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“She’s afraid of you, Senator. She understands your power and your patriotism. That you won’t allow her to subvert everything America stands for.”
Despite his lifelong devotion to Allah, this was the first time Taj had been absolutely certain he was seeing God’s hand at work. What other explanation could there be? His impending takeover of Pakistan, the Rickman files, the billion dollars that the Americans were about to transfer into his pocket. And now Allah had delivered this simpleton who had a very real chance at becoming the president of the United States.
Ferris swilled from his glass, nostrils flaring with anger. “What do you want to bet that even President Alexander doesn’t know about this? That she and Rapp assassinated one of your top people and an American citizen with no authority at all?”
“I think it’s very likely,” Taj responded calmly.
Men like Ferris—ones with delicate egos that had swelled to these proportions—became almost comically easy to manipulate. Undoubtedly, he told himself that he acted out of a love for his country’s pathetic Constitution, but that was a lie. The truth was that Irene Kennedy simply hadn’t bowed and scraped sufficiently before him. All this was nothing more than the personal vendetta of a feeble little man.
“I doubt she had any admissible evidence against Rickman,” Taj said. “Much more likely he knew too much about her and Rapp, and she needed to silence him. It’s just the kind of thing that your committee is set up to prevent, no?”
Ferris responded by letting out a long string of expletives.
“To change the subject somewhat, Senator, what are your own lawyers saying?”
Ferris had the potential to become a very useful tool but not if he was under Kennedy’s thumb. Recently implemented campaign financing rules were easily subverted and the ISI would be able to quietly funnel as much anonymous money to America’s politicians as it pleased.
The cycle of corruption was delicious. Taj used American aid to buy American politicians, who then approved more aid in order to increase the amount of money the ISI had to fill their campaign coffers.
“The lawyers say I’m on solid ground,” Ferris said. “As far as they’re concerned, a foreign official lodged a confidential complaint about -illegal activity by the CIA and I investigated it. The fact that I didn’t bring it to the attention of the Intelligence Committee is a procedural issue more than a legal one. I can play it off as being concerned that Senator Lonsdale is in Kennedy’s pocket.”
“Then your problems are solved.”
Ferris looked at him like he was a slow child. “Wake up, Ahmed. It’s not that simple. Winning a criminal case keeps me out of jail but fighting it ends my career. I need an army of political consultants to start shaping my message. With the right people, I can come out of this looking like a hero. Those people aren’t cheap, though.”
“But this shouldn’t be difficult,” Taj said, feigning naïveté. “You are a hero, Senator. You’re protecting your country’s freedom.”
Ferris laughed. “Truth has nothing to do with American politics, Ahmed. Voters are idiots who do what they’re told. I just have to make sure it’s me—and not that bitch Kennedy—who’s doing the telling.”
“Of course, I would be happy to contribute to your effort.”
“I’m glad to hear you say that, Ahmed. Five million ought to get us off to a good start.”
“U.S. dollars?” Taj said, eyes widening.
In fact, the amount was insignificant. Beyond the money flowing in from the U.S. government, the American people provided hundreds of millions annually by purchasing his Afghan-grown heroin.
“Like I said, people like these don’t work cheap.”
Taj nodded submissively. “You’re a good friend to my country and have done nothing but support our efforts to eradicate the terrorist threat. I’ll have my people begin preparations immediately.”
“That’s good, Ahmed. Tell them to work quick, okay? I don’t trust Irene Kennedy any farther than I can throw her. We need to slap her down and we need to do it hard and fast.”
“Of course. But in the meantime, I think there’s more I can do to help you. Information you might find useful.”
The man’s eyebrows rose. “What kind of information?”
“What if I told you that Rickman is releasing videos damaging to the CIA?”
Ferris waved a hand dismissively. “We all saw the video of him being tortured and talking about Agency assets, Ahmed. It was on YouTube, for God’s sake.”
“There have been subsequent videos that Kennedy is keeping from your government.”
“You said Rickman was dead.”
“He is. But he knew that his life was in jeopardy. He feared that Mitch Rapp would discover that his kidnapping was fake and begin looking for him. Somehow he set up his scheme to survive him.”
“What’s in these videos?” Ferris said, starting to sound interested.
