“Easy,” Carmody said. “He probably had a backup alias. Malkira gets off the plane, the TSA guards ask for his ID, he shows them the second set. As far as TSA’s concerned, valid documents are enough. They’re looking for Wendell Balen. He’s already somebody else. Nine times out of ten they won’t check the passenger list to see if that second person really boarded at the gate.”

“How about the police? Wouldn’t there be a BOLO if Michaels put them on notice?”

“They require written legal authorization to access the list, and that has to go through the airline’s legal department,” Musil said. “They would have no chance of accessing today’s list at short notice. Not this time of night when the offices are closed. And passport chips are normally impossible to fake. If he had an alternate and it passed as authentic, he would have walked out of the airport without a problem.”

Harper lifted a water bottle off the table and drank.

“Pardon my French, but I don’t need any of that shit to board the ship,” he said. “The Coast Guard has sweeping constitutional authority. They can’t stop us.”

“You’d better plan on everyone on it carrying guns,” Natasha said. “If Grigor’s with them, they’ll be waiting with a plan.”

There was a short silence. Harper looked down the table to where she sat next to Kali.

“Michaels told me a little about him,” he said. “We’ll be prepared.”

Carmody asked, “What’s the number of crew on one of those boats?”

“Between twenty-five and thirty, usually,” Harper said.

“So few? Even for one that big?”

Lee was nodding in the affirmative. “My father worked on containers until he retired. All a cargo ship does is go from here to there. It isn’t on military or scientific operations. Or laying cable like the Stalwart. It just needs a minimal crew complement according to international manning regulations.”

“That’s if they’re just moving cargo,” Schultz said. “We don’t know what else they’ve got aboard.”

“My guess is they wouldn’t overload it,” Carmody said. “If thirty’s about right, they won’t risk too many more. They’d try to make everything look normal so nobody pays attention to them.” He looked intently at Harper. “Can you muster up fifteen of your best? Even this time of night?”

“You’re in luck. We’ve got a new PSU—Port Security Unit—here at Barbers. I can give you more than that if you need them.”

Carmody shook his head. “Fifteen’s plenty. More’s a crowd.”

Harper nodded. “OK,” he said. “What else?”

“A couple of harbor patrol boats. Something up in the air. So we make an instant impression.” Carmody paused. “That’s it, unless you have any other thoughts.”

Harper was quiet a moment.

“Maybe one,” he said.