"You must be Lee Adams," Buchanan said, extending his hand. "I'm sure you regret the day you ever took on this assignment."
Lee came down and shook his hand. "Nah. This one's been a piece of cake. I'm actually thinking about specializing in this area, especially considering no one else would be stupid enough to do it."
"I thank God you were there to protect Faith."
"Actually, I've gotten pretty good at saving Faith." Lee and Faith exchanged smiles, then Lee looked back at Buchanan. "But the fact is we have one additional complication. A very important one," Lee added. "Let's go to the kitchen. You might want to hear it over a drink."
As they sat at the kitchen table, Lee filled Buchanan in on the situation with his daughter.
Buchanan looked furious. "That bastard."
Lee eyed him keenly. "This bastard have a name? I'd love to know it, for future reference."
Buchanan shook his head. "Trust me, you don't want to go down that route."
"Who is behind all this, Danny?" Faith touched his arm. "I think I have a right to know."
Buchanan looked at Lee.
"Sorry," Lee said, putting up his hands, "that's your call."
Buchanan gripped Faith's arm. "They're very powerful people and they happen to work for this country. That's all I can really say without endangering you even more."
Faith sat back astonished. "Our own government is trying to kill us?"
"The gentleman I've been dealing with tends to go his own way. But he does have resources, lots of them."
"So Lee's daughter is in real danger?"
"Yes. This man will usually say rather less than what he actually intends."
"Why'd you come here, Buchanan?" Lee wanted to know. "You got away from the guy. At least for our sakes I hope you did. You could've lost yourself in a million different places. Why come here?"
"I got you both into this. I intend to get you out."
"Well, whatever plan you have better include saving my daughter or else you can count me out. I'll park myself inside her skin for the next twenty years if I have to."
Faith said, "I thought I could call the FBI agent I was working with, Brooke Reynolds. We can tell her what's going on. She could place Lee's daughter in protective custody."
"For the rest of her life?" Buchanan shook his head. "No, that won't work. We have to cut the hydra's heads off and then burn the stubs. Otherwise we're just wasting time."
"And exactly how do we do that?" Lee asked.
Buchanan opened his briefcase and pulled out the tiny cassette tape from a hidden crevice. "With this. I was able to record the gentleman I've been talking about. On this tape he admits that he had the FBI agent killed, among other incriminating things."
For the first time Lee looked hopeful. "Are you serious?"
"Trust me, I would never joke about this man."
"So we use this tape to keep the hound at bay. He hurts us, we destroy him? He knows that. Then we've pulled his fangs."
Buchanan slowly nodded. "Exactly."
"And you know how to contact him?" asked Lee.
Buchanan nodded. "I'm sure that he's figured out what I did and is right now trying to deduce what my intention is."
"Well, my intention is that you call up this asshole right this second and tell him to stay the hell away from my daughter. I want it in blood. And I don't trust the sonofabitch, so I still want something like a company of SEALs outside her dorm room for good measure. And I still plan on heading up there myself. Just in case. They want Renee? They go through me."
"I'm not sure that's a good idea," Buchanan said. "I don't remember asking for your permission," Lee fired back.
"Lee, please," Faith said. "Danny's just trying to help."
"I wouldn't be in this nightmare if this guy had been straight with me up front. So excuse the hell out of me if I don't treat him like he's my best buddy."
"I don't blame you for feeling that way," Buchanan said. "But you called me for help, and I'll do whatever I can to help you. And your daughter. That I swear."
Lee's guarded manner relaxed somewhat in the face of this seemingly frank declaration.
"Okay," he said grudgingly. "I admit you get points for coming here. You'll get more points when you call off the assassins. And then after that we should get the hell out of here. I've already called this psycho once on my cell phone. I'm assuming that at some point he'll be able to narrow our location down from that. When you call him, it'll give them even more info to work with."
"Understood. I have a plane at my disposal at a private airstrip not too far from here."
"Your friends in high places?"
"Friend. Senior senator from this state, Russell Ward."
"Good old Rusty," Faith said, smiling.
"You're sure you weren't followed?" Lee glanced at the front door.
"No one could have followed me. I'm not sure of much anymore, but I am certain of that."
"If this guy is as good as you seem to think he is, I wouldn't feel too certain of anything." Lee held out his cell phone. "Now please make the call."
CHAPTER 47
Thornhill was in his study at home when Buchanan's phone call came in. His communication link was such that the call was not traceable to Thornhill, if Buchanan was perhaps sitting at FBI headquarters. And Thornhill's phone also had a voice scrambler that would make voice ID impossible. On the other hand, Thornhill's people were working on tracing Buchanan's location, but as yet they hadn't been successful. Even the CIA had its limits, what with the explosion in the field of communications technology. There were so many electronic signals flying through the air, it made it damn near impossible to trace a wireless call to a precise location.
The National Security Agency would be able to trace the call with its stadium-size circular antennae. The super-secret NSA possessed technological might that made anything the CIA had pale by comparison, Thornhill well knew. It was said that the intelligence the NSA perpetually swept out of the air could fill the Library of Congress every three hours, gobbling up avalanches of information-bytes. Thornhill had availed himself of the NSA's services before. However, the NSA (the inside joke was that the acronym stood for "no such agency") was often difficult for anyone to control. Thus Thornhill didn't want to involve them in this highly sensitive matter. He would handle it himself.
"You know why I'm calling?" Buchanan said.
"A tape. A highly personal one."
"It's good doing business with someone who considers himself omniscient."
"I would appreciate some small bit of evidence, if it's not too much trouble," Thornhill said placidly.
Buchanan played a snatch of the earlier conversation between the two men.
"Thank you, Danny. Now, your terms?"
"Point one, you don't go near Lee Adams's daughter. That is called off. Now and forever."
"Do you happen to be with Mr. Adams and Ms. Lockhart right now?"
"Second, all three of us are off limits as well. If anything remotely suspicious happens, then the tape goes directly to the FBI."
"During our last conversation you said you already had the means to destroy me."
"I lied."
"Do Adams and Lockhart know of my involvement?"
"No."
"How can I trust you?"
"It would only have put them in more danger to tell them. All they want to do is survive. It seems a common enough goal these days. And I'm afraid you'll just have to take my word for it."