Upon A Pale Horse by Russell Blake

to handle, and nobody but him to do it.
    Jeffrey watched her little Ford disappear around the corner, and then he set out the way he’d come, back to the hotel, more questions in his mind than answers.
    A dark gray sedan pulled away from the curb a block down the street and followed Becky’s car, its windows tinted dark, mud obscuring part of the license plate. Jeffrey didn’t notice, nor did he register the nondescript man who took up a position a hundred yards behind him, just another working stiff carrying a briefcase and a newspaper, on his way to a tedious day of monotony.
     

SIX

    The Agency
    “What did he know?”
    George Thorn, the deputy director of the CIA, shook his head and shrugged at the question, deliberately taking his time with his answer. The questioner was not a man to be trifled with – enormously powerful, and one of the richest men in the nation. Thorn had been summoned to New York to meet with him rather than addressing the entire group to which he and the man belonged. It was better if some things were kept away from the others, although the two generals in their clique knew, and in fact had helped orchestrate the latest operation.
    “We’re not completely sure. We do know he was poking around in areas that were sensitive. Restricted. Top secret, and not in any way related to his work.”
    “Yes, yes. I’m aware of all that. How he was able to gain access is another troubling matter.”
    Thorn looked around the room – the sitting room of a penthouse suite in the most exclusive building in Manhattan, the cost per square foot more than if it had been cast in pure gold. Two Picassos adorned the walls, along with a Renoir that belonged in a museum. The questioner, Reginald Barker, was old, old money – the kind of money that had prospered during the Second World War from funding both sides of the conflict, in addition to now owning the largest investment bank on Wall Street and having its tentacles in oil, real estate, military contractors, and Big Pharma. It was the kind of money that would never show up on any Forbes list – the sort that ran nations, and Barker had been actively doing just that for at least fifty of his seventy-nine years, after inheriting the mantle from his father, a hard-nosed industrialist who had taken the billion-dollar legacy he’d been handed when Barker’s grandfather had died and built it into a mega-empire.
    “Indeed. But don’t forget that he was a computer expert. With fifteen years of experience with our systems. He ran some of our hacking groups. This was not an ordinary analyst.”
    “That’s precisely what has me worried.”
    Thorn nodded. “Me too. But we believe we’ve contained it.”
    “Yes. Blowing planes out of the sky is akin to using a sledge hammer to kill a fly.” Barker reached to the side table and opened an antique humidor, selecting one of the Cohibas he favored. He snipped the tip and touched it to a platinum and diamond lighter. He didn’t offer Thorn one, and Thorn didn’t expect it. That wasn’t their relationship.
    “We discussed our options. This had to be stopped immediately. As soon as we understood he was leaving the country, we needed to act. We couldn’t take the chance he would escape on the other end,” Thorn said.
    “I see the media is treating it as another regrettable accident – an unexplained explosion. At least that’s going according to plan.”
    “We’re confident that the flight recorder won’t show anything unusual.”
    “Then it’s a dead end. Pardon the pun.”
    “Yes. Although we’re still tying up loose ends.”
    “The Italian.”
    “No longer an issue,” said Thorn with an air of finality. “He was clean.”
    “Nobody’s clean in this,” Barker spat. “He was a potential trouble spot. I’m glad he’s off the table. Stupid bastard couldn’t keep his fool mouth shut. It got him what he deserved.”
    “Yes, well, at the moment, everything is progressing nicely. Our Defense