by Allan Topol
“No problem. I’m on call tonight. They’ve been coming about every fifteen minutes.”
“I need a favor.”
“Hey, wait before you get to that. What’s happening with you? We heard all about that Metro incident. We’re all scared for you.”
“Don’t worry. I’m okay. But here’s what I want. I’m mailing you a brown envelope to your home. Ordinary mail. Put it in a safe place. If anything happens to me …”
“Like what?”
“Like I’m killed.”
“Oh my God.”
“Then I want you to open the envelope.” Allison was cold. She was talking fast. “Inside you’ll see another envelope stamped and addressed to the Washington Post. I want you to mail it. Got that?”
“Allison, what’s this about. What’s in the envelope?”
“You don’t want to know. Please just do what I asked. Promise?”
“I promise.”
“Thanks.”
Allison went back to her apartment, slept a couple of hours, then caught the 6:50 a.m. train to Washington.
She used Martin’s cell number to call him at 7:15 a.m., just as Paul suggested. He didn’t ask her what she wanted, but he simply said, “Come to my office at nine this morning.”
“I can’t make nine. I’m on a train on my way back from Providence.”
“Then come as soon as your train arrives.”
Washington
Driving from Providence to Washington was tough for Xiang. The first part of the trip was in sleet and freezing rain. The rest of the way just rain. At least the traffic was light. All the while Xiang kept his eye on the clock. He had committed the route to memory.
He planned to arrive at his Connecticut Avenue apartment at 4:15 a.m.. He pulled up in front of the building at three minutes after that. Just enough time to change clothes and set off for Rock Creek Park to meet Jasper.
Xiang decided that the rain and mud on the jogging trail would be an advantage. In all of their meetings to date, Xiang had never seen another jogger on the trail at five in the morning. For today’s meeting when he expected Jasper to turn over the five-year plan, anything to ensure their privacy was an advantage.
When Xiang reached the meeting place, he found Jasper already there holding a black Chevy Chase Country Club umbrella over his head. He was wearing a wind breaker with a pocket large enough to hold a document. Hopefully, the plan.
Water was running down Xiang’s head and into his eyes. He moved close enough to Jasper to get under the umbrella.
“What happened to your nose?” Jasper asked .
“I was in a boxing match with one of my colleagues. You should have seen what he looked like.”
“Now tell me about Allison Boyd,” Jasper asked anxiously. “She’s all over the news. Was the man she killed at the Metro station one of yours?”
“You don’t have to worry. Everything is taken care of.”
“It doesn’t seem that way to me.”
“The secretary of state persuaded the Washington police to close their investigation.”
“That’s good news.”
“Do you have the document for me?”
Jasper shook his head. “The secretary of defense asked for a two-day delay in the hearing. The military people couldn’t complete the five year plan and be ready to testify until Wednesday morning at ten. They’ll deliver the document to my house Tuesday evening. I’ll bring it to a meeting with you here Wednesday morning at five.”
“Okay,” Xiang said softly.
Xiang was disappointed, and he knew Liu would be upset because of the delay, but nothing he could do about it. The important thing was that Jasper was still planning to turn the document over to Xiang.
“Now what about the CD?” Jasper asked.
Xiang realized he couldn’t tell Jasper there was no CD and that he was in the clear. If he did that, Jasper might not turn over the document. He had to stall and maintain his leverage over Jasper.
“I’m getting close.”
“You told me that the last time we were together.”
Xiang had to string Jasper along until Wednesday morning when Jasper had the five-year plan. “I expect Allison to go to Vanessa’s bank vault today. Chances are that’s where Vanessa hid it. Once she gets it, I’ll snatch it from her and deliver it to you Wednesday morning.”
That seemed to satisfy Jasper. He was smiling. But as soon as the words were out of Xiang’s mouth, referring to the bank vault, he realized he had screwed up. He had left one loose end: those books in Allison’s bag that he had never examined at the loading dock. Those could be earlier volumes of Vanessa’s diaries Allison found in the bank vault box and might have mentioned Jasper. Well, it was too late to do anything about it now. Besides, they didn’t involve the CD. They could only hurt Jasper.
But if Allison exposed Jasper’s affair with Vanessa in Anguilla before Jasper delivered the plan to Xiang, Jasper might be too angry to turn it over. Damn. Xiang felt inadequate for the role Liu had thrust upon him. He was too inexperienced. Like a boy, unaccustomed to water, he was thrown into a lake. Sink or swim. He was thrashing, but he made up his mind not to go down.
“You might be right about the bank vault being the place where Vanessa hid the CD,” Jasper said thoughtfully.
The rain was letting up. Jasper paused to put down the umbrella. Then he continued, “Allison’s a tough little wench, and she’s used to digging. That’s her job in archeology.”
“I know that. I did research on her. That’s why I’m confident she’ll lead me to it in the next two days.” He thought of Providence. He was angry at himself for not being able to break into the archeology building. That must have been where the CD was: in Allison’s office.
“I hope you’re right.”
Xiang saw a jogger approaching on the trail. “We better split,” he said and took off running away from the jogger at a much faster pace.
Over his shoulder, he watched Jasper raise his umbrella and use it to conceal his face.
As he ran, Xiang thought about his meeting with Jasper. When he got to the embassy, he had to call Liu, who wouldn’t be happy that Xiang didn’t have the plan. He’d curse and yell at Xiang. But at the end of it, he’d have to wait two more days for something that valuable.
* * *
Allison took a seat in front of Martin’s desk.
“What have you decided about going to the press?” he asked.
“I was trying to make up my mind. Then I found a CD that puts a whole new light on the incident.”
“What CD?” Martin sounded puzzled.
“When I put together all the pieces of what happened in Anguilla, I decided Vanessa wanted Jasper to marry her. To convince him to do that, she threatened to disclose a damaging CD.”
Allison took it out of her bag and held it up.
“Where did you get that?”
“Vanessa mailed it to my office at Brown.”
“Do any other copies exist?”
She decided to lie. She had to protect her insurance policy until she needed it. With Martin. Even with Paul. With everyone except Sara. “To my knowledge, it is the only CD. There are no copies.”
“What do you mean the CD is damaging?”
“Do you have a CD player?”
He pointed to a machine on the credenza. Allison inserted the CD and hit play.
As it did, she watched Martin’s face. What she saw was stunned disbelief.
Paul had told her that Jasper was a friend of Martin’s. She was sure he never expected this from the senator.
At the end, he said, “This is very serious.”
“I realized that so I called Paul in LA about it last night. I told him that I wanted to take it to the FBI. He said you could help me. Tell me where to go in the FBI.”
“I don’t think you want to do it yourself. You’re wanted by the DC Police. That will affect your credibility.”
“Then how should I get it to the FBI?”
&n
bsp; Martin walked over to the window overlooking Pennsylvania Avenue. He appeared to be deep in thought. After a minute, he sighed, turned around, and said, “Leave it with me. FBI Director Jim Forester is a former judge and someone I’ve known a long time. I’ll take it to him. Jasper may be my friend, but he can’t get away with treason. You’ve done the country a great service.”
“You want me to go with you to see Forester?”
“No offense, Allison, but your presence will only complicate things with that arrest warrant for you. When I talk to Forester, I can sidestep all that stuff. Ultimately the CD speaks for itself.”
She handed him the CD. “I guess you’re right. How soon will you be able to get the CD to the FBI?”
Martin asked for her cell number and said, “Stay in Washington. The FBI doesn’t move real fast, particularly with something like this where a member of Congress is involved. They may want to talk to you. Meantime, keep out of sight so you’re not arrested.”
When Allison left Martin’s building, the sun was shining. She decided to walk to Paul’s house. It would take her about an hour, but she hadn’t exercised in days and she needed it.
As she walked, she felt very pleased with herself. This was all turning out so much better than she expected. Rather than simply disclosing Jasper’s weekend trip with Vanessa in the media and destroying his marriage and his political career, she would be responsible for Jasper going to jail for treason for a very long time. She would gain her revenge over Jasper for what he had done to Vanessa in Anguilla.
* * *
After Allison left, for a full two minutes Martin sat dumbstruck at his desk. He asked his secretary to hold all his calls. He had to think this through.
He played out in his mind what would happen if he took the CD to Forester. The FBI would initially schedule an interview with Jasper. Since he was a US senator, they wouldn’t immediately arrest him. Jasper might try to argue that the CD was a phony, fabricated by his lover to force Jasper to marry her. But the FBI technical people would cut through that. They’d establish the CD was authentic. Jasper was going down. No doubt about it.
Martin recalled Jasper’s harsh words at Camelot. “If I go down, I’m pulling you with me.”
He had no doubt that Jasper meant it. He would trumpet Martin’s involvement in Vanessa’s death. The chief justice nomination was practically his. Arthur had told him that. He couldn’t let that snake Jasper, an adulterer and a traitor, disrupt what he had worked for all these years.
As Martin rehashed the Anguilla events in his mind, he wondered if Jasper was responsible for Vanessa’s drowning. The man was a superb swimmer. He could have found a way to kill her, which would make him a murderer as well. And if that was the case, Martin thought, he would have, unwittingly, been an accessory after the fact. My God. He’d never thought of his possible involvement in a murder until now. But this CD was so explosive that Jasper could have killed Vanessa because of it.
Since Allison’s visit, the stakes for Martin had increased exponentially. He had to act to save not only his chief justice nomination, but his career—indeed his life.
He had to find a way out of this quagmire.
One possibility was to hold up turning the CD over to Forester for a brief period of time—long enough to disclose the CD to the Chinese ambassador and determine whether it was a forgery or something else was happening. Perhaps this CD wasn’t what it seemed.
Martin realized doing that would be a dangerous move. He was a private citizen, not part of the United States law enforcement. He had already intervened for the Chinese in misleading the secretary of state in connection with the Metro death. People could argue that Martin’s talking to the ambassador about the CD would make him complicit in Chinese espionage. That would be far more serious than moving the body of a dead woman.
How could he possibly justify that?
“Well, Mr. Prosecutor, I wanted to make certain the CD was authentic.”
“That wasn’t your responsibility. Was it, Mr. Martin?”
“No, sir. It wasn’t.”
That rationalization just wouldn’t fly.
But on the other hand, if the CD was a forgery or if something else was involved, Martin had to know before he turned it over to Forester. Martin had so much riding on what happened with this CD. He had to remain in charge for as long as he could. To control his own destiny.
What should he do?
Call the Chinese ambassador or not?
Martin honed in on the tough decision.
I can go either way.
That’s bullshit.
Having come so far down the slippery slope, you know damn well what you’re going to do.
Martin thought about his schedule for this evening. Francis would be at the Kennedy Center for dinner and a concert with a colleague. He would be alone in the house.
He called the Chinese ambassador.
“I would like to meet with you this evening at eight at my house. Can you do that?”
“I’ll be there,” the ambassador replied.
* * *
Martin knew the ambassador liked good scotch. He had a bottle of aged Glenlivit on the tea wagon in the den.
“I think you will need this,” Martin said as he fixed them each a drink. “And you had better sit down.”
When they were both seated, Martin said, “You have a very big problem.” He didn’t say “we” because the ambassador would have no idea Martin was involved in Vanessa’s death.
The ambassador took a gulp, then said, “More about the Metro matter?”
“That would be easy. I want to play a CD for you.”
As it played, Martin watched the ambassador. His face turned pale. He was trembling. Martin thought he might have a heart attack.
At the end, after Martin hit the stop button, the ambassador said, “Is this a privileged conversation?”
“Absolutely. I am the lawyer for your embassy and country.”
“Then I want to ask you how you got the CD?”
“Allison Boyd, the woman who pushed your man onto the Metro tracks, gave it to me.”
“Are there any copies?”
“She told me, ‘no.’ I believe her.”
“What do you intend to do with this?”
“Take it to Jim Forester, the FBI director.”
“I see.”
“In view of my long relationship with your government, I am willing to wait until ten o’clock tomorrow morning to take it to Forester. Perhaps, before then, you can persuade me that the CD is a forgery or give me some other reason not to turn it over.”
* * *
Xiang was in his apartment cooking dinner when he received a call from the ambassador, “Come back to the embassy now. Meet me in my office as soon as you can.”
The frantic tone in the ambassador’s voice informed Xiang that something serious and terrible had occurred. He immediately guessed: someone had found the CD, which he had told Liu didn’t exist. His heart was pounding.
Xiang drove at breakneck speed to the embassy and immediately went to the ambassador’s office.
The grim-faced ambassador told Xiang, “Vanessa’s CD has been located, exposing Operation Trojan Horse.”
“No … how could that be?”
“The girl Allison found it.”
“Where?”
“I wasn’t told.”
“You heard the CD?”
The ambassador nodded. “Unfortunately, it’s exactly as Vanessa represented to Jasper in Anguilla. It exposes operation Trojan Horse and Minister Liu’s recruitment of Jasper. It’s a disaster.”
Xiang was thinking about what he could do now. The ambassador interrupted him. “We’ll call Minister Liu in Beijing on the secure phone. The three of us have to be on the call.”
“Of course,” Xiang said weakly.
Moments later, with the call on speaker, the ambassador reported on his meeting with Martin and what he had heard on the CD. As he spoke, Xiang heard Liu curse from t
ime to time. At the end, Liu asked the ambassador to leave the office and close the door, “So I can talk to Xiang alone.”
When the ambassador was gone, Liu told Xiang, “Pick up the phone and get it off speaker.”
“Yes sir.”
His hand was shaking so badly he could barely hold the phone.
“Now listen, Xiang. You assured me on your life and that of your parents’ that the CD did not exist. You said it was all a bluff by Vanessa to induce Jasper to marry her. Correct?”
“Yes, sir. I’m prepared to come home and accept my punishment.”
“I would enjoy that, but I have an alternative. A way for you to redeem yourself.”
“I’ll do anything you ask.”
“Good. I want you to meet Jasper tomorrow morning and kill him.”
Liu said it coldly, in a voice devoid of emotion, as if he were asking Xiang to close the door.
Xiang was stunned. He wanted to serve his country, but this wasn’t what he had signed on to do. He realized he was being stupid and naive. Though it was risky for him, he decided to make a pass at persuading Liu to change Jasper’s death sentence.
“But tomorrow evening Jasper will have the five year plan. Wednesday morning, he’ll give it to me.”
“Perhaps he will, or perhaps he’s just stringing you along as you are with him and the CD.”
That stopped Xiang for an instant. He reddened and said, “I’ve spent enough time with Jasper to know when he’s telling the truth.”
“I doubt that. But don’t be such a fool. Even if what you are saying is correct, that he expects to have the five year plan tomorrow evening and to give it to you Wednesday morning, that will never happen now. If Jasper is alive tomorrow morning, he’ll be arrested before noon. He’ll never even get his hands on the five year plan. Jasper can’t possibly help us anymore. The only chance we have of persuading Martin not to turn over the CD to the FBI is if Jasper is dead. Do you understand?”
Reluctantly, Xiang now agreed with Liu. “Yes sir. That’s correct.”
“Let me ask you, Xiang, have you ever killed a man?”
“No, sir.”
“And you don’t want to kill Jasper. Do you?”