“The team that had been watching over Orlov’s gear at the airport scrambled to arrange transportation out of there. Everyone has been evacuated to a friendly site just off the lake, about a mile south of the Missouri-Arkansas border. That includes the bodies. We’re going to keep them there until things settle down, then start smuggling people out in small groups. They managed to retrieve all of the files from the buildings before the fires got out of control, so that’s one less thing to worry about.”

“Big consolation,” said Pichugin, sensing that Kuznetzov was building up to something.

“There’s one thing that’s going to be a significant problem,” said the general.

“Just one? What is it?”

“Senator Filmore’s wife and son were killed during the attack. They were found along the trail between the boat landing and the camp. Both of them shot twice in the chest.”

That was how it could be worse. They’d just lost one of the highest-placed sleepers in the entire network.

“We have to assume that Farrington’s people have identified them. They probably documented the entire raid with video cameras. They’ll go after the senator at some point, if only to fuck with us,” said Pichugin. “Has Senator Filmore been notified?”

“None of the families have been notified,” said the general. “And strict communications protocols have been activated at the evacuation site.”

“I see,” said Pichugin. “Hold off on any notifications, and under no circumstances are any of the sleepers to make contact with anyone. I need to think about how we’re going to deal with this, particularly the senator’s situation.”

“Understood,” said the general. “May I make a suggestion?”

“Of course.”

“I think we need to strongly consider eliminating Senator Filmore and his daughter,” said the general. “Put all of their bodies on a private jet and crash it.”

“Was the daughter at the camp?” asked Pichugin.

“Yes. She survived.”

He didn’t see any way to salvage the situation with Senator Filmore at this point. If Farrington’s people started circulating pictures of the wife and son, the media and federal law enforcement would start asking questions that nobody could adequately answer. They needed to get ahead of that. A tidy plane crash with all four of them on board would snuff out the fire generated by the pictures.

“Make it happen. Quickly,” said Pichugin. “And have Alexei prepare a list of the entire network. I want the sleepers broken down into three categories: critical, essential, and nonessential to FIREBIRD. Then break each of those categories down into public sector or private sector. Any operative that can be easily identified represents a risk to FIREBIRD and an opportunity for Farrington and Berg. I expect them to sharpen their sleeper-hunting skills in the upcoming days. The fewer liabilities we have out there—the better.”

“As in permanently retire?” said the general.