Chapter Twenty
ISAAC REMINGTON
“We’ve got a problem,” Remington fumed, his fist tightening on his burner phone. He’d have to buy stock in an expendable phone-making company if this blasted situation continued much longer. “The Justice Department and the director have agreed to all his terms. The idiots! Don’t they see how he’s trying to manipulate them?”
“Sinclair is a dangerous loose end.”
“I know. I wish the director had retired years ago, so that someone with the guts to defend our country could take the reins and finally whip NSA into shape.”
“That would be hard to do without removing the ShadowCrypt patch. Now the patch is apparently within reach, along with Sinclair.”
“It’s within Candace Kim’s reach,” he spit out. He could feel his blood pressure rising. “They’re even talking about putting the family in WITSEC, on his request.”
There was a moment of silence before his accomplice spoke. “We need to get our hands on Sinclair soon or things could get real complicated.”
“Don’t I know it. We need to know what he has on us in terms of proof. Do you think he can tie us to Lando’s boating accident?” That was the real sticking point, wasn’t it? If only he could be sure of what Sinclair had. “Although, if he had proof back then, he wouldn’t have vanished. He’s bluffing.”
“It’s a risk to assume that.”
“Perhaps, which is why we need his youngest daughter to draw him out. We know he’s already reached out to her once, so we should assume he might do it again.”
“What about the other daughter or the wife? Can they be leveraged?” There was a noise in the background, a car honking and the squeal of tires.
“They could, and that’s the backup plan, but neither of them appear to be actively trying to find him,” Isaac explained. “The youngest daughter is poking around places and causing trouble. She’s given us some of our best leads on him. Now he’s reached out to her and made contact for the first time in fourteen years. That’s huge. She’s the key to this thing.”
“So, what’s our next step?”
“Tell the others we need a two-pronged approach.” Isaac considered his words carefully. He’d thought everything out and had planned this for a long time. “On the one front, we’ve got to use the girl to bring him out of hiding. On the other front, I must discredit Sinclair with the Justice Department. It shouldn’t be hard. Once everything quiets down, we find him and make him disappear for good.”
“How are you going to get at the daughter? She’s behind the security perimeter at UTOP.”
“Every day except Saturday, when the candidates go into town for their weekly break.”
There was a short pause. “Good point. I hadn’t thought of that.”
Isaac suppressed a sharp retort. It shouldn’t be this hard. Did he have to spell everything out? Didn’t anyone else share his forward-thinking vision? He kept his voice even, patient. “Yes. So, if we need to do something, we do it then. She’s the leverage we need. Then, after a family accident, there’ll be no more problems or witnesses left to worry about.”
“Oh. Do you think they could connect his disappearance back to us? After all, you’ve been pretty vocal about your dislike for him.”
He hated the weak spirit of his compatriots. Fixing that would be a priority when he became director. “Please. Sinclair has been backdooring terrorists for years. I don’t think it would be too difficult to imagine a scenario where certain factions weren’t happy with him when he’s found out. A sudden, permanent disappearance shouldn’t be any surprise at all. We simply blame it on the terrorists, and that’s the end of that.”
A longer pause and then a laugh. “Wow, that’s ingenious.”
Isaac smiled. At last they were seeing what he was capable of doing for the nation. “And that’s exactly why I’ll be a formidable director.”