“Is she awake already?”
“She didn’t get much sleep last night,” Ms. Swanfeld explained. “But she insisted on speaking to you the moment you arrived.”
“Okay. Stall the general for as long as you can, and tell my wife I’ll be right there.”
“What about Mr. Adkins?”
“I’ve already seen him,” McGarvey told her. “And if anyone else calls, I’m out.”
Ms. Swanfield gave her boss a faintly amused look. “Yes, sir.”
McGarvey took Rencke back into his office and closed the door. Standing next to the computer expert was like being near high voltage lines. A low-pitched hum of energy seemed to radiate from him.
“Maryland H. P. put on the wire that they had gunfire, an explosion and four unidentified males down at Morningside,” Rencke said. “Since your name wasn’t mentioned, I figured you’d done okay.”
“Sandy Patterson was out there with them. But she decided to switch sides.”
“Good thinking,” Rencke said. “Did you get anything useful from her?”
“This is all some Joseph Lee plot that’s been in the works for a couple of years,” McGarvey explained. “After Croft killed himself I was their number-one target. She was sure about that part.”
“Lee thought you could hurt him somehow,” Rencke said dreamily. “Something out of your past.”
“Lindsay is the only connection I can see,” McGarvey said. “But I still don’t know how deeply he’s involved with Lee, or what they’re up to.”
Rencke blinked. “Tanegashima,” he said. “Joseph Lee is at the Japanese space launch center.”
“How do you know that?”
“NSA recorded a portion of a phone message before the encryption device was activated. The call originated at the space center and was directed to MITI headquarters in Tokyo. The computer said there was a ninety-six percent probability of a match between the voice calling from Tanegashima and a file recording of Lee.”
McGarvey turned that over in his mind. Lee was at Tanegashima for the upcoming launch of the space station module. So what? Security at the center was very tight, so he could simply have gone there to lay low. But that didn’t seem right. “There’s still no tie between Joseph Lee and myself.”
“Not directly. But there is a connection between you and President Lindsay, who has, in turn, a strong connection with Lee.”
“And the space shot?” McGarvey wondered out loud.
“Could be Lindsay arranged a transfer of technology to the Japanese in exchange for campaign funds. Lee could have been the intermediary. It’s happened before.”
McGarvey shook his head. “It has to be something more than that. I don’t think they’d try to kill me merely because of some engineering advice or NASA trade secrets.”
“It’s got something to do with the launch,” Rencke said. “Lee’s being there isn’t a simple coincidence.”
“That only gives us a couple of days to figure it out.”
“Yeah,” Rencke said, resting his weight on one foot. He did that whenever he was deeply in thought. “We better not forget North Korea’s nukes,” he said softly. “That’s how all this started, you know.” Rencke blinked again. “The connection is there, Mac. I just don’t have it yet.”
“I’m going to see someone this morning who might have the answers. Or at least some of them. But you’re going to have to stick around to backstop me. In the meantime tell Adkins where Lee is hiding out.”
Rencke’s eyes focused on McGarvey. “David is going after Goliath? Storming the White House?”
“Something like that.”
“Nothing’s going to be the same.”
“It never is,” McGarvey said.
As a breakfast cart was being wheeled in from the executive dining room, McGarvey walked next door to the conference room where his wife and daughter had set up housekeeping last night. Kathleen, still dressed in the same clothing she’d been wearing at the safe house, her hair a mess, her makeup smudged, was pacing. She looked up in relief.
“I tried to stop her, Kirk. But she wouldn’t listen to me.”
McGarvey went around the long table to her, the same vise clamped around his heart. “What are you talking about?”
“It’s Elizabeth. She went over to Bethesda Hospital about an hour ago, and there wasn’t a thing I could say to talk her out of it.” Kathleen’s lower lip quivered but she was refusing to give in to her fear or her tiredness. “At least Dick Yemm is with her.”
“Is she hurt? Sick?”
“No. That’s where they took Todd Van Buren, and she wanted to be with him,” Kathleen said. “She figured that since you were going after the terrorists she didn’t have to stay here any longer. She was sure that you would take care of them, so she didn’t have to worry.”
McGarvey forced himself to calm down. In this instance his daughter was probably right. Lee had failed twice, his people here were all dead, Sandy Patterson, his stateside manager, had defected and he had hidden himself at Tanegashima. He wasn’t going to try again.
“You don’t need to stay here any longer, Katy,” he told her.
She looked at him, the expression on her face a mixture of relief and uncertainty. “You caught them?”
“Yeah.” McGarvey thought of everything his family had gone through because of him. It was over for them, and he was grateful for at least that much.
“There’s no possibility they’ll escape?”
McGarvey shook his head. “They’re dead.”
Kathleen shivered, as if a cold draft had come from somewhere.
“Get your things and I’ll drive you home.”
“Will you be able to stay—”
“My part’s not over with yet, Katy,” McGarvey said. “Could be a couple more days.”
“In that case you’d better take me over to Bethedsa. I want to be with our daughter.”
“I’ll have our people keep an eye on both of you. Just in case.”
“Good idea, Kirk.”
McGarvey arrived at the White House from Bethesda a couple of minutes before ten, assured that Dick Yemm would keep a close eye on his wife and daughter for as long as it took to straighten this out. But he had no idea how long that might take, because what he was about to do this morning was nothing short of challenging the Constitution. He was about to go farther out on a limb than he’d ever been before, and he was still clutching at straws, because he didn’t know the entire story. He couldn’t even guess at some of it yet, yet he was going up against the President of the United States.
Dale Nance came from his office, a look of contempt on his face. “Is this really necessary, McGarvey?”
“Yeah.”
“Stay here. I’ll see if he’s ready for you.” Nance went into the Oval Office, and came out a half minute later. “I hope you know what you’re doing,” he said. “Go on in.”
President Lindsay was seated at his desk, while Harold Secor poured a cup of coffee at the sideboard. One of four television screens in a bank of monitors was on and turned to CNN, but the sound was low. Two co-anchors were talking about something, their voices just audible.
“We were happy to hear that your family came out of the attack unharmed,” Secor said, bringing his coffee and sitting down across from the President. “Dr. Pierone has been instructed to pursue the investigation with the utmost vigor.”
“It won’t be necessary,” McGarvey told them. “We found the rest of them.”
“They’re in custody?” Secor asked his face lighting up.
“They’re dead. But we arrested Sandy Patterson, who worked for Joseph Lee. She’s agreed to tell us everything.” McGarvey looked directly at the President. “She and I had quite a talk this morning. About Tony Croft and me, and about Joseph Lee and his connection with the Japanese space program. We found him. He’s at their space center now.”