“Hello, Patrick. You’re looking well. Your new role obviously agrees with you.”
Patrick’s smile dropped and he walked into the room, glancing at the dead body before saying, “Aren’t you ashamed of yourself, Bill, on so many levels? I don’t just mean Paris. I mean going after assets that served this agency, that served our country, and showed no signs of ever becoming a liability.” As he talked, Dan noticed someone else appear in the doorway behind him, a guy with dark hair, not much older than Dan, looking more like a movie mob boss than someone from the intelligence community. Neither of the other two could see him from there, and Patrick continued, saying, “You’re done, Bill, this is all finished.”
Brabham didn’t look fazed, and said only, “With all due respect, Patrick, you don’t have the authority to make that decision.”
“But I do,” said the other guy, who stepped into the room now. He’d been looking at the body all the time he’d been in the doorway, but now his gaze found Dan, and looked full of disgust. “How many of my officers have you killed today, Mr. Hendricks?”
“I haven’t been keeping count, but I guess around ten.”
“You guess?”
“I guess. And you know, there’s an easy way to ensure I don’t kill any more—just don’t have them try to kill me.”
Patrick said, “Dan, this is Associate Deputy Director Frank Canale. He flew out with me. And, Frank, whatever the rights and wrongs, Dan was working for the ODNI and his actions were a direct response to attacks made on him, and on me.”
Canale looked at him, but didn’t answer, his expression alone seeming to suggest he didn’t care. He nodded to himself then, looking around the room before he settled on Bill.
“There’ll be a full investigation into all of this. We need to look at the decisions made in recent months, and at the actions that followed those decisions. We also need to look at some of the questionable practices that took place in the past, and those responsible for them.” He threw a look at Patrick as he said this, before turning back to Brabham. “And we also need to look at people misusing agency resources to cover up past misdemeanors, because that’s something that can’t be tolerated.”
Dan laughed and said, “Misdemeanors?” All three of them stared at him, and he repeated, “Misdemeanors? His son tried to rape a student in the US ambassador’s residence in Paris.”
Brabham sounded outraged and said, “That’s ridiculous! You have no proof of that.”
“No, we don’t, because the one person who could have testified is dead, murdered by your son.”
Brabham had clearly had enough time to think since Dan had mentioned the tape to him, and he said now, “We tried to suppress the tape, I’ll own up to that, and it was wrong, but any father would do the same. Because Harry didn’t kill that girl. She was alive and well when he left her. It’s as simple as that, and you can’t prove otherwise, with the tape or without it.”
Patrick looked at him and said, “The tape may not prove it categorically, Bill, but I’m sure you wouldn’t want it to come out, all the same.”
Canale sounded impatient, saying, “Enough. This isn’t the time to discuss what we do with the tape.”
Patrick smiled, probably taking satisfaction after the comments Canale had aimed at him, and said, “Actually, Frank, we won’t decide anything. The tape is in the hands of the ODNI.”
Giving ground, Canale said, “Very well, then we’ll have to come to some arrangement about what’s mutually beneficial.” Patrick gave a barely visible nod in response, something Dan understood all too well. “Bill, I think it best you come back to Washington with me.”
Bill nodded, downed the remainder of his whisky and stood. This was how easily things would be tied up, justice for the Merels and Redford and everyone between slipping through the cracks as they all jostled for influence and power.
Dan shook his head, laughing at the brazenness of it, and played nonchalantly with his phone as he said, “Oh, Frank, by the way, you asked how many of your officers I killed?”
His impatience growing, Canale said, “What of it?”
Knowing that it was riling him, Dan continued to sound distracted, pausing as he concentrated on the phone, saying, “Only, you didn’t ask . . . about the ones I didn’t kill. See . . . bear with me . . . yeah, I cuffed a couple of them to the railings . . . in a building across from Bill’s office. They’re unharmed, but . . .”