“That’s beautiful,” Hadley said.“Poetic even.”
Poetic.There was something about that word that got Cole’s mind racing.Poetic justice.Turning his own methods against him.Blackmailing the blackmailer.Poetic…
Lightbulb moment.
“We could frame it so that the agency thinksFranklinis the Russian sleeper agent.”
Hadley blinked at him.“Is that…can we…do that?”
“Not on my own,” Cole admitted.“But with all of us?Hell yeah, we can.”
“Ren?What would we need?”Tenley asked.
“Falsified communications between Franklin and a Russian contact.I can fake the communications, but we need an actual KGB contact to make the digital forgery undetectable.It’d help to put some sensitive Russia-related files on Franklin’s home computer, and to set up an offshore account with small, regular payments that look like handling fees from the KGB.That’d probably be enough, but to make sure he was truly and deeply fucked, we’d need an investigative agent in the Office of the Inspector General to “discover” unusual requests from Franklin’s work terminal, maybe after receiving a good, anonymous tip.So, not easy, but very doable.”
Hadley frowned.“It’s a little scary how quickly you came up with all that.”
“Yeah, I get that a lot,” Ren agreed.
“I bet Eric can help with the Russian contact,” Cole said.“And if he’s still there, I met a guy in the OIG who was so good no one would question him if he rooted out a Russian sleeper agent.”
“Planting the right amount of evidence without making it an obvious frame job will be the hard part,” Ren said.
“How quickly can we get this done?”Hadley asked.
“Assuming Eric can put us in touch with a Russian contact soon, I can get most of it done in two days.”
Two days.They could potentially be free in two days.Two more nights with Hadley and she could go back to her regular life.She was no longer going to be forced to run away with him and assume a new identity.These were all positive things.
So why did he suddenly feel like he was about to lose the only good thing he had going for him?
Chapter33
As it turned out, Eric knew several KGB contacts who were more than willing to help him frame a CIA agent for no other reason than sticking it to an American.That comforted Hadley.Let her know that noteverythingshe’d learned about spies from movies was incorrect.
She also learned that Tenley had a soft spot for victims of domestic violence, because she agreed to break into Franklin’s house and upload a virus to his personal laptop that would give Ren access to all his files free of charge.When Hadley had asked about her don’t-do-work-for-free policy, she’d just shrugged and told them to consider it charity work on behalf of battered wives everywhere.
And Ren, apparently, liked to under-promise and over-deliver, because while he said poking holes in Franklin’s digital history to make it look like he might’ve been born in Russia and recruited as a sleeper agent as a teen would take two days, it actually only took twelve hours.
More good news came their way when they found out the OIG special investigator Cole mentioned was still with the agency.His name was Reuben Mosley, and his record was impeccable.No one would ever question any evidence he was able to dig up.Once everything was in place, all they had to do was send Reuben an anonymous tip and from there, Cole was sure it’d only take a matter of hours for him to track Franklin down and have him taken into custody.
“I’ll need access to Reuben’s phone,” Ren told them.“I have a device that when placed next to his phone, will plant a virus.When he goes to work the next day and puts his phone in his desk, the virus will link to his computer.From there, I can plant the evidence that’ll make it look like Franklin has accessed Russia-sensitive data and transferred it to his home computer.”
“Why not just hack his CIA workstation?”Cole asked.“I know you can.”
“Hacking to look around and hacking to plant and transfer files are two very different tasks.When I say I need access, just trust me,” Ren said dryly.
Weirdly enough, Hadley did trust him.Mostly because she was grateful that someone who could casually hack the CIA was onherside and not the bad guy’s.“So, how do we get that close to his phone?Like, can we…rob him?”
“I like the way you think,” Tenley said with a nod of approval.
“I wish it was that easy, but the first thing he’d do if his phone was out of his possession for more than a second would be to dump it and get a new one,” Cole said.
“Tenley can get it,” Ren said.
Tenley grabbed her own phone.“Easy peasy.I’ll check his socials.See where he hangs out.”
Cole frowned.“What makes you think you can walk right up to him and get close enough to plant the virus in his phone without him catching on to what you’re doing?”
