see you Mr. Rutter,’ he said without coming into the room; meeting with the Director of the FBI was way above his paygrade.
‘I’ll be right there,’ Carl Rutter replied. ‘You might like to sit in on this, sir. Benton is head of security at the Department of Environment and Agriculture.’
Ari Kratos nodded and followed Rutter to an interview room on a lower floor.
A tall, beefy man with wild hair, long sideburns, but otherwise clean-shaven, bushy dark eyebrows, and thick lips introduced himself as Phil Benton. He was man you would want on your side in a fight, Rutter thought.
‘Have you got anything for me?’ Rutter asked after introducing Benton to the director.
‘Nope, not a thing and I am highly embarrassed to admit it,’ Benton replied. ‘The driver and two security guards on duty today, picked up Secretary Dias from his home at the scheduled time of 0730 hours and delivered him safely to his office at 0805. They then retired to the security offices where they would normally remain until the scheduled time to meet with the Secretary and escort him to the White House.’
‘When did the switch take place?’ Kratos asked.
‘We don’t know, sir. All our internal surveillance cameras in the building, including the car park, were compromised from approximately 0800 hours until early afternoon,’ Benton replied.
‘And so were the CCTV cameras in the street outside the building,’ Rutter added.
‘Which means we haven’t a clue what these people look like, who they are, or why they are doing this,’ Kratos muttered to himself.
‘That’s about the size of it, sir,’ Rutter agreed.
‘And the driver and two missing security guards?’
‘No trace, sir. No one can remember seeing them leave the building or the imposters arriving, for that matter,’ Benton said. ‘And the descriptions we have got of them from the staff are not very helpful.’
‘These people are obviously highly organized, technically savvy, well-funded, well-informed and very resourceful,’ Rutter said.
‘Which narrows it down to the Russians, the North Koreans, the Chinese or dissident rich Arabs,’ Kratos said.
‘Are you ignoring private enterprise completely, sir?’ Rutter asked.
‘Without knowing what the Cabinet was going to discuss this morning that was so interesting to the perpetrators, it’s impossible to know for sure. I suppose some large drug cartels could be involved, or oil interests, or weapons manufacturers, or some left-wing loonies with God knows what axe to grind. I’ll see what I can find out, in the meantime, the building must be searched to find the missing security guards. And let me know as soon as you have anything from the street where the Tesla was last seen.’
**
President Conway Posey and Vice President Peta Hopeit, sat shooting the breeze in the West Sitting Hall, part of the president’s less formal family area on the second floor of the White House. They were sitting side-by-side on a sofa with their backs to the lunette window.
‘How is your son?’ Posey asked, out of the blue.
‘He’s fine. Thanks for asking. He is doing Environmental Science at Harvard and loving it…’
‘With a view to?’
‘Entering politics and eventually becoming president of this great country.’
‘Just like his mother, hey?’
Peta smiled, smoothed imaginary creases from her dark-gray pleated skirt but didn’t reply.
‘Is his father happy about that?’ Posey asked. If he felt at all guilty for the fishing, he didn’t show it. He knew that Peta Hopeit was a modern, single parent and, although he had his suspicions, in fact he had no idea who was the father of her child.
‘Why wouldn’t he be?’ Peta replied crossly. She resented invasions of her privacy, especially by hypocritical men.
‘No special reason. Look, Peta, I invited you here so we can talk informally and openly without fear of interruption. This business with Paul Dias has chucked a sizable monkey wrench into our plans,’ Posey said.
‘It sure has,’ Peta said with feeling. ‘You’ve known Paul a long time, Mr. President. What is he like when he is not being a politician, that is?’ she asked.
‘Yeah, we go way back; Paul is like a younger brother to me. Well, in a nutshell, he was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts but the family moved to England, UK, when Paul was very young. Both his parents became professors at Oxford University. They only returned to Massachusetts because Paul wanted to attend Harvard, which he did but later ended up at Princeton, as you know...'
'Why the switch?'
'He and his wife, Ann, virtually grew up together as kids. Ann was not accepted by Harvard but got into Princeton. He followed her, and the rest, as they say, is history. Anyway, he is ultra-bright and passed his degree summa cum laude.’
‘I see…’ Peta began.
‘I thought you knew him at Princeton?’ Posey interrupted.
‘Briefly,’ she said, but her body language, a nervous inspection of her finger nails, gave her away.
‘And you also passed summa cum laude, of course,’ Posey said.
Peta acknowledged the compliment with a slight bow of her pretty head. A strand of dark hair fell over her eyes; she pushed it back behind her ear.
‘I know you and Paul are now…very close…’
‘Paul is a happily married man, Mr. President,’ Peta snapped, annoyed at the insinuation.
‘I know. I know. Nevertheless, you have been closely involved with him on Operation Olympus for many moons. We must not let the momentum stall now. If Paul cannot continue, you are the obvious person to pick up the reins. I want you to prepare yourself to take over from Paul and make the presentation to the Cabinet should the unthinkable happen. Will you do that for me?’ he asked, placing his hand on her knee as he was speaking.
‘Sure, if you really want me to, although Ann Dias would do a better job than me. They have been talking about this stuff since High School. In any case, it won’t be necessary; Paul Dias is immortal,’ Peta replied with more confidence than she felt.
‘Let us pray you are right. However, Ann Dias is not a member of the Cabinet…’
‘Does that matter?’ Peta asked.
‘Perhaps not, but I would rather keep things close. Now tell me what you know about Eve Até?’ Posey asked.
‘What?’ Peta exclaimed, suddenly on edge.
‘In the Cabinet meeting, you were quick to point the finger at Eve Até as a possible source of the leak if, indeed, there was a leak. I assume you must have had a strong reason for doing so?’ Posey asked.
‘Yeah,
