The Cranstons smiled and nodded emphatically.
“We’re here because of one man—Bartholomew Martin, the most ambitious tyrant since Adolf Hitler.”
“Oh my God,” Nancy said. “Do you mean the former President of the United States?”
“The one and only, Nancy,” the President said. “Over the past few days our knowledge of where we stand has improved, and our choices have narrowed. We launched the biggest attack since World War II on Martin’s compound in Kurdistan, only to find it empty. He and his thugs have now decamped to the land of one of our worst adversaries, Iran. To attack the compound near Tehran would be to enter a war, a gigantic war. But having said that, we know that Bartholomew Martin must be stopped. World peace never depended more on a single course of action. Everyone in this room has top-secret security clearance, including most recently, Bill and Nancy Cranston. We have to share ideas, because you people know more about this problem than the rest of our government. First Lady Dee suggested that we indulge in some good old-fashioned brainstorming, and I couldn’t agree with her more, especially because we have so many brains in this room. We’re going to go around the table and I want a one-word response from each of you, one word that you each think is a key to our going forward. I’ll start with the two people at the end of the table, Bill and Nancy Cranston.
“Nancy?”
“Duncan.”
“Bill?”
“Duncan.”
“Rick Bellamy?”
“Duncan.”
“Let me be a bit unorthodox and ask for a show of hands. How many people think the word Duncan is key to our next step?”
Everyone in the room raised their hand but Buster wanted to add something. When he raised his hand he said, “with an explanation.”
“When the man who our CIA director calls ‘super spook’ has an explanation, I’d like to hear it.”
“As you’re aware, Mr. President,” Buster said, “the CIA has some deeply imbedded spies at Rosetta. They’ve fed us a steady stream of information about Philip Duncan, but were it not for our astronaut friends, the Cranstons, it would be just a lot of unconnected dots. From what I’ve heard, when Bill and Nancy called Rick Bellamy and told him that Bill saw Duncan a few hours after Stargazer exploded and the man said nothing, Rick knew immediately that he had to get them into protective custody. Duncan’s silence that morning was the dot that connected all the other dots. Rick was sharp enough to tell Nancy to make up a story about her sick grandmother, a woman who passed away many years ago. The purpose of that call was to throw Duncan off the scent of knowing that they were on to him. Whisking them away also saved their lives. But Duncan is a smart guy, and it’s just a matter of time before he realizes that the government has him in the crosshairs.”
“That’s a great explanation, Buster, but do you have a recommendation about what action to take with the elusive Philip Duncan.”
“One of my imbedded moles has a talent for voice impersonation,” Buster said. “He’s always a hit at parties. He’d show up and speak to the host for a couple of minutes and then do an impersonation of the host’s voice that was perfect. A few minutes after I met the guy he did an imitation of me that made me think I was talking to myself. He’s amazing. I bet he could get on the phone right now with Nancy or Bill, two people who know Duncan well, and they would think they were speaking to the man himself. He’s also technically smart as hell, one of my best people. I recommend that we arrest Duncan and the four others we know are with him. Then, with the technical assistance of Bill and Nancy Cranston, my voice impersonation guy will talk to the Reformer astronauts, and even to Bartholomew Martin himself. So, we’ll turn Rosetta into a weather-controlling entity staffed by our people. I haven’t figured it out yet, but we can use my voice guy to lure Bartholomew out into the open.”
“He may talk a lot, but Buster’s the best damned spook on the planet,” Bill Carlini said. “Buster, how about a demonstration. Call your impersonation guy and tell him to do a Duncan imitation on speaker phone.”
Buster dialed a number from the secure phone.
“Bob Columbo, please.”
“Bob, it’s me. I’m in a meeting at the White House, and I’d like you to do an impersonation of Mr. X over the speaker phone. Bill and Nancy Mullin are here. Go ahead.”
“Phil Duncan here wishing you all a pleasant day. To celebrate, I’m cooking up a blizzard for your traveling pleasure. Bill and Nancy, congratulations on your wedding. At least I didn’t rain on your parade. This is Phil Duncan, signing off.”
Anybody in the room who had ever spoken to Duncan cracked up laughing.
“He sounds exactly like Duncan,” Nancy said, “not similar, but exactly. Here’s an idea. We must have tons of voice tapes of Bartholomew Martin from the years he was president. Imagine a fake Martin calling Duncan and then Duncan returning the call to talk about what they had discussed.”
“If you ever tire of being an astronaut, Nancy,” Buster said, “you’d make a great spook.”
“Buster, do we have a phone number where Bartholomew Martin can be reached?” Bill Carlini asked.
“Bartholomew’s phone number is one of the secrets of the universe,” Buster said.
“Okay, folks,” President Blake said, “in a few hours we’re going to pull off one of the most sensitive operations we’ve ever handled.”
Chapter 69
FBI Agent Walter Drake was the senior agent at Rosetta headquarters. He had orders directly from FBI Director Watson to carry out a critical mission, and to accomplish it in five minutes.
“We have a list of four people to arrest,” Drake said to his group of seven FBI agents. Our first task is to lure each of them to a location where their arrest won’t be seen by witnesses. I’ve chosen the office of the CEO Philip Duncan, our primary target.”
“How will we get them there?” one of his agents asked.
“Bob Colombo, one of the CIA guys here, is a talented voice impersonator. He’ll call each of our targets, speaking in the voice of Duncan. The time to execute is set for 11:30 a.m. today, two hours from now. There is a corridor from the Duncan’s office leading directly to a private parking space behind the building. The office was set up that way, so the top man could sneak in and out of his office without being seen. We’ll escort them into a waiting van that will take them into custody. Once they’re all off premises, FBI Agent Jack Foreman will take over and announce his position as interim CEO. President Blake has cleared this with the chairman of the board of Rosetta, who is a personal friend. We’ve been briefing Foreman for days. He’s one of us, so we don’t have to worry about giving him too much information. Each of you have your scripts to recite to any employee who asks if you know what happened. Again, just say that Duncan and the others went to a meeting and should return shortly. Consider Duncan’s cell phone the most valuable piece of equipment in the entire building. I will grab it, but in case anything happens, make sure you get custody of that phone.”
Buster sat in my office at 26 Federal Plaza in New York.
“It’s time to make it happen, Buster.”
Buster dialed Bob Colombo, his undercover voice impersonator.
“Bob, it’s Buster. Okay, you’re about to launch your first live action scene as the voice of Philip Duncan. You have the script and the phone numbers of the men to call. Make all the calls right after 11 a.m. and tell them to report to Duncan’s office immediately, 11:30 at the latest. I don’t expect any questions because they’re accustomed to taking orders from Duncan. If any of them tries to say he can’t make it, switch into the ‘nasty Duncan’ voice that you’ve rehearsed with Nancy and Bill Cranston. I don’t see any problem getting them to Duncan’s office. Walter Drake, the lead FBI guy, will let me know after the deal is sealed.”