Gone Tomorrow - Lee Child [114]
“More than copied one,” Springfield said. “She extracted one. Transferred it to an external drive, and then deleted the original.”
“The external drive being the memory stick?”
Springfield nodded. “And we don’t know where it is.”
“Why her?”
“Because she fit the bill. The relevant part of the archive was traced through the medal award. HRC people keep the medal records. Like you said. She was the systems administrator. And she was vulnerable through her son.”
“Why did she delete the original?”
“I don’t know.”
“It must have increased the risk.”
“Significantly.”
“What was the document?”
“I can’t volunteer information.”
“When was it dug out of the box room and scanned?”
“A little over three months ago. It’s a slow process. Ten years into the program and they’re only up to the early 1980s.”
“Who does the work?”
“There’s a specialist staff.”
“With a leak. The Hoths were over here more or less immediately.”
“Evidently.”
“Do you know who it was?”
“Steps are being taken.”
“What was the document?”
“I can’t volunteer information.”
“But it was a big file.”
“Big enough.”
“And the Hoths want it.”
“I think that’s clear.”
“Why do they want it?”
“I can’t volunteer information.”
“You say that a lot.”
“I mean it a lot.”
“Who are the Hoths?”
He just smiled and made a circular once again gesture with his hand. I can’t volunteer information. A great NCO’s answer. Four words, the third of which was perhaps the most significant.
I said, “You could ask me questions. I could volunteer guesses. You could comment on them.”
He said, “Who do you think the Hoths are?”
“I think they’re native Afghans.”
He said, “Go on.”
“That’s not much of a comment.”
“Go on.”
“Probably Taliban or Al Qaeda sympathizers, or operatives, or flunkies.”
No reaction.
“Al Qaeda,” I said. “The Taliban mostly stay home.”
“Go on.”
“Operatives,” I said.
No reaction.
“Leaders?”
“Go on.”
“Al Qaeda is using women leaders?”
“They’re using whatever works.”
“Doesn’t seem plausible.”
“That’s what they want us to think. They want us searching for men that don’t exist.”
I said nothing.
“Go on,” he said.
“OK, the one who calls herself Svetlana fought with the mujahideen and knew you captured the VAL rifle from Grigori Hoth. They used Hoth’s name and his story to get sympathy over here.”
“Because?”
“Because now Al Qaeda wants documentary proof of whatever else it was that you guys were doing that night.”
“Go on.”
“Which Sansom got a big medal for. So it must have looked pretty good, once upon a time, way back when. But now you’re worried about exposure. So I’m assuming it wouldn’t look so good anymore.”
“Go on.”
“Sansom is miserable, but the government has got its panties in a wad, too. So it’s both personal and political.”
“Go on.”
“Did you get a medal that night?”
“The Superior Service Medal.”
“Which comes directly from the Secretary of Defense.”
Springfield nodded. “A nice little bauble, for a lowly sergeant.”
“So the trip was more political than military.”
“Obviously. We weren’t officially at war with anyone at the time.”
“You know the Hoths killed four people, and probably Susan Mark’s son too, right?”
“We don’t know it. But we suspect it.”
“So why haven’t you busted them?”
“I work security for a Congressman. I can’t bust anyone.”
“Those feds could.”
“Those feds work in mysterious ways. Apparently they consider the Hoths to be A-grade enemy combatants, and a very significant target, and extremely dangerous, but not currently operational.”
“Which means what?”
“Which means that right now there’s more to be gained by leaving them in place.”
“Which actually means they can’t find them.”
“Of course.”
“You happy about that?”
“The Hoths don’t have the memory stick, or they wouldn’t still be looking for it. So I don’t really care either way.”
“I think you should,” I said.
“You think that’s their place? Where you were?”
“This block or the next.”
“I think this one,” he said. “Those feds searched their hotel suite. While they were out.”
“Lila told me.”
“They had shopping bags. Like window