Дэвид Балдаччи - The Sixth Man

The president nodded thoughtfully. “Yes, I can certainly see that now.”

Foster added, “And look at the WikiLeaks debacle. Who would have thought that possible? I think we have to assume the worst.”

The president sighed and eyed his advisor. “Thoughts?”

Choosing his words with care, the man said, “There are ways. There are always means, Mr. President. To avoid a trial, messy disclosures, and the like.”

Foster studied the president carefully to see how he would react to this suggestion. Some chief executives were squeamish about this sort of thing. Others had large backbones and small consciences and never thought twice about it.

“I suppose we should start evaluating some of them,” said the president.

Foster gave him a look filled with sympathetic pride. “These decisions are hard, sir, but also easy in a way. When the impact on the country is so clear.”

“I’m not putting any of this in writing. In fact this meeting officially never happened,” said the president. “But I want my options before any action is taken.”

“There may be one caveat to that, Mr. President,” said Foster. This was the moment of truth, she knew. This was what she had rehearsed over and over again in the mirror in her private bathroom back at DHS.

The president’s gaze was piercing with a flash of anger lurking behind it ready to be unleashed. “Caveat?” Presidents did not like caveats to their decisions.

“Only based on one factor that we don’t have control over,” she said.

“What is that?”

“We don’t know what Bunting may be plotting.”

“Well, let’s pick the man up and make sure he’s not plotting anything.”

“We have to tread cautiously there, sir,” said Foster, who really didn’t want to “pick the man up.” “He’s smart and resourceful. I’d rather let him play his hand out.” She paused and looked at the advisor.

On cue he said, “You mean give him rope to hang himself.”

Foster nodded. “You read my mind. Exactly, give him enough rope to hang himself.”

“And then we act?” said the president.

“And then we can act in the manner that is most advantageous to us,” amended Foster. “And there’s one more thing, sir.”

The president smiled in an irritated manner. “You’re just full of surprises today.”

She hurried on, sensing his patience was running out. “Edgar Roy’s sister.”

“His sister?”

“Half sister, technically. Her name is Kelly Paul.” She glanced at the advisor.

“She was one of our very best field agents, Mr. President. Put the woman into any situation, any hot spot around the world, and she would fix the problem, whatever it might be.”

“And she’s Roy’s sister,” said the president. “Why am I just hearing about this now?”

“You have many things on your plate, sir,” said Foster. “And it really didn’t matter until now.” She paused. “We think she’s now working for the other side.”

“Good God! Are you serious?”

The advisor said, “Officially she retired. However, there is some indication that she’s back on the job. Only it’s not working for us. That we know.”

“What could she be after?” said the president.

“In the right situation Edgar Roy would be very valuable to enemies of this country.”

The advisor added, “The amount of knowledge the man has about our national security and our tactical and strategic goals is staggering.”

“But using her own brother?” said the president dubiously.

“They aren’t close,” lied Foster. “And Kelly Paul has the reputation, the well-earned reputation, of not allowing anything, not even family, to get in the way of a mission. So if she manages to somehow extract her brother from Cutter’s–”

“That’s not possible,” interrupted the president. “Is it?”

“The facility is very secure, but Paul is very good,” replied Foster.

“So we definitely know that she’s involved in this?” asked the president.

“Yes. In fact we have information that Paul actually went to visit Roy at Cutter’s Rock.”

“If that’s true, why didn’t we arrest her then and there?”

“We have no proof of wrongdoing yet, sir,” said Foster. “We didn’t even have enough to pull her in for questioning.”

“Why would she go there if she’s not close to her brother?” the president wanted to know.

Foster hesitated but the advisor came to her rescue.

“Maybe she was there for another purpose, sir. She might have been casing the place.”

The president’s eyes widened slightly. “Do you really think they are seriously going to try and break him out?”

“No place is escape-proof if you have the right people trying to do the extraction,” said the advisor. He eyed Foster. “Are you prepared for such an attempt?”

“Yes, but there are still no guarantees.” She looked at the president. “So it may behoove us to really think long and hard about implementing some type of preemptive action along the lines we’ve already discussed.”

“With respect to Roy and Bunting?” said the president.

Foster nodded and said, “And also Kelly Paul.”

He slowly nodded. “I’ll give the matter some serious thought.”

This wasn’t exactly the response Foster had wanted, but her expression didn’t show it and she had gotten most of what she wanted.

“Well, it looks like you have the matter well in hand, Ellen,” the president said.

It was clear he wanted to move on to other things. While the E-Program was a critical matter for the country, it was only one of a hundred critical matters this chief executive was currently trying to juggle.

She rose and said, “Thank you for meeting with me, sir.”

The president shook her hand. “Hell of a job on this, Ellen. Hell of a job.”

As Foster walked down the hall to her waiting motorcade, she looked around the White House, as though in her mind she was measuring the windows for new drapes.

Right now, anything felt possible.

SEAN STARED OUT the window while Michelle cleaned both their guns on the kitchen table. He’d called Megan Riley, who was upset that she had once more been relegated to an afterthought.

“I’m resigning as counsel,” she told Sean.

“Megan, please don’t do that. We need you.”

“What you need, Sean, is a kick in the ass.”

“You’re part of the team.”

“I don’t feel like I’m part of anything. Now I don’t even get to stay in the same place as you two, so what’s the point? I’ll leave the court documents at the inn. You can come and get them. I’m heading back to Virginia.”

“Megan, just give it a couple of days, please. We really do need you.”

“Words, Sean. How about some action?”

“I promise you that your time will come.”

There was a long silence. “You’ve got two days, Sean, and then I’ll be back in Virginia.”

He’d told Michelle what Megan had said.

“I can’t really blame her,” said Michelle. “And if she does jump ship, we’ll just have to find another lawyer or you’ll just have to do it.”

“But she knows a lot. She could be in danger.”

“True, but I’m just not sure what we can do about it.”

Sean put his hand in his pocket and pulled out his phone. A message had just come through. “Damn!”

Michelle looked up from her work. “What is it?”

“Someone left a message. I must’ve been on the phone with Megan.”

He listened to the voice mail.

“Who was it?”

“Peter Bunting.”

“What did he say?” asked Michelle.

“He wants to talk.”

“Kelly Paul was right. He did come to us.”