Page 5 of Protecting Olivia

Tom’s body stiffened, and suddenly the room went electric. The President looked like he was going to stroke out. I glanced at Z, and he had caught the look as well.

“Mr. Newton, you called my office this evening and said it was urgent you meet with the team.” Zane shifted gears.

“Yes. I was told that if I were to ever have a problem I was to call you,” Peter said. He was facing Zane, his eyes were pleading, and he was fiddling with the hem of his untucked shirt, obviously very uncomfortable.

“Let me help you out, Peter, is there a body? And if so, who is she, where did you leave her, and for the love of Christ tell me you used a burner phone when you ordered her,” Zane asked.

Peter’s eyes widened in shock. “No! No, body. No prostitute,” Peter spit out as if the mere word disgusted him. “As I told Garrett, I received an email at eleven this evening. At first, I thought it was a joke, but then the sender made reference to a name that had been redacted out of all SITREPs and briefings I’ve given to the Department of Justice. Me, I personally wrote the report and blacked out the name. The only copy of that report without the name redacted was hand delivered by me to the President, and the digital copy is in my personal safe.” Peter stopped and glanced at the President.

Tom shot a look at Z. With a nod of understanding, Zane looked at Tex for a moment and studied him. Happy with whatever he saw, he turned back to Tom and nodded again.

“You may speak freely in this room; we are a hundred percent secure in here. Zane and his team are trusted, and if Zane extends that to Tex, I do, too,” the President said.

That was huge. Zane didn’t trust anyone outside of the people he employed.

“What did you find, Garrett?” Zane asked.

“The location the email was sent from,” Garrett offered, pointing at the map on the screen. “Scotland, Maryland. Does that location mean anything to you? Whoever sent the email is not high-tech. There was no rerouting, nothing sending me on a hunt around the globe tracking down IPs and proxies. He is either a high school kid, or it is a trap. No one makes a ransom demand and gives you their location.”

“Is that what this is? A ransom demand? What did they take?” Zane asked.

I am sure Zane had already mentally gone through Peter Newton’s bio, too. He was a widower, no children, parents deceased.

“The email says they have my daughter,” Peter announced. “But I don’t have children. Whoever sent this email sent it to the wrong person. But, the fact remains, someone knows a high-value target’s name, and they know I have him in custody. Not to mention someone’s daughter might’ve been taken.”

Something wasn’t adding up. There was not a chance in hell someone would try and extort money or information from the Attorney General of the United States without first knowing what they took did indeed belong to him.

“Motherfucker! We need to break for about thirty minutes. Zane, I need you out front.” Tom made his way to the swinging door and shook his head at his security detail. “I need privacy.”

“What do you know, Tom?” Peter demanded.

Tom stopped and looked at Peter. “You have a daughter. Olivia Cox is yours.”

“Pamela lied to me?” Peter whispered. “I asked her when she came home from Europe with a baby. I asked if she was mine. She said that she had met someone in Paris.”

“I’m sorry, Peter. She lied, Olivia is yours,” Tom said.

“What did the email say?” Peter asked Tex.

“Sir?” Tex looked at Tom. Tom nodded and looked down at his feet. If I had to bet, Tom already knew what was in those emails. “Pamela is ill. She and the First Lady were discussing Pamela’s will and trust. She was also asking the First Lady her opinion on how to introduce Olivia to you. She wanted to make things right before she got any worse. I have to say, I agree with Garrett on this one. It was too easy to trace the hack. Something isn’t adding up. The hack came from Langley, but all the chatter came from Scotland, Maryland.”

Goddamn. This just kept getting more and more complicated. Peter stood silently, his stare devoid of any emotion. He looked like a man that had just had his world torn apart. I felt bad for the man, finding out that the woman he loved lied to him and kept his child from him had to be devastating.

“We’ll get her back, Peter,” Tom said. “Tex, thank you for all your help. Gerald will give you my personal line. If you ever need anything in the future, you call me direct. I owe you a marker for this.”

Zane followed the President out of the room and gestured for me to follow them. I heard Garrett utter a string of curse words. I would bet my ass he was trying to dig up whatever information he could. Garrett was an information junkie and world-class hacker. Leaving him and Tex alone in a room together might be dangerous. There was no doubt the two of them could take the U.S. to DEFCON one in two point five seconds.

“Do I need to call in the rest of the team now?” Zane asked when he stopped in front of Tom.

“Yes. I need them five minutes ago.” The President lowered his voice. “I need a marker on this. Completely off the books. If any of this gets out, it will be a political disaster. Whoever has Olivia has the name of a man that the United States has denied any knowledge of. I personally denied any knowledge of his capture or detainment.”

“Anything you need,” Zane answered without hesitation.

Chapter Four

Olivia

“Clear.” I heard yelled outside of my door.