“I’ll pay you a billion dollars to complete this mission. Yes, Liam, I said a billion, in case you’re thinking you didn’t hear me right.”
Sterling could actually feel his jaw drop.
“And,” Gadanz continued, “I’ll cut the kill list to fourteen.” He pulled a piece of paper and a pair of reading glasses from his pocket. “The president, vice president, Senate Majority Leader, Speaker of the House, FBI director, CIA director, three Supreme Court justices including the chief justice, secretary of state, secretary of defense, Bill Jensen, Troy Jensen, and Jack Jensen.” He paused as he removed the glasses from his wide nose. “I want to hit only the major players now.”
Sterling blinked several times. He hadn’t been listening to the names Gadanz was reeling off. He’d been replaying the new bounty amount over and over in his mind. “A billion dollars?” It was an unfathomable amount of money, so huge it seemed impossible to draw a risk-return curve that had any degree of accuracy. How could he put a utilitarian value on a billion dollars?
“Yes, a billion. And as I said, I’ve pared the list considerably.” Gadanz gestured at Sterling with the unlighted cigar he was sucking on like a pacifier. “Have you sent your assassin team away yet? Please tell me you haven’t done that.”
Sterling shook his head. “No, they’re all still in Harpers Ferry.”
“Good,” Gadanz said as his shoulders slumped noticeably, “very good. So, do we have a—” He leaned forward in his chair, grabbed his hair with both hands, shut his eyes tightly, and moaned loudly.
Sterling rose quickly from his chair, picked up the cigar from the floor, and held it out for Gadanz, who snatched it as he leaned back in the chair and exhaled heavily. “What the hell is wrong with you, Daniel?”
“Nothing,” Gadanz snapped. “Now, do we have a deal?”
“Who’s your anonymous contact?” It had to be a brain tumor, Sterling figured as he sat back down. “Who told you about Red Cell Seven?”
“I thought I made myself clear in Peru. You were never to ask—”
“Daniel, if you don’t tell me right now, I’m walking out of here, and the hell with a billion dollars. Does that tell you how much I want the answer?”
“I suppose,” Gadanz agreed grudgingly. He sucked on the cigar for several moments. “It’s Shane Maddux.”
A palpable shock wave surged through Sterling. “Shane Maddux?” he whispered as the tiny hairs on the back of his neck rose.
“Yes.”
For a few seconds, Sterling didn’t believe it. Then, as he thought about it more, it began to make sense. It had to be the truth. How could Gadanz possibly make up something like that? It was so off the wall it had to be true. And how else would he have such intimate details of the secret cell’s inner workings?
“But why?”
“Shane Maddux hates David Dorn with a passion I’ve never seen before,” Gadanz explained. “He hates that man more than I’ve ever seen anyone hate anyone or anything. And that’s saying a lot, because I truly hate the people who killed my brother, Jacob. But Maddux beats me on this, and it’s quite impressive. Maddux,” Gadanz continued, “believes that President Dorn is destroying the United States by going soft on terrorism, by severely constraining what intelligence officers can do during interrogations, even limiting basic actions they can take in the field. Even worse for Maddux, he believes that Dorn is personally trying to destroy Red Cell Seven. So he believes Dorn must be terminated.” Gadanz relaxed as the shooting pains in his head finally subsided. “He tried to assassinate Dorn in Los Angeles a year ago, and now he’s trying to kill him again. With my help,” Gadanz added with a nasty chuckle as he gestured at Sterling. “And yours.”
“What about all the other targets of Operation Anarchy? Why would he want to kill all those people?”
“Maddux proposed a few of the other targets in the original group. Others he believes are not friendly to Red Cell Seven. But I added most of them in order to heighten the chaos of the day,” Gadanz said grandly, as if he was very impressed with himself. “Shane was fine with that, not that I really cared one way or the other. Shane wants Dorn dead exponentially more than anyone else on the list. And I want chaos. We had a meeting of the minds.”
“Maddux got the pictures of Troy Jensen with that woman in Spain. The ones we showed Jennie Perez.”
“Yes.”
“Maddux is the one who knew about Dorn’s illegitimate daughter. Maddux was the one who told you about Shannon, aka Leigh-Ann Goodyear.”
“A man under Maddux’s command in Red Cell Seven uncovered that information a year ago.” Gadanz waved the cigar in the air. “Shane Maddux has provided me with a great deal of pertinent information. Without his help, Operation Anarchy could not possibly have gotten to this stage.”
“Maddux figured out how to get to President Dorn.”
“When he heard about my ability to access the Ebola virus and use it as a weapon, he told me who to go after. Leigh-Ann Goodyear, Karen Jensen, and the little boy. He had great ideas on how to get to the president and the Jensens.” Gadanz paused. “Maddux has also been very helpful with regard to obtaining schedules and agendas. And he’s provided me with details I’ve given you about the security around some of these people and how to get past it. All the information that was in that envelope I gave you in Peru.”
“When did Maddux approach you?” Sterling asked.
“Back in January. We’ve been planning this for eight months.”
“Why the Jensens? Why are they targets?”
“Maddux hates them as well, though not as much as Dorn. He doesn’t believe the Jensens are as committed to protecting the United States as he is. He believes they would protect Dorn in the end because it’s ‘the right thing to do,’ even if they don’t agree with his politics.”
Sterling shook his head. “So one of the highest-ranking officers of the most covert, most successful intelligence cell the United States has ever operated approached the world’s most successful drug lord for help?”
“Why is that so shocking?” Gadanz shrugged. “The CIA worked with the Colombians in the late seventies and early eighties to flood the U.S. inner cities with cocaine to try and kill criminals. Does the name Freeway Ricky Ross ring a bell?”
“Sure.”
“Ricky Ross was one of the biggest drug dealers in Los Angeles at the time, and he had close ties to the CIA. They worked together until the CIA turned on him. What’s so shocking about Shane Maddux coming to me?”
Gadanz was right, Sterling realized. When people really wanted something done, they went to an expert, irrespective of the side of the law that person was on. “Nothing, I suppose,” Sterling answered. “But you told me Red Cell Seven was responsible for killing your brother, Jacob. And you’re partnering with one of the cell’s leaders. How does that square?”
“Sometimes priorities make for strange bedfellows, don’t they, Liam?”
For a second, Sterling thought he’d caught an odd gleam in Gadanz’s eyes, but he couldn’t read it. A billion dollars was getting in the way.
“Like the CIA and Freeway Ricky Ross,” Gadanz continued. “My partnership with Maddux is more on a personal level than an institutional one, as is my hatred of the people who killed my brother. Do you understand?”
“Yes.”
“Maddux claims Troy Jensen was directly involved with Jacob’s death. That Troy was one of the individuals who arrested and assaulted Jacob. I want Troy dead, along with his father and brother. But first I want him to suffer the ultimate dilemma first.” Gadanz took a deep breath. “So?” he asked in a leading tone after a few moments. “What is your decision?”
A billion dollars, a billion fucking dollars, Sterling thought to himself. He gritted his teeth again, harder. Still… “I don’t know, Daniel.”