The Inner Circle - Brad Meltzer [68]
“You spoke to Nico?” Tot asks me. “What’d he say? He knew something? What could he possibly know?”
Tot’s questions come fast. They’re all fair. But what catches me by surprise is the intensity in his voice.
“Beecher, tell me what he said.”
“I will, but… can I ask you one thing first?”
“You said Nico—”
“Just one thing, Tot. Please,” I insist, refusing to let him interrupt. “Yesterday… before Orlando was killed…” I take a deep breath, vomiting it all before I can change my mind. “When I was in Orlando’s office earlier, on his caller ID… Why were you calling Orlando on the day he died?”
Clementine looks up from the paperwork. Tot freezes. And then, just as quickly, he smiles, his blind eye disappearing in a playful smirk.
“Good for you, Beecher. Good for you,” he insists, doing the thing where he twirls his finger in his beard. “I told you to not trust anyone, and you’re doing just that.”
“Tot…”
“No, don’t apologize. This is good, Beecher. Smart for you for asking that. This is exactly what you need to be doing.”
I nod, appreciative of his appreciation, but…
“You never said why you were calling him,” Clementine blurts.
Tot’s finger slowly twirls out of his beard. “My ID,” he says. “My Archives ID is about to expire, and they told me to call Orlando to get the paperwork for a new one.”
“I thought the IG does all our investigations,” I say, referring to the Inspector General’s office.
“They do. But Orlando’s the one who takes your photo. Go look. Across from his desk, there’s one of those passport backgrounds that you pull up and stand in front of.”
I look at Clementine, then at Tot. That’s all I need. He just saved our asses from Khazei, and gave us his car, and did all this Dustin Gyrich research for no other reason than that he’s my dearest friend.
“Beecher, if you don’t want to talk about Nico, it’s fine,” he offers.
“Just listen,” I tell him. “Do you know what the Culper Ring is?”
“Y’mean, as in George Washington’s spy brigade?”
“So you’ve heard of them?”
“Beecher, I’ve been here since before Joe Kennedy had chest hair. Of course I’ve heard of—” He catches himself as it all sinks in. “Oh. So that’s what Nico—”
“What?” I ask. “That’s what Nico what?”
He thinks a moment, still working the details. “Beecher, do you have any idea what the Culper Ring actually did?” Tot finally asks.
“Just like you said: They were Washington’s personal spy unit. That he used civilians to move information back and forth.”
“Yeah, no—and that’s right. They moved lots of information. Washington’s top military spies kept getting caught by the British—his plans kept getting intercepted, he didn’t know who to trust—so he turned to these civilians, these regular people, who wound up being unstoppable. But what the Culper Ring is really known for, and what they’re treasured by history for, is—” He again stops. “Have you ever seen whose statue sits outside the original headquarters of the CIA?”
“Tot, I’m good, but I don’t know this stuff like you do.”
“Nathan Hale. You know him?”
“I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country…”
“That’s the one. One of Washington’s earliest spies. And just to be clear, Hale never said that.”
“What?”
“He never said it, Beecher. The one life to lose for my country part came from a play which was popular during Revolutionary times. But do you know why our leaders lied and said Hale was such a hero? Because they knew it was better for the country to have a martyr than an incompetent spy. That’s all Hale was. A spy who got caught. He was hung by the British.”
“And this is important because…?”
“It’s important because when William Casey took over the CIA in the early eighties, it used to drive him crazy that there was a statue of Nathan Hale at headquarters. In his eyes, Nathan Hale was a spy who failed. Hale was captured. According to Casey, the statue in front of the CIA should’ve been of Robert Townsend.”
“Who’s Robert Townsend?” I ask.
“That’s exactly the point! Townsend was one of the members of the Culper Ring. But have you ever heard his name? Ever seen him mentioned