Iron Orchid (Holly Barker 5)

“Very well. We’re here to meet with U.N. officials about providing counterespionage for their security. There’s a meeting of heads of state on Monday, and they’re nervous.”

“And what have you found to report to them?”

“We were asked late to the game, but Hugh came loaded for bear.”

“What did he give them?”

“There’s a suspected terrorist cell working out of a townhouse near the U.N. owned by an Iranian businessman. Actually, he’s an Iranian intelligence officer, and the whole operation is supported by Iranian money. His service is loyal to the mullahs, not the elected government. We’ve got the place bugged, and a full-time translation team on the tapes.”

“What is the group planning?”

“They’ve been very careful, so we’re not sure, but we think they’re going to try something during the meeting on Monday. The president is addressing the General Assembly at eleven a.m.”

“So the Secret Service will be all over this?”

“You bet th

ey will; already are.” She got out of bed. “Oh, I have something for you.” She took a small digital camera from her handbag, extracted a card from it and handed it to Teddy, then got back in bed.

“What’s on this?” he asked.

“Plans of the building,” she said. “I photographed them.”

“That was very dangerous.”

“Not really. I was left alone with them.”

“These should be very interesting,” Teddy said. “Do you know anything about their security?”

“It’s run by another Iranian.” She wrote down a name and the address of the building on a bedside notepad and handed it to Teddy.

“Do you know what their procedure is for accepting deliveries?”

“No one is allowed inside the building. Any deliveries are signed for on the front stoop by an armed guard, then taken down to the outside door of the basement. Presumably, packages are screened there.”

“Who delivers?”

“Gristedes grocery store on Third Avenue, FedEx, UPS, messenger services. It’s not hot and heavy; they get no more than two or three items a day. We’ve had some indication that packages addressed to their head of security are not routinely searched. He comes to the basement and opens them himself.”

“And his name?”

She wrote it down for him.

He turned and kissed her. “You’re a peach.”

“Go get ‘em!” she said, kissing him back.

SIXTEEN

ON SATURDAY AFTERNOON, the training class was called into the auditorium, where they were addressed by the director of training.

“Good afternoon,” he said. “You may have noticed that your ranks have been noticeably depleted since we last met in this room. Some of your classmates have not met the standards we set here or have failed their polygraphs or have otherwise not survived our security checks. Should you ever encounter any of these people in the outside world, the procedure is to not know them. If you are approached by one of them simply say you’re sorry, but they’ve made a mistake; you have never met. If they persist, disengage them- rudely, if necessary. If they still persist, report the incident to your case officer at the earliest possible moment, giving a full description of the person and the name he or she is using.

“We’d like you to know that those of you who have survived the initial training have all done well, and we are pleased with your performance. As a reward, you’ll have a pass to leave the installation tomorrow night, between the hours of six p.m. and twelve midnight. You must have checked in at the front gate by midnight, no exception. Failure to do so will result in appropriate action up to and including expulsion from the training program.

“There are other requirements: you are to travel in pairs or threes, and only with people from your training subgroup-Johns, Harrys, etcetera. Each of you will be given an envelope containing a valid driver’s license from one of the fifty states, two credit cards and one or two other forms of identification, along with a written legend. You will memorize the legend and use only that name, even among yourselves, while you are off the installation. Feel free to embroider your legend, but use only those facts that you can remember, in line with the training you have had. If any person on the outside shows too great an interest in your background, you are to report it to my office. When you return to the installation, you are to resume your normal form of address, by subgroup.

“Your movements are restricted to the county, and you will be given a map of the county. You are not to contact any person-even friends or family-during the time off the installation, or to make any phone calls, land line or cell. You may take a cell phone with you, but it is to be used only to contact the duty officer, whose number you will be given, or to call 911 in the event of an emergency. If you receive a call from the duty officer’s number, you may answer it or return the call immediately and follow explicitly any instructions you are given.