threat to the two-party system.'
'It's possible,' McCaskey admitted.
Hood shook his head. 'One problem I have with your theory, Darrell, is that Wilson was as viable a target for Orr alive as he was dead. In fact, if Wilson were alive, his European banking operation might have won Don Orr even more support.'
'But we're not talking about the senator,' McCaskey reminded him.
'We're talking about Admiral Link.'
'I understand that. But I'm still not clear what he could possibly gain. Why would he want to hurt Orr's rhetoric by eliminating William Wilson?'
'That is the big question,' McCaskey said.
'It's also one I'm not sure Op-Center needs to answer,' Hood said. 'We agreed to stick a finger in this for Scotland Yard. The more I look at it, the more it does not seem like a crisis.'
'That depends on your definition of crisis,' McCaskey said. 'I see a person or persons who were able to move quickly when their killing was exposed. That suggests a conspiracy, one that may involve the office of a United States senator. Give me a little more time to research this, Paul. Let me take a closer look at Kenneth Link and Orr's staff.'
'What about Mike?' Hood asked. 'Would you involve him?'
'I'm not sure,' McCaskey said.
Neither man said what was obviously on both of their minds. Would Mike give his loyalty to the old team or the new? Was it even fair to put him in that position?
A chess game with multiple levels, Hood thought.
Hood called Liz Gordon's office. She was not in yet, and he left a message for her to see him when she arrived. He wanted her to whip up a quick-sketch profile of Link. Then he turned to his computer and brought up the Senate's secure home page. The staff directory was accessible only to government officials. Hood looked up Orr's office staff. Admiral Link was not there, of course, since he was only involved in the United States First Party.
'Do we know anything about Katherine Lockley and Kendra Peterson?' Hood asked.
'A little,' McCaskey said. He leaned over Hood, typed his password on the keyboard, and opened the file he had collected on Senator Orr's staff.
'Lockley was a journalist before joining Orr,' McCaskey said, looking at his notes. 'I checked her bylines, her college records. She checks out. Peterson was a Vietnam war baby, Marine dad, came to live here when she was a kid. She's a gymnast, a national champion in her early teens who missed out on the Olympics because of tendonitis in her fingers. She joined the Marines and managed to pass the physical, though the tendonitis returned, and she ended up working in Camp Pendleton on the DANTES program.'
'Which is?'
'Not as ominous at it sounds,' McCaskey told him. 'It's the Defense Activity for Non-Traditional Education Support certification program.
She pushed paper to make sure qualified Marines got a good shot at civilian jobs.'
'Is that all she did?'
'It's the only job on record,' McCaskey said. 'When her enlistment was up, Ms. Peterson used her DANTES connections to get herself a job as a clerk in the U.S. embassy in Japan. That often means a spook.'
'Did she pick Japan?'
'That was what the Military Outplacement Specialty Office came up with,' McCaskey said.
'No obvious red flags there,' Hood said. 'Who else is on the senator's staff?'
McCaskey went through the remainder of the list and what he had gathered about each individual. No one stood out.
Hood sighed as McCaskey walked back around the desk. 'I don't know, Darrell. You've shown me how Link is qualified to mastermind this but not a single reason why he would.'
