Chapter Four

BY THE TIME I left the white house it was late enough for the evening traffic to have thinned. Whisperer and I were in the back of his government car, heading across town. The director looked terrible; every hour without rest was taking its toll and, after twenty-two hours of being drowned by the crisis, his face was as grey as a tombstone.

Even worse, the night was nowhere near done yet.

As there were only the three of us who knew the real purpose of my assignment – and nobody had any intention of expanding that number voluntarily – Whisperer had already offered to be my case officer. I would be the agent on the ground and he would have the job of ‘running’ me. As with any joe and his case guy, there were a million details we had to work through, and I assumed we were heading to his office to get started. The plan was for me to be on a commercial flight to Turkey in less than twelve hours.

Earlier, after the president had shaken hands and offered me a choice of souvenirs, either a framed photograph of himself or a set of White House golf balls – I have to say, in the circumstances, he had a pretty good sense of humour – Whisperer had stayed behind for a private discussion. I was quarantined in an empty office by the silver fox and, after five minutes, the director had reappeared and escorted me down to the White House garage. To minimize the number of people who saw me, we took the stairs and had barely gone a dozen steps before Whisperer started to wheeze. He was carrying too much weight and it was obvious he and exercise were barely on nodding terms.

I had hoped we would be able to spend the time in the car working on my legend but, once he had murmured instructions to the driver and raised the glass privacy screen, he checked his phone again for messages and pulled a battery-operated blood pressure monitor out of his briefcase.

He rolled up his shirtsleeve, slipped the cuff over his upper arm and pumped it up. As it deflated, he looked at the digital reading on the tiny screen. So did I.

‘Jesus, ’ I said. ‘One-six-five over ninety – you’re gonna die. ’

‘No, no – it’s not too bad, ’ he replied. ‘Imagine how high it’d be if I talked like a regular person. ’

Whisperer wasn’t known for his jokes, and I appreciated the effort. He put the monitor away and slumped deeper in his seat. I figured he needed a few moments to roll back the fatigue, so I was surprised when he looked out of the window and started to speak.

‘It’s my anniversary, you know – thirty years tomorrow since I joined the agency. Thirty years, and not a day of peace. That’s the way in our business, isn’t it? Always at war with fucking somebody. ’

I could see his face reflected in the glass. He looked far older than his years and, despite the bravado, I think he was worried about the blood pressure and how much more abuse his body could take.

‘Three marriages, four kids I barely know, ’ he continued. ‘Still, it’s been a rewarding life compared to a lot of men’s. But you’d be a fool not to think: Has anything I’ve done really made a difference?

‘You won’t have that problem, will you? ’ he said, turning to look at me. ‘Pull this off and, fifty years from now, they’ll still be talking about Pilgrim. ’

Maybe I’m lacking in something, but things like that don’t matter much to me. They never have. So I just shrugged.

He turned back to the window. ‘It’s genuine, isn’t it? You really don’t give a shit, do you? But I envy you – I wish I were twenty years younger. I would have liked just one chance to make it all count. ’

‘You can have this one, Dave, ’ I said softly. ‘I’ll give it to you for free. ’ Dave was his name, but hardly anyone remembered it any more. ‘It scares the crap out of me. ’

He gave a small laugh. ‘Then you hide it damn well. I stayed behind with the president to find out what he thought of you. ’

‘I figured as much. ’

‘He was impressed, said you were the coolest sonofabitch he’d ever met. ’

‘Then he needs to get out more, ’ I said.

‘No, ’ Whisperer replied. ‘I was looking at your face when I told you about the smallpox. Maybe this is the apocalypse – the four horsemen are saddled up and on their way – and you showed no emotion, no panic, no surprise even. ’

‘That’s true – the bit about surprise, anyway. I wasn’t. ’

‘No, no. Anybody would—’

I was getting annoyed, pissed off at having been dragged into a life I really didn’t want to have any part of.

‘I wasn’t surprised, ’ I said sharply, ‘because, unlike all the so-called Washington experts, I’ve been listening. ’

‘To what? ’ he responded.

I glanced ahead and saw we were slowing for a long tailback.

‘Ever been to Berlin, Dave? ’

‘Berlin? What’s Berlin got to do with it? ’