me to take care of it. He gave me explicit authority to do whatever was necessary.”
“And to go back to him now with a new story about Quantrell would really make you lose credibility in the president’s eyes?”
“Exactly. I’ll be like the little boy who cried wolf once too often.”
“You may have answered your problem with what you’ve already said.”
She glanced sharply at him. “What do you mean?”
“The president gave you explicit authority to do what was necessary.”
“But Quantrell?”
“Collateral damage. And it’s not as difficult as it sounds. With Quantrell out of the way, your problems are solved. You have left nothing incriminating on the table. He goes, the road ahead is clear.”
Foster sat there thinking about this. “It might work. But how will the collateral damage thing work?’
“We’ve blamed everything else on Bunting, why not this too? It’s natural enough. They’re bitter rivals. Everyone knows that. The evidence of Bunting’s obsession with Quantrell will be easy enough to produce.”
“So we take out Quantrell and frame Bunting for it?”
“Yes.”
“But Kelly Paul said he was long gone.”
“You actually believed everything she told you?”
“Well… I mean.” She stopped, looked embarrassed. “I’m losing a bit of control here, aren’t I?” she said sheepishly.
“You’re under a lot of stress. But you need to push through it, Secretary Foster, if you really want to survive this.”
“Please sit down, James. You look uncomfortable standing there.”
Harkes sat.
“How do we go about doing it?” she asked earnestly.
Harkes said, “Here’s how the playing field shakes out, at least as I see it. Bunting must still be around.”
“Why?”
“He’s not the sort to walk away with his tail between his legs. For all we know he’s actually working with Kelly Paul and her crew.”
“Paul? But why?”
“Bunting met with Sean King. After that I sat him down and threatened him and his family if he did it again. Then he concocts the fake suicide attempt by his wife and does a bunk. If he were going to flee he would’ve taken his family with him. Even you admitted that he really cares about them.”
“I guess that does make sense,” conceded Foster.
“And think about the fact that he’d met with King and then planned this whole subterfuge with his family shortly thereafter.”
“Not a coincidence?” said Foster.
“Not even close. The other salient points line up nicely. King and Maxwell are working to help Edgar Roy. They actually visited Cutter’s Rock with Kelly Paul. They’re obviously in this together. And Bunting is in it with them.”
“And his motivation?”
“Bluntly put, Madame Secretary, he’s innocent. He knows it and he’s probably convinced them that he is, too. And King and Maxwell now likely know that Roy didn’t kill anybody. Bunting has few options left. Paul and probably King and Maxwell must’ve offered him a way out. What that is I don’t know yet.”
“I wish we had confirmation of your theory that they’re all working together.”
“Paul coming to New York was really confirmation of that.”
“What do you mean?” she said sharply.
“She used Mrs. Bunting’s ticket to get into the fund-raiser. We knew Paul and King and Maxwell had teamed up and now we have a direct connect between Paul and Bunting: the ticket.”
“Oh, shit. I can’t believe I didn’t think of that.”
“That’s why you have me,” Harkes said.
She smiled and touched his hand. “Yes, yes it is.”
“If we had some bait to draw them out. Something that they value. It would go a long way to helping me put this together in the right way.” He looked at her expectantly.
“I think I might have just what we need,” she said.
She powered on the electronic tablet in front of her, hit a few keys, and spun the screen around for Harkes to see. It was an image of a room with someone in it.
“My ace in the hole,” she said.
The floors and walls were concrete. There was one bunk bed and a toilet in the corner. The person sat on the bed.
Megan Riley hardly looked herself.
CHAPTER
78
OUTSIDE THE FARMHOUSE the sun had dropped low, throwing shadows through the windows. It would be fully dark soon. Sean put some more wood on the fire and stoked it. When he sat down Roy said, “Kel told you about the E-Program, obviously.”
“Yes,” said Sean.
“How about the Wall?”
“Not really.”
“The Wall is all the data delivered in one fell swoop. I sit in front of a giant screen for twelve hours a day taking it all in.”
“When you say all the data, exactly what does that mean?” asked Michelle.
“It literally means everything collected by US intelligence operations and various allies overseas who share intel with us.”
“Isn’t that a lot of information?” asked Sean.
“More than you can imagine, really.”
“And you look at it and do what?” asked Michelle.
“I analyze it and then put the pertinent pieces together and give my report. They vet my conclusions, and then it becomes part of the action plan of the United States on all relevant fronts. In fact the actions taken are pretty immediate.”
“You have a photographic memory,” Sean said. “An eidetic?”
“Something more than that,” said Roy modestly.
“How can it be more than photographic?” Michelle commented.
“True photographic memories are extremely rare. A lot of people can remember many things they’ve seen but not everything. And even for many eidetics the memory eventually fades as others replace it. I can never forget anything.”
“Never?” Sean said, looking at him skeptically.
“Unfortunately, people don’t realize that a lot of memories are ones you want to forget.”
“I can understand that,” said Michelle, drawing a sympathetic glance from Sean.
Sean said, “Mind if I test you?”
“I’m used to being tested.”
“What was the name of the police officer who arrested you in the barn?”
“Which one? There were five,” replied Roy.
“The first one to speak to you.”
“His nameplate said Gilbert,” replied Roy.
“Badge number?
“Eight-six-nine-three-four. His weapon was a Sig Sauer 9mm with a twelve-round mag. He had an ingrown
