A few configurations later, Dox had the phone to his ear. “Tom,” he said. “Glad I’m able to reach you. We got some more intel, and we’re hoping you can make it a little more actionable.”
He briefed Kanezaki. When he was done, he said, “You all right? You sound a little . . . not yourself.”
Livia watched as he listened for a moment. His lips were pursed, and Livia tried not to worry. “Damn, I’m sorry to hear that. But I’m glad John’s going to be able to help out.” A pause. “No, I think following the recent unpleasantness, and given the obvious resources of who we seem to be up against, no one’s going to be leaving a phone on. But I’ll check the secure site every chance I get. All right. Let me know what you find. And give my best to John and Delilah. Oh, and tell her I tried to keep John out of this. I love her, but I think she’s apt to be peeved.”
He clicked off and powered down the phone. “There’s a young officer who works for Tom,” he said. “Someone tried to kill her this evening in DC. But they made a mistake and killed the wrong girl. Now Tom’s afraid to go home to see his own family. Thinks Rispel is behind the hit, and is going to make a run at him, too. John and Delilah are coming, and Tom’s going to hand off his officer to them to make sure she’s safe.”
Manus looked grim. Carl said, “You thinking about your people?”
Manus nodded.
“For what it’s worth,” Carl said, “Tom’s not worried about anyone deliberately trying to hurt his family. Mostly he’s worried about another mistake. He wants to be far away from the people he cares about in case someone takes a shot at him and misses. Plus right now he’s not hugely inclined to show up at places where he might be expected.”
Livia didn’t know Manus, but she didn’t think he was going to buy that. She turned to Carl. “Can Manus use your satellite hotspot to check in with them?”
“Any of us can,” Carl said. He looked at Manus. “Would that help?”
Manus nodded.
“Okay,” Carl said. “Just make sure your phone’s cell reception is off. Connect it through the satellite hotspot like I just did.”
Livia knew these guys all understood cellphone security—even better than she did. Even so, the use of phones made her nervous. She said, “Let’s clear out right after, all right? I think we’ve been here long enough.”
“Agreed,” Carl said. “I’ll tell you, I don’t like the order of battle right now. We need to shake up the board, and good. Because when order is your enemy, chaos is your friend.”
chapter
forty
SLOAT
Sloat sensed that the latest round had gone on long enough. “Okay,” he said. “Unwrap him.”
Tyson set down the watering can. Two gallons, lime-green plastic, $4.97 at Walmart. He began undoing the towel. Taupe, also purchased from Walmart, $3.97 with “upgraded softness,” a feature doubtless lost on Schrader. Not that Sloat blamed him.
The instant the towel was off, Schrader puked up a bolus of water. He managed to turn his head, but because he was tilted backward over the bathtub, a lot of it had nowhere to go but over his face. He drew in a huge, convulsing breath, then puked again. Tyson glanced at Sloat, his expression concerned.
“He’s fine,” Sloat said. Tyson was new to waterboarding, but for Sloat it had gotten routine. He’d long ago lost count of how many detainees he’d done. Twenty? At least that many. Maybe thirty. The reactions tended to be similar. Crying, vomiting, pants-pissing. As long as you knew when to unwrap the towel, there wasn’t a lot to it.
The materials were pretty simple, too. The watering can and towel, of course. Restraints, for which Sloat favored hook-and-loop cable ties. An adult diaper was a good idea, because no one could be subjected to more than a few sessions without losing bladder control, and sometimes more. The only big-ticket item, if you could call it that, was a plywood board. Which Sloat liked to deploy with the low end over a bathtub and the high end propped on a dresser or chair. He’d used all the purpose-built stuff at the black sites, but it was no better. The do-it-yourself worked just as well.