Franklin was in full flow when his phone buzzed. He looked at the screen and immediately recognised the Argentinian area code.

“Gentlemen, will you please excuse me, I need to take this.”

The dedicated phone in his office had an automatic divert to his mobile if it didn’t pick up after five rings. As he walked out of the reception room towards one of the vast lobbies, he took the call from Matias Paz.

“Señor Franklin, I have some encouraging news for you. We have made astonishing progress in a very short time.”

“Paz, don’t bullshit me. Have you got the contents of my box back yet?”

“No, Señor, but we managed to persuade Gonzales to give us the names and locations of his two associates and, in the next few hours, we will be visiting both of them.”

Franklin paused to think for a moment. “I assume Señor Gonzales is no longer a danger to us.”

“That is correct. We took the appropriate action.”

Paz could sense that Franklin was starting to calm down. “That’s good work, Matias. Have there been any other casualties along the way?”

“Yes, Señor. There has been some collateral damage in the course of the investigation.”

“How many?”

“Two.”

“Okay. Where are the police on all this?”

Paz was hoping for this question and came back with his prepared response. “They are playing catch-up. We have a highly placed insider who keeps us constantly informed. They have no idea what we are up to. We’ll have the materials back very soon and all three of the thieves will be taken care of, so the trail will go cold. The inspector running the case will look a hero because he will recover the stolen property but he’ll have no way of knowing that the contents of one of the boxes is missing.”

“Okay, Matias. Let me know the moment we have it.”

Franklin ended the call and tucked his mobile inside his dinner jacket. His mind drifted back to the campaign and the hundred and fifty million dollars he personally had pumped into it so far. The American public had been bombarded by a relentless TV campaign that had driven his son to the top of the national polls. He had groomed John for this moment all his life and now he was just a few months away from being the father of the most powerful man on earth.