by Jerry Bruce
Christine was the first to speak up. “Frankly I don’t see how we could have grabbed the wrong man. We waited until we were as positive as we could be before we gathered him up.”
“I agree with Christine, Mr. President. I don’t see any way we could have gotten the wrong guy. He is just trying to outfox us. If he is as insane as we believe, then who knows what is going on in that sick mind of his. He may actually believe the lies. He may be so delusional that truths become lies and lies become truths. We may never get satisfactory answers to our questions.”
“I was thinking along those lines myself, Adam. But if what we suspect is true, how do we know that we have put the Controller out of business?” Richard wanted to see if they had come to the same conclusion that he reached a few minutes prior.
“I believe that if we have the Controller in our custody, then nobody should be hearing from him, not you Mr. President, or LeClerc, or anybody else. It should look like what it is—he simply dropped from the face of the earth.” Christine was thinking the same thing as Richard.
“I believe that as well, Mr. President. Maybe we need to try something which would elicit a response from the Controller if we have the wrong man in custody.” Adam got up and started pacing as he spoke, as he was prone to do when deep in thought.
Richard offered up that he tried calling the Controller several times since they had Wilkins under wraps only to receive no answer. He knew that wouldn’t be sufficient proof, especially if the Controller was aware that Wilkins had been abducted.
“If Wilkins isn’t the Controller, he is surely one of his closest staff members and would be missed. We need to come up with a foolproof plan to force the Controller to make a move and tip his hand.” Adam was still pacing and it was beginning to irritate Richard, not that he wasn’t used to it, it just rubbed him the wrong way at this frustrating time. “The question now is what can we do to make that happen.”
“Well whatever we do, we need to make sure that nobody gets hurt and no further damage is done. Other than that, it should be a piece of cake. Sorry, that was uncalled for.” Christine was being sarcastic, realized it and apologized before Adam or Richard could comment.
“Actually you may not be far from the truth. If we do put anyone in jeopardy, it should be me.”
“I disagree, Mr. President. If we go on the assumption that the Controller is still roaming about and knows that Wilkins has been snatched up, then you would probably be the first place he would look for answers. We would need to convince him that you had nothing to do with it. My suggestion is that we place one of those other leaders that have remained loyal to him on the hot seat.” Adam was pacing even faster now that he thought he was on to something.
“If he suspected one of the others was behind an attempted overthrow, he would intervene by killing the culprit. We may not like it, but we can’t just throw someone to the wolves to prove a point.” Richard was punctuating his opinion with rapid hand movements as if he were chopping at something invisible.
“Adam’s right, we can’t be a party to putting you in a threatening position. If someone close to the Controller has to pay the price, then so be it. We are going to have to take them down sooner or later, anyway.” Christine was hoping Richard would change his thinking.
“What choice do we have? What are our alternatives? Give me something to work with if you don’t like my idea, Mr. President. Just remember one thing—there isn’t a single one of them that wouldn’t kill, who knows how many innocent people, to stay in power. Can you honestly say that if the Syrian President was assassinated that the world wouldn’t be a better place? Come on, we’re talking about saving the world. What’s wrong with sacrificing someone who has put it in harms way?”
“I just think that there has to be a better way, Adam. You make a valid point, but before we assume that someone has to die, let’s try to come up with another plan.”
“Very well, Mr. President, I’ll give it some more thought. Now, if there isn’t anything else, I think I’ll head back to my office.”
“Thanks Adam, I’m sure you will come up with another suggestion.”
Richard got up and saw Adam to the door, closing it after his departure. Turning toward Christine, he asked, “Is there anything you want to say that you don’t feel comfortable saying in front of Adam? I sense that you are reluctant to speak your mind, sometimes.”
“Why do you say that? I’m always contributing to the conversations.”
“It’s just a feeling that I have. We are in this together, as equals; everyone has the right to speak their mind.”
“I’ve been saying what’s on my mind. I guess it’s just hard for me to go along with any plans that might put you in jeopardy. I care far too much for you to see you place yourself in harms way, Richard.”
Richard walked over to the window and stared out, focusing on nothing in particular, “I assure you, I don’t look forward to making myself bait, but there may not be any other way.”
“We’ll just have to find a another way to handle this development. Having you voluntarily place yourself in jeopardy is not acceptable.”
“Christine, I don’t like the idea anymore than you do, but it may become necessary. Resolve yourself to that and it will be easier on both of us.”
“I may resolve myself to it but I don’t have to like it.” As she spoke, Christine walked over to where Richard stood and placed herself between him and the window. She reached up and put her arms around his neck, stared into his eyes for a few seconds and then kissed him passionately.
As they separated, Richard commented, “While I find that invigorating, I hardly think it’s proper office etiquette.”
“Who cares about proper?” With that they kissed again.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
“Okay Mr. Wilkins,” Vale was emotionless as he talked to Wilkins, “What I’m going to do now is wire you up for a polygraph examination—a lie detector, if you will.”
“I know what a polygraph is. It will just confirm the truth, the truth that I have been telling you all along.”
“Then you have nothing to worry about.”
Vale proceeded to tell Wilkins how the procedure to obtain a baseline would be conducted. After running through the baseline establishing questions, Vale got down to asking the same questions as he had asked while Wilkins was under the influence of the sodium pentothal. This time they were reworded so as to invite only a “yes” or “no” response.
Vale posed the first two questions, both of which Wilkins answered very coolly, and made note of the fact that Wilkins was exceptionally calm. Usually there was some uneasiness with polygraph subjects, the result of a small amount of apprehension that the baseline questioning did little to relieve. Only subjects who had been through previous exams displayed this much poise. Vale tucked this information away for later when he would be analyzing the results.
Vale asked the rest of the questions and asked some of those a second time to verify that he got the same reaction each time. The questioning ended when a bolt of lightening lit the room, followed instantaneously by a horrendous clap of thunder. This so startled Wilkins that the polygraph went wild, its needles bouncing crazily over the graph. After several minutes, Wilkins was still showing signs of distress so Vale turned off the equipment and disconnected the wires. He thought it odd that Wilkins would be so upset with such a common occurrence; it was almost as though he had never seen lightening or heard thunder.
Vale asked Bradshaw to make lunch for everyone while he retired to his office to go over the examination results.
* * *
The hard rain was hitting the windows with such impact that Richard turned his desk chair around one hundred and eighty degrees to have a look. The sky was so dark that all the cars passing on the street below had turned on their headlights, their beams glistening off the drenched asphalt. Just as Richard glanced up at the skyline, a bolt of lightening flashed off in the distance. Richard subconsciously counted the dura
tion between the flash and the thunder and calculated the lightening to be five miles away. Richard watched for quite a while as the storm moved closer and closer, timing each bolt of light. Before too long the heavy rain had turned into a hailstorm that pounded out a staccato beat upon the glass. Glancing back down toward the street, Richard could see that traffic had slowed to a crawl and the street itself was turning white.
Just then Richards’s phone came alive with the intercom’s electronic interpretation of his secretary’s voice. “Mr. President, Adam Broderick is on the line and would like to speak to you.”
Richard pushed the flashing button as he placed the receiver over his right ear. “What can I do for you Adam? Have you come up with a solution to our dilemma?”
“We may not have the same dilemma anymore, Mr. President.”
“Meaning, we have a new one?”
“I’m afraid so, Mr. President. I was just reading the “Wall Street Journal” and something dawned on me that got me to thinking. You read the Journal as well as the business section of the newspaper every day don’t you?”
“Of course, but you know that. What are you getting at Adam?”
“I went back from the first day since we grabbed Wilkins and checked every day since then and nowhere is there any mention of Wilkins being unaccounted for. Wouldn’t you think that if the CEO of a major conglomerate goes unseen for days that there would be some mention of it? Especially when two days after we grabbed him, Wilkins was scheduled to give the keynote address at the biggest assemblage to hit this town since the Democratic convention?”
“Go on.”
“I looked into it and obtained an insert to the convention agenda that simply stated that Wilkins would be unable to give the address due to illness. That is the only thing I’ve been able to find that mentions Wilkins. Even the news article that summarized the convention made no mention of Wilkins. I don’t know about you but this sounds like a cover-up to me.”
“Definitely. But let’s be logical. Wouldn’t you put a lid on all outgoing news as the first step you take if you were second in command to a missing CEO? After all, you would have to buy some time to ascertain just what happened and you would have to do this without drawing attention. If news leaked out, the stock could be impacted and loads of investors would lose millions.”
“I agree with what you say, but where do you draw the line as to how long you sit on the news? At the very least, you would have to file a report with the police within a reasonable timeframe. If he were to turn up dead in some alley, you would have a lot of questions to answer as to why you didn’t report his absence. I checked and no police report is on file. No, Mr. President, this sounds like someone is trying to let the matter just fade away as if nothing happened. That leads me to the question of who could pull this off, with the logical answer being none other than the Controller.”
“Oh my God!” Richard’s tone sent a chill down Adams back. “Adam, get Christine and get over to my office right away.”
“Yes, sir.” Adam was puzzled by Richard’s reaction. He seemed more upset than the situation warranted.
Richard slumped down deeper in his chair and whispered to himself, “God, I hope I’m wrong.”
* * *
Vale kept going over the polygraph results. He checked and rechecked each question and answer to make sure that there was no mistake. There was too much at stake for any of this exam to be misinterpreted. He wouldn’t contact Thornton until he was positive about his recommendation.
All indications were that Wilkins was telling the truth—again. But just as in the previous questioning, Vale felt that Wilkins could be so convinced of what the truth was, or so well prepped, that he could lie repeatedly and show no signs whatsoever. Besides, there was the lightening—Vale couldn’t put Wilkins’ reaction to the lightening out of his mind. There was something there that Vale couldn’t put his finger on, something that told him there was a complexity to Wilkins that hadn’t been revealed until now. Vale, though detesting the thought, could see no other alternative but to recommend to Thornton that they proceed with the next phase of the interrogation. He was hoping that it wouldn’t come down to this, but this was too important not to make positively sure that all the facts were obtained. Once again his mind resurrected the same questions he had been harboring since first getting assigned to this task force—who is this guy Wilkins and why is he so important? He hoped one day those questions would be answered.
* * *
Adam filled Christine in on his conversation with Richard as they walked toward the president’s office. She agreed with Adam that the Controller must still be out there somewhere.
As they were shown in, Richard didn’t turn away from the window but continued to gaze out as he told them to have a seat. After a few seconds he turned and sat down facing them.
“I assume that Adam briefed you, Christine.”
“Yes sir; and I agree with Adam. It sounds like the Controller is still at large.”
“Well, I’m afraid that we may have a problem that none of us ever considered. Whether we have the Controller in custody or not, there are only two scenarios that make sense. Hear me out and put my logic to the test. If we do not have him in custody then he is playing games with us—like ignoring my calls and covering up the Wilkins disappearance. That would indicate that he is on to us and we are treading in deep water. That is scenario one. Scenario two says that we do indeed have him. That means the cover-up would indicate that someone is going to great lengths to insure that his existence is downplayed.”
“So you think that there is someone he controls who is trying to protect and maintain the status quo, so that he could continue with the overall plans?” Adam hadn’t considered that possibility.
“Worse than that.”
“What could possibly be worse?” Christine was wondering where Richard was going with this.
“I don’t think that any of the Controller’s underlings would be capable of following in his footsteps. He’s one of a kind, thank God.”
“Then what are you thinking?” Adam sounded frustrated.
“That there is the possibility the Controller has someone he answers to—a boss with even more power. The Controller himself may be expendable.”
* * *
“What are you saying, agent Vale?” Thornton wanted to hear the words not just the implications.
“I’m saying that I am no more certain now than I was before, in fact if anything, I’m even less sure what this guy is telling me. Something tells me that this could be our man but we haven’t found a way to prove it—yet.”
“So you suggest we bite the bullet and go to the next phase?”
“Yes, sir. I don’t see that we have a choice.”
“Very well, agent Vale, you have my authorization, proceed.”
* * *
“Mr. President, Director Thornton is on the line. He says it is important.” The intercom interrupted Richard as he was explaining his theory.
“I’ll take the call.” Richard switched on the speakerphone that sat in the middle of the coffee table so that Christine and Adam could listen in.
“Hello, director. You have some good news I hope.”
“I’m afraid not, sir. Our agent sees no other option but to proceed to the next level of our interrogation process.”
“The polygraph examination didn’t clear away any of the haze, I take it?”
“If anything, sir, it added to it. Our agent feels that there is more to Wilkins than first meets the eye.”
“Such as?”
“Normally I wouldn’t place much stock in gut feelings, Mr. President, but when it’s this agent’s gut, I feel we need to take it seriously. If Vale, that’s my team leader, says he feels there is something to be gained by further interrogation, I say we back him up.”
“I see. I trust your judgment, director. Keep me posted.” With that Richard ended the call and slumped back into his seat.
Christine, Adam a
nd Richard just stared at each other for at least a minute before Richard finally spoke.
“Why do I have the feeling that we are in worse shape now than we were before?”
Christine hoped that what she was thinking was wrong but said it anyway, “Because we are.”
“Wait a minute. Mr. President, suppose you’re right and the Controller does indeed have a boss. If Wilkins is the Controller, we should be able to force him to give up his boss’ identity. Maybe we should concentrate our interrogation efforts with that in mind.” Adam thought he was on to something.
“I suppose we wouldn’t have much to lose if we redirected our efforts.” Christine thought there was merit in Adam’s suggestion.
“I say we wait to see what the interrogators turn up before we change our plan. I don’t want to see us go off on tangents until we are perfectly sure that Wilkins isn’t the end of the line.”
“But waiting could come back to hurt us later, Mr. President. The longer we wait, the more time we give our foe to prepare a counter-attack.”
“That’s true, Adam. But what if we’re on the wrong track and Wilkins is indeed the Controller and doesn’t have a boss? We would lose precious time in that case as well. We’re in a damned if we do, damned if we don’t scenario.”
“I suppose you’re right, Mr. President. Maybe we don’t any choice but to proceed as planned and see if we hit pay dirt.”
“Unfortunately, and as much as I detest the idea, it looks like the Controller is back in the drivers seat—for the meantime.” Richard let out a big sigh at the idea.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
This was the third straight day of heavy rains. The agents were growing weary of being cramped up inside the house. Even the occasional break in the showers wasn’t any relief as the grounds were a sea of mud and not conducive to leg stretching walks.
Two of the agents had to go outside once when one of the video cameras started acting up due to a wet connection, the result of a leak in the eave right above the camera’s location. The agents moved the camera over a foot, out from under the leak, dried out the connection and brought the camera back on-line. This simple action was a chore due to the heavy downpour and ankle deep mud. Once the task was completed, it took them a long time to clean the mud off their shoes since no one had considered the weather and duly brought along rubber overshoes. Cursing as they sat on the front porch removing the caked on mud with screwdrivers, they wondered what they had done wrong to draw such an assignment, never realizing that their country’s future rested in their hands.