Shadow of Betrayal

“That’s right, Connie. Apparently the NYPD had received a tip about the car several hours ago. Sometime after midnight, one of their patrol cars spotted the vehicle and began pursuit. During the chase the car was involved in an accident at the corner of West Thirty-third and Broadway, sending one man to the hospital. After the accident, the car continued for several blocks until the driver either could go no farther, or decided he would do better on foot. At that point, the police were in a full-scale search, so it wasn’t long before the vehicle was discovered.”

“And that’s when they found the victim in the trunk,” the anchor said.

“That’s correct.”

“Is there any word on suspects?”

“The driver is reported to be male, mid-thirties, with short brown hair. At this time, the police have no one in custody. I’ve heard from sources that they should have a more accurate description by the time of the briefing later this morning.”

Peter switched the TV off.

“I told you to get someone there quick,” Quinn said.

“We did. But the police were already there.”

“Then you weren’t quick enough.”

Orlando was staring at Quinn. “They have a description of you,” she said.

“That was pretty generic,” he replied.

“It is now, but they obviously knew to look for us. Perhaps someone is feeding them a more accurate description right now.”

Quinn remained silent for a moment, then looked at Peter. “You called me and warned me about the APB. How did the police know?”

“We’re … not sure,” Peter said.

“Who knew we were going in the building?”

“Only me and my team,” Peter said, then looked toward the door where Cooper stood. “Sean and Ida.” But Peter seemed to hesitate.

“Who else, Peter?”

“My client knew I was sending someone in, but he didn’t know who.”

“Who the hell is your client?”

“Someone who would have very much wanted this to stay quiet.”

Nate cleared his throat, and everyone turned to him. Quinn could see his apprentice had something he wanted to say.

“What are you thinking?” Quinn asked.

“Isn’t it possible that whoever killed the Deputy Director might have been keeping an eye on the building?” Nate asked. “It’s probably the same guy who planted the explosives, don’t you think? Maybe we were just being watched.”

Quinn looked back at Peter. “You’re sure your client wouldn’t have leaked this?”

“Absolutely.”

“Doesn’t matter how they found out at the moment,” Orlando said. “Pretty soon the whole city is going to be looking for you. We’ve got to get you out of town now.”

She was right. The search for Deputy Director Jackson’s supposed killer would go nationwide, but it would be most intense there in New York.

Quinn stood up. “We need a vehicle.”

Peter hesitated, then looked at Cooper. “Get the stuff out of our car. They can take that.”

“No,” Quinn said. Cooper, who had already started for the door, stopped. “Not out of the garage. Something on a nearby street. Some thing generic.”

There would be cameras in the garage of the Marriott Marquis, and maybe even security guards walking around who might take special notice of them. The less people who saw Quinn, the better.

Cooper looked at his boss, his eyebrows raised.

“Do it,” Peter said.

With a single nod, Cooper left.

Everyone was silent for several moments.

“You knew the DDNI would be in there, didn’t you?” Quinn asked.

“No. I didn’t,” Peter said, then paused. “There was the possibility, yes. But I really didn’t expect to find him there. Especially not dead.”

“Then what did you expect?”

Silence, nearly thirty seconds of it. Quinn began to think Peter wasn’t going to answer him at all. Then, “I thought we might find a clue to where he’d been taken.”

“What do you mean?”

Again, Peter hesitated. This time, though, the silence lasted only a moment.

“Let me show you something,” he said.

He walked to the computer on the desk, pulled over the chair Quinn had vacated, then sat down. By the time Quinn, Orlando, and Nate had moved in behind him, he’d already minimized the surveillance images on the screen and replaced them with a spreadsheet. It was broken down into four columns. There were locations listed down the left-hand column, dates in the center two, and two- to four-digit numbers in the right.

“What is this?” Quinn asked.

“Inside the envelope you brought back from Ireland was a jump drive.” A tiny flash memory card able to hold multiple gigs of data. “There were only four files on it. This was one of them.”

“Looks like an itinerary,” Orlando said.

“Yes,” Peter said.

“How the hell does this tie into what happened tonight?” Quinn asked.

Peter glanced at Quinn. “The DDNI hired us a month ago for a special project. He’d been approached by a source claiming to have information about a potential terrorist operation.”

“Jesus, Peter. Every source says they have information about a potential terrorist operation,” Quinn said. “It’s the in thing.”

“That’s why the DDNI hired us instead of using his resources at CIA,” Peter said. “He wanted to keep it quiet. Our job was to coordinate meetings with Primus, then check out the info he handed over.”