by Josh Karnes
Chapter 34
Arlington, Virginia
“Are you watching Fox News?” Carson Lee heard Senator Burlington ask over the phone.
“No. What is it?”
“Turn it on.”
Lee turned on the TV in his office and tuned it to the Fox News Channel. He had caught the talking head mid-sentence. “...family vacation in Vieques, an island in the east of Puerto Rico.” He watched as the video changed to a shaky video obviously taken from a phone with a banner overlaid at the bottom, which read, “Ray Ortiz, FBI Press Conference”. He noticed the crawl across the bottom of the screen telling the breaking story of a lost teenager from Texas as he heard Ortiz begin talking.
“When was the press conference?” Lee asked Todd Burlington.
“Half hour ago. Two o'clock. AP ran the story at around noon and then the feeding frenzy started.”
Just then Lee heard the FBI agent say, “We have no reason to believe this is a kidnapping at this time.”
“Kidnapping? Do they think the kid was kidnapped?” Lee asked Burlington on the phone.
“I don't know. You are getting this information at the same time I am. I have a call into Director Flanagan to get more information, but she hasn't called back yet,” Todd Burlington said, referring to the director of the FBI in Washington.
“Is there any mention of Thermion?”
“I don't think so. Not yet. But it won't take long for the reporters to catch on, figure out who is on that island. Then they're going to start digging. You know what this means,” he said.
“Yeah. I'll call Larry and tell him to expect a lot more company down there. And I'm going to get on a plane this afternoon,” Carson Lee said.
“I think that's a good idea. I don't know exactly how long it will take, but I expect the Coast Guard to be knocking on your door before sunset. If not sooner. Get ready. Put the project on hold. Make sure nobody talks to the press or anyone else. I'll try to keep Homeland out of this. If they get a hint of—”
“Yeah, I know. You don't have to tell me again. Everyone knows what to do.”
“Make sure they do.” Senator Burlington said, and then hung up the phone.
Carson Lee dialed Larry Duncan's office and Larry picked up on the first ring. “Larry,” Carson said. “You need to get ready for visitors.”
“They're already here. Carl and Aaron each took a Zodiac out with a detective from Culebra and the kid's family to search the coast and do a sonar map of El Pliegue.” Duncan said.
“Different visitors. Coast Guard and more FBI at least. Figure out where you are going to put them, they probably will want to set up a command post of some kind and we need to let them. Shut down the Daedalus. We can't afford anyone to go sniffing around. Backup story is live for everyone. And make sure nobody talks, not to the FBI or to the Coast Guard.”
“Carson, that's not going to work. We are going to have to talk to these guys. I'll put Carl and Aaron on point for this and I'll stay in it myself.”
“Okay, but only you, Carl and Aaron. Make sure they know exactly what to say. For God's sake, don't let Kyle or Laurie talk to the Feds.”
“Will do.”
“I'm getting on the Gulfstream. Should be there by eight. See you then.” He clicked off.
And so it begins, Duncan thought.