I didn’t answer. My mind was racing. There had to be a way we could use this. There had to be.
“Hot damn, look at him go! I am proud, proud to know that our great nation is being steered by men of such exceptional energy and passion. Not to mention rectitude.”
Rectitude. That was it.
“We’ve got him,” I said. “This is our chance.”
“I don’t see what you mean. Right now, the man couldn’t be more un-alone.”
“No, but he’ll be alone soon. I want you to keep watching-”
“Yes, sir, I love my work.”
“-and the second she leaves, buzz me, then meet me on the casino floor. There’s a phone bank, just to the right of Blush nightclub when you’re facing the entrance. The second she leaves, understand?”
“Understood,” he said, his tone suddenly all business.
I clicked off and took three slow, deep breaths, forcing myself to pause, to think it through from every angle. If I missed even just one variable, we would blow the whole thing. But there was a chance. Dox had been joking about rectitude, but rectitude, or more accurately, the threatened loss of its facade, was what we suddenly stood to exploit. I thought about the shame this married, church-going, top-secret-SCI-cleared intelligence official would fear if word-if a damn celebrity porn video, from what Dox was describing-got out. And I thought about how, of all the emotions, it’s shame that most craves solitude, the very solitude we now required.
I imagined an approach, and quickly realized that with just a little luck, I wouldn’t even need the cyanide. I decided to do it the old-fashioned way-more difficult, but also more certain. I closed my eyes and began to picture every step, every variable, every when/then possibility.
When I was done visualizing all of it, I took a roll of sports tape from my toiletry kit and wrapped my forearms and wrists, all the way down to the first joint on my thumbs. Then I pulled on a long-sleeved white tee shirt, buttoned a blue oxford cloth shirt over it, and slipped on a navy blazer whose sleeves were a touch too long. Taped wrists and long sleeves might attract some attention at one of the card tables, but I wasn’t going to be gambling, or at least not in the Vegas sense of the word.
My mobile vibrated forty minutes later-Shorrock must have had the girl for an hour, and I supposed there were few professionals as punctual as a Vegas call girl. I stuffed a pair of deerskin gloves into one of the blazer jacket pockets and the sports tape into the other, then headed down.
Dox was waiting when I arrived, and I was pleased to note the continued density of the crowds on the casino floor, which would offer plenty of concealment. “Let’s walk,” I said, and while we circumnavigated the resort, I explained the plan, and his role in it.
When we were done, we walked back to the phone bank next to Blush. I stood close while he dialed Shorrock’s room, and he held the phone away from his ear so I could hear. Two rings, then a “Yes?” in a slightly nervous tone. I wondered whether Shorrock was concerned the girl, or her company, was calling, whether he was suffering from an afterglow comprised mostly of guilt and fear.
“Mister Shorrock,” Dox said, in his deepest hick drawl.
“Yes?”
“I’ll get right to the point. My associate just left your room. While she was there, she placed a camera under the television in the main room. We used that camera to record a video of your escapades on the couch.”
“What?”
“May I recommend that you just walk over to the television in question and feel along its bottom edge? You’ll find the camera, and then I can tell you how we can settle this so no one else ever sees the video we made.”
“This…this is ridiculous. I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Sir, just go retrieve the camera if you would. Oh, and by the way, doggy-style is one of my favorite positions, too. Well done, sir, well done.”
That was a nice touch, I thought, and not one I’d scripted. The trick was to feed the subject critical bits of information that would cause him to believe you had more. That, and his growing panic, would prevent him from thinking clearly, and from asking potentially show-stopping questions like, Oh yeah? What was the girl’s name, then? Which, if Dox really were her associate, he could be expected to know.
There was silence for a moment, presumably while Shorrock examined the television and located the camera. Then he said, “What…what is this about?”
“Sir, it’s about you compensating me for giving you the thumb drive on which your steamy encounter with a Las Vegas prostitute is now clearly recorded.”
“This is a hoax. Who are you?”
There was no conviction in his voice, and I decided he was just trying to be careful about what he said. At the moment, fear of being recorded would naturally be prominent in his mind.
“Right now, sir, I’m the only person who can save you from personal and professional humiliation and destruction. Which I would sincerely like you to help me do.”
“Help you how?”
“Just by paying me a thousand dollars in cash. Which, I think you’ll agree under the circumstances, is a hell of a bargain.”
In the business he was in, Shorrock would know something about blackmail, and his next question demonstrated experience. “Just for the sake of argument, if it were true that you had some sort of tape, which you don’t, because nothing untoward happened, but if you did, you’d keep a copy and turn your blackmail demands into an annuity. Why would anyone want to play your game?”
“Sir, that is a reasonable concern and I can only assure you that I’ve been playing this game, as you call it, for a long time, and my discretion is the reason I’ve been able to continue without undue fuss. Have you ever heard about anyone being caught out at the Wynn? Of course not, and I’ll tell you why. It’s because every time this happens, I’m paid promptly for delivering the incriminating recording and that’s the end of the matter. But if you want to be the first person to get huffy and take a stand, that’s up to you. Personally, I’d recommend you do what everyone else does, which is fork over the thousand, chalk it up to experience, and live to fight another day.”
There was a pause, during which Shorrock must have been mentally running the odds. His voice was tight, but he managed to say, “Okay, just because I can’t sleep and this amuses me. Even if I wanted to pay you, I don’t have a thousand in cash with me.”
An objection about price, not principle. That, and the fact that he hadn’t hung up, made me confident this was going to work.
“Of course you don’t, sir, that’s not unusual after a night of gambling. Which is why I’m standing right next to an ATM. So here’s the deal. You come down and withdraw the money. I’ll be watching from somewhere on the casino floor. When you have the money, I’ll stroll on by. I’ll give you a thumb drive and you’ll give me the cash. A very discreet exchange and considering the damage it’ll prevent, I’d say it’ll be the best money you’ll ever spend in your life. But if you’re not here in five minutes, I’ll assume you’re not interested-in which case, you can watch the trailer of the video on select Internet sites. And who knows? Maybe on the evening news, too.”
I knew we had him even before he said, “Where are you?”
“Not far from Blush nightclub. There’s an ATM to the club’s right as you’re facing the entrance. That’s the one to use. Oh, and I almost hate to ask this under the circumstances, but could I trouble you to return the camera to me? They’re expensive.”
“I don’t believe this.”
“I understand, sir, and I know this is unpleasant, but if you just follow the plan, in five minutes the whole thing will be behind you. And if it makes you feel better, again you’re hardly the first. Vegas, you know what I mean?”
Dox hung up and we moved off to separate slot machines with a view of the ATM. I imagined what Shorrock would be doing now: trying to control his panic, weighing the odds of his thousand dollars buying him what it was supposed to buy, coming up with a story for why the bodyguard outside his room had to stay put and not trail him despite security protocol to the contrary. He only had a few minutes to figure it all out, and again the time pressure would be key to preventing him from coming up with anything we hadn’t foreseen. His most obvious move, aside from compliance, would be to have the bodyguard, or both of them, tail him and move in on Dox when he revealed himself from the casino floor. I didn’t think he’d do it-there wasn’t much upside to a move like that, only a lot of risk-but if he did, we’d stay put and repeat when he returned to his room.