The Third Option

chapter 36
Rapp had regained his composure by the time they reached Dumond's. Kennedy had already called Dumond and told him that Rielly had been taken. Dumond, never quite knowing how to deal with Rapp, decided not to attempt any words of comfort. Instead, he explained how the search for the Professor was going. Unfortunately, it wasn't going so well. Coleman's two men, Kevin Hackett and Dan Stroble, had been looking over thousands of photos of current and former State Department employees, and they had yet to come up with a solid match.

This was not what Rapp wanted to hear, and he could barely contain his anger. Dumond, however, had an idea that he thought might help. "When was the last time you tried this guy?"

"Around nine this evening."

"And he hasn't answered since the first time you talked?"

"Yep."

"Well, he's going to have to, isn't he?"

"Why?"

"If he's the one who took Anna, he's going to want to talk to you."

"Yeah, you're right, but I don't see where you're going with this."

"Well, he has no way of getting a hold of you. You never left him a number."

"And?"

"He's waiting for you to call him."

Rapp was a little irritated with Dumond for stating the obvious. "That's what I'm planning on doing once you have everything set to track the call."

Dumond held up a finger. "I have a plan. I have a Smart Van on the way over. Irene authorized it." Dumond was referring to a fourth-generation mobile digital surveillance unit that was made by Audio Intelligence Devices, a division of Westinghouse. The CIA's Science and Technology directorate customized the vehicles upon delivery.

"Marcus, you know how I hate all of this technical shit, so just give it to me in a language I can understand."

Dumond started and stopped himself twice as he tried "I to state in the simplest terms what he wanted to do. Finally, he said, "If we have the van in the right position prior to the call, and you keep him on the phone long enough, I think I can track him."

"You're sure?"

"No, I'm not sure, but if we get lucky and are in the right neighborhood when he takes the call, I can at the very least get us to within a few blocks," Dumond cautioned, "That's assuming he's stationary."

"How long until we can make the call?"

"The van should be here within five minutes." Dumond pointed to a map on the kitchen counter, As he walked over to it, he said, "We really don't have any hits on his cell phone at this time of the day, so I can't guarantee we'll be in the right area when he takes the call."

"What are you talking about, Marcus?" Rapp's voice was tinged with irritation.

"I pulled up his cell tower usage for the last three months and plotted it on the map. These bright yellow pieces of paper mark the top ten towers he has most frequently used." Dumond grabbed a piece of paper lying on the map. "This lists the calls, what time of the day they were made, for how long, and what tower they were routed through."

"Get to the point, Marcus."

"The point is, I don't have him making too many calls after eleven in the evening, so it's going to be hard to predict what area of town he'll be in."

"Shit."

"In the morning we'll have a better chance."

Coleman placed his hand on Rapp's shoulder and nodded toward Dumond's bedroom, Rapp followed him into the room and closed the door.

"What's up?"

"Are you sure you're up for this?" asked Coleman.

"What kind of a question is that?"

"It's a damn good one."

"Have you ever known me not to be up for something?"

"I've never seen you in love."

"What in the hell does that have to do with this?" snapped Rapp.

"It has everything to do with this. They have Anna, and it's your judgment. You're too emotional."

"Don't worry about me, Scott."

"I am going to worry about you. You're out there snapping at Marcus like he's your little brother."

"He is like a little brother to me."

Coleman took a step back. "This isn't good, man."

"What isn't good?"

"I'm telling you, you're too emotional. I think you should turn this over to someone else."

"Who? The f*cking feds? Yeah... let's get the HRT in here. That would go over really well, right up to the point where Anna gets killed and they start asking who I am."

"I'm not talking about the feds, Mitch. Just calm down for a second. You need to know when to let go. This thing is going to get worse before it gets better, and you can't let your emotions get in the way of making the right call."

Rapp was going to argue but thought better of it. "If at any time you think I'm blowing this thing, you let me know; I respect your judgment, and I'll listen." He paused for a second and added, "With one exception. Every last one of these motherf*ckers is dead, and don't try to talk me out of it."

THE CATERING VAN pulled up in front of Marcus Dumond's four-plex. It was white with a large black chef's hat on both sides and the back cargo doors. Above the hat was the name of a catering outfit, Kip's, and beneath it was a phone number. The catering outfit was legitimate, run by a former Agency employee and his wife. The Agency had arranged some very favorable financing for the couple, and in return they had a legitimate cover for some of their surveillance vans.

Dumond climbed into the back of the van with two laptops and a bag of equipment. Rapp and Coleman joined him in the van, and Kevin Hackett and Dan Stroble followed in Coleman's Explorer. Dumond told the driver to take them to Washington Circle and closed the door. Dumond went to work immediately, getting his laptops set up and bringing the rest of the equipment on-line. One side of the van contained three pizza racks stuffed with high-tech surveillance equipment. In the middle were two color active-matrix flat panel displays. The top one was touch-sensitive and used to control a vast array of technology, and the bottom one was for video feed. Dumond sat in a captain's chair that was bolted to the floor. There was a small space under the monitors for Dumond's legs. Rapp and Coleman watched him work from a bench seat in the back.

It took almost fifteen minutes for them to reach Washington Circle. There was a luggage rack on the roof of the van. It was never used. Instead, it housed a myriad of antennas, video cameras, directional microphones, and a direction finder. After Dumond had hacked his way into the Sprint network, he got the direction finder ready and told Rapp it was a go.

Rapp and Coleman had been discussing how to handle the call. They both need that, to start with, it was best if Rapp acted as if he knew nothing about Rielly's disappearance.

Dumond had rigged the cell phone so both he and Coleman could listen in on the call. He was also recording the conversation on a DAT. Rapp punched in the number and counted the rings. When he hit four, his heart sank for fear that the call would once again go unanswered, but then, after the sixth ring, someone picked up. Rapp said, "Professor, how are you doing?"

PETER CAMERON HAD left Rielly sitting in the living room and walked toward the front of the house when his phone started ringing. When he reached the foyer, he answered it and heard the familiar voice of Mitch Rapp. Cameron left the house and went to stand in the driveway next to his car. He didn't want Duser or his men to hear him talking.

"I'm sorry I haven't taken your calls, but a few things came up."

"Like what?"

"I'd rather not talk about it over the phone."

"Does that mean you'd like to meet in person?"

"Maybe." Cameron hesitated. "If you can guarantee my safety."

"That all depends on what you have to tell me."

"Listen, when I was hired to do this, I had no idea who you were, and if I had, I would have never taken the job."

"That makes me feel much better," Rapp responded with sarcasm. "Who hired you?"

"I don't want to talk about it over the phone."

"Then let's meet."

Cameron leaned against his passenger door. "I would, but something tells me I might not leave that meeting alive."

"That depends on what you have for me and how honest you are."

"What I have for you is big! Really big! But you need to give me some assurances."

"Like what?"

"That I'll live, and you'll leave me alone. That no one from the Agency ever knows who I am."

"That might be a tough one."

"Then you can forget it. I'll just disappear and take my chances that you'll never be able to track me down."

"If I were you, I wouldn't feel so confident about that."

Cameron looked up at the night sky and grinned. If only this fool knew who he was dealing with. "Listen, can't you see the position I'm in? I want some guarantees from you, or I'm better off on the run."

There was a long pause, and then Rapp said, "All right, what is it that you need?"

"First thing... I meet you and only you. If I see anyone else around, I'm outta here. Second, I want your word that you will never reveal to anyone who I am."

"That's going to depend on how good your info is."

"It's good. It's going to blow you away."

"Give me a hint."

"The person who hired me is someone big here in town. Someone you'd never suspect."

"If he's as big as you say he is, I'll get you a new name I and a new face."

"I can take care of that on my own. I just want your word that you'll keep my identity to yourself and you won't try to kill me."

"You have my word."

Cameron checked his watch. He'd been on the line long enough. "Give me a number where I can reach you."

Rapp hesitated for a second and then gave him the number to his mobile phone. "When are we going to meet?"

"Tomorrow morning around sunup. I'll call and give you instructions. I'm going to run you through some paces, and if I see anyone following you, I'm gone." Cameron pressed the red button on his phone and laughed. It was too easy. Rapp was going to walk right into the trap. The man had no idea they had Rielly.

THE VAN WAS stopped. They had pulled over on 23rd Street between the State Department and the Navy Bureau of Medicine. Dumond worked the keyboard of the laptop on his right while Rapp and Coleman watched. After a few seconds, the boyish Dumond looked at Rapp and said, "We weren't even close."

"What do you mean?"

"He's not even in the city. Hell, he's not even in the county."

"Where is he?"

"He's out by the bay. South of Annapolis."

Rapp jumped up from the bench seat and looked over Dumond's shoulder. "Show me where the tower is."

Dumond pointed to the screen. "Right here. By Mount Zion."

Rapp squinted at the screen, trying to decide if this was a coincidence or not. Keeping his eyes on the map, Rapp asked, "You said you've got a log of calls he made for the last four months."

"Yep."

"Has he ever used this tower before?"

Dumond grabbed the printout and flipped through the pages. It took him twenty seconds to scan the entire list. When he was done, he looked up at Rapp and said, "This is the first time this tower has handled a call for him."

Noticing that something was bothering Rapp, Coleman asked, "What are you seeing that I'm not?"

"My house is about two miles from there." Rapp pointed to the screen.

"Hmmrn." Coleman scratched his chin and looked at the map. "They could have taken Anna to a safe house out there."

"Yeah, they could have." Rapp opened the small door leading to the driver and said, "Take us out to two-fourteen. Let me know as soon as we cross three-oh-one." Rapp closed the door and looked at Coleman. "Tell the boys we're going out to Maryland." He quickly punched Stansfield's number into his phone. When Kennedy answered, he said, "How quickly can you get a surveillance chopper to take a look at my house?"

"I can scramble one out of Andrews. I'd say they could'be there within ten or twenty minutes."

"Good. Get them airborne on the double."

"Mitch, what's going on?"

"I can't get into it right now. Get the chopper moving, and call me back."