Stone Cold

Finn whirled around to stare at Stone. “And I know just how to get the son of a bitch.”

CHAPTER 86

ROGER SIMPSON WAS SITTING at his desk in his office at the Hart Building working when his computer screen went blank. A second later a picture appeared on it.

Simpson gasped. It was the image of Rayfield Solomon materializing across his screen. How can that be?

Typed letters next appeared on the bottom of the screen. “I hope you recognize your old friend.”

“What the?” Simpson said, looking around. “What the hell is this?”

“What the hell is this?” a voice said, sending Simpson nearly out of his chair. It was coming from the wireless unit Finn had hidden there when he’d broken into the senator’s office.

“Who are you? Where are you?” Simpson said fearfully.

“What’s important is that there’s a bomb hidden inside your computer.”

“What!” Simpson exclaimed, half rising from his chair.

“And if you try to leave the room it will detonate.”

Simpson immediately sank back down. “But they swept my office for bombs.”

“Unscrew the back of your computer. There’s a screwdriver in your desk drawer, I checked when I was in here.”

“But I-”

“Do it!”

Hands shaking, Simpson retrieved the screwdriver, undid the back cover and stared at the device Finn had put there.

“It’s designed to use the chemical and electronic components in the CPU to cause a chain reaction and then a big boom. By the way, I can also see everything you’re doing, so if you try to disarm the bomb I’ll blow you up. Understood?”

Simpson slowly nodded.

“Don’t just nod, I want to hear you say it. Do you understand?”

“I understand. For God sakes, I understand.”

“A man will come to your office shortly. You will go with him without resistance. If you try to warn anyone I will detonate the bomb and your whole office disappears. Once out of your office, if you try anything, say anything to anyone to try and get away, your wife is dead. Do you understand that?”

“You have Donna?”

“The former Miss Alabama is doing very well right now. That status could change, depending on your level of cooperation. Do you understand?”

“Yes,” Simpson said in a defeated tone.

“Good. Now compose yourself and wait for him to come. I’ll be listening and watching until he does. He’ll explain that he’s taking you to an emergency meeting at Langley to cover a crisis that just came up, one that the chairman of the Intelligence Committee needs to be in on. You will confirm to your staff that this is true. Understood?”

“Yes.”

A few minutes later there was a knock at Simpson’s office door. Shortly after that the pale but composed senator was escorted down the elevator by Stone dressed in a black suit; he was also wearing sunglasses. They got into a car driven by Reuben. As the car pulled away Stone took off his sunglasses and stared at Simpson.

“Hello, Roger, it’s been a long time.”

“Do I know y-?” Simpson’s breath caught in his throat as Stone’s gaze bore into him.

“I guess I haven’t changed as much as I thought,” Stone said. “Actually, I think I did all my aging while working for you and Gray.”

Simpson stammered, “John, please you have to believe me, I had nothing to do with what happened to you or your wife.” He added quickly, “And we took care of Jackie. We loved her very much.”

Stone elbowed the man hard in the ribs. “My daughter’s name was Elizabeth, not Jackie.”

“Gray gave her to us. He didn’t tell us she was your daughter. He only told me the truth recently.”

“So who did order the hit on me?”

“I have my suspicions,” Simpson said.

“Gray?”

Simpson said slowly, “Could have been. He said you wanted to leave Triple Six. He didn’t like that one bit. That’s the truth.”

“Apparently neither did a lot of people. You ordered the hits on Andropov and Chernenko, didn’t you?”

Simpson almost choked on his own breath. “Who told you that?”

“Did you?”

“That’s in the past. But if I did anything of that magnitude, which I’m not admitting that I did, it would have been duly authorized from the highest possible level.”

“I’m sure you covered your ass. I talked to Max Himmerling before he died.”

A tic started at Simpson’s left temple. “Himmerling?”

“Yeah. I’m assuming Gray had him killed because he knew he’d tell me everything. And Max knew where all the skeletons were buried.”

“What all did he tell you?” Simpson asked nervously.

“Everything I needed to know,” Stone said quietly. “Like it was either you or Gray who ordered the hit on me.”

Simpson could barely speak now. “Are you going to kill me?”

“That depends on you, doesn’t it?” Stone put on his sunglasses and sat back. “And how much Carter Gray values your friendship? If he doesn’t take the bait, you’re of no value to me.”

“I could well be the next president of this country!” Simpson snapped.

“Like I said, no value to me at all.”

CHAPTER 87

SIMPSON SPOKE SLOWLY into the phone. His words had been scripted. If the man had any desire to deviate from that script, Stone was holding a gun against his head to dissuade him.

“They want to meet, Carter,” he said in a strained voice.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Gray said. “Who are you talking about?”

“You know who!”

“Well, tell them, whoever they are, that if they’re recording this conversation, I wish them luck in trying to use it against anyone.”

“Carter, dammit, they’ve kidnapped me!”

“I can call 911 if you’d like. Any idea where they might be holding you?”

“They have something you want.”

“Really?”

“They know about David.”

“Again, I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“They have the orders I signed, you know the ones.”

“No, I really don’t.”