Chapters (68)
‘I suppose we could do that, Kate,’ said Blackstone. ‘Me, I’m an old-fashioned guy. I’d just nuke the son of a bitch. You take this information back to Seattle, you might even find that James Ritchie agrees with me for once. After all, he tossed off a couple at Chávez on Musso’s behalf.’
The federal officer shrugged off yet another dig at his Guantanamo record. ‘This does need to be dealt with,’ he began, holding up one of the interrogation transcripts. ‘But Colonel Murdoch is correct. You caught this early. It’s a little problem, needing little effort to address. Especially since we have the prisoners. There’s no explaining them away.’
At that, Blackstone mulled so long that Caitlin started to wonder whether he intended to simply ignore Musso’s words. He did reply, eventually.
‘One way or another, we have to address this. Not so much the immediate question, I agree. Morales won’t be setting up any wildcat colonies now that we’ve tumbled his scheme. But everything I said before about reaching a discontinuous moment in history, Kate, I stand by,’ Blackstone said, returning his attention to her quite pointedly. He accepted a pastry from his offsider, but didn’t eat it straight away. ‘There was a time when no power on earth would have dared contemplate a claim on this continent. Now, there are days I wonder which of them wouldn’t. You know, Governor Palin can see Russia from her front porch, and she tells me they seem to be getting closer every day.’
Caitlin put down her coffee cup and uncrossed her legs, making as if to stand up.
‘Gentlemen,’ she said again. ‘You will understand that before saying anything else I would like to examine these documents in detail. I’m happy to go with Mr McCutcheon to do so, if you don’t want to release them into our custody.’
Blackstone looked like he was about to answer, when his fixer spoke up. ‘We had these copies made up for you. But if you’d like some time to study them, I’m happy for you to use my office, Colonel Murdoch.’ McCutcheon raised an eyebrow at Blackstone. ‘Perhaps an hour’s break, Governor?’
‘An hour sounds about right. If you’d like to take carriage of our guests, Ty?’
‘Be a pleasure, sir.’
Caitlin stood up, hoping her impetus would draw Musso along behind her. She had what she wanted. McCutcheon’s documents were interesting, but what she really needed was access to his office. That was where they obviously kept the administration’s sensitive files.