‘Okay, hand me over to the authorities, if you want, but I guarantee you, no one wants a fuss right now. They’ll most probably ship me back to the UK and pretend it never happened.’

She took a deep breath and let it out slowly. ‘Before Nine/Eleven, Stutz was in the oil business, supplying infrastructure and personnel to the high-risk fields: Iraq, Libya, Azerbaijan, Nigeria. With the Iraq invasion in 2003, he teamed up with the CIA to supply contractors. As the war dragged on, the demand for all kinds of off-book operatives increased. Congress got interested in how much public money was flowing to these private contractors, but they were protected with all kinds of National Security provisions that meant there was a whole bunch of stuff they didn’t need to declare. Langley and the Pentagon closed ranks to protect Stutz, which pissed off the Bureau.’

‘Have you managed to get anything?’

‘Some numbers. Bank details. Raw data from transactions. Something to feed Carter, my contact agent in DC, so he can follow up the financial leads while I keep working on getting closer to Stutz.’

‘And Skip?’

‘Don’t even go there, okay? The guy’s a class A pervert.’

‘Sounds like you got the assignment from hell.’

She stiffened again. ‘Why should I even trust you?’

‘Remember “Mutually Assured Destruction”? We both know what he’d do if he found out about either of us. And we both have enough on each other to give him cause to want to do that. So we have an incentive not to blow each other’s cover. Where is Stutz now?’

‘In DC. He doesn’t get back before midnight. He drives himself from the airport and at that time there’s no traffic. The building has a parking garage in the basement. He has his own elevator, which bypasses the offices and so forth. Just goes straight up. I sometimes go in there to pick up stuff so it’s not unusual for the guards to see my pick-up. So far I’ve never been in alone but my company pass gets me into the garage. And I’ve memorized the elevator and door codes.’

‘Any other way up or down?’

‘The emergency stairs, but it’s forty-five floors. Access is through the bedroom. The door doesn’t open from the outside, though, so it’s exit only.’

‘Can you get me in?’

Chapter 63

63

She left the radio off in the pick-up and they drove in silence.

‘You okay?’

‘Sure.’

Her silence felt unnatural.

‘So why take the assignment?’

‘I didn’t. I mean, I didn’t choose it. I was on probation.’

‘How come?’