“I don’t have as much as I hoped I would at this point,” Rapp admitted. “Basically, the written plan Auma was given for the attack, his phone, and two more phones from the man the Saudis used as a liaison. Another from that liaison’s boss. I need to figure out a way to get them to Irene and see if she can do anything with them.”

Ward’s dead expression suddenly came to life. “Phones?”

“Don’t get too excited. One’s a personal phone so I doubt there’s going to be anything interesting on it. Plus, it’s full of concrete.”

Ward opened his mouth to speak, but Rapp held up a hand, silencing him. “Don’t ask.”

“What about the others?”

“Three burner phones. One has a little cement on it, but the design kept it protected enough that it probably still works.”

“Tell me how people in your business use burners.”

Rapp shrugged. “Not much to tell. They’re phones without GPS capability bought with cash so they don’t have a name attached to them. We try to keep things compartmentalized, so we generally have a separate one for every operation. And we only call other burners—so anonymous phones calling anonymous phones from ambiguous locations. That means there’s really no practical way to trace them to the owner.”

“Marcus Dumond told you that?”

“You know Marcus?”

“I know of him.”

“Are you saying he’s wrong?”

“Not entirely.”

“What do you mean by entirely?”

“Governments have a lot of restrictions—both legal and with penetration into foreign countries or private companies that aren’t inclined to cooperate. My situation’s more… flexible.”

“Meaning what?”

“That I might be able to put a name to those burners.”

Rapp’s initial reaction was to call bullshit on the man. But the fact that he’d literally made a trillion dollars in technology suggested it might be worth hearing him out.

“How?”

“I’m not a rival government or intelligence agency. And I own interests in telecom and Internet companies all over the world. There’s a pretty robust system for cooperation in place. If not, your cell wouldn’t work when you cross borders.”

“So, you think you can do better than the Agency on this?”

“Absolutely. Plus, it solves some other problems. You’re concerned about communicating with Irene because those lines of communication could be compromised, right? Now, not only do you have to communicate with her, you have to physically deliver phones to her that she’ll then have to hand over to your technology people. Keeping all that compartmentalized will be impossible. Particularly when she has to get warrants and ask for the cooperation of the Saudi government.”

“What are you proposing?”

“We send them to my assistant with instructions. She already knows I’m alive and she can get the phones in the hands of people your mole wouldn’t have access to.”

44

CIA HEADQUARTERS

LANGLEY, VIRGINIA

USA