“That looked like it was painful,” she teased.
“Swallowing some of my own medicine.”
By the time he’d finished eating, Malin had several windows open on his computer. While she did that, Dutch processed through everything Striker had done and said in Islamabad.
She met Dutch’s gaze. “We’re going to start at the beginning.”
“Let’s do this,” he said.
“As I said, I started out tracking money that came into the Super PAC. At first, I thought whoever brought it in had someone on the inside. Maybe even with Treasury, but Ed Montgomery got wind of what I was working on and assigned me the mission to infiltrate the Islamic State.”
Dutch recognized the name. Ed Montgomery was a career agent, old-school type. He should’ve retired long ago, but the guy kept moving up the ladder, albeit damn slowly. Last he’d heard, Monty was Deputy Director of Congressional Affairs for the CIA. Assigning Malin the mission he did, smelled a lot like he’d been setting her up for a hit.
“Monty is way above your handler, Copeland.”
Malin nodded.
“Who was between them?”
“First Striker, and then after he left, McTiernan took his job. Paul Stevens was their boss.”
“Stevens. Sounds familiar.”
“Deputy director of NCS.”
“Not under Montgomery.”
“Nope. Stevens works directly for Flatley.”
“What was Monty doing, poking around in National Clandestine Service business? Not to mention, assigning you to a mission. It’s way out of his lane.”
Malin shrugged. “Interesting you use those words. That was the warning I got. To stay in my lane.”
“From Montgomery directly?”
Malin shook her head. “The warning was anonymous.”
“You got suspicious.”
“Quietly so. It was definitely a mystery.”
“What led you to Ghafor?”
“I found something that led me to believe the money was going back out to him.”
“What?”
Malin opened up another window on Dutch’s computer. It was only a screenshot, but it cl
early showed three transfers totaling the same amount as the incoming money. All were under the threshold that would raise red flags.
“Wait a minute. You said you received an alert about the money going into the Super PAC.”
“That’s right.”
“And then you said you found something that led you to believe the money went out to Ghafor, but really you received something leading you to believe it had.”
Malin nodded.