Lethal Politics

by Bob Blink

  Jason wasn't an expert in such matters, but he'd seen Bo shoot before, and the relaxed easy manner seemed to be missing today. He appeared tense, and maybe even a bit uncertain, words that he'd never considered using to describe him before. When he'd shot up at the cabin he'd been a natural. He could outshoot anyone there with a rifle without trying, and the speed and precision at which he placed the .45 bullets from that Sig of his was almost supernatural. He might be a rifleman by choice, but woe be it to anyone who challenged him to a handgun fight.

  After the last shot, Bo waited a moment, then slid over so he could have a look through the spotting scope. After a moment Bo gave a small shake of his head, then worked the action and chambered another round. Jason estimated the brass was for a thirty-caliber round if not something bigger.

  Bo fired two more rounds, neither of which seemed to please him, then stood up and stepped backwards away from the bench. When he was several feet from the rifle, he turned and headed toward the seats where Jason was sitting. He spotted him almost immediately, but it seemed to take a moment for him to register what he was seeing.

  "Jason?" he asked. "Is that you?"

  "Hi, Bo. Been a while." Jason replied.

  "What are you doing here? How did you find me?"

  "A bit of intelligence and a whole lot of luck," Jason responded. "Also, your neighbor told me generally what you were up to and I scouted for where there would be a shoot. Lucked out and found you the first place I looked."

  "We've got trouble, don't we?" Bo asked, quick to ascertain that Jason wouldn't have gone to so much trouble just to watch him shoot."

  "Jason nodded. "Big time. We need to talk."

  "I guess I knew it would happen," Bo replied. "Let me pack up and we can get something for lunch and talk."

  "Finish your practice. It's not that urgent and we can talk later. I need to get settled someplace now I know you are here. Where are you staying?"

  "The Best Western on Main Street. Nice enough place. As for my practice, I think I've lost my touch. I haven't been shooting all that well of late."

  "Then you need the practice. How about I check in, and you drop by when you are finished. My car will be in front of the unit, so just knock."

  "Okay," Bo agreed. "It won't be long. Hey, it's nice seeing you. You look good."

  "Jason just nodded. He would have liked to say the same, but Bo's eyes looked just a bit haunted. He was more convinced than ever that it was a good thing he'd come."

  They ordered a pizza, one of Jason's staples, and ate in, deciding the rooms were probably the most private place they'd find to talk. Bo's room was bigger and had a small round dining table so they sat there.

  "They've learned a lot," Bo said after Jason finished filling him in on everything Earl had told him. "I think it's a good thing I ditched that phone."

  "What did you do with it?" Jason asked.

  "There's a dump a little way out of town, with a deep pond in the center. Local kids throw all manner of crap in there, sometimes shooting at cans and bottles they throw into the water. I stripped it to components and tossed it out into the center. No one is ever going to find it."

  "That's cool, and they don't even know what town you are from. They have me and Earl's general area located, but I don't think they will get any closer."

  "And they found all this out because that bastard Abe kept using the credit cards Earl gave us."

  Jason nodded. "They also tied him to the killing of the President's girlfriend."

  "I heard something about that on the news. I thought it was a break-in or some such. You guys killed her?"

  "Just Abe, and it probably would have gone down that way if some private detective hadn't latched onto Abe and figured it out. The guy got his phone, and well, you can figure the rest."

  "So what do we do?"

  "Nothing special at the moment. Lay low, but be ready to move if something else happens. I thought you needed to be aware since you were out of touch with us."

  "I appreciate that. I wouldn't have known. I don't watch news much except in a diner sometimes, but even then I try and sit far from the televisions they have running."

  "What are you going to do?"

  "Take a break. Watch you shoot. Then I'll probably work my way back. I'd like to find a way to stay in touch with Earl, but I guess that would be taking too much of a risk at the moment."'

  "Tomorrow will be boring, because I'll just be practicing. The match is the day afterwards."

  "Hey, I'll be your spotter. Maybe I'll learn something."

  Chapter 40

  Washington, DC

  It was several days after the deaths of the two leaders in the conspiracy that resulted in the deaths of so many people. Pressure had been placed upon the political leaders of both parties to respond to the unprecedented situation, including both the President and the Vice President, who normally tried to avoid such public spectacles. Several members of the Congress had been on the top talk shows fielding questions regarding the various theories that were running unchecked throughout the country. The President had just finished watching Toshiko's interview, and was impressed by the logical and even-handed nature with which she addressed the many questions fired at her. Sometimes he forgot what an impressive person she was. It was too bad they had crossed swords so often. She had also come on strong for the death penalty for all involved. This had been an attack on the very foundations of the US government. He thought she was right when she indicated that she had no need to be personally involved in the FBI's perusal of the facts, only informed once they had a clear understanding of what had taken place and who was responsible for the atrocities. While, as President, he also didn't need to be involved, as the person who had started all of this, he was very interested as to what they were doing and what progress was being made toward the capture of the last two individuals who might in some way implicate him in the conspiracy.

  One individual who was surprised he was still involved in the detailed planning and execution of the matter was Karl Baxter. Perhaps it was because he had been instrumental in uncovering the truth, or maybe because his partner had been killed and he was being given an opportunity to even the score, but the FBI Director had specifically included him in the planning meetings that had been going on since the killing of Earl Campbell and his son. That was in spite of the fact he and the Director had never gotten along in the past. Several very senior FBI agents and a pair of Secret Service agents selected by their Director were also regular attendees.

  This morning they had been discussing how to close off the investigation, and anything that might shed additional light on the deaths to date. Karl was glad to be a participant because he felt that the conclusion being reached by those driving the investigation was a bit too simplistic once again, and feared they were missing something, just as they had the last time.

  "We have multiple efforts running in parallel," the Director explained unnecessarily. "We have been of the belief since learning of Mr. Campbell's involvement that the people we are still seeking are former oil field employees of his. Mr. Fatani, the first of the group we encountered worked the oil fields, and while he was not one of Mr. Campbell's former employees, it was believed one of them might have brought Fatani into the organization."

  "Just a short time ago, we have uncovered further support for this belief. Special Agent Johnson and his team have been looking into the financial records of Mr. Campbell in hopes of finding recent large, unexplained sums of money being paid out. Mr. Fatani received several such payments from an off-shore bank, but we have been thus far unable to work backwards to uncover who made those payments. Agent Johnson, what have your people found since yesterday?"

  "We have uncovered several of Mr. Campbell's accounts that have been involved in transferring large sums of money. These funds were funneled into the very same off-shore bank you mentioned, and we are able to identify the payments you described that were made to Mr. Fatani, but more importantly we have uncovered simi
lar payments to two other individuals, both former employees as you were discussing moments ago. Also, these payments were dated in the same time frame as the earlier payment to Mr. Fatani."

  "I assume you have names for these individuals?"

  "A Mr. Bo Rawlins and a Mr. Jason Thompson," Agent Johnson replied. It is interesting to note that Mr. Rawlins is known to be an exceptional, long range shooter, having won numerous medals for his performance in national thousand yard shoots. While these are the only two individuals we have uncovered that have received large payments, our team continues to work through a database of all Mr. Campbell's former employees, where they are currently employed, and whether their work history would have supported their involvement in the activities we know occurred."

  "Have we attempted to locate these individuals?" the Director asked.

  "Earlier this morning when Agent Johnson informed me of the names, I had the local field offices dispatch teams to the registered residences of Mr. Hawkins and Mr. Thompson," Agent Huang added. "According to neighbors Mr. Hawkins has been absent from his residence for many weeks, and other than the possibility he was participating in a series of shooting matches, no one has any real idea where he might have gone. There is some speculation among members of my group that he is dead, since there has been no activity on his phone during that time, unlike with the other members of the group."

  "And Mr. Thompson?"

  "Mr. Thompson appears to have departed just a couple of days ago, again for parts unknown. A check in his residence supports that he hasn't been back in several days."

  It's unlikely that he had joined Mr. Hawkins, given the fact the other has been absent for such an extended period."

  Agent Norton, charged with tracking Earl Campbell's movement over the last weeks, spoke up.

  "It is probably not coincidental that Earl Campbell flew his plane into Fort Worth and spent several hours according to people at the airfield. This happened on the day before Mr. Thompson appears to have disappeared, suggesting that Mr. Campbell alerted Thompson to our investigations and that might have influenced his desire to disappear."

  "Anything else?"

  "We have found a second safe inside the ranch house in El Paso along with documents that suggest that Mr. Campbell has been involved in other, less than legal activities over the years, but nothing that appears relevant to the current case."

  "Okay, here's what I want done," the Director said. "I want an APB released nationwide for these two individuals, with a brief history of their interests and activities along with color photos from the Texas driver's licenses. I want it made clear these men are on our ten most wanted list and the apprehension should be of the highest priority for all departments. Any contact should assume they are armed and dangerous, and if at all possible any local FBI agents should be brought in on attempts to arrest them. Understood? Oh, and make certain the media understands they will be prosecuted if any of this leaks through them. I want the police to be hunting people who are unaware they have been identified."

  "Alive, I hope," Karl Baxter added.

  "Preferably, but either way if need be."

  Good, he thought. He really wanted the opportunity to question one of them.

  Chapter 41

  Swainsboro, GA

  "Holy shit!" Jason cursed, sitting upright in bed and reaching for the hotel phone. He'd woken up a short time earlier and after a quick trip to the john and deciding he wasn't going to be getting back to sleep, he'd turned on the television to see if there were any developments he had missed during his travels.

  "Yeah," a sleepy voiced Bo answered after several rings. At least someone was able to sleep.

  "We might have trouble!" Jason warned. "Turn on your television."

  "What's wrong?" Bo asked, clearly still wool-headed from sleep.

  "Earl's dead," Jason warned. "The Feds shot him the other day. Somehow they figured out he's the guy behind the killing of Mrs. Craig. They killed CC too."

  "CC? He's on their side. He didn't have anything to do with our plotting."

  "He tried to kill the President. It sounds like the Secret Service guys shot him."

  "That doesn't make sense. Mark was his friend and he was Secret Service himself. The idiots at the news channels must have gotten something wrong."

  "Hurry up and get your television turned on."

  "I'm working on it," Bo said. "I can't find the control."

  Of course, by the time Bo found the control, got the set on and the channel selected, the news had moved onto a different story. Apparently the story had broken the day before while Jason was on the road, and he had missed the first releases. They'd had a bit of a reunion last night, and Jason hadn't felt like web surfing when he'd returned late to his room. The details in the brief update he had seen weren't great, but what they had mentioned was worrisome enough.

  "I don't see anything," Bo complained.

  "You missed it. Look, we probably need to change plans. Get up and meet me at the diner across the street. I'm going to see what else I can learn from the Internet. I'll meet you there in thirty minutes."

  "Forty-five," Bo negotiated. "I'm not a morning person."

  "Okay, forty-five," Jason agreed realizing arguing would use up the minutes he might win back and they'd actually meet at the same time, but Bo would be in a worse attitude. He'd seen the grouchy version of his friend before on the road when they'd had to get up and moving early while tailing the Craig campaign.

  He slid back out of bed, pulled on his pants while the laptop was booting up, and jumped onto the keyboard as soon as the login screen appeared. It didn't take long to find the details the local morning news had skimmed over.

  Jason hadn't known about the special phone that Earl had been carrying, and apparently CC was thought to have been his contact. Clearly they hadn't tumbled to the fact it was the President that Earl had been working with. Hell, CC had been in Stanford, at the same hotel, at the same time as they were and they'd had to hide from him. Earl had run off into the mountains, but the Feds had apparently caught up to him and there had been a shoot-out. Clearly he hadn't given up the President, but the burning question in Jason's mind was had he given up Bo and himself. That could have been a ploy to direct interest away from Mark.

  The CC story was convoluted and didn't make sense. Jason finally decided that CC must have gone after Mark when he learned his father had been killed committing crimes to help keep Mark in office. The Secret Service protecting the President apparently had shot him before he could get off a round. Grim indeed!

  Noting the time, he quickly threw on a shirt, grabbed his gun and jacket, and headed out of the room toward the diner. Surprisingly, Bo was already in a booth near the back nursing a hot cup of coffee. Jason was pleased to see a second cup waiting for him.

  "What happened?" Bo asked, wanting a repeat rendition of the facts, hoping with more detail this time.

  "Shit!" was all he could muster after Jason told him what he had learned. "They are closing in on us, aren't they?"

  "I don't know," he admitted. "Nothing I've found says anything about who the two members of the group that haven't been apprehended yet. They haven't said if they know the names."

  "They might, but simply aren't releasing the names," Bo suggested.

  "I've thought of that. What this means is we need to rethink what I was saying yesterday. Even if they haven't figured out who we are yet, the way things seem to be going, they are going to sooner or later."

  Bo nodded. "Maybe it serves us right," he said.

  Jason had been ready for most anything from his former conspirator, but not that. "Huh?" he said.

  "We did a bad thing," Bo said, his eyes downcast staring into his coffee. "It wasn't right killing them folks."

  Bo had known it as soon as he'd pulled the trigger and seen his bullet slam into Nancy Craig. Up until then it had been a well paying academic exercise. But seeing the bullet strike, and knowing he had taken a life had shaken him to his very
foundations. He'd been running from the guilt ever since. For him, shooting had been a grand challenge of his skills, not something he'd learned in order to hurt people. He had violated something sacred.

  Crap, Jason thought. This is what was bothering his friend, and what had changed him. He feels guilty at what we did.

  "It's past," he said. "Nothing we do can change it now, right or wrong. What's important is how we are going to come out of this intact."

  "I guess," Bo replied unenthusiastically, leaving Jason feeling very uncomfortable.

  "We should get out of here. Today. I'd say we make tracks for the Caribbean. Some place they can't come looking for us so easy. We can wait it out down there and see how this develops. My money is in an off-shore bank, so funds won't be a problem."

  "Mine are in my bank," Bo said.

  Dumb, Jason thought.

  "I can help you transfer them once we get there," Jason said. He recalled Earl's promise of money if things turned sour, but that wasn't going to be happening. They would have to make do on what he'd already paid them, and now that amount didn't seem all that grand. Not if they had to hide out the rest of their lives.

  "You go," Bo suggested, his face showing his deep sadness. "I'm gonna stay, for now at least. We don't know they are looking for us, so it might be the wrong thing to run. And if they are, well then this is likely to be my last match. I want to see it through."

  "If they aren't you can come back and shoot in other matches," Jason said, trying to motivate his friend.

  Bo just shook his head.

  Now Jason was torn. He could just run by himself, which might be the smartest thing at this point, but he worried that Bo would get himself caught, and if the Feds didn't already know about Jason, Bo would almost certainly let that secret out. It would be best if he could drag the other man along.

  "So, what do you want to do?" Jason asked.

  "Practice. Lord knows I need it. Then finish the match tomorrow."