Chapter 20

Fry confirmed that Keith and Maddie had arrived in Turkey as he was being driven to the Wiesbaden Army Airfield not far from Mainz. He could move much more quickly than the two librarians by flying directly from Wiesbaden to Incirlik Air Base near Adana. He would join the two in the morning with the driver he sent to meet them. For the first time since he’d become involved in this mess, Agent Fry felt he was in control and one step ahead of the game. In sparsely populated southeastern Turkey, it would be easier to spot trouble before it was on top of him. He had contacts—relatives—in this region who would provide cover for the expedition. Having Kurdish parents might finally prove an advantage.

He twisted the cypher ring on his finger and contemplated the other angles of this case. His first task was the security of the United States. He would stop this terrorist threat once and for all. But beyond that, Keith had hooked him with the connection between the Guardians and the typesetters’ guild. How deep did that connection go?

Fry’s initiation had been little more than learning the pattern of an elaborate dance and the chanted instructions that went with it. To his knowledge, that information was not written down anyplace. His father’s Kurdish tribe passed the information from generation to generation through the coming of age ritual. Somewhere, Fry knew those steps would cross paths with the rituals of Keith’s guild. He was determined to find out where.

He had spent the day in the Gretchen’s company working with a German forensics team attempting to identify the remains of the suicide bomber. He was sure she was the same as the girl in the security tapes of the Kane Memorial Library and now his team in Washington was comparing all available footage from the Indianapolis attack as well to see if she showed up anyplace. The student ID used to check out books on the day of the first library attack was stolen. There was no ID on the suicide bomber. Identifying her would simply take time.

Police had also located the camera used to film the attack, located on a rooftop across the platz from the explosion. It was set to broadcast on a closed channel, but there was nothing that indicated who had received the broadcast. The camera had been wiped of prints. Trying to trace its origin could take weeks Fry didn’t have.

Gretchen slept a few hours during the night while Fry was online with his office and on the phone with his cousins in Turkey. He spoke quietly as she slept stretched out on his bed. Her presence was distracting, but Fry had not permitted himself to lose focus or to collapse beside her. The security camera disks from the Kane Library confirmed Drucker’s suspicion that the document was recognizable from the IR camera. Fry sent a computer expert to the library to search for traces of an external hack into the library system. Another agent was questioning the man who monitored the security cameras during the day.