Mike said in a friendly voice to Craig Swanson, “You move one step and I’ll flatten you.”
“I’m not budging,” Swanson said. “Hey, maybe you want to talk about this, maybe—”
Mike turned her back to him, said to Ben, “Whatever Adam’s telling Nicholas, it’s making him glow, so that means we’re getting some needed answers.” She shot a look at Swanson, who was very gently wiping the blood off his teeth, pushing them to see if they were loose. “And now we’ve got the CIA involved. I’ve got to call Mr. Zachery, see if he knows what this is all about.”
Ben looked over at Swanson. “Seems to me you’re safe from the CIA bozo, so I’ll head back to the office and see what’s happening. Work with Gray. The code he and Nicholas wrote to stop the cyber-attack last night was impressive. Gray’s got his team following up on it, patching all the remaining holes and working with the IT guys at the companies hit to get them back up and running. From what I heard, the damage could have been exceptionally severe, though I don’t think they’re letting the news out yet. If he and Nicholas hadn’t stepped in, we’d be facing a whole different issue. See you later.”
Once Ben had climbed into the elevator and was off, Mike looked over at Swanson again. He was sitting on the ground next to his Suburban, his arms clasped around his knees. He looked up. “Can I have my cell? I need to call Melody.”
“No. Well, maybe, if you tell me why you were planning on leaving a tactical vehicle full of weapons in an unsecured garage. This is SOP for the CIA?”
“No. I was going to unload shortly. I came to say hello to Melody.”
“Love life before work, then?”
Swanson shook his head at her. “You Feebs are so uptight. Surely you think those Doc Martens of hers are hot.”
“If I were your boss, Mr. Swa
nson, I’d pound your head with those Doc Martens.”
“Can I use my cell now?”
“No. Tell me how well you know Vanessa Grace?”
Swanson shrugged. “Like I told you, she’s the boss’s niece. I’ve met her a couple of times, but I don’t know her all that well. It’s not like we have asset undercover mixers. CIA’s not a sorority.”
“According to a witness, she was injured last night. What happened? Why were you sent in to retrieve her?”
“My boss called and asked me to grab her up. I did as he requested.”
“But you didn’t take her to the hospital, and she was badly injured. Why?”
“I follow orders even when I don’t agree. I was a combat medic in a past life. She was hurt bad, a bullet to her chest, broken bones, but Grace wanted her back in D.C. So I patched her up and put her on a CIA medevac chopper home. Did she make it? I don’t know.”
Mike gave him the fish eye. “Of course you’re lying.”
He had the gall to grin. “Nah, not about this. Far as I know, this ain’t classified. Can I have my cell now, to call Melody? No one else, I promise.”
Mike said, “No,” and she turned away and called Zachery.
“Agent Caine, is everything all right? Ben went tearing out of here, his hair on fire. And Louisa told me Nicholas has a bullet hole in his jacket sleeve.”
“We’re fine, sir,” she said, and she briefed him on the situation. “Did you agree that Nicholas and I should leave immediately for Langley to meet with a CIA agent named Carl Grace?”
“Yes. You and Agent Drummond have been asked to make an appearance at Langley to get a full debrief on COE and the Bayway bombing. I assume Dillon Savich has already called you, told you of our new interface with D.C.?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Speaking of Bayway, we’ve got the analysis of the bomb. It’s not exactly what we were expecting.”
“Tell me.”
“Problem was, there wasn’t much to find, which means it was small, Mike, very small.”
“But the load was huge.”
“Yes. We’ve got very small pieces of carbon-fiber casing, but the internal mechanism was blown to smithereens. It seems there was some sort of timer inside we haven’t seen before. Putting together what we found, I’d say the whole bomb was no bigger than a watch battery.”