Extinction Machine

Chapter Thirty-four

The Oval Office, the White House

Sunday, October 20, 7:29 a.m.

Acting president William Collins closed his eyes and smiled as he listened to the detailed information being shared with him by the attorney general. There was an almost orgasmic flush sweeping through his body in hot waves. Each word, each detail, each amount, brought him closer to an actual physical response, he could feel it in his loins.

When Mark Eppenfeld, the attorney general was finished speaking, Collins had to clear his throat and take a sip of water before he trusted his voice to speak.

“And all of this is verified?” he asked.

“Yes, sir,” said the AG. “Once I got the tip I had it verified by three separate sources.”

“What are the chances that this is a frame job?” asked Collins. “Could these funds have been placed in Ledger’s account?”

“If the money just appeared there, sir, I would say yes, but I have printouts of Ledger’s banking records going back fourteen months. There is a clear pattern of deposits. As you know deposits of ten thousand dollars or more are reported by banks, so what we’re seeing are multiple deposits in smaller amounts of three to six thousand, but there are a lot of them, and they’re spread out over a number of accounts. Plus there are purchases of IRAs, bonds, and other products that establish that Ledger has been trying to hide some of the money, or keep it off the IRS radar. We got his tax returns for last year and more than ninety percent of this money was never reported. And, sir, that doesn’t even take into account money paid into his brother’s bank account, and the rather large sums that appear to have been sent to numbered accounts. We’re going to have to get subpoenas for that, though the Cayman Island banks will stonewall us.”

“How much, Mark? Give me a ballpark figure.”

Eppenfeld sighed heavily. “It’s bad, Mr. President. Adding in the bank accounts, guesses on the offshore deposits, the certificates, and bonds, we’re talking just shy of four million. But that might be the tip of the iceberg. We have Treasury and FBI at Ledger’s apartment now and they’ve found paper records of cash purchases.”

“What kind of purchases?” asked Collins, feeling that throb deep in his groin.

“Real estate. Five properties, paid for in cash.”

“Jesus. And this is all legit? None of this is planted? I need to know that we’re not being handed a live hand grenade here, Mark.”

“I don’t think so. We’ve run down two of the Realtors so far and they’ve identified Ledger from photos. No … he’s dirty.”

Collins gripped the phone so hard the plastic case creaked. “Why would he be this clumsy about it?”

“He’s not being clumsy,” said the AG. “We didn’t know about this until Funke at the IRS picked out some anomalies in banking records being matched against government employee tax returns. Otherwise, Ledger might have flown under the radar for at least a few more months, and who knows what he would have cooked up by then to hide this. If he was even still in the country. With his knowledge and resources he could go off the radar at the drop of a hat. He still might if we don’t move on him quickly.”

Collins swiveled his chair around to stare out the window. The White House lawn never looked so clean and bright and beautiful before.

“And Deacon?”

“Well,” said Eppenfeld heavily, “that’s a different kettle of fish. By executive order all of his records and personal information are sealed.”

“How do we unseal them?”

The attorney general was slow to answer. “That’s problematic, sir. Mr. Church has a great many friends in Congress and if we push too hard or too fast and it turns out that he is not involved in Ledger’s criminal activities, then we lose those people.”

“You’re afraid of Church?”

“I … respect who and what he is.”

“Who and what he appears to be, you mean.”

“No, sir,” said Eppenfeld. “I respect Mr. Church and even now, with all this about Ledger coming to light, I find it extremely difficult to believe that he is involved in any criminal misconduct.”

That took some of the joy out of the moment. “Ledger is the Deacon’s pet shooter. How can Ledger be crooked and Deacon arrow-straight?”

“I can’t act on supposition, Mr. President. We do not have anything on Deacon. Nothing. And, I believe it is in our best interests to approach him about this as soon as possible.”

“No,” said Collins firmly. “No damn way.”

“May I ask why not, Mr. President?”

“MindReader is why not.”

“Sir?”

“That goddamn computer system is at the root of all this. Ledger is clearly being paid—and paid well—to use MindReader to carry out the cyber-attacks on the defense contractors.”

“I … don’t know that we can draw that conclusion, sir. We know that Ledger has been receiving large sums of undeclared money. We have no evidence as yet about its source or the reasons for which he was paid.”

“Don’t be an idiot, Mark. Why else would Ledger be taking that kind of money?”

There was a pregnant silence and when the attorney general spoke again there was frost in his voice. “With all respect, Mr. President, I—”

“Oh, Christ, Mark, I apologize. Forget I said that. This situation has me on edge.”

“Yes, Mr. President, I understand.” The frost was not totally thawed.

“Can we get a warrant to confiscate MindReader?”

“No, sir. That is the private property of Mr. Church, and as I said—”

“Can we get a warrant for a thorough search of the Warehouse?”

The AG thought about that. “I can issue a warrant for search and seizure of anything in Ledger’s office.”

“What if there is a MindReader unit in his office?”

“Then, yes, we can take that, his laptop, and anything else that is either Ledger’s property or that is included in the inventory of his office.”

“Do it.”

“What about Mr. Church?”

“If he interferes in any way I expect you to arrest him for obstruction of justice. Unlike you, Mark, I don’t believe that the Deacon is lily-white. I think he’s dirty and he runs a dirty shop, and I’m damn well going to see him taken down.”