Down: Pinhole: A Sci-Fi Historical Thriller of Love, Betrayal, and the Damned by Glenn Cooper

Author:Glenn Cooper [Cooper, Glenn]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Lascaux Media
Published: 2025-10-02T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Sixteen

On the morning of the first scheduled MAAC restart since John Camp’s crossing, Henry Quint was in a foul mood. He had finessed Secretary Smithwick’s call for his resignation but how long could he hold on? And any hope for a potentially clean exchange, Camp and Loughty for Woodbourne and Duck, possibly was dashed by the failure to locate Woodbourne.

With only an hour to go he called Trevor and Ben Wellington to his office hoping that they might produce a rabbit from a hat but their glum looks confirmed the bad news.

“Sorry,” Trevor said. “Still nothing.”

Quint didn’t offer them chairs. “Unbelievable. Let me ask you something, Mr. Wellington. Is the MI5 so incompetent that it can’t find a dead man who smells like a rotten piece of meat in your own backyard?”

Ben kept his cool and replied, “Woodbourne could be anywhere. The Frasers’ car turned up torched in Manchester. Perhaps he’s there, perhaps not. There have been no sightings. He could be anywhere really. We are in the midst of the largest manhunt in Britain’s history with every police force in the land and a significant number of our service personnel allocated to the hunt. It is unfortunate that we haven’t found him by this first deadline, but we will find him.”

“And if you don’t?”

“There are many uncertainties in this operation. We have no idea if Camp is alive and functional, whether he has a prayer of finding Dr. Loughty, and if so, whether they can muster back to the critical location.”

Quint sneered at the deflection. “I have to wonder if the FBI would be more effective than your outfit?”

Ben stiffened at the question. “We’ll never know, will we?”

“Maybe yes, maybe no. I’ve asked Leroy Bitterman to float the idea of sending an FBI team from Washington. The prime minister might decide not to refuse a gift horse from the president of the United States.”

“A bit higher than my pay grade,” Ben said stiffly.

“Yes it is.” Quint stood. “I’ll see you gentlemen downstairs.”

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