The Death Relic

52

Payne was confused by Jones’s comment about Raskin. ‘What good will that do?’

‘You know how the Agency works. They have ten thousand analysts whose sole job is to search data streams for red flags. As soon as one pops up, they make a call and their supervisors intervene. Obviously Randy did something to get noticed. If we can figure out what he did, maybe we can figure out why the CIA is interested in this mess.’

‘Why don’t we just call one of our contacts at Langley?’

Jones shook his head. ‘Randy has higher security clearance than anyone we know at the Agency. Hell, we have higher security clearance than anyone we know at the Agency. If he wasn’t allowed to tell us, then we’re on our own when it comes to Hamilton.’

‘Wait. Should we stop looking for him?’

‘That depends. Did Randy tell you to stop?’

‘No.’

‘Did anyone at the CIA?’

‘Not really. They hung up on me.’

Jones laughed. ‘In that case, fuck ’em! No one told us to stand down, so we have every right to look for Hamilton.’

‘Yeah, you’re probably right. But …’

‘But, what?’

Payne pointed at the garage. ‘I don’t think we should tell Petr and Maria.’

‘Why not?’

‘Technically speaking, we wouldn’t be violating any laws by mentioning the Agency’s interest — especially since we don’t know what their interest is — but I doubt they’d want two foreign nationals to know anything about their involvement.’

‘That’s too bad.’

‘Why’s that?’

‘Petr would get a boner if he knew the CIA was involved.’

Payne grimaced. ‘Why are you obsessed with that?’

‘With what?’

‘Petr’s groin. That’s the second time you’ve used that joke in the last twenty-four hours.’

‘Really?’

‘Yeah, really. Maria yelled at you the last time. She called you crass.’

‘Oh,’ he said, ‘that explains it. I tend to block out things when she starts yelling.’

Payne smiled. ‘I guess that means you have no idea why we’re in Mexico, because she’s been yelling since we got here.’

Jones stared at him. ‘We’re in Mexico?’

Payne laughed. ‘Anyway, let’s get back to Randy. How do we figure out what got him noticed?’

Jones scratched his head in thought. ‘I wasn’t privy to any of your calls, so I don’t know what was said. How many were there?’

‘Three, counting today.’

‘Forget about today. Whatever got him flagged happened before today. What did you ask him to do first?’

Payne tried to remember the details of their first conversation. ‘I asked him to run a background search on Hamilton. Personal, criminal, financial, the works.’

‘Anything else?’

‘Not in the first call, but …’ Payne paused for a moment. ‘Actually, I take that back. I also asked him to run the serial number on Hamilton’s gun. You know, the Mexican Special from his briefcase. Because of its age, he told me not to get my hopes up.’

‘What about the second call?’

Payne closed his eyes in thought. ‘I asked him to run the serial numbers on the AKs. After that, we discussed the blacked-out security feed from the hotel. He wasn’t sure how it was done, but he promised to look into it.’

‘Randy didn’t know how it was done?’

‘No, but he was fairly confident he could catch the hacker.’

‘Just a second. What if it was the other way around?’

‘I don’t follow.’

‘What if Randy tried to trace the hacker, and traced it right back to the CIA? I’m sure that would have set off all kinds of bells and whistles at the Agency.’

Payne considered the theory. ‘I don’t know. Randy’s a sneaky son of a bitch. Do you really think they would have caught him?’

‘Good point. Then how about this? Randy traced it back to the CIA and was legally obligated to get clearance before he could tell us anything. They told him to fuck off, and he had no choice but to deny our request for assistance.’

Payne nodded. ‘Now that sounds more realistic.’

‘OK, let’s assume that’s what happened. If so, there’s a very good chance that he ran background on Hamilton before he was cockblocked by the CIA. Same thing with his weapons search. He would have done those first because they aren’t labour-intensive. Punch in some names and numbers and his computer would have done the rest.’

‘So, what are you saying?’

‘I’m saying there’s a damn good chance he compiled our data before the CIA got involved. If so, that’s very good news.’

‘Good? How can that be good? If he can’t send it, we can’t use it.’

Jones smiled. ‘Who said he didn’t send it?’

In recent years, Payne’s knowledge of computers and gadgets had increased exponentially, mostly because Jones had given him so much crap about being the CEO and majority owner of a technology-based company and having less computer ability than the average third grader. With a lot of hard work, Payne’s expertise would now rival most college students, which was an amazing leap in such a short time. Unfortunately, that meant his comprehension was still way behind Jones, who actually built computers in his workshop for fun. Jones wasn’t as skilled as Raskin — then again, who was? — but he had enough know-how to develop a backdoor file-sharing system that allowed him to access encrypted documents from anywhere in the world.

Payne said, ‘I checked my inbox. Nothing from Randy.’

‘Does that surprise you? He was probably afraid you were going to accidentally forward it to everyone on your contact list. Again.’

‘That happened once. Can you please let it die?’

‘Not while I’m alive.’

‘That can be arranged.’

Jones dismissed the threat as he pulled out his phone. He punched in his password, then opened the programme that allowed him to view all the files that had been transferred to his computer system in Pittsburgh. ‘I got something.’

‘From Randy?’

He nodded. ‘Came in late last night. I’m downloading it now.’

‘What is it?’

He glanced at Payne. ‘I don’t know. I’m downloading it now.’

‘Sorry. I’m anxious.’

Jones laughed as he waited. ‘OK, I got it. Let’s take a look.’

He hit a few keys and opened the file on his phone. As suspected, it was a comprehensive background report on Hamilton. It included personal data (addresses, phone numbers, etc.), criminal records (nothing but a few traffic citations) and a financial profile (he was practically broke). For the most part, nothing helped Payne and Jones with their search until they came across a credit card, which Raskin had highlighted. It showed several minor purchases in recent weeks, including one at a gas station in Piste, Mexico.

Jones pointed at the screen. ‘Will you look at that?’

Payne nodded, intrigued. ‘Piste? What’s near Piste?’

‘I don’t know. Let’s go ask.’

The two of them ducked inside the garage, where Maria and Ulster were still hard at work on the artefacts. She glanced back when they heard the door open.

‘Where have you two been?’ she asked.

‘Outside,’ Jones said. ‘Are either of you familiar with Piste, Mexico?’

Ulster turned and nodded. ‘It’s a dusty little town a few hours west of here. Nothing more than a speck on the map. Why do you ask?’

‘If it’s just a speck, why do you know it?’

‘Why? Because it’s the closest town to a famous Mayan site called Chichén Itzá. It’s less than a mile away.’

Maria stared at Jones. ‘Why? What’s going on?’

‘We just got a financial report on Hamilton. One of the items was a credit card statement, which lists a recent purchase at a gas station in Piste.’

‘That’s great! He probably filled up there before he drove to Cancún.’

Payne shook his head. ‘Somehow I doubt it.’

‘You doubt it? Why do you say that?’

He stared at her. ‘The purchase happened last night.’