bennet went to Istanbul to meet with potential clients,” Sølvi replied. “Police found her in an alley this morning with her throat cut.”

“Did I ever tell you about my first trip to Istanbul?”

“Were there also dead people involved?”

He nodded. “Lots of them.”

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