the hotel room as a secret office, and about the urgency created by Socorro’s disappearance.
“What do you want to do?” Casey asked.
“Number one is to get Anston before he can hurt Socorro.”
“And number two is Landon?”
Brandon pushed himself to his feet.
“I told you. Landon had nothing to do with any of this. He doesn’t know anything about it.”
Casey pointed at Brandon.
“Sit down.”
Brandon dropped back into the chair.
“Why not Landon first?” Casey asked. “Maybe go public. Try to freeze everything in place.”
“Because then we’d never get Anston. Once this blows up, he’ll know he’s next and make a run for it, and he won’t leave any witnesses behind-starting with Socorro.” Gage felt his body tense. “If she’s still alive.”
F orty minutes after Gage called the Oakland loft, Alex Z and Shakir came through the hotel room door. Their bodyguards posted themselves in the hallway. They set up their laptops to catalogue everything in the office and copy the drives on Brandon’s computers.
Gage swept his hand from the bookcases to the computer on the desk to the file cabinet in the corner, then turned toward Brandon.
“Walk us through it.”
Chapter 85
Gage watched from inside the surveillance van parked a block west of the restaurant as a dinner crowd of black-suited men and women filled the entrance of Tadich Grill. Limousines were double-parked in front. Streetlights and neon signs shone down on pavement slick from an uneasy mist swirling down the street.
B randon Meyer had difficulty working his way through the door. As he crossed the dining room, he saw Marc Anston set down his cell phone on the starched white tablecloth.
“Why are you sweating?” Anston asked as Brandon settled in his chair.
“I had to park six blocks away and I got a late start from court.”
“That’s not like you.”
“I set off some fireworks at the OptiCom hearing. The chief judge came by to kibitz. I couldn’t walk out on him.”
Anston smiled. “We neutralized Gage. Nobody will listen to anything he says.”
Brandon nodded. “And Casey, too.”
Anston pointed toward the restroom sign and picked up the phone. “I’ve got to go the john.”
G age was seated on a metal chair bolted to the floor of the van. Shelves of electronic equipment stretched along the driver’s side: receivers, bugging devices, two-way radios. Viz was stationed at the rear window, binoculars pointed at the entrance, and Joe Casey sat in his Ford Explorer in a yellow zone a block to the east.
“The restaurant is noisy as hell,” Gage said to Viz after Anston left the table. “The wire on Brandon is picking up a lot of background sounds.”
Gage kept the headphones pressed against his ears trying to hear through the conversations at adjoining tables, the clink of glasses, and the clatter of dishes, waiting for Anston to return.
Viz looked toward Gage. “I’m sorry about that Socorro thing. I hope it didn’t get you in a jam with your pals in Tucson.”
“No problem. I’m just glad she finally called.”
“I should’ve told her we were watching the video feed from the ranch.”
“It’s not your fault. Neither one of us wanted to worry her.” Gage adjusted the sound level on his receiver. “Did she say what she was doing?”
“Visiting some friends in Tempe. Then she stayed overnight because she was too tired to drive back and then her cell phone battery died. She’s going to stay one more night and go to a play at the university.”
“You didn’t tell her about Brandon, did you?”
“No. She might’ve done something preemptive.”
Gage peeked through the curtains separating the cab from the interior of the van. He looked through the windshield, scanning the cars and sidewalks and the office and store windows.
“You see anything we need to worry about?” he asked Viz.
Viz raised his binoculars and peered out the rear window. “There are a lot of people on the street, but no George Str-”
“Hold on,” Gage said. “Anston’s back.”
H ow do we keep Gage quiet after the Senate vote tomorrow?” Brandon said. “I can’t keep OptiCom going forever and eventually Oscar Mogasci will roll back the other way. Casey will put him on a polygraph and he’ll fold.”
Anston leaned over the table. His voice turned hard. “I’m tired of Gage and I’m about an inch away from sending him the same way as Charlie Palmer.”
Brandon’s mouth went dry. He hadn’t believed Gage the night before. It was too absurd. His voice fell to a whisper.
“You’re insane. Completely insane. You didn’t kill-”
“TIMCO was a domino. If it fell, everything would’ve followed. I had no choice. We had no choice.”
“There’s no ‘we’ in this.”
Anston laughed. “What is it about judges? The second they’re caught up in something themselves they forget what a conspiracy is. How many of those teenage Mexican wetbacks did you send to federal prison? You think any of them had a hand in any of the murders their narco-bosses committed? But you gave them prison terms like they’d pulled the trigger themselves.”
“I never signed on for this.”
“That’s what they all say.”
“What about Karopian?”
Anston shrugged.
“But Hawkins can show up any time-”
“That would be a helluva trick.”
“You mean-”
“Why don’t you grow up? You and your brother. Lives of pretending their hands aren’t stained by their family’s crimes.”
“Crimes. What crimes?”
“Stop it, Brandon. Don’t embarrass yourself. I saw it. All of it. The CIA doesn’t throw away anything.”
“I don’t want to talk about this.”
“Hundreds of thousands of lives have been lost defending the American way of life. A couple more is a small sacrifice to get where the country needs to go.”
They glanced up at the approaching waiter.
Anston looked back at Brandon.
“Give the nice man your order.”
W hy’d Brandon cut it off?” Viz asked Gage.
“He knows the recording will eventually make the news. He doesn’t want Anston talking about his grandfather’s arms trafficking with the Nazis.”
“It’s not like he’s gonna have a reputation left after today.”
“I think he’s still trying to protect Landon, and he’s terrified by what Anston might say about Ed Lightfoot’s plane crash.”
Gage’s cell phone rang.
“Brandon didn’t tell you everything.” Alex Z was breathless. “But we hit a home run, boss. Charlie Palmer set up thousands of straw contributors over the years. Not just fake companies, but dead people, homeless people,
