They drove north of Richmond until they found a small motel in Hanover that would take a cash deposit. They thanked Eric for the ride and settled into the small room. It was completely tasteless, with a flowered bedspread, flowered wallpaper, and flowered curtains. And nothing matched. It was like living in a poorly designed greenhouse. Jennifer took one look at the bed and lay down on top of the covers with her clothes on.
“Well, I guess that explains why the car chasing us through Richmond was government issue. Must have been friends of our good guy turned bad.”
“Gordon, we’re talking about four of the most influential men in the country when it comes to law enforcement and espionage. All four of these men are heavy hitters. And the agencies they work for are huge and have unlimited resources. How the hell are we supposed to smoke out the one working with Andrews?”
“If we could get in the room with all four of them, maybe we could get the traitor to make a mistake and give himself away.”
She shook her head. “Getting in the room with all four of them at the same time is next to impossible. And even if we do manage to get in that room, we can’t rely on him cracking. We’re not dealing with an amateur here. These men are all professionals, and any one of them could twist any proof we have in a totally different direction.”
Gordon stared at the picture in the newspaper. “So one of these men knew all along that the virus threat was completely bogus. What a prick. Whoever it is deserves to go down real hard.”
“What have we got?” Jennifer asked rhetorically. “Andrews owns a ton of stock and options in Veritas. He has to exercise those options by mid-December, and from what has just happened, Veritas stock is set to go through the roof. So his three million common shares and his options will make him close to a billionaire. That goes to motive but doesn’t prove anything. He manipulated the company books by moving regular expenditures into the tax-credit column. But trying to pin that directly on him could be difficult. He’s probably insulated himself from the actual fraud by setting up some poor suckers as scapegoats. Elizabeth Ripley at the SEC is working on that, but I’m not sure I’d hold my breath there.
“We’re pretty sure he ordered the deaths of Kenga Bakcsi and Albert Rousseau, but we’re without definitive proof. He tried to kill me. And he probably had that family in Denver killed as well. Again, we have no trail leading directly back to him. We need to nail his accomplice. We need to have whoever it is that worked with Andrews on this scheme implicate him. He’s too well insulated otherwise.”
Gordon looked up from the paper. “We trust these men to keep us safe, Jennifer. We sleep well at night because men and women inside these agencies risk their lives to protect us. And when one of these men in a position of great power abuses that privilege, he has to be brought down.”
“Wow,” Jennifer said, grinning. “A speech. Very good.”
He grinned and fell on the bed beside her. “Sorry, I was getting preachy. But I feel strongly that abuse of power should be dealt with in the harshest possible manner.”
“I do too,” she said. “We just need a way in.”
Gordon flipped on the television and surfed through the channels until he found a Washington feed with late news. The big story for the day was still the early-morning news conference with the leaders of the antivirus task force, and Bruce Andrews and Dr. Chiang Wai. They watched the telecast again, both of them looking closely at each man now that they knew one of them was dirty. But which one? There were no clues. No sideways glances or uneasy posturing. All four men played the part of savior perfectly. Their agencies had cooperated fully and effectively to bring this threat under control. And they had found a cure for a deadly virus as well. Heroes.
All but one.
Gordon was half listening to the sound when something struck him. He sat up and concentrated on what the newscaster was saying. It was a recap of how the threat had initially been delivered to them and how the team had pooled its resources to find the lab. After the anchor was finished, Gordon said, “I’ve got an idea. We need to use one resource we already have and we need to secure one more. If we do, I think we can get inside the same room with those men and maybe figure out who it is.”
“I’m listening,” she said, rolling over to face him.