T om McNamara shook his head in disbelief after Curtis had shown him the bank accounts and played the tape of the conversation. In a career spanning nearly forty years, McNamara had seen President Nixon resign before he was impeached for criminal conduct and he’d seen Vice President Spiro Agnew resign over corruption. For McNamara, corruption in high office was nothing new, it had been going on since the dawn of time, but the sheer magnitude of the payments to Bolton made Nixon and Agnew look like amateurs.
‘Well, I suppose if you’re going to rob a bank, you might as well rob a big one,’ McNamara said cynically.
‘It’s not the bribes I’m worried about, Tom, it’s the conspiracy to attack the Chinese in Beijing and murder half the human race in the process. In a few days time, Beijing’s Capitol Airport will be handling more than eighty aircraft an hour. And at the end of the Games we might be faced with Ebolapox being transported to hundreds of thousands of cities and towns as people return home.’
‘Every time I think I’ve seen everything in politics, some power hungry asshole proves me wrong and from what Professor Sayed and Dr Braithwaite have told us, Dolinsky was a lot further down the track than we thought. Where’s Halliwell at the moment?’
‘Campaigning in Louisiana. Kate says he’s due back the day after tomorrow.’
‘And the Ebolapox?’
‘Ferraro alias al-Falid left for Beijing yesterday and although he wouldn’t be stupid enough to try and get vials of a deadly virus through an airport, or I hope he wouldn’t, I’ve scrambled one of our jets. Imran’s got some debriefing to do at the UN, so I’ve sent Braithwaite down to Atlanta to check it’s all still there in the Halliwell vaults. This is every bit as dangerous as you and I thought it would be.’
‘I think Imran’s right. We should shut this fucking Ebolapox program down immediately,’ Tom said, angry at the short-sightedness of those who’d refused to destroy the smallpox stocks when they’d had the chance. ‘Although that’s only half the problem. After we’ve arrested Halliwell, all hell’s going to break loose because it will just about sink the Republicans. Given wunderkind’s relationship with the President,’ Tom said, looking up towards the seventh floor, ‘I wouldn’t be surprised if they try and find a way of keeping this quiet until after the election. As for arresting the President…’
‘Impeachment?’
‘That’s what it will come down to, but can you imagine the impact of a trial in the Senate? Thanks to our “bomb now, ask questions later” foreign policy, not to mention the conviction in some quarters that God is on our side, somewhere in the world, someone burns one of our flags every day of the fucking week. I’m not one for covering up the stinking cesspits some of our politicians swim in, but if it ever comes out that the American President was part of a plot to poison half the world’s population, Islam versus the West will go into meltdown.’
‘I think you’re right,’ Curtis agreed. ‘The fact that he wasn’t President at the time is not going to save us, although I have a suggestion. Before you go up to the seventh floor and give them a chance to put the lid on this, there is one man on the Hill we can trust.’
‘Name him,’ Tom responded grumpily, ‘or is it a her?’
Curtis grinned, ignoring the bait. ‘Professor Sayed is very good friends with the Speaker of the House.’
‘Didn’t you say Speaker Burton is Halliwell’s father-in-law?’
‘Even if his daughter is up to her neck in this, and I suspect she hasn’t the faintest idea what her psychopathic husband’s been up to, he wouldn’t flinch. More importantly, he might have an insight into how best to handle this. Davis Burton is a man of great principle and a Vietnam veteran.’
Tom nodded. ‘I remember, Congressional Medal of Honour when his platoon bumped into 200 VC on a track in the jungle. Very cool under fire and effectively saved their lives.’ Tom McNamara looked thoughtful. It was a risk, but he’d been in that business all his life. Wunderkind could wait a little while longer. ‘Twenty-four hours long enough?’ was all he said.