Levels of Power

by Mike Gilmore

  The next picture from the top row showed the cell phone. It was the latest model from the largest manufacturer in Europe, made in China. Randy had seen many of the exact same type: a black plastic body with a black glass front. It contained a high-quality phone and camera for taking several types of photos or even a video clip. Randy clearly remembered seeing the twin of his attacker from three years ago taking pictures outside the Texas Embassy Cantina restaurant. The photo in his hand contained two images, front and back views. He could learn little from just the pictures. The camera itself contained dozens of photos stored on its memory chip. The CSI lab had printed the images; each sheet of photographic paper displayed four photos from the camera. One by one, he carefully reviewed each set of photos.

  Each sheet contained four photos of London’s popular tourist spots, many from different angles. The pages were marked to indicate the order in which the locations were photographed. Many of the locations were the same Randy and his family had visited on their vacation: Buckingham Palace, the Queen’s Gallery, the Duke of York Column, and then on to the National Portrait Gallery, Trafalgar Square, and Nelson’s Column. There were four photos of Charing Cross Station from various angles and then across the walking bridge to the London Eye. Looking at the photo of the famous tourist attraction, Randy remembered his own trip on their first full day in London. They had been lucky to book their tickets in advance. The crowds were heavy as the weather was nice.

  The Eye stood 443 feet tall, contained thirty-two sealed, air-conditioned or heated capsules designed to hold up to twenty-five riders. The entire rotation traveled at ten inches per second; it took a full thirty minutes to make one complete circuit. The view was breathtaking. Randy hoped the financial difficulties surrounding operational cost were resolved. It would be a shame if the London Eye was shut down and removed.

  After the London Eye, the photographs indicated his suspect next moved to Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens and the magnificent palace located on the western edge of the huge garden area. Randy could remember seeing the Palace on the large screens in the War Room.

  The other dozens sheets of four photos seemed to confirm the suspect had made an extensive trip around London to determine possible targets. With so many places to cover, enhanced security would place a strain on the Metropolitan Police Department and their resources.

  He returned the thick batch of photos back to its place on the table.

  He had spent two-thirds of an hour on the photos of the backpack and knife and another ninety minutes on the cell phone and all the photos it contained, but he had nothing to show for his time. Time, he thought. Yes, it was time for a cup of coffee to refresh his mind and eyes.

  Randy stepped out of the small office. Agent Reader was leaning against the wall. He looked at Randy and pointed down the hallway. “The men’s room is down the hallway and toward your left. There is a small coffee and snack shop on the next floor down.”

  Randy nodded. “Pit stop first and then coffee.”

  Reader stood outside the men’s room and fell into step beside Randy when the senator emerged. They located the elevator and took a short one-story ride to the next floor below. The coffee shop was located directly off the elevator lobby area. Randy saw a queue of six or eight people. As he and Reader entered the shop, he felt his cell phone vibrating in his right pants pocket. He stepped off to the side where several tall pedestal tables and stools were set. One table was empty, and he took a stool to read the e-mail coming in on his BlackBerry.

  Needing to focus on the phone, he reached inside his left pants pocket and removed the money clip with his British money. He pulled out a twenty-pound note and handed it to Reader. “If you get me a black coffee and a muffin, I’ll happily pay for whatever you would like.”

  The agent nodded, took the money, and stepped into the line. Every thirty seconds he turned and glanced over his shoulder to check on his protectee. Finally, he reached the counter and took a minute to order their coffee and then make a final review of the muffins, cakes, and cookies. Satisfied with his selection, he gave the server a final nod and moved to wait in line at the cashier to pay. He watched their order being prepared and placed on a small plastic tray resting on a stainless steel platform and slid down toward the cashier. Theoretically, the plastic tray and the customer would arrive together at the cashier.

  This time the system worked. Reader handed over the senator’s money and received his change, which he laid on the tray as he picked up their order. He walked around the final post that channeled customers in an orderly queue and turned toward the table and Senator Fisher.

  Reader noticed an immediate problem. Randy Fisher was not where he had been sitting thirty seconds ago. Two women sat at the table, smiling and chatting happily with each other.

  Chapter 33

  London

  Tuesday, December 1, 2015

  11:30 a.m.

  Reader hesitated only long enough to collect the plastic tray with their order as he hurried from the coffee shop back to the elevator. As he approached the lobby area, he saw the elevator doors closing. Several uniformed officers were talking to each other a few steps from the doors.

  Charlie reached the elevator doors and pressed the up button. He turned to the men who were quietly talking a few steps away. “Excuse me, gentlemen, but did you see another man get on the elevator from this floor? He was in his early forties, about six feet tall with average-length brown hair?”

  Both men stopped talking and stared at him for a few seconds. One finally looked down at the tray with two cups of coffee and the two muffins. He looked back to Reader’s face. “Yes. I believe the man you are looking for stepped onto the lift just after we stepped off. Is there a problem?”

  Reader just shook his head. “No problem. Just someone who doesn’t understand security procedures.”

  There were six elevators in the lobby. The floor light suddenly popped on to indicate a car had arrived. Reader made sure it was going up and sent a little head bob toward the two men. “Thanks for your help”, he said quickly and stepped onto the lift. He used his free hand to press for the next floor.

  Ten seconds later the door opened on the fourth floor. Reader hurried out of the lift, trying not to spill the hot coffee. When he rounded the corner, Booker was standing outside the office doorway in the same spot Reader had been several minutes ago. The senior agent was giving him a hard look.

  Reader gave his partner a look and then stepped past him to glance inside the office. He looked back to the senior agent. “Where the hell have you been?” Booker asked. “You know what DDO Bellwood would do to both of us if something happened to that guy? We’d probably be guarding some damn politician’s mutt, or worse.”

  Reader shook his head. “I’m telling you. I took my eye off of him for thirty seconds, and when I turned around he was gone.”

  Booker just shook his head. No excuse would be good enough. He glanced down at the plastic tray in Reader’s right hand and reached up to take it away from him. He took a sniff of the hot coffee. A small smile appeared on his rough face. “All right, you’re excused this time.”

  He turned and stepped into the office. “We have your coffee and muffin here, Senator Fisher.”

  Randy Fisher looked up and turned his body slightly as the two men approached the table. He reached for the coffee and took a sip. “Thanks. I have a question for both of you. The evidence man who gave me these photos told us the photos were printed from the cell phone in the order they were taken by our suspect.” He pointed toward the first photo of four pictures. Each had a small day and time stamp in the lower left corner.

  Agent Booker claimed the second cup of coffee meant for his partner and took a quick sip before he set the plastic tray on the far edge of the table. He heard a slight growl escape from Reader’s throat. He could not keep a little smile off his face as he stepped closer to the table and looked past the se
nator’s shoulders at the array of photos again spread out on the table.

  “That’s right, Senator. There were almost one hundred and fifty pictures in the phone. Each had a time stamp to indicate when it was taken by the suspect.”

  “Right,” Randy said. He pointed to the first set of photos and then pointed at each page. “Here are the photos of Trafalgar Square. They are located in the middle of the group of photos. All the following ones were taken by the suspect after he took the photos in Trafalgar Square.”

  Reader had stepped to the other side of Randy and was looking at the photo. “I don’t understand, sir. I see when the photos were taken, but what is significant about the order of the photographs? How does that help us determine where they might attack?”

  Randy shook his head. “It doesn’t narrow down the possible targets, but something is definitely wrong. I was having lunch around noon when I saw the suspect standing outside the Texan Embassy Cantina. He was taking a picture from Pall Mall East Street down toward Trafalgar Square. First, there is no picture of the square from that angle in this lot. Second, I started chasing him within a few minutes of when he took the picture that is not in this batch. We played the cat-and-mouse game for more than two hours, and then he lost the backpack on the foot bridge.”

  Randy stepped away from the table and walked past Booker around to the other side of the small room. He turned to the two agents. They could see a sparkle in his eyes. “The photos are out of sequence, and the photo he took when I saw him is missing.”

  Reader called out first. “There are two phones!”

  “Yes,” Randy said. “That’s what’s been bothering me. I did not see him when I first ran out of the restaurant. I guessed he was walking toward Trafalgar Square, and I headed in that direction from the restaurant. I did not see him again until I stood up on top of the edge of the fountain. Then I saw him walking out from behind the second fountain.”

  Randy stopped, thinking back to the memories of that moment. He could see the terrorist, the backpack slung over his shoulder. Then it came to him. He remembered seeing the cell phone in his right hand, down along his right thigh.

  “When I caught sign of him again he still had the phone in his right hand. He was not taking any pictures but just holding the phone. Within seconds, we were into the chase. There was hardly any time from that moment until he lost the backpack to remove the backpack, open the pocket cover, and place the phone inside the backpack.”

  He looked at the two agents. “All right, guys. If you were either me or the suspect and involved in a cat-and-mouse chase, would you take time to put the cell phone inside the backpack?” Randy answered his own question. “No. You would slip it in your pants pockets to make sure you didn’t lose it.”

  Booker nodded in agreement. “Or if you’re concerned about being caught or tracked by the GPS signal inside the phone, you would ditch it. There would be many opportunities—in any trash receptacle or entrance to a drainpipe. Even better, when your man was running over the bridge he could just drop it into the river. We would have a hard time finding something that small in the River Thames.”

  Reader had to point out the one flaw in their theory. “You said he ran into the Tie Rack shop and purchased a leather jacket. He could have put the phone inside the backpack at that time. We know for certain he took the backpack off to put on the jacket.”

  Randy smiled at the younger man. “You’re correct. He might have put the phone in the backpack when he was in the tie shop, but that doesn’t explain the missing photo from outside the restaurant and that the others photos are not in the proper sequence.”

  He reached down to pick up the single sheet with the front and back photos of the cell phone. “There was a second phone. Maybe this one was left along with the backpack to throw us off their real target.”

  All three men were silent as they contemplated the ramifications of Randy’s last statement.

  Booker was moving his right index finger over the many photos of the London tourist spots. “If we’re correct, then London might have thirty thousand members of their police department looking in the wrong place.”

  Chapter 34

  London

  Wednesday, December 2, 2015

  12:15 a.m.

  In the bathroom of his hotel suite, Randy Fisher plugged his BlackBerry into the charger. He had been using it a lot lately and the battery was low.

  He had made a call to Annie. His Aunt Frances was still staying at their apartment in Alexandria. She was not returning to California until Randy was back in the United States. Her decision had been firm. Frances was not going back home to worry alone about her only living relative while he was in another country chasing some damn terrorist.

  Randy had to smile as Annie explained all that. He envisioned his aunt standing in their living room and talking to Annie. She had put the phone into Frances’s hand and let her talk with Randy to make sure she knew he was safe and under the protection of Marion Bellwood’s men. Randy had assured Frances that BookReader was watching him closely. Once satisfied with his safety, Frances had returned the phone to Annie and left the room to allow the two to speak privately.

  Randy again explained the security procedures Marion had put in place around him. The two agents were in the same hotel, across the hallway in another suite. Marion was staying only several doors down the hallway. Randy’s protection was solid.

  Annie seemed to be satisfied with the precautions but warned her husband to leave any new chases to the professionals. She wanted him back in their apartment safe and in one piece.

  They talked about her work. The time allowed Randy to forget about why he was still in London and not home with the woman he loved. He had just disconnected the call when the BlackBerry showed another incoming call; the screen displayed the caller’s information. Tom Evans was calling.

  Randy had been ignoring all calls from other members of the Senate or their staffers, but he knew he could not hit the ignore button on this one. Instead, he pressed the answer button.

  “Hi, Tom. How are things in the Senate today?”

  Randy could hear the chuckle in Tom’s voice. “You are missing one hell of a show over here. Three Republicans senators are holding up a Republican president’s bill. If it were not so serious, we Democrats would be laughing our asses off. In fact, I’m sure a few chuckles are taking place in the privacy of some people’s offices or homes.”

  After a silence, Tom’s voice came back on the phone. “You want to tell me about the security threat going on in London right now? I got a briefing on it right after the White House received theirs.”

  Twenty minutes later Randy had the Democratic candidate for president up to date to the point when he had discovered evidence there was a second cell phone. “I had another meeting with the deputy commissioner of Scotland Yard, who was forced to agree with me. That led to another smaller meeting among the heads of Scotland Yard, MI5, and MI6. The same two cabinet ministers also attended, and they were all forced to conclude the coverage watch area needed to be enlarged.”

  Tom replied, “It sounds to me like they need to include almost all of London, or even England itself. The photos might have been taken to pull security forces away from the coastline and other outer areas and into London itself.”

  Randy agreed. “Yes. That was the two-ton elephant in the room. Every procedure set up to find these people might have all be for naught. We’ve back to square one in our search.”

  There was almost thirty seconds of silence on the line between the two friends. Tom finally broke the quiet. “If you’re at a dead end, then why don’t you come back to Washington? We could use a little of your famous common sense over here to kill this bill and end the filibuster. All three of these senators came into the Senate when you were reelected. You have common ground with them. Especially Senator Laird. You two sit across the aisle from each other where the
Democrats and Republicans physically separate on the Senate floor.”

  Randy did not answer. Tom took the lack of a response as a sign to continue. “I also know your office is having a problem explaining why you are not on the floor of the Senate or at least in Washington. I spoke to Mrs. LaSalle. CNN and some of the other news networks are starting to ask about your absence. The longer you’re not here, the more likely they will come up with wild speculations to explain your absence.”

  Randy still remained silent.

  Tom decided to prod his friend a little more. “Randy … I understand you want to catch this twin or look-a-like. I would feel the same if I were in your place, but maybe it’s time to leave it to the professionals and come back to DC where you can do some real good. We need to end this in the Senate, and you’ve got a relationship with the three Davids.”

  Randy stood at the window looking out over portions of London. He shook his head. “The professionals had the photos, but none of them realized they were not in the proper sequence. If I hadn’t noticed, then all the security would still be focused on Central London.” He paused for a few moments and then continued. “I know these people are the professionals, but something is telling me to stay. I still have a nagging suspicion something was overlooked in the evidence. I can’t leave until I figure it out.”