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“Yes.”
“And what are your feelings about the missing funds?”
“With Rapp and Rickman, you mean?”
“Yes—and anyone else at the CIA.”
“The Clandestine Service, in my opinion, is rife with corruption, and Rapp and Rickman are the poster boys for what is wrong with the place. That’s why Rickman was taken. But no one wants to talk about how corrupt he was.”
Ferris nodded as if he understood all of Sickles’s frustrations. “I’m about to announce hearings into this mess . . . probably Wednesday. I might have to compel you to testify. Can you assure me that you will give these same answers when I put you under oath?”
Sickles thought about it for a long moment. “My career is basically over . . . Why not?”
“This is about doing the right thing.” Ferris searched Sickles’s eyes for a sense of commitment. “I can protect you from them. As chairman of the Judiciary Committee, I can help clean out the rat’s nest.”
Sickles liked the sound of that. “Okay. I’ll testify.”
“Good. Now before I announce things on Wednesday, I want you to reach out to Arianna Vinter and Colonel Poole and see if they will corroborate your statements. I understand Rapp was very rude to them during his most recent visit to . . .” Ferris stopped speaking when he heard the sirens. Flashing red and blue lights were bouncing off the windows. The Town Car lurched to a sudden stop and then the doors were opened. Wilson was ripped from the car and thrown to the pavement, as was Sickles. Both men had their arms wrenched behind their backs and cuffed. Sickles was silent, but not Wilson. He was arguing like a madman about his rights.
A man in a dark suit and a dark trench coat approached Ferris’s open door. “Senator, please get out of the car.”
“And if I don’t want to?”
Rapp bent over and showed his face. “Then I’ll gladly drag your ass from the vehicle and cuff you.”
Ferris sighed and got out of the car. “I know who you are,” he said to Rapp. “You have no right to arrest me.”
“You’re right, but he does.” Rapp pointed at FBI Director Miller, who was standing next to a black Suburban, keeping a close eye on things. “If you’d like, you can deal with him, but then everything gets real official and the press will get involved, and based on what I’ve seen, you really don’t want to go that route.”
Coleman stepped in and took the dog from the senator. As he walked away, he removed the bug he’d placed there the previous week.
“This way, Senator,” Rapp said as he led the man toward Kennedy’s waiting Suburban. Ferris joined Kennedy in the backseat and Rapp got into the front passenger seat.
“I don’t want you to speak, Senator,” said Kennedy. “We have recordings of your little meetings with Agent Wilson.”
“Hardly a crime.”
“I said, don’t speak. Earlier this evening, we confiscated your maid’s laptop, which contains some very incriminating emails between you and General Durrani of the Pakistani ISI. By the way, did you know he was shot and killed in his house yesterday?” Kennedy could tell by the surprised look on the senator’s face that he had not heard. “Do you know what else they found in his house? No? Well, it’s not good. The body of one of my Clandestine Service officers, Joe Rickman. I think you’ve heard of him. Apparently, General Durrani was behind the kidnapping and was torturing him for information that he was going to use against the United States.
“Now, as this starts to sink in, Senator, I want you to think of two paths. One will involve a great deal of embarrassment and an extremely public trial for treason. None of your colleagues will support you, because I will show them the information I have and you will be completely toxic to them. You will probably be spared execution, since we no longer have the stomach for that anymore, but you will most certainly go to jail, and I will make sure it is the kind of jail that a scumbag like you deserves. The second path yo
u may choose is to show up in my office tomorrow morning at nine a.m. sharp, where you will be debriefed. You may keep your job and your chairmanship and despite your hatred of the CIA you will become one of our most valuable allies of the CIA on Capitol Hill. Do you understand your two options?”
Ferris swallowed hard and said, “I do.”
Kennedy looked at her watch and said, “All right. You have ten seconds to decide.”
There was only one valid option for a man like Ferris. “I’ll take option number two.” Maybe later he could figure out a way to undo this mess.
“Good,” Kennedy said. “I’ll see you at nine tomorrow morning.”
Rapp opened the door for Ferris, and when they were a few feet away from the Suburban, Rapp grabbed him by the arm and said, “There is a third option.”
“What’s that?”
“I sneak into your house in the middle of the night and I snap your neck.” Rapp stared at Ferris for an uncomfortably long moment and then said, “Good night, Senator.” Rapp walked back to the SUV and climbed into the backseat.
As they were driving away, Kennedy asked, “You still don’t like it, do you?”
