Cutler had already determined there could be no good news coming from that quarter when he saw his mobile blinking and, snatching it up, read Whitman’s text with mounting dread. Whitman had never been in Beirut, he wasn’t in Western Pak anymore, he was right here in Virginia. What the fuck? Whitman had always been a loose cannon, but up until now he had kept his boss in the loop. This time, however, he had traveled completely off the map. Daou had said el-Habib was working for the Alchemists. The trouble with working sub rosa for St. Vincent was that he was told only so much and no more. He hated the fucking Chinese. He wanted no part in any back-channel machinations with Beijing.

But underneath the dread, he was gripped by an all too familiar sense of resentment. From bits and pieces gleaned from both Whitman and St. Vincent, he surmised that the Alchemists were a fractured fraternity, broken up into the Ins and the Outs, putting the lie to their motto: Uno Animo, Uno Voluntatis—One Mind, One Will. He knew, for instance, that St. Vincent, Albin White, and Trey Hartwell were the Ins. What to make of St. Vincent’s death then? Had he been ordered shot by outside enemies or by Hartwell and White for some unknown infraction? He had no idea, but he knew that it must bode ill for him. The vast bulk of his business was funneled through NSA via Hemingway. But Hemingway was an unwitting channel for the Alchemists. Furthermore, the highly lucrative work he did on the side for Directorate N and St. Vincent personally was vital to his own bank account. St. Vincent’s death was going to severely impact USA’s business, as well as his own private fortune. His plan to use Lindstrom as a bargaining chip to regain the power St. Vincent had taken from him was as dead as the two principals. On the other hand, St. Vincent’s death left a power vacuum at NSA. It also left him vulnerable to scrutiny. He might have resented, even hated, St. Vincent—subjected as he was to that sadist’s contempt—but there could be no doubt that the man protected him from Hemingway’s scrutiny.