“Funny. No. The tracker placement was professional, and they had good reason to break cover. I more or less forced their hand,” said Devin. “I do this for a living, remember?”

“Yes. I remember,” said Berg. “Could it have been the FBI, local police, or some other federal agency?”

“I don’t think so. The trackers were high end, but still the kind of stuff you can buy off the shelf. Definitely not the kind of gear we used in the FBI.”

“How did you locate the trackers?” asked Berg.

“Radio frequency detector,” said Devin.

“How long did you spend on the tracker sweep?”

“Not long enough to detect something that transmits infrequently, but I eliminated that possibility later,” said Devin. “Helen’s decode-the-next-step journey included a vehicle swap, a high-end, untraceable satellite phone, and about ten thousand dollars in cash. She’d obviously put a lot of thought into how to get me here undetected, and she took a number of these steps as recently as three weeks ago.”

“She must have gotten mixed up with some bad people while chasing down this thing,” said Berg. “Maybe she pissed off the Russian mob? I could see her getting desperate enough to go after them for information. Possibly staking them out. Now that I think about it, this whole thing kind of makes sense. If she’d put herself on Solntsevskaya Bratva’s radar by pissing them off, it wouldn’t take much for them to pull the trigger on her. Sorry to be blunt.”

Devin shook his head. His mother’s death wasn’t a Russian mob hit. The people following him this morning didn’t fit that profile.

“How much did Helen tell you about her theory?” asked Devin.

“Hold on,” said Berg, nodding in the direction of an approaching waitress.

They ordered beers and a dozen crabs each, Berg continuing when the waitress was out of earshot.

“Helen was pretty guarded about what she’d tell me. I got the impression through some of the things she’d said that she was trying to protect me from ruining my career,” said Berg. “She gave me just enough to test the waters. Enough to keep the channel of communication open.”

“What did my mother think she’d uncovered?” said Devin. “I won’t repeat any of this. I promise.”

Berg looked torn.

“You didn’t hear this from me. Understood? This is all still classified, as far as I know.”

“Understood,” said Devin.

“An operation she’d conducted had revealed the names of five sleepers.”

“Russians?”

“Apparently. Two couples and—Donald Wilson,” said Berg.

“Jesus,” said Devin.

“Here’s the thing. Technically the agency only knew about the two couples. Helen had only shared Donald Wilson’s name with me, and I’ve never repeated it at Langley.”

“Why would she do that?” said Devin.