“It’s all really suspicious, Jeff. The place was soaked with accelerant and burned to the ground. Whatever they were doing there, they wanted to hide it. And I know what AgriMed said they were doing there—farming some tropical medicinal plants—but the lab boys were able to get some serial numbers from what we found and—”

Jeff was already flipping through the report. “Shit, German intelligence? CIA?” He read the relevant section aloud. “Six of the retrieved computers came from a shipment of twenty-five Dell Precision workstations ordered by the BND. The delivery address was confirmed to be one of the German offices of the Federal Intelligence Service.”

He looked up at Nate. “What are you thinking?”

Nate frowned and pressed his back against his chair, tilting it back just a bit. “I’m thinking there’s absolutely no reason for some farming outfit to have the equipment and tech they had on site. We didn’t find any evidence of electronically controlled irrigation or anything else that would be computer-controlled. It doesn’t make sense. Something is going on and I don’t buy the complainant’s story about some innocent little farm. And burning it all down? This all smells like a bunch of horseshit.”

Binghamton nodded and tapped the end of a pencil on his desk. “I don’t understand it either. And the CIA connection is troubling. Are we sure about that? Because if we are—that puts a whole new flavor on this.”

Nate reached over and flipped through the report, then pointed. “The receipts are right here. The items were delivered to the same address as CIA headquarters.”

Binghamton frowned. “I’m sick of those guys pulling this crap on us. Maybe there’s something going on with the Germans and the agency, but what’s the role of the pharmaceutical company? I don’t see the connection. Shit. I have no idea if this is an authorized operation. It might be a black op we shouldn’t have stumbled into, or maybe some rogue activity that has some bad actors involved.” He shook his head, then pointed the pencil at Nate. “This is what I’m going to do. I’ll start procedures to get a FISA warrant. I want to know what the intelligence community knows about these guys and that island. As for the CIA, I’ll make a formal interdepartmental inquiry and see where that goes.”

“Sir,” Nate said, “if you’ll approve the travel budget, I’d like to follow up on AgriMed’s story about the woman who was rescued from the island. See what she knows, if anything.”

Binghamton asked, “Do you have a lead on her whereabouts?”