Дэвид Балдаччи - Long Road to Mercy

“You’re serious about this?”

“People who know about these things are serious about it.”

“You mean like Ben Priest and Simon Russell?”

“And perhaps the Chinese are involved as well.”

“Why do you say that?”

Pine took out her phone and held it up.

Fabrikant leaned forward and stared at the photo there. “And who is this?”

“This is a man who has now tried to kill me twice. I would like to know his name and background.”

“Let me call someone in who might be of assistance.”

He lifted his phone, spoke into it, and replaced the receiver.

After Pine counted off ten clicks in her head, there came a knock at the door.

“Enter,” said Fabrikant.

The door opened, and a man dressed in a suit, and nearly as small as Fabrikant, walked in.

“Show Phillip the photo,” directed Fabrikant.

Phillip looked at the picture for only a second and then glanced at Fabrikant and nodded.

“You can tell her,” said Fabrikant.

“His name is Sung Nam Chung.”

“And who is he?”

“Your worst nightmare.”

“As bad as he is, he will never be my worst nightmare,” replied Pine brusquely.

“Is he Chinese?” asked Blum.

Phillip looked at her. “No.”

“What is he then?” said Pine.

“Korean.”

“Korean? North or South?” asked Pine.

“From what I have learned, he was born in the South. He traveled to the North as a child and was detained there. In a camp. He came out of it alive and now works for whoever pays him. He is quite an accomplished operative. And very lethal when he has to be.”

“So Sung is his surname, then?” said Pine.

The man shook his head. “Chung is. He has been in this country for a while now and has Westernized his name. He is very careful, and the authorities can prove nothing against him.”

“How does a person like that get into the U.S. in the first place?” said Blum.

“If you have the resources there are ways,” said Phillip.

Pine looked at Fabrikant. “The peace talks with North Korea have just gone off the rails. And this guy shows up on American soil. Do you think there’s a connection?”

“I can’t say definitively that there isn’t a connection.” He turned to Phillip. “Thank you, that will be all.”

After the man left, Pine said, “Does Priest have an office here?”

“Yes.”

“Can we see it?”

Fabrikant studied her for a long moment.

She said, “I would really appreciate it.”

“I can see how you would. Come with me.”

There was no hint of pipe smoke in Priest’s small office, but it was as cluttered and stacked as haphazardly with things as Fabrikant’s space. Clearly this coterie of elite, benevolent geniuses were not neat freaks. Pine also noted that there were no personal articles, no photos, no mementos from trips or family events. It was as though Priest had no life outside of his work.

Well, we’re not so very different on that score.

Books lined the shelves and were piled on the floor. Binders full of papers formed columns across the floor and tables. The desk was overflowing with more stacks of paper, books, and file folders.

A shiny Apple desktop computer occupied a prominent place on the desk.

Fabrikant watched Pine as she took in the space along with Blum.

“Ben was quite the renaissance man. He had many interests.”

“I would imagine that all of you here do,” noted Blum.

“Yes, we do, actually. Although some of us also have specialties.”

Pine sat down at the desk and stared at the computer. “I need to get on to his computer.”

“I’m not sure I can allow that, but, in any case I’m sure he has a password.”

“Priest left behind a flash drive that I think has something important on it. But it’s also password protected.”

“Then getting on Ben’s computer won’t help you.”

“You’re wrong, it could.”

“How?”

“I’ll show you.”

Her fingers hovered over the keys even as she eyed the various things on Priest’s desk.

“What are you doing?” asked Fabrikant.

“Profiling, for want of a better term.”

Her gaze continued to dart to various objects, until it held on one.

It was a coffee mug full of pens. Printed on the side of the cup was a movie poster.

She typed in the name Keyser Soze .

Nothing happened.

She added another word to Keyser Soze. Then she added more words and then changed their order.

The computer sparked to life.

“How did you do that?” asked Fabrikant.

“Passwords are a pain in the ass to keep straight. Some people use password vaults that generate passwords for lots of different applications, thus obviating the need for a person to remember any of the passwords other than the vault’s. But most people don’t use that method. They could base their passwords on things they keep around them. That helps them remember what they are.” She looked around the room. “There’s absolutely nothing personal in this room. No pictures, or artwork, or memorabilia. Nothing to show the personality of the man who works here. Except for that.” She pointed to the mug. “ The Usual Suspects . Kevin Spacey played the character of Verbal. I tried various combinations that were pretty straightforward, like ‘Verbal is Keyser Soze.’ But having met Priest, I concluded he’s not so straightforward. He marches to a different beat. So, I tried the reverse, ‘Soze Keyser is Verbal,’ and bingo.”

Fabrikant silently clapped his hands together. “Impressive. I like how your mind works.”

Pine inserted the flash drive and brought up the screen where the password was asked for.

“Do you think it’s the same password?” asked Blum.

“Doubtful, but I’ll try. We might get lucky.”

She typed in “Soze Keyser is Verbal,” and nothing happened.

“Okay, that’s a no go.”

Fabrikant said, “Do you know for a fact that what’s on the flash drive is related to your case?”

“Priest went to great lengths to hide it, so other things being equal, yes, I’m pretty sure it is.”

She hit some more keys, and a list of the files on Priest’s computer came up. “Is it okay if I print out the list of his files? I can go over them in more detail later.”

“Certainly. But just the file list, not the files themselves. I can’t allow you to take Ben’s work product without his permission.”

“Well, I hope he’ll make it back one day to give his permission.”

“Is it really that serious?”

“With this Sung Nam Chung involved, what do you think?”

Pine printed out the file list and exited out of the computer.

Fabrikant escorted them to the building entrance. Before he closed the door, he handed her his card. “All my contact numbers are on there. If something comes up, or you need some help, don’t hesitate.”

“Thanks,” said Pine, taking the card.

As they walked down the street to the parking garage, Blum said, “Why don’t you profile Priest again? That might help us figure out the password.”

“I can try,” said Pine. “But if it’s just in his head, we’re not going to get it.”

“Glass half full.”

“Right.”

“What did you think of the people back there?”

“Either they are what they appear to be, or they’re a front for some weird shit going on.”

“They wouldn’t have helped us if they were bad people.”

“Depends on your definitions of help and bad .”

“True.”

They reached the Kia and climbed in.

Pine pulled out into traffic and turned left. As they drove along, she glanced in her mirror. “Here we go.”