Valhalla Rising (56 page)

“I had no idea government investigators were aware of Zale’s secret circle of mercenary killers,” said Sally in astonishment.

“So long as Zale doesn’t know.”

Sally spread her hands dejectedly. “He knows.”

Loren looked skeptical. “How? The investigation is being conducted in the strictest secrecy.”

“Curtis Merlin Zale has paid out more than five billion dollars to buy everyone in Washington that he can profit from. Over a hundred senators and representatives are in his pocket, along with officials in every department of government, including the Justice Department.”

“Can you name names?” asked Loren intently.

Sally’s expression turned almost fiendish. She pulled a computer disc from her purse. “It’s all here. Two hundred and eleven names. I can’t tell you how much they’ve been paid or when. But I came across a sealed file sent to me by mistake that was meant for Sandra Delage, the cartel’s inside administrator. After making copies, I resealed the file and sent it to Sandra. Luckily, she did not suspect that I was having second thoughts about my involvement with Cerberus and Zale’s mad scheme and she did not act the least suspicious.”

“Can you tell me a few of the names?”

“Let’s just say leaders of both houses and three top White House officials.”

“Congressman Leonard Sturgis?”

“He’s on the list.”

“I was afraid of that,” said Loren angrily. “And the president?”

Sally shook her head. “To my knowledge, he wants nothing to do with Zale. The president is not perfect, but he sees enough in the oil tycoon to know he’s as rotten as a ninety-day-old truckload of fruit.”

Loren and Sally talked until nearly three o’clock in the morning. Loren was horrified when Sally reported Zale’s scheme to blow up a supertanker in San Francisco harbor. The disc was inserted in Loren’s home computer and the contents printed out until there was a stack of papers the size of a small book manuscript. The women then hid the disk and the printed copies in a safe Loren had built in her garage floor beneath a storage cabinet.

“You can stay here for the night, but we’ve got to find you a safe hideout while the investigation is under way. Once Zale discovers you’re going to blow the whistle on his insidious operation, he’ll make every effort to silence you.”

“
Silence,
a nice word for murder.”

“They’ve already tried to torture Kelly Egan, Dr. Egan’s daughter, for the oil formula.”

“Did they succeed?”

“No, she was rescued before Zale’s Viper pals could find out anything.”

“I’d like to meet her.”

“You can. She was staying with me, but after Zale found us together over dinner the other night, I had to hide her elsewhere, too.”

“I came away with only an overnight bag. I have just a few cosmetics, jewelry and a couple of changes of clean underwear.”

Loren gauged Sally’s shape and nodded. “We’re about the same size. You can borrow whatever of my wardrobe that suits you.”

“I’ll be a happy woman when this dirty business is over.”

“You realize that by doing this you’re going to be ordered to testify before Justice officials and my congressional investigating committee.”

“I accept the consequences,” Sally said solemnly.

Loren put her arm around her. “I’ll say it again. You’re a very brave woman.”

“It’s one of the few times in my life I’ve put good intentions in front of my ambition.”

“I admire you,” Loren said sincerely.

“Where do you want me to hide after tonight?”

“Because Zale has too many moles in the Justice Department, I don’t think it wise to put you in a government safe house.” Loren smiled craftily. “I have this friend who can put you up in an old aircraft hangar that has more security systems than Fort Knox. His name is Dirk Pitt.”

“Can he be trusted?”

Loren laughed. “Honey, if the old Greek philosopher Diogenes were still wandering around with a lantern looking for an honest man, he could have ended his journey at Dirk’s door.”

A
fter Kelly left the aircraft in Washington, she was escorted to an unmarked van that transported her to a safe house in Arlington. Pitt and Giordino saw her off and entered a NUMA Lincoln Navigator and relaxed as the driver steered the car toward Landover, Maryland. Twenty minutes later, they turned onto Arena Drive and drove into the vast parking lot of FedEx Field, the stadium that is home to the Washington Redskins football team. Built in 1997, it can accommodate 80,116 fans in wide, comfortable seats. Restaurants on the end zones serve a wide variety of ethnic foods. Two huge video screens for replays and four scoreboards make it enjoyable for fans to follow the finer points of the game.

The Navigator rolled into the underground VIP parking area and stopped by a doorway guarded by two security men in combat gear, holding automatic rifles. They stopped Pitt and Giordino and studied their faces with photographs provided to them by NUMA’s security department, before allowing them to pass into a long corridor that stretched beneath the seats of the stadium.

“Fourth door on the left, gentlemen,” instructed one of the guards.

“Doesn’t this strike you as overkill?” Giordino asked Pitt.

“Knowing the admiral, he must have a good reason.”

They reached the door and found another armed guard outside. He merely studied them for a quick moment, then swung open the door and stepped aside.

“I thought the Cold War was over years ago,” Giordino muttered quietly.

They were mildly surprised to find themselves in the locker room for the visiting football teams. Several people were already seated in the team management office. Loren was there, with Sally Morse. Admiral Sandecker, Rudi Gunn and Hiram Yaeger represented NUMA. Pitt recognized Admiral Amos Dover of the Coast Guard, Captain Warren Garnet of the Marines and Commander Miles Jacobs, who was a veteran of Navy SEAL operations. He and Giordino had worked with all of them in the past.

The only one who was not familiar was a tall man with the distinguished good looks you’d expect from a cruise ship captain. Adding to his image of a mariner was a black patch over the left eye. Pitt guessed him to be in his late fifties.

Pitt momentarily shuffled the stranger to one side of his mind as he greeted his NUMA associates and shook hands with the military men he’d known from past adventures. Dover, a great bear of a man, had worked with Pitt on the Deep Six project. Garnet and Jacobs had been engaged in a losing firefight in the Antarctic until Pitt and Giordino had made a timely appearance in Admiral Byrd’s colossal Snow Cruiser. Only after a few pleasantries were exchanged did Pitt focus his attention on the man with the eye patch.

“Dirk,” said Sandecker, “may I introduce Wes Rader. Wes is an old naval friend. We served in the Baltic Sea together, keeping an eye on Russian submarines heading out into the Atlantic. Wes is a senior deputy director at the Justice Department and will coordinate all activities from the legal end.”

Questions rose in the back of Pitt’s mind, but he waited until the proper moment to present them. Alone, he would have hugged Loren and kissed her boldly on the lips. But this was business and she was a member of Congress, so he merely made a slight bow and shook her offered hand. “Nice to see you again, Congresswoman.”

“Likewise,” Loren said, with a sly glint in her eye. She turned to Sally. “This is the man I was telling you about. Sally Morse, meet Dirk Pitt.”

Sally looked deep into Pitt’s opaline green eyes and saw what most women who met him saw, a man they could depend on. “I’ve heard a great deal about you.”

Pitt gave a side glance at Loren and smiled. “I hope your source didn’t lay it on too thick.”

“If everyone will please find a chair and get comfortable,” said Sandecker, “we’ll start the proceedings.” He sat down, pulled out one of his immense cigars, but in deference to the ladies present did not light it. He probably could have without protest. The women would probably have preferred it to the smells of sweat that still hung in the air of the locker room from the last football game.

“Gentlemen, as some of you are already aware, Ms. Morse is the CEO of the Yukon Oil Company. She will describe a grave threat to our national security and the citizens of our country that concerns us all.” He turned to Sally. “The stage is yours.”

“Pardon me for interrupting, Admiral,” said Rader, “but I’m at a loss as to why we’re playing all these security games. Meeting in the locker room of a football stadium seems a bit overdone.”

“You’ll have your question answered as soon as Ms. Morse makes her report.” He nodded at Sally.

“Please begin.”

For the next two hours, Sally gave a detailed narrative of Curtis Merlin Zale’s grand scheme to create an oil monopoly and gain enormous wealth while dictating terms to the United States government.

When she finished, there was a heavy cloud of incredulity in the room. Finally, Wes Rader spoke. “Are you certain what you’ve told us is true?”

“Every word,” Sally said resolutely.

Rader turned to Sandecker. “This threat goes far beyond the people in this room. We’ve got to notify others immediately. The president, the leaders of Congress, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, my boss at the Justice Department—that’s just for starters.”

“We can’t,” Sandecker said, and passed out copies containing the names of members of Congress, agency officials, people in the Justice Department and close aides to the president in the West Wing. “And this is why. This is the reason for the secrecy,” he said to Rader. “The names of the people you see in your hand have all been bought and paid for by Cerberus and Curtis Merlin Zale.”

“Impossible,” said Rader, scanning the names in utter disbelief. “There would have to be a vast paper trail.”

“The money was paid through overseas companies owned by other companies owned by Cerberus,” answered Sally. “All funds and payoff monies are in offshore accounts that would take Justice Department investigators years to track down.”

“How is it possible one man corrupted the entire system?”

Loren answered for Sally. “The members of Congress who could not resist Zale’s bribes are those who are not rich men. They may not have given up their ideals and ethics for a million dollars, but ten or twenty million was too much for them to pass on. Those who fell into Zale’s trap do not know the full extent of his web. Until now, with thanks to Sally, we are the only ones outside of the Cerberus circle who know of the rampant influence Zale has achieved within the government.”

“Do not forget the respected members of the news media,” added Sally. “Those under Zale’s thumb can bias the news in his favor. If they balk, he can threaten to expose them, and with their credibility gone, they’d be out of the newsroom and on the street within hours.”

Rader shook his head. “I still can’t believe one man is responsible, no matter how wealthy he is.”

“He didn’t act alone. Zale had the backing of the most powerful oil barons in the United States and Canada. Not all the money came out of Cerberus.”

“Yukon Oil, too?”

“Yukon Oil, too,” Sally replied solemnly. “I’m as guilty as the others of falling under Zale’s spell.”

“You’ve more than atoned by coming to us,” said Loren, squeezing Sally’s hand.

“Why me?” asked Rader. “I’m only the number-three man at the Justice Department.”

“As you’ve seen, your name is not on the list, and your direct superiors’ are,” answered Sandecker. “I’ve also known you and your wife for years. I know you to be an honorable man who can’t be bought.”

“You must have been approached,” said Loren.

Rader looked up at the ceiling, trying to recall. Then he nodded. “Two years ago. I was walking my cocker spaniel near my house when a strange woman, yes, it was a woman, walked along beside me and struck up a conversation.”

Sally smiled. “Ash blond hair, blue eyes, about five foot nine, one hundred thirty pounds. An attractive woman with a direct approach?”

“A faithful description.”

“Her name is Sandra Delage. She’s Zale’s chief administrator.”

“Did she make an outright offer of money?” Sandecker inquired.

“Nothing so crude,” Rader replied. “As I remember, she talked in vague terms. What would I do if I won the lottery? Was I happy with my job, and was I appreciated for my efforts? If I could live anyplace but Washington, where would it be? Apparently, I failed the examination. She left me at an intersection and climbed into a passing car that stopped for her. I never heard another word after that.”

“It is up to you to get the ball rolling. Zale and his cronies in the Cerberus cartel must be stopped in their tracks and brought to justice,” said Sandecker. “We’re looking at a national scandal of immense proportions.”

“Where do we begin?” asked Rader. “If Ms. Morse’s list of bribed officials is correct, I can’t simply walk into the attorney general’s office and announce that I’m arresting him for taking bribes.”

“You do that,” said Loren, “and Zale’s team of Viper assassins would make sure your body was found in the Potomac River.”

Sandecker nodded at Hiram Yaeger, who opened two large cardboard boxes and began passing around a bound set of documents several inches thick. “Utilizing Ms. Morse’s account and our own investigations into Zale’s criminal empire through our NUMA computer facilities, we put together a complete indictment with more than enough solid, established evidence to convince honest officials of what must be done.” He looked Rader in the eye. “Wes, you have to put together a team at Justice whose loyalty you can absolutely depend on to build an airtight case. People who are not afraid of threats, like the Untouchables who put away Al Capone. There can be no leaks. If Zale gets the slightest hint of your actions, he’ll send out his hit squad.”