He heard some banging and then Anna shouting. “Is that Mitch? Hey, Mitch! I was just on patrol!” Claudia put her on speaker so she could speak at a normal level. “When are you coming back?”
“Should be pretty soon.”
“We ought to come there instead. I miss my friends at school. And I can’t talk to Ahmale. Just text and Mom erases half the stuff I say.”
“She’s a difficult woman.”
“I know! Right? And then Ahmale lost her phone. But she found it like the next day. Her parents were really mad. It was a brand-new iPhone. They’re superexpensive you know. Like ten thousand rand. And she— Hey! Wait! I’m not done talking!”
“Yes you are,” he heard Claudia say. “Now go start your schoolwork. I’ll be up in a few minutes to help you.”
“Bye!” she yelled.
“Okay, I’m back, Mitch. Where were we?”
“Ahmale lost her phone and then found it the next day?”
“I thought the same thing. We should assume that Legion was behind it and that they now have spyware installed.”
“Maybe it’s something we can use?”
“Maybe. Let me know if you want to go in that direction. In the meantime, how’s the house project going?”
“The architects are working on some initial ideas, but that doesn’t really involve anything hands-on. I’m sure Legion has access to all their communications and that they’re watching every contractor and construction supplier as well as moving and rental companies. Again, a lot of opportunities to flush them out, but not without putting Sadie at risk.”
“Bebe hasn’t noticed anything?”
“Just the American surveillance team.”
“You can’t let anything happen to Sadie,” Claudia stressed. “It’s not her job to die for my mistakes. How is she holding up?”
A potentially loaded question. The fact that he was living in such close quarters with a woman someone once dubbed Victoria’s Secret Agent likely wasn’t sitting well with her.
“She’ll be fine. Nothing ever happens to people like her. What about the Cook issue?”
“I haven’t spent much time on it. Irene wants to take point.”
“Meaning she wants to do nothing.”
“For now.”
“Yeah, but what if now is our chance? I’m not saying that we should make a move, but it’s possible that we could somehow subvert his security upgrades while they’re in process. Maybe create a hole or get someone inside? This might be the time to lay a little groundwork. If we don’t ever use it, fine. But it’d be nice to know it’s there.”
“You should talk to her, not me,” Claudia said, sounding uncharacteristically hesitant.
“Whose side are you on here?”
“The side that ends with you alive, Mitch. This is a big step. Sometimes you just have to put your trust in someone else. Seriously, tell me another person in the world you’d rather have working on this. Me? No. Scott? No. You? God, no. As you’re fond of saying, take the win. For now, just take the win.”
“I don’t know, Claudia. Irene has a strong bias here. Are we missing an opportunity? With the right preparation, anyone can be killed.”
“Maybe you should put Sadie on it.”
He let out a long breath, but not so loud that she’d hear. He didn’t want to talk about Sadie. He wanted to spend a few minutes with his mind clear of her soufflé, the fact that she got off on cutting herself, her increasing despondency over her separation from Anna—a girl she’d never met…
“She’s nuts, Claudia. And I don’t mean a little bit off. I mean bat-shit insane. But she’s convincing. And that’s what we need.”
“Talented, dangerous, and beautiful. What did Liz Dawson call her?”
Here it came.
“Victoria’s Secret Agent?”
“Please tell me we’re not having this conversation,” Rapp said.
There was a long pause over the line. “We’re not.”
“Then can we return to my other problem?”
“So, you’re not just going to take the win?”
“I’m considering it.”
“Fine. Cook is doing a hybrid physical-virtual event in two days. It seems like this is the direction they’re going in to give him maximum exposure to his constituents while at the same time giving him minimum exposure to you.”
“So, you are paying attention.”