Three Months-Chapter 5

 

November 1, 2020

Matt carried his bag and pads up two flights to his apartment at Reston Town Center and put all the gear in the second bedroom. Aside from the hooks on the wall and a twin bed, the room was barren. He hung the sweaty gear up on the hooks to dry and pulled the note out of the inside pocket. A quick check to make sure all his gear was out and drying and couple of sprays of Fe-breeze, then he walked out to the living room.

He flicked on a light to dispel the darkness. Even at midnight, there was still a glow coming from the city lights, so he didn't have to fumble for the switches to turn on the other lights. The TV started to a recap of the day's NHL games. He grabbed an IPA from the fridge and settled on his couch. Like the spare bedroom, his living room was bare. The main decoration was the huge flat-screen TV.

“Sunday 9 AM.” was all that was written on the note. Matt tore it up, started the gas fireplace and tossed the pieces into the fire.

No location, day and specific time meant use the seventh set, ninth location. It was easy to memorize them, so there was no paper trail. They were meeting at the Baltimore Aquarium.

Tim was sitting on a bench outside the aquarium, with his coffee and wearing a light jacket. Low fifties and partly cloudy made the mid-October day pleasant.

“Whatcha got?” Matt asked, sitting beside him with a hot pretzel.

“Why did you send me those names? What are you into?” Tim's voice was harsh and caught Matt off guard.

“Why?”

“Answer me, Matt.” There was an underlying tension that started to worry Matt.

“The three Russian targets have a history of running US assets abroad. I think they are expanding into the US. I can only find limited informaition of them entering the US, but the intelligence Russia is getting follows their patterns of harvesting. I think they are working through third parties, so that's why I sent the Chinese and North Korean names. The Iranian names, I'm not sure about, but wanted to cover more ground. Did you find a commonality?”

“You need to drop it.”

“Why?” Now Matt let his frustration show in his voice.

“I got censored Friday. My searches were flagged eyes only way above my clearance.”

“How can it be above your clearance? You're cleared on everything Russia.”

“It is. And now I'm being monitored. I can't help you on this.”

“What did you find? You wouldn't give up without a reason.”

Tim looked around out of habit. The area was in the open, but there were normally too many people in the area to make spot surveillance a viable option. The meeting location wasn't known until he got there. The likely-hood they they were being monitored was acceptably minimal. “New York. The Korean, Gyeong-Hui, has political ties to New York. The Iranian, Hashem, also has ties there.”

“Political? How high?”

“You know who Ralph Quince is?”

“He's President William's senior advisor.”

“He also owns three off shore businesses with those two. They aren't running assets. They are running operations. From the links, they have more influence than anyone expects.”

“They're running Quince?” disbelief filled the question.

“Or he's running them. I got locked out before I could get more. But that's the gist of what I was able to get. You're going to get burnt on this one, pal. Do yourself a favor, drop it and burn it.”

Matt sat in stunned silence for a moment. “That doesn't sound like you.”

“It's not. Trust me. But I know when to make an exception. You need to make that exception too, buddy.”

“I'll think it over. Give me a couple of days. I'll get back to you.”