Pender glanced at the flat-screen TV on the wall where scenes of the London Massacre were being replayed.
“Quite a mess over there,” Pender said. “You’ve been a busy man.”
Creel had enough information to bury Pender many times over and the man knew it. So he never worried about Pender turning on him. And no one knew Pender was here. He came in secret and he would leave in secret. It was just the way Creel worked. When you basically had your own airline, there was nothing easier to accomplish.
“Let’s get down to it.”
Pender spread out the contents of his briefcase. “I’m assuming the appropriate materials were left behind at The Phoenix Group?”
“Correct.”
“Any indication whether the police have gone over them?”
“It’s early yet, but they’re easy to find. Only a matter of time.”
“You have someone on the inside?”
Creel simply nodded at this question.
“You know when you called and told me what you’d discovered about The Phoenix Group it seemed too perfect.”
“I thought the same thing,” Creel admitted. “But it all checked out, or else I wouldn’t have done it. So tell me the steps you have planned to get our next ‘truth’ out to the public.”
Pender picked up a piece of paper. “For maximum exploitation and dissemination we recommend going to the Web first and letting the mainstream outlets reverse engineer the story. The major networks don’t like to acknowledge the fact but they troll the blog world constantly looking for cutting-edge stories and trends. It’ll make it appear to be more grassroots and homegrown that way. Lends credibility and throws off suspicion.”
Creel nodded in agreement. “So we get the payoff of Phoenix’s true ownership that way, which will segue nicely into the inevitable leak that will come out of what’s discovered in London.”
“That’s how I see it playing out. We have the revelation of ownership and then the really earth-shattering news of the activity having been conducted there coming out. It’ll be disputed, of course,” he added.
“Of course it will, and that will only lend credibility to it being true. If you dispute, you lose.”
“Your boots on the ground worked to perfection.”
“Well, they’re not done yet,” Creel responded cryptically.
“When will the leak come?”
“She is primed and ready. I’ll pull the trigger on that when I deem the time right.”
“And she can be trusted?”
“It’s not a question of trust.”
“And after she’s performed the leak?”
“Then I will decide what to do, Dick.”
“In my experience,” Pender began, before Creel cut him off by lighting a cigar and turning away from him and picking up a decanter.
“A glass of port? I always find port particularly supportive of grand scheme-making.”
“I’m sure your port is better than anyone else’s,” Pender said, smiling.
A ship’s horn sounded.
Pender glanced out the starboard porthole in time to see a twenty-six-foot launch pulling up with about a dozen excited children dressed in shabby clothing on board.
He looked at Creel with an amused expression. “You running tours on the Shiloh, Mr. Creel? Earning some extra income from the dirty-faced Mediterranean rabble?”