The Jefferson Key (Cotton Malone 7) by Berry Steve

Author:Berry, Steve [Berry, Steve]
Language: eng
Format: mobi
ISBN: 9780345505521
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Published: 2011-12-27T05:00:00+00:00

FORTY-FOUR

BATH, NORTH CAROLINA

HALE WAITED FOR BOLTON TO COW TO HIM AND, FINALLY, THE weak soul, as expected, retreated to the other side of the room.

Tensions eased but did not dissipate.

“President Daniels will not want his private life exposed,” he said. “There has never been a hint of scandal regarding him or his wife. America believes them to be the perfect couple. Can you imagine what the twenty-four-hour news channels and the Internet would do with this? Daniels would forever be known as the cuckold president. He’ll never allow that to happen. Gentlemen, we can use this.”

He saw that the other three did not necessarily agree.

“When were you going to tell us?” Cogburn asked again. “Edward is justified in being angry. We’re all angry, Quentin.”

“There was no sense speaking of it until I was sure that it could be used. Now, I am sure.”

Surcouf stepped to the bar and filled a glass with bourbon. Hale could use one himself, but decided a clear head would be better.

“We can quietly apply pressure and stop these prosecutions,” he said. “As I told all three of you a month ago, there’s no need to kill a president. The talking heads on television and bloggers of the Internet will do it for you. This president has shown us no courtesy. We owe him nothing, unless he wants to accommodate us now.”

“Who is the woman you’re holding in the prison?” Cogburn asked.

He’d wondered when they’d finally ask. “The head of an intelligence unit within the Justice Department called Magellan Billet. Stephanie Nelle.”

“Why do we have her?”

He could not tell them the truth. “She was becoming a problem for us. Investigating.”

“Isn’t she a little late?” Bolton asked. “We’ve been investigated to death.”

“I saw her watching the execution from a cell window,” Cogburn said.

Finally. One of them had paid attention. “My hope was that it would send her a message.”

“Quentin,” Surcouf said, “do you have any idea what you’re doing? It seems like you’re headed in three different directions. Taking a hostage could bring even more heat on us.”

“More so than trying to kill a president? And I truly hate to keep harping on that, but not a soul knows my prisoner is here, besides us. Right now, as far as they are concerned, she is simply missing.”

Of course, he did not include Andrea Carbonell in that disclaimer. Which brought to mind the second traitor. If that person existed, he or she could well know of Stephanie Nelle’s presence. But if that was the case, why hadn’t anyone acted to save her?

The answer to that inquiry reassured him.

Surcouf pointed at the recorder. “You could be right, Quentin. Daniels may not want this made public.”

“And the price for our silence is quite reasonable,” he said. “We simply want the American government to keep its word.”

“There’s a chance Daniels won’t give a damn,” Bolton said. “He may tell you to stick it up your ass, like they did the first time you went begging.”

He resented the comment, but there was something else that required mentioning.

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