Sin pulled a chair up to the other side of the desk and opened her backpack. She slid her resignation across the desk but held on to it. When Lancaster tried to take it, she held tight. “I have some other papers you might want to take a look at before you seal my fate.”
“There is nothing you have that will change my mind, O’Malley.”
Sin let go of her resignation and slid another piece of paper across the table. This time she let go, sat back, and waited for Lancaster’s reaction.
When he opened the folded piece of paper, his shoulders stiffened. “Frank, would you leave us for a few minutes. Get yourself a cup of coffee and wait for us in the adjoining office.”
Frank looked at Sin who winked in his direction.
Frank stood and left without saying a word.
“What the fuck is this?” Lancaster said once they were alone.
“It appears to be the account numbers of a couple of off-shore accounts. Do I need to say who they belong to?”
Lancaster sat back and chuckled. “You think you’re so damn smart. Sitting there all smug. So what, you found a couple of account numbers. Big deal.”
She slid another piece of paper across the desk. Lancaster picked it up and read it to himself. I suggest you turn off all recording devices for the rest of this conversation.
She watched Lancaster practically able to read his mind. Scenario after scenario seemed to flip through his head until he nodded and reached under his desk.
“Now that we’re truly alone,” she continued, “why don’t you log into your accounts.”
She sat back and watched as his fingers shook while he typed in his bank information into his personal phone. The veins in his neck bulged as he read what wasn’t possible.
“I often wondered why someone would go to all the trouble to have off-shore bank accounts when they don’t put anything into them,” she said.
“You little bitch,” Lancaster seethed. “Where the hell is my money?”
“You mean the money you extorted from Dominic Russo?”
“I didn’t extort anyone of anything, I—”
Sin leaned forward, resting her elbows on his desk. “Here’s what is going to happen. You are going to tell Frank that you had a change of heart. In fact, you’re going to tell him that since my team and I did such a great job recovering Becca and Pia, that you would like to begin a new task force.”
All of Lancaster’s bravado was gone. He looked deflated as he stared daggers at her. “What kind of task force, and who is involved?”
“I’m glad you asked. Here is a list of names, I’m sure they’re all familiar to you.”
“What about the rest of your team?”
“The four who had no part in this are to be taken off suspension and given substantial pay raises. Those raises are to be given to my team as well.”
“What about the other names on this list? Troy Stubbs, Captain Deborah O’Rourke, U.S. Navy, and Tiffany Swenson?”
“As of today, they are all part of the task force.”
“Who is extorting who, now?”
“Let’s not get bogged down with semantics,” she said.
“This tells me the who but not the what. What type of task force are we talking about?”
“One that acts independent of the agency and answers to no one but Director Graham. We choose the cases we want, even if they might seem a bit out of our jurisdiction.”
“Even if I agreed to this, you know I can’t change the Bureau’s jurisdiction.”
“When I said we work independently, I meant totally. Black ops. The U.S. government pays our substantial salaries but if we’re captured or in danger, you know nothing and do nothing.”
“Finally, something I can agree with.”
“You’ll agree to all of it.”
“O’Malley, I’ll admit, that was a ton of money you stole, but I have other investments.”
Sin reached into her pack and tossed more paperwork across the desk. Lancaster stared down at the deeds to his family property, his family’s oil company, and all the companies affiliated with it. Every single deed was now in her name. Lancaster fisted the documents and trembled. “If I agree to your demands, everything gets transferred back to me?”
“The day you leave office.” She leaned further across the desk. “Eyes up here,” she said as Lancaster’s veered south toward her cleavage. “I know you probably think you can pull some strings once you leave office and shut down our operation. But, if I were you, I’d think otherwise. If I could divest you of all of your assets once, I can do it again.”
Lancaster touched the intercom button and told his secretary to have Frank join them.
Once inside, Lancaster started talking. “Agent O’Malley and I have been thinking that there might be a better way for her and her team to serve the United States of America. We agreed that the Bureau might not be the best fit for their particular set of skills. I’ve suggested that they would better serve our great nation as an independent task force. A sort of black ops team which acts of their own accord. Paid by us but responsible for their own asses if they should get in trouble. They will report only to you.”
Frank stood there, his mouth agape. He pointed to Sin and to the president. “The two of you, together, came up with this idea?”
“I have to admit,” Sin said, “President Lancaster came up with most of it.”
“Aha,” Frank replied. “If this is what you want, sir, I think it’s a great idea.”
Lancaster nodded. “And you’ll take the other members of Agent O’Malley’s old team off suspension and double their rate of pay as an apology for treating them poorly with no just cause.”
Frank’s eyes practically bugged out of his head. “Consider it done.”
“I believe our business is completed, O’Malley,” Lancaster said. “I’ll have my agents escort you out.”
She held up a finger to stop Lancaster. “The first order of business of my new task force is to finish the case that was prematurely closed. Would you please ask
