Private Sydney (Private 12)

‘Eric Moss’s personal pilot is headed to Contigo Valley later this afternoon.’ She raised her eyebrows.

‘Where’s he leaving from?’

‘Bankstown airport.’

‘Any chance you can get us on the flight?’

‘Hedge a bet?’

I laughed. ‘Not when you’re on the job.’ If anyone could get us on the plane, Mary could. I was suddenly reminded how talented the team was. The office being bugged was a glitch. We still had work to do.

First, I needed to talk to Eliza Moss in person, without her phone. Ambassador Roden had implied she was being watched.

She agreed to meet in the foyer of her office building in twenty minutes.

I was there in ten.

A concierge sat behind a large marble desk answering queries from a constant stream of visitors. I watched from a black leather divan. The CIA would most likely have Eliza under surveillance. Once she arrived, from where I sat I could see who followed in the lifts and lingered even for a moment.

Eliza eventually appeared, wheeling herself out. She was dressed in a short-sleeved silk blouse and navy skirt. A silver filigree locket sat on a short chain. Her face was drawn with

a touch of darkness under her eyes. She couldn’t have managed much sleep.

The concierge looked up and called out to her. ‘Found your present.’ He held up a pack of gum. ‘Twenty-seven days today.’

‘You and your lungs are welcome,’ she called back before doing a half-circle to face me.

I kept my eyes on everyone exiting the lifts.

‘Why the secrecy? Is Dad all right?’

I explained about the visit by Roden’s crew and the fact that it was likely they were having her monitored and followed.

‘Who’d want to follow me? It’s pretty far-fetched, don’t you think?’

‘It isn’t when the CIA could be involved. Someone planted spyware on my employee’s phone and has been listening in to all conversations in the office. The break-in coincided with a virus on a computer as well.’

‘Why would the CIA care about Dad? He worked in safety and recovery, for Pete’s sake.’

People in suits, jeans, even a cyclist in Lycra and bike helmet filed out of the lifts. No one seemed to look twice at Eliza.

‘He was obviously involved in defence contracts that were kept pretty quiet. Maybe he failed to deliver on time, or couldn’t complete a contract for some reason. The US government definitely wants him found.’

She sat back in her chair.

A woman hovered by the concierge desk, glancing at her watch more often than necessary. She pulled out her phone and checked something.

‘Well, why haven’t they found him yet? People can’t just hide from the CIA.’

The woman with the phone knelt down and a toddler ran into her arms. They exited with a man pushing a stroller. For a moment the foyer was empty apart from us.

‘Not unless they have some kind of training in how to avoid being caught,’ I explained. ‘It isn’t just your father who has disappeared. So has almost all the evidence that he ever existed.’

Chapter 61

ELIZA LISTENED INTENTLY. I’d noticed a man sit and start flicking through a four-wheel drive magazine on an adjacent lounge.

‘Could Dad have been arrested by these people?’