Page 55 of Spymaster

“He was an intelligence officer at the CIA. He helped create the Counter Terrorism Center. Brilliant man.”

Finally, she was getting some answers. She decided to keep pushing. “And he now works at the Supreme Allied Command Transformation back in Norfolk?”

Harvath smiled. “No. SACT, and NATO more specifically, is our client. After retiring from the CIA, my boss took everything he had learned and set up his own business.”

“Doing what?”

“I’m still trying to find a better word for it.”

Jasinski rolled her eyes. “Trycontracting.”

Harvath shook his head. “That conjures up images of ex special operations personnel doing security details. We do more than that. A lot more.”

“If you had a brochure,” she asked, “what would it say?”

He thought about it for several moments and replied, “Hypothetically, it would say that we offer a suite of products, services, and turnkey solutions comparable to the CIA, but without all the bureaucracy.”

“Howcomparable?”

“Extremely.”

She couldn’t believe it. “You’ve privatized the espionage business.”

“Some things work better away from all the red tape.”

“But what about accountability? Some semblance of oversight?”

“We answer to the client.”

“What does that even mean?” she asked.

“It means we’ve been given a certain amount of flexibility in getting our job done.”

“We’re back tocreativityand tossing out the rulebook, aren’t we?”

“My boss likes to say that in every operation there’s above the line and below the line,” he replied. “Above the line is what you do by the book. Below the line is how you get the job done. We do what we need to do to get the job done.”

“Is that what you plan to do here? With Sparrman?”

“We’re going to work our way up the food chain. First we’ll start with Sparrman. Then we’ll go after the person above him. And so on and so on.”

“And what if Sparrman doesn’t want to give up the person above him?” she asked.

“He will.”

“How can you be so sure of yourself?”

Harvath smiled again. “Experience.”

“This isn’t a fact-finding assignment. You’re going to kidnap him, aren’t you? Just like that GRU agent you snatched in Berlin.”

“You don’t have to come along.”

“Look around you,” she said, holding out her arms. “I’m already here.”

“So are the Russians, Monika.”

He was right. She couldn’t argue with that. Taking a sip of her coffee, she looked away. She now understood they were not there to confirm suspicions. They had already decided that Sparrman was working with the Russians.