Call to Treason - Tom Clancy [137]
GAT was grab and terminate. It was a military adaptation of the Mafia acronym SAW, snatch and whack.
"I don't know, which is why we need to try to find the limo," Rodgers said. "Can they pick me up somewhere around here?"
"Roof of the convention center, ten minutes," Breen said. "What kind of manpower do you need?"
"Full suit?"
That was thirteen men. Breen said he would provide that.
"Perfect," Rodgers said. "I'll be there."
"We'll plan to cover the routes east," Breen said. "The police will have plenty of resources deployed north along 405 headed up to Los Angeles and south to Mexico," Breen said. "I doubt kidnappers would want to get into the traffic or border check along that corridor anyway."
"Agreed," Rodgers said as his phone beeped. That meant there was an incoming call. "General, I'll see your boys in ten." Rodgers jogged from the lobby as he switched to the other call. "Yes?"
"Mike, it's Darrell."
"Have you got something?" Rodgers asked.
"Yes. It sounds like you're running."
"I am," Rodgers told him. "I'm organizing recon. It seems Admiral Link was just kidnapped."
"He was? That's surprising."
"Why?"
"Because we just busted Lucy O'Connor," McCaskey told him. "She confessed to giving those men the injections. Within a half hour of the first, she received a call from Admiral Link's office phone."
"Who did Lucy talk to?"
"She doesn't know," McCaskey said. "Only that it was a woman."
"I'm not sure if that means anything," Rodgers said. "Anyone could have used his phone."
"Not without his authorization code," McCaskey said. "We checked. No one in the office has that except Link."
"Were there calls after the second incident?" Rodgers asked.
"No, they were being very careful then," McCaskey said. "The criminal nature of the first action had already been uncovered. The perps would have been much more cautious the next day."
"Would they really have been that cavalier about murder?" Rodgers asked.
"Yeah," McCaskey said. "They had plausible deniability. Lucy could have gone up there and done it for a story."
"Okay. But why do it at all? Does Lucy have any idea?"
"Lucy appears to be suffering from a mild form of narcosis, probably due to something in the barbiturate family," McCaskey said. "I used to see the same speech and slowed reactions in the street."
"Could someone on Orr's staff have been providing her with drugs?"
Rodgers asked. "That might have provided them with leverage."
"We checked. She scored those on her own, an old connection. We found the guy through his parole officer."
"What's your guess, then?" Rodgers asked.
"You mean a unified theory?" McCaskey asked.
"As unified as you can be over an open line," Rodgers said.
"Mike, I wish I knew. Someone in the senator's office wanted the first victim dead. Then they killed some random tourist to make it look like the first murder was not related to the big man or his party. Our reporter friend was in it for perks and as a patsy, if necessary. If I said anything beyond that, I would be making pretty big assumptions."
"Make them," Rodgers said as he ran along Harbor Drive. The wide road bordered the bay. The convention center was just ahead. In the distance he heard the unmistakable bass thumping of an incoming helicopter.
"Mike, what is homicide or abduction always about? Power. Revenge.
Jealousy. Money," McCaskey said. "At the Bureau we used to assign a team to each of those and follow it back to a source."
"I don't have a team," Rodgers said. "Hell, when this is over, I may not even have a job."
"I know."
"Darrell a hunch. Give me something."
McCaskey sighed. "We're talking about a politician who is already wealthy, who has never had a scandal attached to his marriage, who has the respect of his colleagues. If he is behind it, I am guessing it is for power."
"And the admiral?"
"You know him better than I do, Mike," McCaskey replied. "But think about it. He has had control over intelligence. That is real power.
He knows what it tastes like."
The sounds of the chopper and his