Chapter 7: The Courtesy Ends
Mara's contact was a woman named Elena—a former Spanish intelligence analyst who now ran a private security consultancy from a narrow building in the Lavapiés neighborhood.
She asked no questions about why three Americans needed a secure location on two hours' notice.
She simply unlocked a back room, set three cups of coffee on the table, and left them alone.
Hawkins arrived twenty minutes after Laura and Mara.
He had taken three different metro lines to get there.
He sat down, wrapped both hands around his coffee cup, and looked at Laura.
"They called you," he said.
It wasn't a question.
"Within two hours of landing."
"That's faster than I expected." He set the cup down.
"They have someone at the airport.
Possibly at passport control."
"Or on the aircraft," Mara said.
The three of them looked at each other.
"It doesn't change the timeline," Laura said.
"We have thirty-six hours to get to Washington.
The physical evidence goes with us.
Hawkins—can you travel on your current documents?"
"The passport I used to board is clean.
It won't stay clean indefinitely, but it will hold for one more flight."
"Then we book three separate tickets.
Different airlines, different departure times.
We don't travel together."
"Agreed," Mara said.
Hawkins looked at Laura.
"There's something I didn't tell you on the aircraft.
I didn't want to say it in front of Mara until I'd spoken to you first."
Mara's expression didn't change.
"Say it now."
Hawkins was quiet for a moment.
"The two analysts whose testimony is on the drive—the ones who were pressured to alter their reports.
One of them recanted last month.
Colt's legal team got to him.
He's signed a new statement saying the original testimony was given under duress and is unreliable."
The room was very still.
"Which analyst?" Laura said.
"Ferris.
Captain James Ferris."
Laura closed her eyes briefly.
She had served with Ferris.
She had trusted his precision, his attention to detail.
She knew what it would have taken to make him recant.
"What did they offer him?" she said.
"His pension.
His daughter's security clearance—she works in defense contracting.
And a quiet guarantee that certain aspects of his own conduct during the investigation would remain sealed."
"So we've lost one of two corroborating witnesses," Mara said flatly.
"Yes."
"Then the recording becomes everything," Laura said.
She looked at Hawkins.
"The pre-mission briefing.
Colt's voice on that recording—is it clear?
Unambiguous?"
"It's clear.
He names the mission.
He names the adjusted coordinates.
He references David by name as a 'liability to be managed.'" Hawkins's voice was steady but his knuckles were white around the coffee cup.
"It is the most damning thing I have ever heard, and I have listened to it forty times."
"Then we protect the drive above everything else." Laura looked at both of them.
"I'm going to make a copy before we leave this room.
Mara keeps one.
I carry one.
Hawkins carries the original."
"If they search us at the airport—" Mara began.
"They won't find all three."
A knock at the door.
Elena opened it without waiting and held out a phone toward Laura.
"For you," she said.
"He says his name is Greer."
Laura took the phone.
"Senator."
"Major Vance." Greer's voice was different from the morning call.
Tighter.
"I need to tell you something before you board any flight.
One of my committee colleagues was contacted this morning by Colt's legal team.
They're filing a preemptive motion to have any testimony related to Operation Clearwater classified above the committee's access level.
If that motion succeeds before you arrive, I lose the ability to act on anything you bring me."
"How long do we have?"
"The motion goes to the classification review board at nine AM Washington time tomorrow.
That's—" A pause.
"Fifteen hours from now."
Laura looked at her watch.
"We can make it," she said.
"There's more." Greer paused.
"The motion was filed by a law firm.
The lead attorney is a man named Victor Hale.
He's very good, and he's done this before—buried testimony before it could surface." Another pause.
"He's also on this flight manifest.
Madrid to Washington.
Departing in four hours."
Laura set the coffee cup down very carefully.
"Colt sent his lawyer to Madrid," she said.
"It appears so."
She looked at Hawkins.
May you like
At Mara.
"Then we're not waiting four hours," she said.
