Blind Ambition, Just.Us.Friendz [top fiction books of all time .TXT] 📗

half the spy he was once supposed to be, he would have sensed the pure malice and malevolence directed at him, Ben thought.

An urgent call from his al-Qaeda contact took him away from Washington on the morning flight to Algeria and a long mission that he had to mix with meetings to arrange arms sales for Klaus and Elfe's group. When he got back to the States, he found that Annie and Auggie had been living together for some time. Both appeared happy and content. It couldn't go on. He had to act to destroy him and reclaim her. It would take time and a good plan, but he had both.

Ben brought up Auggie's former girlfriend, Natasha, on his next meeting with Arthur Campbell. An internationally known hacker and computer expert, she was wanted by several governments. Arthur explained that Auggie had recently persuaded her to give them a valuable piece of software before she vanished into a cold Canadian night.

"Anderson told you that did he?" Ben asked.

"We had agents on the spot within minutes of her disappearance," Arthur said. She jumped from a moving train. We had no reason to doubt our man, and he did have the program."

"And you're sure he's not still in contact with her? These computer freaks have ways the rest of us would never think of." Ben gave an expressive shrug. "He has information about agents and operations in the field that some countries would pay a lot for. She could be acting as his 'agent' – passing on information and collecting the payments."

Arthur straightened. "Anderson has been with the agency for years. We've never had any reason to doubt his loyalty. He's a good man."

"If you say so," was Ben's response. "Still, he kept his agency connection when he went into Special Forces?"

"He joined as much for our benefit as because he wanted to get into the active end of the fight. He and his unit ran several ops for us. He did us proud." Arthur was smiling.

Ben stretched and prepared to get up. "He lost his sight in one of those fights, didn't he? Enough to embitter some men – make them turn against those who put them in that position. Guess you're lucky he didn't go that way." Ben put money on the table to cover his tab in the remote neighborhood bar where they had met, nodded at Arthur and left.

Arthur sat for some time deep in thought.

Chapter 8 Geeks and Games

Auggie's inquiries into Ben Mercer's background had yielded some results. He asked Joan for some private time with her, and when she found herself with half-an-hour free, she called him in.

"This is going to sound like a bad mix of sour grapes and bitter almonds," Auggie began. "But I've turned up some information on Ben Mercer that you should know about."

"Ben Mercer," Joan all but spat the name out. "Why does that bad penny keep turning up? Is Annie the reason you've taken an interest in him?"

"Yes … and no," Auggie said slowly. "Like all of us, I knew Ben and Annie had a brief fling a couple of years before she joined the agency, but I didn't waste a lot of time brooding over it. The past is the past; we all have one. Then I started to feel like Annie and I were being watched almost any time we were out in public."

Auggie held up his hands. "Yeah, I know. Don't shake your head, Joan. I'm a blind guy. No matter how good my spy craft is, I can't spot anyone following us. But I can feel them, Joan – that ancient feeling that goes back to prehistory. The hairs lift on the back of your neck, and you know something, someone is watching, and, by God, they intend you lethal harm. You know I'm right; you've felt it when you were in the field. Don't say you haven't."

A small smile lifted the corner of Joan's mouth. "Alright, I'll grant you that, Auggie. I'll even agree that you are probably more sensitive to that sort of thing than most of us, but how does that tie into Ben Mercer?"

Auggie opened the folder he had carried into her office and felt the top right corner of the first sheet. Joan could see the raised Braille symbol impressed on it. He pulled it out and placed it before her. It was a copy of the letter Annie had received from her nurse friend from Guam. He waited while Joan read it through.

"You know who Elfe Kappel is, of course?" Auggie said.

Of course. I was actually approached once by her handler, a man who seems to be known only as Klaus. I think he was looking to recruit me, but I didn't stay around long enough to be sure." Joan smoothed her hair and smiled. "This seems to add some substance to my feeling that Mercer has gone completely off the reservation."

Auggie pushed the ends of his shaggy dark hair back out of his eyes. "After we got this letter, Annie told me about an incident that happened some time before she moved in with me." He went on to describe the occasion where Ben had displayed his contempt of sightless persons and his disdain for technical experts by making rude remarks about Auggie and warning Annie not to fall for him.

"I bring this up only because it adds some weight to the idea that Mercer might have his reasons for being out to get me. He might even be stalking Annie. I just pray he doesn't intend to harm her."

"Do you want protection?" Joan asked.

"No, no, not at this stage. Annie would flip. I do have a few more items to add to his account."

"Go on, Auggie."

"His birth into the Baltimore family that he claims as his own was not recorded in the city records until October of 2002. It was skillfully done and backdated, but some things are hard to hide from a good hacker. Mistakes can happen, but I don't think this is one." Auggie gave her another sheaf of printouts.

"After I found that, I followed a hunch. I still have a few Mossad friends left from the old days. They were pretty frank with their comments about how badly we blew it on the 9/11 mess. Just suppose their intelligence bosses decided to carefully place a few agents into the C.I.A. to be sure it didn't happen again. I've tried mentioning the name of Ben Mercer to a few of my Mossad friends recently. One and all they start to stammer and then clam up." Auggie lifted his hands and shrugged.

"Is he Mossad; if he was, is he still, or has he been disavowed? I don't know. It's all supposition on my part, but I can't help but feel there's something there."

They were quiet for a few moments before Auggie said, "I do have one other piece of solid evidence. You can't get information out of Swiss banks without high level support, but others are easier to get into. Mercer transfers funds into and out of a Monte Carlo account assigned to one Jason Dourne." Auggie grinned. "You have to assume he likes the Robert Ludlum thrillers. He's not very careful about covering this identity either. As of yesterday he had a little more than half a million in the account." More printouts changed hands.

"That's about it," he said to Joan. I wanted you fully in the picture – just in case." He half-arose and then added, "You got my quarterly financial statement?"

"Yes, it's here on my desk somewhere." She searched around a bit.

"Find it please, Joan, and have the Agency auditors go over it carefully. If anyone should question my finances, I want you to know where every penny comes from."

"I'll find your report, Auggie, and I'll pass your concerns about Mercer on to my husband. He should know. Thank you for coming to me. Let's keep it between us for now, okay?"

"Okay." Auggie sketched a salute and found his way out of the office.

9#m^be*d?

Auggie and Annie were enjoying a rare lunch break together in the big Langley cafeteria when he put down his fork and asked, "Annie, my geek squad wants to meet you. How about coming with me tonight?" Every other Tuesday night Auggie met with a small group of young people who were seriously into computers. Annie knew little more than that about it.

"They want to meet me? I'm barely beyond computer basics." She cocked her head and looked up at Auggie sideways. Of course, the delightful gesture was lost on him, so she added, "How do they even know I exist?"

Auggie grinned down at her. "They see you when you drop me off and again when you pick me up after meetings. You've made quite an impression on them. They don't quite whistle and drool – mostly because I insist on courtesy to all females while they're in my hearing – but they are full of questions about you. Come on with me; I think you'll have fun."

"What about dinner?" Annie asked. "I was thinking of calling Danielle and seeing if I could treat her and the girls to a meal while I waited for you."

"You can do that another time," Auggie told her. Tonight we're having New Orleans fine dining: shrimp cocktail, lobster bisque, oysters Rockefeller, crayfish soufflé, the works. I'm trying to broaden their tastes a little beyond pizza and tacos."

"And do I have to cook?" If he was trying to sucker her into preparing that menu for a dozen or so ravenous teens, she was going to kill him.

His laugh warmed her as his voice soothed. "No, love, it's all being catered. All you have to do is sit down with us and eat."

That brought on the need for more explanations. Auggie's group met in half of a large and well-ventilated loft over a vast computer store in one of Washington's most upscale malls. Auggie had convinced the franchise owner to donate the space as a community service he could brag about and use as a tax write off. In return Auggie had improved the lighting and the flooring and filled the space with computer desks, tables and ergonomic chairs.

He also rounded up a variety of computer equipment from several donors, including the Agency. A lot of it the club had rebuilt with Auggie acting as the expert and the kids as his hands and eyes. It wasn't the most expensive stuff on the market, but it was sturdy, and it worked well.

When the mother of one of the boys decided to redecorate, her son persuaded her to donate the old living room suite to the club. So now, one corner held two deep-cushioned sofas, a big coffee table and half-a-dozen assorted chairs and end tables. Maybe the rose and gray upholstery was a little funky, but who cared. It was great for breaks and even catered dinners with the addition of a folding table and a few more chairs.

"The whole thing got started," Auggie explained to Annie, "when I caught a pair of them trying to break into the D.P.D. system with a two-pronged attack. It wasn't very elegant, but it showed imagination. I could have turned them over to the F.B.I., but I wanted to give them a chance to go 'white hat.' I tracked them down to Pete's mom's basement and dropped in one evening when I knew they were on line."