RainStorm

trying to tell you what you need to know."
    It was a fair rebuke. I said nothing, and, after a moment, he went
    on. "The list existed before Nine-Eleven," he said, "but it's been substantially
    revised and expanded since then. And, since then, it has also
    doubled as a hit list--a nice, deniable hit list, because it's really just a
    wiring diagram and has been around in one form or another for a
    long time. So no one had to worry about giving the order to draw up
    a brand-new list that might make for riveting testimony in front of a
    hypocritical Congressional committee sometime down the road."
    "A hit list that isn't a hit list."
    "Exactly." He took a deep breath. "Now, a few days ago, I received
    a visit from a guy who works in another division of the
    Agency."
    "Crawley?" I asked, watching him.
    His eyes widened and he flinched just slightly--not enough to
    make me think he was deliberately creating the response for my
    benefit. And he flushed, an even more involuntary reaction. A full
    two seconds went by. Then he said, "Look, it doesn't matter who
    it was. Let's leave names out of it, all right?"
    "Sure," I said, indulging him for the moment. His response had
    already been as eloquent as I could have hoped for.
    "Now, this person ... he wanted to see the list. Which is strange."
    "Strange, how?" I asked.
    "Well, first of all, no one wants to see the list. Key people know
    it exists, of course, but they don't want to know more than that.
    They want to be in a position to deny knowledge if it comes to
    that. You know, 'oh the ITTM? Yes, I seem to remember once
    hearing something about a Who's Who or something. . . . ' That
    kind of thing."
    He picked up his coffee and took another sip. "Now, of course,
    this guy's request was outside official channels. Just a phone call to
    arrange a meeting, then a personal visit at the embassy in Tokyo.
    No paper trail. Which tells me he was being careful."
    "Why?"
    He shrugged. "At first I thought the list. He wanted to be able
    to deny the meeting if he needed to, or, barring that, to be able to
    characterize it according to his 'best recollections.' Which, if you've
    noticed when it comes to official questioning, are never particularly
    good."
    "Why do you say, 'at first'?"
    "He asked a lot of general questions, but I could see that most
    of them were designed to hide his real interest."
    "Which was?"
    "First, is Belghazi on the list. Second, did we send someone to
    Macau to take Belghazi out."
    I thought for a moment. "Why didn't you mention this to me
    earlier? You said the visit happened several days ago."
    "I didn't think this was something that might affect you. I thought
    it was just the usual bureaucratic turf fighting. This guy is part of a
    division that could make a claim to being responsible for Belghazi, so
    I figured they were ticked that another division might be operating
    against him. Worst case, maybe they complain to the Deputy Director,
    'Hey, Kanezaki's playing with our marbles,' that kind of thing. I
    didn't expect something like what seems to have happened, okay?"
    "What division are we talking about?"
    He paused, then said, "NE. Near East Division. The Middle East."
    "What did you tell him in response to his questions?"
    "That my understanding was that access to the list is granted by
    the Counter Terrorism Center, and that he should check with
    them. As to whether we were operating against Belghazi or anyone
    else, in Macau or anywhere else, that information was also need-to-know
    through the CTC."
    "His reaction?"
    He shrugged. "You know, he huffed and he puffed, but what
    could he do?"
    "What did he do?"
    "My guess is he went to the CTC."
    "Would they have given him what he wanted?"
    "Maybe. He's a pretty heavy hitter. If he complained about being
    out of the loop on Belghazi, they might have given him information
    to appease him, massage his ego."
    "Why didn't he go to the CTC first, then?"
    "I think two reasons. First, because he wanted to deal with the
    most junior person he thought would be able to produce what he
    needed. Maximum intimidation, maximum low profile, maximum
    deniability."
    "Second?"
    "Second, because I'm responsible for coordinating certain aspects
    of the list for Asia. Hong Kong and Macau are part of my
    purview. And, like I said, he seemed to have Macau on the brain."
    "Meaning?"
    "Meaning something happened in Macau recently that got his
    attention. Maybe something like, a French national who turns out
    to be a known