“Good to see you, Helen,” he said as he walked up to her desk and extended his hand.
“Sit,” she said, not taking it.
“All right.” He pulled his hand back and sat down. “Now what’s so important we couldn’t have dealt with it over the phone?”
“First off, you’re fired.”
He leaned forward. “Excuse me?”
“I don’t see a need to repeat myself.”
“You can’t fire me. You don’t have the authority.”
“You mean even though your organization now falls under me?”
“Yes. Check my job description. You may be able to order O & O around, but I can only be removed from office by the secretary of Homeland Security or someone above him. Which, I believe, is only one person.”
“Two if you count the vice president.”
“No one counts the vice president,” Stone said.
“Fair enough. I’ve read the details of your employment parameters. Needless to say, they will be removed before your successor takes office.”
Stone snorted a laugh, leaned back against his chair, and crossed his legs. “Dream on.”
She held his gaze for a moment before she reached over and tapped one of the buttons on her phone. “Are you still there, sir?”
“I am,” the secretary of Homeland Security said.
“And I trust you heard everything.”
“I did indeed.”
The blood drained from Stone’s face. “I, um, wasn’t aware someone was listening in. I should have been informed.”
“Does it matter?” Helen asked.
“Yes, former Director Stone, that’s a good question,” the secretary said.
“It’s not fair, sir. This is an ambush.”
“What this is,” Helen said, “is an overdue spring cleaning.”
“You cannot—”
“Stop right there,” the secretary said. “I would think very long and hard before you open your mouth again, Mr. Stone. You’ve made a mess at O & O. Helen is only doing what needs to be done.”
“Sir, I don’t know what stories you may have heard, or what Director Cho had chosen to tell you, but—”
“Director Cho has chosen to tell me nothing. She merely asked that I look into O & O for myself, which I have.” He paused. “I am embarrassed that this agency exists under my umbrella. Who knows how long it’s going to take us to unravel everything you’ve done there? Starting right now, you will answer everything Director Cho asks you. You will answer truthfully without hesitation. But it doesn’t end when you walk out of the room. Consider the rest of your life one gigantic exit interview. If and when Director Cho has questions for you in the future, you will answer those immediately. You will also answer any questions your successor has, if we decide it’s worth keeping O & O going. Lie one time, put off one answer, and you might as well kiss your life good-bye, because I can assure you, where you’ll be taken, you will not see the light of day for quite some time. If I’m particularly annoyed, like I am right now, I’ll arrange it so you never see it again. Am I understood?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Are there any questions?”
“No, sir.”
“Good. Then Director Cho, I will leave matters in your hands.”
“Thank you, sir,” Helen said, and touched the button that disconnected the call.
For several seconds, Stone stared at the phone, as if he were sure the secretary was still on the line.
“Darvot Consulting,” Helen said.
He looked at her, confused. “What?”
“Darvot Consulting, the client for the Georgetown job we talked about on the phone. Who is your main contact there?”
“That, um, would be Kyle Morten.”
“So Mr. Morten is the one who hired you to watch the apartment?”
“Actually it was arranged by his associate, Mr. Griffin.”
As she suspected.
“What was the purpose of this job?”
“To detain anyone trying to enter the apartment.”
“And how did that go?” She paused only a second before saying, “Never mind. Your failure on the mission isn’t important at the moment. It’s the mission itself I’m interested in. What were the reasons for detaining anyone found there?”
“I assume you’ve read the project brief,” he said. “Likely terrorist activity?”
“You believed the brief?”
“My job is not…was not to question a brief, but to render services to clients on our approved list. Darvot is on that list.”
“Who put them on that list?”
“They’ve been there for as long as I’ve been with the organization.”
“Let me broaden that a bit. Who approves anyone for that list?”
His hesitation was probably enough to get him sent to Guantanamo, but she made no mention of it.
“The director of O & O.”
“So, you.”
“Yes. But I do my due diligence, and my predecessor would have done the same.”
“I’m sure. What you’re telling me is that your job is not to question a brief from a client approved by the director of O & O, and yet you are the director of O & O. Help me out here.”
“My predecessor, in this case,” he said.
“The director of O & O,” she countered.
In the corner of her eye, she saw a message from her assistant David flash onto her computer screen. She glanced over.
I have a Jonathan Quinn on line three. He insists on talking to you.
Jonathan Quinn? It took her a moment to place the name. He was an operative, a…cleaner, if she wasn’t mistaken. Why in God’s name would he want to talk to her?
She typed a quick reply.
Take a message.
David responded almost immediately.
He said he’ll hold.
She wrote back:
Tell him I’m tied up.
Then she turned her screen so she wouldn’t see it if another message appeared.
“Apologies,” she said to Stone. “Let’s keep moving forward. Mr. Griffin answers to Mr. Morten. Do you know if Mr. Morten answers to anyone?”
“How should I know that?” Stone said. “They haven’t shared their corporate structure with me.”
“It’s not in the file O & O has on Darvot?”
“You must have looked at it yourself. You know if it’s there or not.”
“It’s not.”
“Well, then, there’s your answer,” he said defensively.
She stared at him until he blinked and looked away. “You want to know what I’ve learned about your organization since it came under my control? O & O and due diligence are not synonymous. I have no doubt we’re going to find numerous examples of O & O activities that border on the criminal, if not cross the line entirely.”
“I don’t know what you mean. I have no knowledge of anything remotely like that.”
“Of course you don’t.” She clasped her hands, set them on the desk in front of her, and leaned forward. “What I’m telling you, Mr. Stone, is this. You will never look for another job again. Not in the government. Not in the private sector. Not even serving coffee at Starbucks. You will live off the money you have now, and the retirement package you are due. And that’s it.”
He jerked forward and slammed his palms down on the front of her desk. “What? You can’t do that! I don’t have enough to—”
“Actually, I can. If you break this rule, you will find yourself in one of our secret courtrooms, where you’ll be convicted and sentenced to life.”
“On what charge?”
She smiled. “We’ll think of something.” She stood. “Now get your ass out of my office.”
“I want to talk to the sec—”
“Don’t embarrass yourself. Get out, Gregory. We’re done.”
It was several moments before he finally pulled himself to his feet and left her office, looking shell-shocked.
Before the door could close again, David slipped inside. “Excuse me, Director, but Jonathan Quinn has called back again.”