Pender let out a relieved breath. “As usual, you thought of everything.”
“Now I need you to do something for me.”
“Anything.”
“We’ll have to shut the entire project down. Right now. I want you to tell your employees in the war room to go home. We’re going to clear it out of everything that shows your connection to the Red Menace.”
“My people can do that, Mr. Creel. I can make the call right now.”
“In light of recent events, I’d prefer my people to handle the cleanup. I’m sure you understand.”
“All right, if you insist.”
“And best of all, you won’t have to pay the money, Dick.”
“I guess that’s right. But then she’ll write the story, the real story.”
“Let her. I believe things have gotten to a point-of-no-return stage. The contracts are signed and China and Russia are still only a few steps from going to war, regardless of this recent diplomatic effort. The only thing James can do is back off her original story. ‘I was duped,’ she’ll claim. But with no corroboration her credibility is zero. She’ll simply look incompetent.”
“Then we’ve won.”
Creel put an arm around Pender’s shoulders. “Yes, Dick, we’ve won. Now call your employees and let’s finish this.”
CHAPTER 87
THEY SAT IN KATIE’S HOTEL ROOM going over the video for the hundredth time. A room service table was stacked with plates and cups since they had not bothered to leave the room to eat. The drapes were drawn and the room was dark so they could see every detail on the screen better. They had enlarged all angles of the shots on the laptop and dissected them grid by grid.
And they had come up with absolutely nothing.
Shaw lay on the floor gazing at the ceiling. An exhausted, red-eyed Katie was on the unmade bed moodily doing the same. She slipped off her pumps, padded over to the room service table in her stocking feet, and poured out a cup of coffee.
“You want one?” she asked Shaw.
He shook his head and kept his gaze fixed on the ceiling.
“Frank checked the overseas account he set up for the money drop. No twenty million yet.”
“Great,” Katie shot back. “I’m clueless and still poor.”
She sat down at the desk chair, sipped her coffee, and stared at the screen.
“What’s the latest on the diplomatic efforts?” Shaw asked.
Katie hit a few computer keys, accessed the Internet, and read the news. “They’re still meeting in London. China and Russia haven’t even agreed to send delegations. But they’re hopeful of some sort of peaceful resolution.”
She clicked off the Net and ran the video of the Mercedes again, this time in slow motion.
Shaw glanced over at her.
She was dressed in a skirt, stockings, and a blouse and her face was wrinkled in concentration.
“Katie, we’ve done that to death and gotten zip. And the damn toll people still can’t tell us anything. And every minute that goes by…” He didn’t have to finish the statement.
Katie wasn’t listening. Her gaze was suddenly riveted on the screen.
“Shaw! Look!”
He hopped up and joined her at the desk. “What?”