Nowhere to Hide by Sigmund Brouwer Read Free Book Online Page A

that’s why I can’t make a play on him. We need to know how wide the corruption is and exactly what’s going on with him.”
    â€œSo,” King said. “Mind telling me what you do know?”

CHAPTER 13
    At midday, the sky was still cloudy, but the drizzle was gone, and Interstate 5 wasn’t too crowded. If they jumped on it and headed north, they’d hit Canada in a few hours. Yes, King was interested in where Evans was taking them and even more interested in why. But most of all, he was interested in what Evans was saying right now.
    â€œSorry to Blake and MJ for repeating this,” Evans said. “But we need to bring King up to speed. As an example, King, so you can understand where this got started, the LAPD has IAG.”
    Evans paused. “Sorry, I just get used to speaking in acronyms. The Los Angeles Police Department has its Internal Affairs Group. IAG is responsible to investigate the cops on the force. Someone makes a complaint, IAG is in place to make sure nobody inside the LAPD abuses police powers. Got it?”
    â€œGot it,” King said.
    Evans was a focused driver. Never getting too close to the car in front, anticipating lane changes by other drivers, moving efficiently with the flow. It helped being in a new car like this Taurus.
    Evans reached for the radio, turned it on, and told King, “Try to find a twenty-four-hour news station. Won’t hurt to monitor things.”
    â€œWish we could use our smartphones,” Blake said. “There’s a great police scanner app.”
    â€œI’m just being cautious,” Evans said. “Everything should be cool. Police won’t be looking for us.”
    When King found the news station, he turned down the volume and brought Evans back to the subject. “You were talking about IAG and the Los Angeles police. I’m guessing that what’s happening with Mundie is the same?”
    â€œNot quite,” Evans said. “CIA doesn’t quite have a division like that. I say not quite because yes, there are ways of investigating internal affairs for corruption or abuse, but by its nature, the organization is not transparent. Citizen complaints rarely come in against us.”
    â€œOr,” King said with a grin, “you might threaten to put them at level-two clearance and have the IRS investigate their background?”
    Evans gave King a quick glance and a quicker grin before turning his attention back to traffic. “Yeah, something like that. Thing is, a subtle threat like that only works on people with a guilty conscience.”
    Evans tapped the brake to make room for a semi driver who wasn’t paying attention.
    â€œAnyway,” Evans continued as if nothing had happened, “the CIA does have an inspector general to keep things in line, and if someone really messed up, it would probably go to a congressional subcommittee devoted to overseeing the CIA. But really, that’s not very effective. You need someone in the field to get at the truth. And that’s where I come into this picture. I’m in the field, and someone is doing something wrong. But that someone can’t know I’m looking into it, or that someone will disappear. With me so far?”
    â€œWith you,” King said.
    â€œSo my boss—let’s call him Smith—asked me if I would get involved in something that only he and I know about. Something off-the-books. When I agreed, he found some slush-fund money and set me loose. Part of the agreement was that I couldn’t let anyone know I’d been authorized. The political fallout would be disastrous. Still with me?”
    â€œBuckled in,” King said. “And still with you.”
    â€œThe three of you are as off-the-books as anything. I thought it would be perfect. High school guys, no connections, no records, but with the expertise I needed for the first stage, which was to track down someone through cyberspace—a