enforcement, national security, or media types who might want to question her.
The carnage in the underground garage was less easily resolved. For now, the bodies must lay in place, stark specimens of the violence that had been unleashed here today.
They were denied even the minimum of privacy and decency that would come from having their dead eyes closed and their faces decently covered, for fear of contaminating trace evidence or destroying vital clues.
It wasn't pretty. Mylon Sears in younger days had seen combat and worked law enforcement, but his high status in the EXECPROTEK organization had insulated him for long years from the grittier realities of the profession, such as blood and violent death.
Careerism now provided the mental numbness necessary for carrying on.
Relations with CTU were extremely delicate. Two of their own were dead, murdered, and under circumstances that boded ill for the Keehan clan. Intensifying Sears's desire to cooperate, or at least seem to be cooperating.
Still, the situation had its positives as well as its negatives. CTU wanted all other law enforcement and national security agencies kept out of the loop for as long as possible. To ensure that the Counter Terrorist Unit took the lead in tracking down and avenging the slayers of their own.
That guaranteed a degree of control and confidentiality over a volatile situation that was a media magnet.
Sears knew Pete Malo, their respective positions in the private and public security sectors here in New Orleans having fostered over the years a working relationship between the two. This time out, though, the death of Topham and Beauclerk radically altered the basic dynamics of their association, and not for the better.
Sears didn't know Jack Bauer; Bauer was a stranger to him, a variable, an unknown quantity.
It was Bauer who suggested that they open the trunk of Garros's car. 'Maybe he's stuffed inside it,' Jack said.
Sears vented a pious, heartfelt 'Lord, let's hope not!'
Pete Malo said, 'I didn't know you were so attached to Raoul.'
Sears said, 'I'm attached to my job. I'd like to keep it, which seems unlikely if Garros is dead.'
He reached for his communicator, intending to contact the building's security center to send a man down to open the trunk. Civilian employees were always doing something like locking their keys inside their cars; the security staff had several locksmiths on duty.
Pete Malo said, 'Never mind, I'll do it myself. It's quicker.' He took out his pocket kit of lock-picking tools and went to work. In moments, the tumblers clicked into place, the trunk unlocked, and he lifted the lid.
Inside, there was nothing more than a spare tire. Pete said, 'Now we know he's not there, at least.'
Jack prowled around the area of the parking attendant's booth and gate, searching for any brass cartridge that might have been ejected by the murder gun. Finding none.
Jack noted other leads worth following up on. One such was the ticket-issuing machine at the gate at the bottom of the entrance ramp.
The killers' vehicle had not been equipped with one of the pass cards for automatic entry issued to building personnel. Otherwise they could have driven out of the garage without having to bust through the gate.
On entering, a ticket would have been issued to them. A record was kept of all such tickets. By checking the record against all other visitors' cars, the time of the killers' car's entry could be determined. This would help pinpoint the time of some of their movements. Perhaps someone in the garage or on the street at that time had seen something of value.
Surveillance cameras monitored the garage. They were automatic — the space was too vast and the building too large to allow for individualized oversight by human operators in the Mart's security command post. The camera feeds were recorded onto large spools of tape that were changed every twenty-four hours. Examination of the relevant spools might reveal significant details of the crime, its perpetrators, and their vehicle.
The getaway car was a stolen one, no doubt, and fitted with a set of plates lifted from another vehicle — standard operating procedure for professional crooks and hitters — but the motions had to be gone through anyway. Legwork and attention to detail had a way of paying off in the long run, and sometimes sooner than that.
Jack and Pete stayed on the scene until the first CTU vehicles began to arrive.
CTU Agent Ned Lauter took charge of the on-site investigation.
Jack and Pete got in their SUV and drove off.
The principals met in a conference room in the KHF offices to hold a strategy session. Present were Susan Keehan, Mylon Sears, Gene Jasper, Hal Dendron, and Alma Butterworth. Closeted in conference.
All were grouped around a circular table. Susan stood, restless, too uneasy to sit.
Her expression was strained. The cords in her neck stood out. White-knuckled anxiety rolled through her in waves, threatening to make her physically ill. Fear alternated with rage.
Mylon Sears assumed the remote, owlish expression of a doctor about to give a patient the bad news. 'I'm afraid that there's no other conclusion than that Raoul has met with foul play, that he's been abducted.'
Gene Jasper hastened to put a positive spin on it, saying, 'That's a good thing, Susan. That means that he's still alive. Otherwise they would have killed him in the garage and left him there with the others.'
Susan shook with frustration. ''They'! Who are 'they'?'
Sears said, 'No reason to trust CTU or any other government agency when it comes to Raoul and LAGO.' His remark elicited plenty of head-nodding agreement around the table.
'But that doesn't necessarily mean that they're totally off-base on this one,' he added.
That line was less well-received, generating scowls and frowns from the others, with the exception of Jasper, who received his boss's statement with a look of studied neutrality.
Sears forged on, bearer of bad news. 'The Venezuelan official presence in this city is definitely under assault. Our own independent sources have verified the attack on Colonel Paz this morning. It left seven dead: his two bodyguards, and all five of the attackers. He's still missing, and nobody at the consulate has heard from him.'
Alma Butterworth said, 'Convenient.'
Sears said, 'How so?'
She fired back, 'Dead men tell no tales. No witnesses are left behind to contradict the official story.'
'You're suggesting our government is behind the slaughter?'
Alma said, 'It wouldn't be the first time. We've seen what this Administration has unleashed on the people of the Middle East and Latin America.'
Sears tried to gloss over the rhetoric to keep his presentation moving. 'Be that as it may, even the blackest of government black ops avoids this kind of violence at home. Bad press and all that. These mass killings will generate a ton of international ill-will.
'Besides, I hardly think that even CTU would kill two of its own men to buttress a cover story,' he added.
'Hmph,' Alma Butterworth said, her flinty stare and tightly set mouth suggesting strong disagreement with his analysis.
Susan Keehan was showing signs of impatience, danger signs. Storm warnings. 'I wouldn't put it past our government. They hate President Chavez and his populist reforms and would do anything they can to derail it.'
Sears said, 'How does this violence help Washington's propaganda line? It makes us look like a banana republic.' He'd spoken without thinking and added quickly, 'Pardon the expression.'
Susan wasn't buying it. 'If not us, then — who?'
Sears, hesitant, suggested, 'This kind of violence is the stock in trade of drug gangs.'
Susan exploded. 'That's another slur on Venezuela, trying to associate it with drug trafficking! That's what Washington always does whenever it wants to smear a progressive Third World regime, accuses it of being involved in narcotics and terrorism!'
A phone rang. Not so much of a ring tone as an electronic bleeping.
Susan started, gasping. She looked ready to jump out of her own skin. Several more ring tones sounded before she realized that their source was her own cell phone. Only a select few had access to her private number; among them, Raoul currently headed the list.
