Chapter Eighteen
The office was so plain and empty, Lee thought that it was a very temporary accommodation.
There was a desk, metal, and wood, cheap and a couple of vinyl chairs in front, a bigger one in back. “Is this so I can’t warn anyone where you all are working?”
Hill nodded and said, “Something like that. We also are keeping a couple of separate offices so the other agents, that could leak the investigation, are kept in the dark.”
Lee sat in one of the chairs facing the desk. “Don’t trust your own people, huh?”
“Not everyone is immune to bribery or blackmail. I’m sure you know that.”
Lee smiled and knew Hill was going to be a hard sell that he was innocent, but he had to try. “I haven’t wanted to be a senator since the beginning. I want out, and I want a semi-normal life. I know this may shock you, but I’m not going to spend my entire life chasing money. I have money. I don’t need a lot more to make me happy. So, I’m getting out.”
“If you are what you say you are, innocent, then why would you leave the country in the hands of the vultures?”
It was a good question and not one he’d ever posed to himself. “I guess, like them, I’m nothing but a selfish fuck.”
Smiling slightly, Hill nodded and said, “Good enough. So, tell me about your offshore accounts.”
“I’m rich. I don’t want to be taxed on my wealth. Again, that is part of being a selfish man. I know that it’s a sleazy way of doing things.”
“We can’t look into what you’ve acquired in those accounts lately. It would help if you’d give us your records.”
“Done. What else?”
Hill opened a drawer in the desk and pulled out an American flag pin, sliding it over to him. “Wear that.”
It looked like any other pin. Lee suspected it was not any other pin. “Bug?”
“Bug. We need you to implant yourself in some of these meetings. When you go back to the house on the beach today, talk to your father. Tell him you want in on this latest deal. He’ll ask how you know of it, and you’ll tell him that Senator Mitchel confided in you, thinking you knew.”
“Mitchel? He’s another spy? Why don’t you let him do all this? I feel I have to tell you, with my father involved, why would you trust me? Family over everything, or most feel that way.”
“Because you don’t, Lee. You are not family over everything. If you were, you’d never indulge yourself in sex with men, you’d follow the letter of what your father wants of you, like marrying a woman. It’s why I believe you’re not involved in this, though my colleague, Agent Rodgers, well, he thinks you’re guilty as sin.”
Lee laughed, knowing that he’d have been talked into it, if his father had wanted him. “Well, I’m not the best son, but I’m also a shit senator.”
“You’re not alone in that. Off the record, I have to ask, why the fuck do you people do what you do? Or better question, don’t do what you should?”
It wasn’t like he hadn’t heard the question before, as he himself had asked it. “It’s the oldest and more tedious answer in the world, Agent Hill.”
“Money.”
“Well, money and power, but with power, money isn’t far behind, is it?”
Terrance rested his arms on the chair arms and threaded his fingers together over his big chest. It was a move he’d seen before numerous times. It meant he was settling in for a long conversation.
It was a good thing that he’d told everyone, including Eli, that he might be gone most of the day.
“No, money and power usually go hand in hand, sure.”
Lee got up to pace around the room as he explained. “I’m sure you know a lot about that, being a fed. There are those at the top, and those at the bottom. There are those that will never even see the top. Before, the important people, as they like to think of themselves through the ages, had things contained. The races were in smaller burbs, out of the way of we master racers.” He looked over to him, seeing the angry scowl. “Did you doubt that?”
“I lived that, Senator.”
“I’m sure your parents and grandparents lived it too. Unfortunately, it’s been going on since the beginning of the country. Suppress anyone with differences. I’m one, though my people don’t know it. I’m different, and no, it’s nothing like yours. I can hide, though obviously not well if you know I’m gay. But differences are bad. Different religion, color, sexuality, gender. Right down when it was still man and woman. We suppressed women the best, right? Voting almost a hundred and fifty years after we had a country?”
“I know our rather dappled history, Lee.”