He had the twenty million, it was true, and he would wire it out. But what if James went ahead and wrote the story? Or what if she asked for more money? Or, even worse, what if Creel found out?
It will work. It has to.
He showered, dressed, gulped down a glass of orange juice, grabbed his briefcase, and headed out.
When he reached his garage, Dick Pender’s world suddenly turned black.
He awoke several hours later, on a cot in a small room. The only light came from a bright, shadeless lamp on a table. As he sat up and slowly looked around he could sense someone was in here with him, behind the wash of light from the lamp. He put his hand up to shield his eyes from the glare.
“What the hell is going on?” he said as bravely as he could, which wasn’t brave at all really as his voice cracked, his lips quivered, and he was nearly hyperventilating.
The big, angry-looking man stepped out from behind the light and Pender immediately shrank back against the wall.
A voice came at Pender from somewhere, he wasn’t sure.
“We only brought you here to keep you safe.”
The door opened, the overhead lights came on, and Pender found himself blinking rapidly. His face sagged when he saw who’d entered the room.
“You?” Pender said.
“Me,” Nicolas Creel answered as Caesar stood silently behind him.
CHAPTER 85
WHILE APPARENTLY the government could spy on its citizens without benefit of a court-issued search warrant, determining whether a certain car had gone through a certain tollgate at a certain time was far more problematic. Shaw and the others found out that the video camera at the tollbooth Pender had taken was not working. Apparently so many motorists had run the booth without paying, been filmed, gotten a fine in the mail, and refused to pay it that the highway folks had simply given up. Now the camera was there as a deterrent, they were told. However, everyone knew it wasn’t functioning because a local newspaper had done a story on it, and so there went the deterrent.
Frank had next checked with the electronic toll payment company. They had balked at giving out the information to him, despite his credentials. He had summoned assistance from the police in Virginia. Armed with this official backing, another attempt had been made to get the information. Then they were told that there apparently had been a server glitch, electronic bug, or inadvertent file wipeout that happened from time to time. They were working on it and would get back to them.
“Get back to us!” screamed Frank over the phone. “Get back to us? The whole freaking world is about to go up in smoke and you’ll get back to us?”
The woman on the other end of the line told Frank that she didn’t care for his tone and they were doing the best they could, but that computers were not perfect.
“Well, honey,” Frank said, “by the time this is all over and the world has come to an end, who’ll give a shit about imperfect computers?”
The woman apparently had not been listening but rather reading from her script. She told Frank to have a nice day and if he had any other questions or concerns they’d be happy to help because customer service was their number one priority.
Frank slammed down the phone and would’ve ripped the hair off his head if he had any left.
He looked at the others. “Now what? We just wait for the first nuke to launch?”
Royce shrugged. “What’s the alternative?”
Shaw rose. “We do a little digging on our own.”
Frank said, “What kind of digging?”
“In the dirt,” Shaw answered as he closed the door behind him.
Katie looked at the other two men.
“What’s with him?” Royce wanted to know.
“He’s been through a lot,” she said defensively.
“We’ve all been through a lot,” snarled Frank.
Katie didn’t hear this. She’d already hurried out after Shaw. She caught up with him as he strode down the hall.
“Shaw?”
He stopped, waited for her to catch up.
“What are you going to do?” she asked.
“Just like I said. Dig.” He started walking again.
She had to skip along to keep up with his long strides.
“But how, where? It’s not like you can just pull this guy out of a hat.”
“You never know.”
“Do you have to be so damn secretive? Because let me just tell you, it’s frustrating as hell.” She put a hand on his arm. “And can you please stop for a sec? I haven’t run a marathon in a while.”
He faced her. “I’m not asking for you to help.”
“I know,” she said more calmly. “But I want to help. I thought we could flush this guy out with my plan.”
Shaw’s angry features cleared. “Your plan was great, Katie. And we almost got him that way.”
“So can I help? I mean, I don’t have anything else to do right now. And the whole ‘world at stake’ thing, you know.” She attempted a smile.
“Okay, do you have any ideas?”
“All we have is that video of the car. And I think it’s worth another look. We might have missed something.”
Shaw finally shrugged. “I’ll scrounge up a copy and we can go through it again.”’
“A copy? Why not just go back and watch it with Royce and Frank?”
Shaw didn’t answer her. He was already walking back down the hall.
CHAPTER 86
CREEL HELD UP A SMALL RECORDER. He turned it on and Pender listened to his phone conversation with Katie James all over again.
A gray-faced Pender said weakly, “You knew about it?”
“Of course I knew about it, Dick. I know everything. You should have realized that by now.”
Pender started to sputter. “I was just trying to take care of it without bothering you, Mr. Creel. I have the money. It’s all ready to go.”
“I appreciate your effort, I really do. The problem with the blog was unfortunate, however. I would’ve hoped with the amount of money I was paying you that that would not have happened. But such is life. The unexpected sometimes comes along. I know that as well as any man living.”
“But once we pay her-”
Creel stopped him. “Unfortunately it’s not that simple. I seriously doubt that someone like Katie James suddenly cares that much about money. I researched the woman thoroughly before deciding to use her in my little plan. Years ago she could’ve made a fortune becoming a morning TV news personality for any of the major networks, but she refused. She cares more about the story than she does about money. So no, not even twenty million dollars will change that picture.”
“Then why did she contact me?’
“To get you to call her. When Ms. James told you to pull off the road, my friend here tells me you almost ran off the highway.”
Pender stared at Caesar. “He was following me?”
“Just answer the question, Dick.”
“Yes, I did. It was unnerving. It was like she was watching me.”
“Someone was watching you, Dick. And it wasn’t just me.”
“What are you talking about? Who was watching me?”
“There are cameras all over the toll road. She made that comment to get you to react. And you did. Now they look at the video, time the conversation, and they see you almost wreck at the precise instant James said what she did. That way they can pinpoint the car.”