Divide & Conquer

by McDonald, Murray

  “OK, OK but please, just try to take it easy. It would be good if you were still around when I got back from Moscow,” suggested Sean. “Look, I’m at the mansion, I need to go.”

  Vincent replaced the receiver and stared at the handset.

  “What’s wrong?” asked Jane, rushing over.

  “The call I had with Justice this morning, they are serious. They are going to throw the book at Sean. I thought they might have calmed down overnight but not a chance. They have a team of prosecutors gearing up to hit him with everything and anything they can think of. They warned me to say goodbye to my boy, I’ll not be seeing him for a very long time.”

  “But it wasn’t just Sean, I made the calls!” she said. “We should all be in trouble!”

  “You’re a CIA employee, they wouldn’t dare. Same with Mike, he was being paid for his work”

  “Say Sean was working for you!” she countered logically.

  “He’s already told everyone he’s not a CIA employee,” replied Vincent, shaking his head.

  “They’re going to charge him with smuggling on a national scale and for hooking up the cartel and the East coast suppliers!”

  “You’ll think of something,” smiled Jane.

  “Quote 'you can’t get him out of this V, drugs are the President’s big thing’ and that’s straight from the Attorney General, the childhood friend of the President! He’s about to risk his life for a country that wants to lock him up and throw away the key. That same country who protected the Senator that nearly got him killed!”

  “Tell him not to go!” she said defiantly. “Fuck them all!”

  Vincent stared at Jane in shock. In all the years he had known her, she had never once blasphemed, never mind use the F word.

  “I can’t, it’s the same country I would give every last breath to protect!”

  Chapter 72

  Katherine led Sean through to the Governor’s study where the Governor sat, despondently staring into space.

  “Good afternoon, Governor Brown,” said Sean, taking the seat next to him.

  Katherine waited until Sean looked at her, took the hint and left.

  “I’ll leave you to it,” she said, closing the door behind her.

  Sean had a list of things he had been told not to discuss with the Governor. Specifically anything to do with Surkov and what they may or may not think he was up to, along with the Russian President. As they had been warned previously, relations with Russia were at an all time high. It was not the time for the next US President to storm into Russia and declare their president was hooked up with a lunatic of world ending proportion.

  The man was broken. Nothing Sean said was going to change that. And nothing he said was going to get the Governor on a plane to Moscow any time in the near future. He stood up and patted the man on the back before joining Katherine in the hallway.

  “Well?” she asked

  Sean began to shake his head but stopped as he considered what he had been through the previous day. Five CIA agents had given their lives and all because of Dr Boris Surkov. For all they knew, it was Surkov who had had the Governor’s wife killed.

  “Just give me another minute,” said Sean, before rejoining the Governor.

  Katherine paced the hallway as Sean did whatever he was doing. After ten minutes, a cry came from the study. “Katherine!” had her rushing into the room.

  She looked at the sofa where the governor had become a feature. He wasn’t there. She looked at his desk where the Governor stood, reviewing his diary.

  “What time are we leaving?” he asked, all business.

  “Five pm Sir, in just over three hours.”

  “Anything in the diary for this afternoon?”

  'No I cleared it,” replied Katherine.

  Governor Brown looked over at Sean. “Well, I don’t see any reason to wait, let’s go now! It’s not like we’re flying commercial,” he announced.

  As the Governor marched out of the room, Katherine looked across at Sean, hoping for some inkling as to how he pulled off the impossible.

  Sean shrugged in response. It was bad enough he had spilled his guts for the Governor, he wasn’t about to do it for Katherine as well.

  “Oh, and Katherine,” the Governor paused at the door. “Get the FBI to investigate Nicole’s death more fully. I want a full report on my return!”

  “Of course, Sir!” replied Katherine, remaining as calm on the outside as her body would allow. Tricking the Austin police force with her killing was one thing, the FBI was another.

  She immediately turned back to Sean who gave her a 'what can you do’ shrug, as he followed the Governor into the hallway.

  Katherine went to the desk and picked up the phone. If she called the FBI, they wouldn’t rest until they found something. Her affair with Nicole might even be uncovered if they decided to look deep into Nicole’s life before her death. The local police had not done any of this, accepting, as expected, the tragedy at face value.

  She hovered over the telephone, the FBI could destroy everything she had spent a lifetime preparing. Involving them now couldn’t be undone. But nobody would know but her, she realized. They were about to leave. The FBI wouldn’t arrive until after they had left in any event. And after Moscow, well none of it would matter, she thought. The White House and first lady remained the goal.

  Chapter 73

  Surkov received the update from Katherine and was, as ever, amazed at how she achieved the seemingly impossible. Not only was the Governor coming but he was coming early. Remarkable, just like her mother, he thought. He remembered her fondly, a beautiful child whose beauty had grown throughout her life. However, that had never been in question; her breeding and selection had been very specific. Katherine’s mother was pre-ordained to be the beauty she had become. The training thereafter allowed her to become the seductress that would best serve her country. Katherine was not her only child. While still within the confines of Grebnevo, she had given birth to another daughter, just as beautiful as Katherine but world’s apart in looks. Katherine’s sister looked more at home in Moscow. Her blonde pale skin and beauty had made her the pin up girl of the moment, Yolana, the First Lady of Russia could do no wrong.

  Leaving her daughter Yolana in the hands of Surkov and his team, Katherine’s mother had embarked on her ultimate mission. The trip to Cuba secured the man that would help her defect. Their low-key and legitimate entry ensured the unborn Katherine would inherit an American passport and citizenship. In the land of the free, it meant nothing would stand in her way. Born just eight months after they first met, the dark haired beauty captivated everyone whose eyes fell on her, none more so than her father. The more he stared at her beauty, the more he wondered how he had created such a beautiful creature. Katherine’s mother would look at him staring and lived in fear that one day he would realize she wasn’t his. Inseminated before leaving Russia, there had never been any doubt just how potent a weapon Katherine would become.

  In less than twenty-four hours, Surkov would secure the final piece in his jigsaw and the work he had commenced a lifetime earlier would enter a new and exciting phase. A phase that would create a world Surkov wanted to be part of, a world he had known only too briefly many years before.

  Chapter 74

  Jane fussed alongside Vincent all the way to the Director’s office. Had he not stopped and insisted she wait for him outside of the office, she would have followed him in.

  “Remember if you even feel the slightest unwell, just give me a call and we’ll get the doctor here,” she whispered in his ear as she handed him his file.

  “Ah Vincent, you made it!” chastised the director of CIA, Vincent’s boss.

  “Yes Charles, sorry I’m late,” he offered taking a seat next to the other directorate heads.

  After a perfunctory run through of previous meeting action points, they moved on to new business. Each ran though their current areas of concern and issues they believed needed to be brought to the group. Vi
ncent considered, as it neared his turn, alerting them to, if Mike were correct, the greatest risk to democracy since, well, ever. However, as the Director of the Intelligence Division took the floor, all hell broke loose. Yet another disaster in the pass-off of intelligence from the CIA to Homeland and the FBI had resulted in a terrorist cell fleeing the country. The CIA Director adjourned the meeting and headed for the phone. He’d spend the next few hours in heated debates with the Head of the FBI, Homeland and would no doubt involve the President. If nothing else, to cover his ass.

  Jane stood and rushed over as Vincent exited the office. He threw her a look of don’t even think about it, as she was going to offer him her arm for support. He handed her his file to cover her action.

  “Any news?”

  “Sean called, they’re about to board the flight!” she replied.

  “How did he manage that?” asked Vincent.

  “He said he charmed him!” said Jane with a smile, believing Sean could charm anyone. Sean in her eyes could do no wrong.

  “Bullshit, he bloody well told him!” replied Vincent.

  Jane looked at him as though he was being unfair.

  Vincent nodded to the clock on the wall. “They weren’t scheduled to leave 'til five. They’re leaving two hours early! He’s definitely told him,” he explained.

  “What’s next?” he asked.

  “Rest and the doctor!” she replied firmly.

  “I don’t think so!” he replied. “There is far too much happening!”

  She left his side and walked back to the Director of the CIA’s PA, a good friend of hers. “Hi Shirley, can I have a quick minute with Charles, please?”

  “Of course,” she began to check his diary and eyed Vincent carefully.

  Vincent caught her eye and accepted her terms. She won. If he didn’t, she would be in telling Charles about his minor heart attack and would be out the office for at least a month on doctor’s orders. He didn’t have time to be sick.

  “Oh, it’s OK Shirley, he’s busy, another time,” she said with a smile.

  “Are you sure, Dear, I’ll get you in there!” she promised throwing Vincent a look of disgust.

  Jane caught the look and suddenly realized Shirley must have thought she wanted to complain about Vincent’s behavior. Why else would she be wanting a meeting with Charles?

  “Good God, no!” she laughed patting Shirley’s arm before catching up with Vincent and leading him back to the office.

  “Sean’s on an eleven hour flight and you are going to sleep for each and every one of them,” she ordered. Closing the blinds in his office as the doctor checked his heart rate and blood pressure.

  As the fussing stopped, he closed his eyes and was rewarded with the sound of his office door closing. Peace at last he thought. Eleven hours to work out how he was going to keep Sean from prison. A prospect that was dwindling. An email had arrived from the US Attorney’s office, detailing the name of the prosecutor who would be leading the case and requesting a time and date for Sean to be arrested on his return from Moscow. The speed with which they were moving was stunning and added credence to the warning he had received earlier, to say his goodbyes to Sean. All of this was, of course, academic. Unless he succeeded in Moscow.

  Chapter 75

  The Boeing 747-800 VIP was Governor Rick Brown’s latest toy. As a man with more money than sense, the aircraft was the ultimate gadget for the billionaire and Sean tried his best to keep his cool. It was a truly amazing piece of equipment and should, as everyone expected, the Governor win the election, totally surplus to requirements. Despite being newer and far more luxurious than Air Force One, it had none of the hi-tech defensive or command structure capabilities that made Air Force One unique.

  Sean jokingly offered to look after it for the governor for the four or eight years he wouldn’t be needing it. The governor thanked him but pointed out that leasing it while not in use actually made him a tidy profit and by tidy, he meant a few million.

  Money did beget money thought Sean, it really was true.

  As they settled in for the flight, the Governor caught Sean’s eye and nodded towards his private study. As they made their way towards the door, Katherine stood up to join them.

  “Do you mind, Katherine?” asked the Governor, guiding Sean in. “This is rather personal,” before shutting the door on his Chief of Staff.

  Personal, thought Katherine as she retook her seat. She had a few hours and a night flight to get to know Sean a lot better. She’d find out soon enough what was being discussed. She sat back and relaxed.

  “Sean please take a seat,” suggested the Governor, the friendliness in his tone had become slightly more business like.

  He handed Sean a sheet of paper and waited for Sean to read through it.

  The header was not one Sean was overly pleased to see.

  THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA v’s MR SEAN FOX

  Sean scrolled down the list of charges that had been leveled against him. Drug smuggling being possibly the only one he actually had any idea of the seriousness of.

  “Quite a list!” said Sean.

  “Indeed, is it true?” asked the Governor.

  “Technically, yes!” replied Sean shifting uncomfortably in his seat.

  “Jesus,” and I’ve taken you on this trip. “I’ll get crucified by the press!” The Governor had put his grief aside until after Moscow and as such was very much back in work mode and work mode at that time meant campaign mode.

  “I can explain,” offered Sean.

  “I’m tough on crime, especially drugs. It’s why they love me, Sean. I can’t help you with this!” he said shaking the sheets of charges.

  “I’m not asking you to,” replied Sean indignantly which caught the Governor’s attention.

  “OK, go, explain!” he suggested, taking a seat opposite Sean.

  Governor Rick Brown stayed silent throughout, although his facial expressions gave away plenty. Sean detailed everything that had happened to him since arriving home.

  As Sean stopped talking, the Governor remained speechless, not knowing what to say. Sean sat in anticipation before the Governor finally spoke.

  “Holy shit, that is some explanation!” he offered shaking his head. “I’m not sure a jury in the land will believe it, mind you,” he added.

  “But do you?” asked Sean.

  “Yes!”

  “Thank you,” replied Sean.

  “Sean, they’re going to throw away the key!” he offered as a friend.

  “We’ll see. What will, be will be.”

  “And this Torres guy, the new boss, he still wants you dead?”

  “Yep, I believe after they missed me in Mexico, he raised it to $30 million bucks. I don’t think I’m his favorite person,” smiled Sean.

  “These guys come and go,” offered the Governor as some reassurance.

  “This guy’s smarter than average. Trust me, he’s ensured that even when he’s dead they’ll still be hunting me down!”

  “Sorry?”

  “Escrow fund, pays on proof of my death!”

  “Jesus, he is a smart cookie, so even you killing him doesn’t stop it!”

  “Exactly, in fact killing him ensures it can’t be stopped! I think that’s one of the reasons the government’s so pissed. I’ve put this guy in charge and he is way smarter than them.”

  “You’re remarkably calm for a man with one of the world’s most dangerous cartels after his head,” said the Governor.

  “They have to be alive to collect and they’re going to get one hell of a fight from me. We’ll see how their resolve holds up after I’ve stopped a few!” replied Sean confidently, leaving the Governor in no doubt that he meant it.

  The Governor got up. The chat was over. Sean got up and as he walked to the door, the Governor added. “Obviously, with all this, you can’t possibly accompany me to the Kremlin. We’ll get you a flight back when we land!”

  Sean had the handle of the door in his hand as th
e Governor delivered the news. News that meant he’d get nowhere near Surkov nor be able to keep an eye on the Governor.

  Sean released the handle and returned to the Governor’s desk.

  “Do I just dial normally?” he asked as he picked up the phone.

  The Governor nodded. Sean was, after all, a big powerful guy. If he wanted to use your phone, you’d let him.

  Sean spoke first before handing the phone to the Governor. A heated conversation ensued before he thrust the handset towards Sean and stormed out of the room.

  “Vincent, are you still there?” asked Sean.

  “Yes, he doesn’t like not getting his way,” he said with a laugh.

  “So what’s happening?”

  “You’re back on. I told him if he refused I’d inform the Russians your plane had been hijacked and was going to be used as a weapon against the Kremlin!”

  “Bit extreme?”

  “So’s worry about fucking votes with Surkov around!” exclaimed Vincent.

  “You realize when we land, the threat’s gone?!”

  “Don’t worry about that. I also suggested I’d release details of a sordid affair to the papers!”

  “Jesus ,V, is that why he stormed out!” realized Sean.

  “Partly, it was when I mentioned it would be with a guy that he lost it!”

  “He’s going to be the next President!” reminded Sean.

  “And if we’re right, it’s a presidency he would never want to win!”

  Chapter 76

  Thanks to Vincent’s foray into team building, the remainder of the flight was uneventful. The Governor went to his room and didn’t surface until the captain announced they were twenty minutes from landing. Sean similarly crashed out. Having slept little, he fell into a deep and all consuming sleep. He had imagined a tap tap tapping at his door at some point during the night but it wasn’t until he received an exceedingly cold reception from Katherine that he realized it hadn’t been a dream. He had missed out on, he admired the view, something truly exceptional. He dropped hints about how deeply he can sleep when he is in safe areas but she wasn’t biting, a woman scorned.