directly above at a distance of about three feet. But why? Sawyer
couldn’t answer that question right now. He turned his thoughts
elsewhere.
Despite numerous inquiries and potential leads, nothing had been turned
up on Riker’s movements for the last eighteen months. No addresses, no
friends, no jobs, no credit card bills, nothing. While Rapid Start was
processing tons of data a day on the plane crash, they couldn’t get a
solid lead on anything. They knew how it had been done, they had the
body of the damned person responsible for actually doing it, and yet
they couldn’t get beyond his corpse.
In frustration, Sawyer sat up and thumbed another report. Riker had
also had a great deal of cosmetic surgery. Photos taken at Riker’s last
arrest bore absolutely no resemblance to the man who had met his bloody
end in a quiet Virginia apartment building.
Sawyer grimaced. His gut on the Sinclair alias had been right on the
mark too. Riker had not taken the place of another person. Sinclair
had been created out of broadcloth and computerized records, with the
result that Robert Sinclair had been hired as a living, breathing
person, with excellent background credentials to be a fueler for a
reputable company that had contracts to service several of the major
airlines operating out of Dulles International Airport, including
Western. However, Vector had made some mistakes in its background
checks. They had not verified the phone numbers of Sinclair’s previous
employers, but had merely used the numbers provided by Riker, aka
Sinclair. All the references provided by the dead man had been small
fueling operations in Washington state, southern California and one in
Alaska. None of those outfits actually existed.
When Sawyer’s men checked, they found the numbers had been disconnected.
The employment addresses given by Riker on his application were phony
too. His Social Security number, however, had been run through the
system and had come back as valid.
His prints had also been run through the Virginia State Police AFIS.
Riker had spent time in a Virginia prison and his prints were supposed
to be on file there. Only they weren’t. That could only mean one
thing. The Social Security Administration’s and the Virginia State
Police’s databases had been compromised. The whole system might as well
have burned up. How could you be sure of anything now? Without
absolute reliability, the systems were next to useless. And if someone
could do that to Virginia and the SSA, who was safe? Sawyer angrily
shoved the reports aside, poured himself another cup of coffee and paced
around the broad space of the SIOC.
Jason Archer had been way ahead of them. There had only been one reason
to have Sidney Archer travel to New Orleans. In fact, it could have
been any city. The important point was that she leave town. And when
she had, the FBI had gone with her. Her home had been left unguarded.
Sawyer had learned from discreet inquiries with her neighbors that
Sidney Archer’s parents and daughter had left shortly after Sidney
Archer had departed.
Sawyer clenched and unclenched his fist. A diversion. And he had
fallen for it like the greenest agent in the world. He had no direct
evidence supporting it, but he knew as well as he knew his own name that
someone had entered the Archer home and presumably taken something from
within. To go to all that risk meant that something incredibly
important had slipped right through Sawyer’s fingers.
It had not been a good morning and it only threatened to grow rapidly
worse. He was not used to getting his butt kicked at every turn. He
had filled in Frank Hardy on the results thus far. His friend was
making inquiries into Paul Brophy’s and Philip Goldman’s backgrounds.
Hardy had been understandably intrigued when he heard of Brophy’s
clandestine roaming through Sidney Archer’s hotel room.
Sawyer flipped open the newspaper and read the headline. Sidney Archer
would be heading into the panic zone right about now, he figured. Since
Jason Archer was undoubtedly on to their pursuit of him, the consensus
at the bureau had been to go public with his alleged crimes: corporate
espionage and embezzlement of Triton’s funds. His direct involvement in