Oath of Loyalty (Mitch Rapp #21)(70)

Rapp glanced at his phone, noting the time. He was surprised at how much he was looking forward to his upcoming call. Not the most cheerful subject matter, but still a brush with some much-needed sanity. He was starting to feel like an orderly in an asylum. Or maybe he was just another inmate. Either way, the sensation was becoming more overwhelming with every passing day.

The encrypted line began to ring at precisely the agreed-upon time and he picked up.

“Go ahead.”

“How are you? Are things going okay?” Claudia said. The voice was disturbingly similar to Sadie’s.

“Everything’s good. You?”

“Fine. I’m getting a little break. Levi took Anna to patrol the grounds.”

Levi Mizrah was a former Israeli operator who Rapp had known for years. He was in charge of the compound’s security now that Coleman had relocated to his house in Greece.

“What about Irene? She’s gone, right?”

“Yes. To Europe to meet with some former colleagues. And I think Nick is on his way to Brussels to see her.”

“Why? Are they still going around about whether she’s going to take a job with him?”

“Is that a joke?” Claudia said, sounding a bit confused.

“What do you mean?”

“Well, at this point, I think it’s pretty clear that their interest in each other is more than just professional.”

He didn’t immediately respond. Kennedy had once been married, but he never thought of her in those terms. Since they’d known one another, her personal life had largely been swallowed by the Agency. Apparently, unemployed and with her son in college, she had time for other things. Why not a relationship? If anyone deserved a little happiness, it was her.

“Okay. I guess I missed that.”

“In your defense, at this point it just seems like another negotiation. All relationships are complicated, but this one—assuming anything comes of it—is a whole other level. The richest man in history and the former director of the CIA. That would be quite a union.”

The understatement of the century. “Where do we stand with Legion?”

“Irene’s tried to contact them but none of the email addresses they’re suspected of using in the past are active. We don’t anticipate them issuing another until…” Her voice faded for a moment. “Until this job’s done. She’s also talked with her contacts around the world and no one knows any more than the Agency. We’re still assuming that Legion was trained by a government but have no idea which one. Irene has good back channels in Russia and Syria, and she’s reasonably convinced they didn’t come from there. But that doesn’t help much.”

He heard some banging and then Anna shouting. “Is that Mitch? Hey, Mitch! I was just on patrol!” Claudia put her on speaker so she could speak at a normal level. “When are you coming back?”

“Should be pretty soon.”

“We ought to come there instead. I miss my friends at school. And I can’t talk to Ahmale. Just text and Mom erases half the stuff I say.”

“She’s a difficult woman.”

“I know! Right? And then Ahmale lost her phone. But she found it like the next day. Her parents were really mad. It was a brand-new iPhone. They’re superexpensive you know. Like ten thousand rand. And she— Hey! Wait! I’m not done talking!”

“Yes you are,” he heard Claudia say. “Now go start your schoolwork. I’ll be up in a few minutes to help you.”

“Bye!” she yelled.

“Okay, I’m back, Mitch. Where were we?”

“Ahmale lost her phone and then found it the next day?”

“I thought the same thing. We should assume that Legion was behind it and that they now have spyware installed.”

“Maybe it’s something we can use?”

“Maybe. Let me know if you want to go in that direction. In the meantime, how’s the house project going?”

“The architects are working on some initial ideas, but that doesn’t really involve anything hands-on. I’m sure Legion has access to all their communications and that they’re watching every contractor and construction supplier as well as moving and rental companies. Again, a lot of opportunities to flush them out, but not without putting Sadie at risk.”

“Bebe hasn’t noticed anything?”

“Just the American surveillance team.”

“You can’t let anything happen to Sadie,” Claudia stressed. “It’s not her job to die for my mistakes. How is she holding up?”

A potentially loaded question. The fact that he was living in such close quarters with a woman someone once dubbed Victoria’s Secret Agent likely wasn’t sitting well with her.

“She’ll be fine. Nothing ever happens to people like her. What about the Cook issue?”

“I haven’t spent much time on it. Irene wants to take point.”

“Meaning she wants to do nothing.”

“For now.”

“Yeah, but what if now is our chance? I’m not saying that we should make a move, but it’s possible that we could somehow subvert his security upgrades while they’re in process. Maybe create a hole or get someone inside? This might be the time to lay a little groundwork. If we don’t ever use it, fine. But it’d be nice to know it’s there.”