Home Free - Fern Michaels [86]
“Mr. OO is all over the map. Sometimes he’s at Treasury, sometimes, at the State Department, and sometimes, inside the E-Ring at the Pentagon. He’s one of those people who is so ordinary, you don’t look at him twice. That’s Abner’s assessment. He was not able to find any association with the men on your list. Daniels, Gray, Maris, or Logan. There were meetings scheduled with all five men, but it was always recorded, and those meetings didn’t bear any fruit that Abner could find.
“Mr. OO did have a meeting six months ago, back in June, a luncheon meeting with Jason Parker. Abner found that out strictly by chance because he does the security for the Occidental Restaurant, where all the power brokers like to go and be seen. When he was running the tapes, he just happened to see the two men. We have to decide what that means. When I left, he was working on doing a ‘deep hack job,’ as he put it, on Jason Parker. He promised to download it and send it on if he came up with anything that will help us.
“Abner said that there is no such thing as full disclosure among the agencies. Each agency guards its turf ferociously. Abner found four funds that are monitored and that Congress knows about. Standard, nothing wrong there, all agencies abroad have them just the way we do, but there is accountability.
“For the most part, no questions get asked when those monies get disbursed. The big fund that seems to be in question and guarded by Mr. OO . . . On that one there are no leads, no trails, no numbers to follow. In other words, for all intents and purposes, it simply does not exist. At least on paper or in a file somewhere. Abner and a lady who needs to remain anonymous are the ones who wrote the software for the CIA. If Abner can’t find it, it isn’t there. Which brings us to the question, where is it?”
Everyone started to jabber at once. The questions flew all over the room.
“How much money are we talking about?”
“Millions with an M or billions with a B?”
“Is it in a bank or a brokerage house?”
“How can someone hide that kind of money?”
“Is there just one signatory on the account?”
“In this day and age, how could any agency not have safeguards in place and allow just one person to control that kind of money with no accountability?”
Annie bristled. “If that fund is so secret, and the president wasn’t aware of it, how did she find out? Why did she set up that nonexistent agency that she wants us to work for? Why did she give us the gold shields? We were to name our own price, and she didn’t quibble about it, according to Lizzie. Of course we haven’t been paid the money up front, like we requested.”
“We haven’t done a job yet, dear,” Myra said.
Ted Robinson cleared his throat. “Maybe when she tried to get the money to transfer it from the other agencies, since she seems to be in the dark about the big fund, there wasn’t enough, then somehow the four different agencies let it slip that she should tap the big fund as opposed to their own. Think about it. It makes sense. The CIA is the eight-hundred-pound gorilla here. That’s just my opinion,” he added as he looked from one face to the other.
“You know what, Ted? That makes real sense,” Jack said.
The others agreed.
“Maybe we should arrange one of those Come to Jesus meetings with those guys,” Bert said.
“And that would be what exactly?” Kathryn asked.
“Get Daniels, Maris, Logan, and Gray in a room someplace. Sweat them. Or do it separately. Before you go after Mr. OO,” Bert said.
“That makes sense, too,” Jack said as he looked around at the faces watching him the way they had homed in on Ted.
“It’s counterproductive to go through the four agencies. Let’s cut to the chase and go after Mr. OO,” Nikki said. “Let’s make a plan. What do we have, Isabelle, in the way of an address for Mr. OO?”
“Abner did find one. It’s on page three.”
The only sound in the room was the sound of pages turning.
“It’s a run-down three-story brownstone on Kilbourne Place in Mt. Pleasant,” Charles