The Hidden Vector: A Spy Thriller by Mathew Snyder

Author:Mathew Snyder [Snyder, Mathew]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Riverwords Press
Published: 2020-09-28T06:00:00+00:00

Chapter 13: Without Tether

Bethesda, Maryland

9:33 p.m., Saturday, June 15

Paul watched couples dance on a parquet floor to a Marvin Gaye tune. He stayed put in a stiff padded chair at one of the large dining tables. Janey left him there so she could chat with friends and donors. Events like this brought out her best. For him, they were drudgery. She flitted through the crowd bright-eyed and smiling. Paul sagged in the chair from too little sleep. He was content to sit and sip his red wine, which was too tart and thin for his tastes. But it was something to do. The meal was much better. To Janey’s relief, their dinner companions raved about the beef tenderloin and chocolate torte. He didn’t know any of these people, but he did his best to make small talk despite the strong possibility that in eastern Europe a group of unknown killers had kidnapped an Iranian biological weapons expert.

The dinner companions scattered to the dance floor and the bar. They abandoned maroon napkins on the white tablecloth in a ring of Rorschach blots that hypnotized him while he mulled over the last two days’ developments. Pierce’s discovery in some Romanian wine cellar had escalated the entire affair. With that, Paul’s assignment from Harley Gilchrist to root out a sleeper element fell apart in two hours. He didn’t have much choice in the matter. He had to share Pierce’s report with Suzanne, and up the chain from there. By yesterday’s end, more than a half dozen senior officers and directors had read Pierce’s report. Three of those were on Paul’s mental checklist of candidates for this Scorpio group. But the real truth was it could be any of them.

Before yesterday morning, none of them had ever heard of Kamran Khorasani. Now meetings began with verbal reminders about security and stern faces at the faintest suggestion of WMDs. Khorasani’s expertise in biological warfare research got everyone’s attention. Even Drummond had stopped suggesting this was all about Ukraine.

He had to focus on next steps for his team. But the inevitable cost was his work on Scorpio. Every little detail, every twist of intel he’d laid out in two weeks hoping to lure out this hidden group’s mole dissolved the moment Pierce’s report disseminated. Mention of Scorpio didn’t come up. He’d removed it from Pierce’s report. Harley had a heavy hand in avoiding its mention during two briefings yesterday. Neither he nor Harley could prevent the insider from knowing those next steps. With their secret revealed, he had to assume Scorpio knew what they knew. They’d react and adjust, and again he’d be steps behind them.

He needed some air. He finished off the astringent wine and left his own napkin on the table. A murmur of voices floated over the dance floor music. Masses of people circulated around the mostly empty tables. He passed an older woman who sat alone to touch up her lipstick in a tiny brass mirror. She blinked and smiled at him, then returned to the compact to tend her appearance.

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