by Dan Kelly
“Ira, these guys are very smart and they’ve got enormous resources, but they are human with
faults that will eventually trip them up. If we keep the pressure on and keep increasing that
pressure, they’ll screw up and when they do we’ll be there to nail the bastards. Nobody is
infallible.”
“Thanks for the pep talk, Hank. I better get my butt in gear and start the ball rolling.” He broke
the connection and told Lorraine to have Ferguson come to the Oval office. “Tell him nothing
other than I want to see him. I want to evaluate his reaction to the news first hand.”
A few minutes later Ferguson came into the office and seemed to be in an upbeat mood. “What
happened, Sam, you win the lottery?”
“No sir. I just feel good about not having to deal with power outages and running to the
bathroom every five minutes. It looks like those problems have been solved somehow.”
“This maggot is fishing for information. We never made public the contamination of our water
supply or the fact that we found a way to deal with the pollutant because we didn’t want to
create a panic. If he knows about Sentry’s involvement in looking for his playmates, he’s
concealing it very well or he may just be in the dark about it.”
We’re all happy about that, Sam, but until we capture the people behind all of these attacks we
have to consider the respite temporary. In an attempt to help everybody share in your good
mood, I’m sending the Vice President on a nationwide trip to visit major metropolitan areas to
engage in one-on-one dialogue with community leaders and the citizens in town hall meeting
settings. He will be explaining our efforts and progress to date in identifying and putting these
people behind bars. We will release his itinerary in a day or two. I want you to set up a news
conference for later today and say nothing about its purpose other than it has something to do
with the recent attacks on the American people. Here’s a copy of his itinerary, but keep it to
yourself until I tell you to release it as there may be adjustment as to the timing of these visits
due to other people’s schedules.”
“I understand sir. Will seven o’clock tonight be okay?”
“That will be perfect.”
As Ferguson turns to leave, the President is thinking, “He’ll have an email off to his buddies as
soon as he gets back to his office. That will strengthen their conviction that they have a dynamite
source of info in the White House since they’ll be getting information way ahead of everyone
else. Enjoy the tidbit, scum. Your days are numbered.”
Chapter 49
-Breuil Cervinia, Italy-
Basil Halkias is out on the veranda enjoying the view and a glass of Ouzo over ice. The cloudy
aperitif is the only thing cloudy this beautiful mountain morning. The sun is shining and
Halkias’s mood is just as bright. Bob Feldman joins him on the veranda with a piece of paper
in one hand and a glass of chianti in the other.
“You know, Basil, if we stay here much longer we’re going to become dyed in the wool
boozers.”
“Nah, I don’t think so. We get bored too easily doing the same thing over and over again.”
Pointing to the paper in Feldman’s hand he asked, “What have you got there?”
“Something that I believe will really make your day.” It was the email from Sam Ferguson and it
actually put a smile on his face. Basil is known for his poker face and hardly ever smiling.
“Pass this on to Malcolm and tell him there’s a million dollar bonus waiting for him if he can get
the job done within the next ten days. Things are beginning to settle down back home and that’s
not good for our cause. The sooner we shake things up again the better.”
If Hank Aldridge had heard this exchange, he’d be doing back flips. No one knows better than he
that rushing people to do things often leads to disastrous errors in judgment. The stickler is
Malcolm is a rare breed. His record is spotless. He hasn’t made a mistake yet. Facts like this
have a tendency to deflate one’s enthusiasm for success.
Chapter 50
-Chicago-
Hank and Joel are sitting in Hank’s office discussing ways to protect Sentry personnel from this
Malcolm menace when Ashok drops by to give Hank a copy of the email that Sam Ferguson has
just sent, informing his cohorts of the upcoming news conference and the tentative itinerary.
Joel asks, “Ashok, isn’t there any way we can determine what the ultimate destination of that
email is?”
“There might be, but I haven’t been able to figure out how to do that and believe me I’ve been
trying. There could be someone at one of these phony email addresses manually resending
it to the ultimate address thereby maintaining secrecy. If that’s the case, it will be like looking for
a needle in a haystack. Hidden mailboxes could also be used and accessed from anywhere. I
don’t think we’re going to get anything useful by going down these paths.”
Hank said, “Okay, Ashok, I’ll heed your advice. It looks like our best chance of finding these
people lies in the capture of this Malcolm guy.”
After Ashok left, they resumed their discussion on how best to protect Sentry personnel. Joel
suggested, “Except for when we are all in the office, I don’t think we should assemble in groups
of more than two. In pairs, we can cover each other’s back and prevent the assassin from taking
us all out at once. We can strengthen office and building security by placing more eyeballs at the
entrances to the building and on each floor, especially ours. Have security guard check-ins
scheduled for every 15 minutes to an offsite location known only to a select few who also will be
known only to a select few. Instructions to everybody must include the need for suspicion of
everything and everybody no matter how familiar they may appear. Every one of us must be on
the alert for danger from any place and anyone not well known to us.”
Hank added, “I also want to make sure all of the security cameras are in working order and
positioned properly. If we need more, we’ll get them ASAP. When we need to go somewhere we
should use public transportation because of the safety in numbers factor and when we must use
our personal transportation we mustn’t use the same route to get to places we frequent.
“I don’t think we’re being paranoid about this. This nut may never come after us, but until we
shell him I’d rather be safe than sorry. I’ll have Sandy set up a meeting for four this afternoon to
pass what we’ve discussed on to the troops.”
As Joel is heading back to his office he’s thinking, “I’d better do something about the security of
my plane or stay grounded until this mess is wiped up. I love soaring like an eagle, but hate
going down in flames. That stuff is for the movies.”
Chapter 51
-Somewhere on in Central America-
Malcolm has just reluctantly accepted the contract from Bob Feldman to remove the Vice
President of the United States from the political arena, permanently. Feldman has agreed to a fee
that is double what he normally gets for his services and the million dollar bonus if he does the
deed within the next ten days definitely was the deal clincher. Since Malcolm has a reputation
for not being afraid to take anyone out, he kept his relucta
nce to himself, but he is still concerned
that this time he might have bitten off more than he can chew.
This will be his most famous victim and the most dangerous yet to hit and Malcolm knows he’s
going to have to be extremely cautious if he’s to get the job done. “I’ve got to anticipate
everything that could possibility go wrong and have a plan to deal with it. Security is going to be
tighter than bees in a hive.”
Reviewing the itinerary that Feldman emailed him he noted that the VP was going to start
his cross country trip from the West Coast which Malcolm thinks is kind of peculiar. “Why fly to
the West Coast and then work your way east unless there’s a good reason. Most people would
start from a location close to home and work their way west and then fly back home.
“He’s first flying to Seattle, then down to Portland, San Francisco, Los Angeles and San Diego.
He’s spending a day in each city except for San Diego. He’s staying there three days which
include a weekend. I wonder why. From California he’s taking a zigzag route south to north and
north to south until he arrives back in D. C. He’s going to be on the road for over a month.
Well…. not if I have my way. He’s leaving Washington two days from today and will be spending
seven days on the West Coast. If I’m to get my hands on that bonus, I’m going to have to earn it
while the VP is in Seattle or somewhere in California.
“In each city, I can assume he will be in at least three primary locations, the airport, the hotel
and the city hall. All of these locations are going to present some hellacious security challenges.
However, San Diego may offer me the opportunity I’m looking for as he’s staying there the
longest and it doesn’t take a lot of smarts to figure out he’s probably planning something
different there. That something could be the opening I’m looking for. Maybe Feldman can give
me some idea of what the VP might be planning to do while in San Diego.
Five minutes later he had his answer. When Feldman told him the VP is an avid deep sea
fisherman and takes advantage of every opportunity to get some reel time in on his yacht which
is moored in San Diego, he was both pleased and pissed. There was a good chance he had his
opening but why Feldman didn’t think this kind of information was important for him to have
was amazing. Feldman didn’t strike him as a knucklehead, but life is full of surprises. Malcolm
kept his mouth shut because this knucklehead was a stinking rich knucklehead and didn’t mind
parting ways with some nice chunks of change.
“Okay, It’s time for me to go to work. San Diego your about to become famous for more than
Sea World.”
Chapter 52
-San Diego-
It’s a beautiful Friday morning with the temperature in the mid-seventies and Joel and Barbara
are enjoying a stroll on the beach talking about what might lie ahead of them as the day unfolds.
The sky is clear and as blue as a robin’s egg except for a few puffs of white clouds high above
the horizon and about a dozen seagulls soaring overhead and then swooping down to stick their
bills in the briny deep to select from what the ocean is offering for breakfast this morning.
Barbara sighed and said, “Boy, Midnight would have loved romping around on this beach and
taking a dip in that ocean.”
“I know you miss him, Barb. I do too, but he would have made us stand out like a bald headed man in a barber shop. The team will take good care of him. They always do.”
They’ve flown out from Chicago for two reasons. One reason is Hank wants someone from
Sentry to be on sight as things begin to develop with respect to Malcolm. They may be useful in
some way to the person in charge of the Black Widow operation.
The second reason is if the trap is sprung and Malcolm is snared, the President has authorized
Joel and Barbara to be the first to interrogate him since they are intimately acquainted with every
aspect of the challenges the country is facing with regard to Malcolm’s employers and what has
transpired from the very beginning of the attacks. Their knowledge gives them the best chance of
connecting the dots, of uncovering key information that could lead to the end of the maelstrom of
assassinations and service disruptions that have been plaguing the country in recent months.
Barbara is worried. She’s a firm believer in Murphy’s Laws. The one that’s on her mind right now is ‘If something can go wrong, it will’. The Secret Service and the military have assured them that if Malcolm takes the bait, he’s killing nothing but time and going nowhere but to jail, but Barbara’s anxiety level is still off the charts.
“Joel, I have a bad feeling about this. This Malcolm guy is nobody’s fool. He’ll zero in on the
slightest thing that appears off kilter to him. If he smells a rat, we’ll never know he’s been here.”
“Stay cool, Barb. This Malcolm isn’t the only pro in the game. The Secret Service agents and the
military personnel assigned to Black Widow are the best of the best. Everything’s in their hands
now and I trust them to get the job done.”
“What’s the Veep’s schedule for the day?”
“He appears at City Hall at ten this morning for a two hour session with the mayor and council members which will be open to the public and he will answer any questions any of them may have. At noon, he’s having lunch with some business leaders in the San Diego area. The restaurant won’t be disclosed until the last minute for security reasons. At two this afternoon, he will be meeting with broadcast media execs and at four he will meet with a group of state legislators to discuss ways the Federal Government can help them deal with the economic effects of the recent events. These last two meetings will also take place at City Hall. At six, he will head for his yacht, meet with reporters to answer their questions, openly prepare for his fishing trip and then head out to sea.”
“He’s going to be a busy man. That should keep his mind off what lies ahead for him later in the day. I don’t particular like the man, but I’ve got to admire his willingness to stick his neck out for his country. What are we going to do while he’s waxing eloquent, doing his thing to calm things down and regain some trust in the administration? If nothing else comes out of this scheme of ours, he’s getting good press on the visits to the cities he’s been to so far.”
“I’d like to go onboard the Dover Rover and talk with the security people assigned to watch over it on a daily basis, ask them if they’ve noticed anything unusual going on or anyone showing an abnormal interest in the yacht the past week or so. I want to do likewise with the merchants in the area. I’d also like to meet the man put in charge of operation Black Widow, let him know we’re in town and available if he needs us for anything. Right now, all I have is a name and a secured phone number and he’s got mine. We haven’t spoken yet.”
“Okay. That’s a lot better than sitting around waiting for something to happen.”
After a bite of breakfast, they headed for the marina where the VP’s boat was docked. They identified themselves to the security guard on deck and he checked a list of approved names for theirs. When they were cleared, Joel asked the security guard if it would be okay if they roamed around the boat and checked things out. “Are there any areas that are off limits?”
“Sir, since your name is on this list, you can look anywhere you’d like.”
As they begin to take a look around, it soon becomes clear that this is not your typical luxury yacht, if there is such a thing. It has every technical gizmo and convenience item anyone could dream of and its overall
appearance is breathtaking. It’s over 120 feet long and has five elegantly furnished staterooms. They were so engrossed in the discoveries they were experiencing that they weren’t aware anyone was following them around until he said, “Mr. Jergensen, Ms. Sheehan, I see your enjoying the sights. Isn’t she something? It still amazes me that someone of the Vice President’s wealth and background would want to put a life like that on a back shelf to wrestle with the national and international problems he faces every day.”
The man approaching them was about 50 years old, distinguished looking with his wavy gray hair and well-trimmed but bushy gray mustache, piercing blue eyes and wrinkle free skin. He was a little over six feet tall and looked like he was in excellent shape. The expression on his face was neutral and hard to read.