“An indictment would never hold up in court,” Bo said.
“Wouldn’t it?”
“Is this a threat?”
“It’s a potential, Agent Thorsen,” Norton said.
“Funny, it sounds just like a threat.”
Norton put on a pair of half glasses and lifted a cordovan attache case from the floor beside his chair. He snapped it open and pulled out several pages of typed documents that he slid across the table to Bo.
“This is your statement of the events leading up to the death of David Moses.” Norton cast a look at Bo over the flat rim of his half glasses. “The most recent death.”
Bo scanned the document. “This isn’t my story. This makes no mention of NOMan. It says Moses acted alone.”
“This is the statement we want you to sign.”
“This is bullshit.”
“Agent Thorsen,” Norton said, “consider the impact of your accusations. If the American people believe your story, imagine the erosion of public confidence, the chaos.”
Lopez said, “The Bureau is already at work very quietly assessing the true threat of NOMan. If this organization is anything that you contend it is, don’t you think we want to combat it as much as you? I’m an assistant director of a federal agency, but I’m an American citizen first and foremost. I love this country. I have every intention of preserving its laws and the integrity of the system that governs it.”
“If there is any truth at all in what you say, we have to consider how to address this situation,” Norton said. “At the moment, we feel that silence on your part is the best way.”
“And if I don’t agree?”
Lopez said, “Charges will be brought against you, and the federal government will do its best to prove, in the case of thePeople v. Bo Thorsen, that you did willfully murder Special Agent-in-Charge Diana Ishimaru.”
“No jury would convict.”
“Do you want to take that chance? And in the meantime, drag your name through the dirt?”
“And alert NOMan and contribute in no small way to that organization’s ability to cover its tracks.”
Bo stared at the pages on the table. “It says here that I believe David Moses killed Diana. That’s not true.”
“It may have to be true. For now.”
“There’s a greater good that needs to be considered, Thorsen.”
Bo read the final page of the documents. “This is a letter of resignation.”
Norton said, “We feel it’s best if you step out of the picture entirely.”
Bo studied the men. Things began to blur, not just his thinking but his vision. He felt a little faint. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d had a decent night’s sleep. Or a good meal. Or felt as if the weight of an enormous responsibility didn’t rest on his shoulders alone. He glanced at the mirror, wondering who would be there if he stepped through the looking glass. There seemed nothing real to hold to anymore. No one to trust. Were these men connected to NOMan? Or were they really trying to control the damage that might be wrought if the public knew that such an organization had so effectively infiltrated the entire federal government?
He looked down at the pen that Norton held out to him, and he took it. He poised to sign. Before he did, he leveled his eyes once more on the faces of the men across the table.
“You both were field agents once?” he asked.
His question seemed to puzzle them.
“We were,” Norton said.
“If you were in my place, if you’d seen Diana Ishimaru, a good agent and a good friend, murdered, would you sign this document?”
A moment passed, then Norton said, “Yes.”
But what he said didn’t matter. Because between the question and the answer, Bo had seen the truth in the eyes of both men.
Bo put down the pen. “Gentlemen, we remain at odds.”
“You’re making a mistake, Agent Thorsen,” Norton said, but it sounded more like words than belief.
“If so, it’s a mistake of my own choosing. And I’ll take my chances.”
• • •
They finally fed him. He’d grown accustomed to the pain, to the constant throb deep in his knee. He was tired, but he fought sleep. Whenever he started to drift off, he jerked his leg to the side and gave himself an eye-opening jolt of agony. Even so, his thinking was beginning to get as fuzzy as the wire mesh over the light fixture.
He had no idea how long he’d been isolated like this when the door of his room opened and Lorna Channing stepped in, alone.
“You should have called me,” she said.
“When I needed you, I didn’t have the number,” Bo replied.
“For want of a nail, the shoe was lost.”
“We won the battle,” Bo pointed out.
“And we’re going to win the war, Agent Thorsen.”
Channing walked to the window and touched the heavy mesh with her hand. It was day outside, late afternoon Bo judged from the position of the sun in the sky. Channing’s shadow fell across the floor behind her, stretching all the way to where Bo lay.
“Before she was killed, Diana Ishimaru made a telephone call,” Channing said. “She called the hotel room of Secret Service Assistant Director Bill Malone who, I’m sure you’re aware, was in the Twin Cities ostensibly to oversee the investigation into your actions at Wildwood. Malone immediately placed a call to a cell phone number. The number’s been traced to one of the men shot dead last night, one of the men you claim was preparing to assassinate the First Lady. I’m guessing it wouldn’t surprise you to learn that years ago Assistant Director Malone was the Secret Service liaison to NOMan. Although he’s unaware of it at the moment, we now have him under constant surveillance.” Channing turned back to Bo.
“I’ve just come from Wildwood. I had a long visit with the First Lady and her father. I gave them a copy of your statement. Yourstatement, not that crap Norton and Lopez tried to ram down your throat. We’ve spoken with Tom Jorgenson and he’s told us quite a lot. Pretty incredible things. According to him, NOMan was established to help mitigate the influence of incompetent leadership and to nudge the world away from aggression. Kate told him she didn’t consider her assassination a milestone on the road to peace.”
Channing allowed herself a brief smile.
“Information is power,” she continued. “Any organization with power and that operates under a cloak of secrecy and darkness becomes a breeding ground for monstrous abuse, no matter how good-intentioned the goals are initially. In the isolated beauty of his orchards, away from the microphones and the cameras, Tom Jorgenson accomplished miracles. William Dixon used NOMan in a different, brutal way. I think we’ll find as we dig deeper that NOMan has been used to advance all kinds of agendas, personal and political.
“The roots run deep, Agent Thorsen. The tendrils are widespread. We have a long, hard struggle ahead of us, but thanks to you, I’m confident we’ll be able to deliver a good old-fashioned butt-kicking.” She crossed the room and stood beside Bo’s bed. “The president sends his greetings, and has asked me personally to express to you his profound gratitude.” She offered Bo her hand. “As for me, I’m just glad you’re on our side.”
chapter
forty-eight
Lorna Channing opened the door to the Oval Office. “He’ll see you now, Senator.”
William Dixon came in, grinning as if he’d just arrived at a barbecue in his honor. “Well, well,” he said, seeing the president and the First Lady standing together. “Now there’s a lovely family portrait. Good to have you back, Katie. Brought Stephanie home, I hope. I’ve missed that little girl.”
“Sit down,” the president said.
“Thank you, I believe I will. The leg’s been acting up a bit lately. Keeps me awake at night sometimes.” The senator eased himself onto the couch and settled his cane beside him. “Know what I do at night when I can’t sleep, Clayboy? I lie there remembering. Couldn’t tell you what I had for dinner last night, but I can tell you the color of your mother’s dress the first time we met. Blue, just like a Colorado sky.” He stared at the rug a moment, as if he were seeing woven among the threads an image from nearly sixty years before. Then he lifted his dark eyes toward his son. “I remember a lot of strange old things at night. I remember the first man I ever saw die. A kid named Jorge Rodriguez. From Spanish Harlem. A Jap sniper put a bullet right there.” He touched a spot below his left eye. “That was on my first day in the Philippines. I saw a lot more kids die after that. Too many to remember them all.”