Richard kept walking, adept after long years in the Senate of staying on the move while discussing matters of policy with his staff and reporters. “Elaborate.”
Jamie silently handed the subpoena over to Richard, mind already whirling about the newest problem in this whole mess. The latest request directed at him to be questioned by the United States Senate Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities—in a closed session, something that never fared well in the press—wasn’t over what Jamie had known about the campaign going into Boston.
This one was about Paris. About Root Source, Inc.
About the Pavluhkins and thePresnenskayaBratvaand every illegal action Jamie’s team had made with their government’s blessing.
It was about everything that Jamie couldn’t legally talk about. And if he couldn’t talk about it, then the Senate committee investigating him and his family would cry stonewalling and lies to the media. All of that would just drive the sensationalism to new heights—nothing sold like drama did these days—and the one pertinent question Jamie would have a difficult time defending himself against would be asked over and over on the news streams.
What was he hiding?
I betThe Timeswill win a Pulitzer this year,Jamie thought, a little uncharitably.
The subpoena’s words burned into his mind. This wouldn’t be his first summons before a panel of his father’s contemporaries. The House investigation had subpoenaed him to discuss his role in Boston last month and it hadn’t gone well. Evading direct answers by hiding behind the thin protection ofclassified, albeit behind the guise ofno comment, had done nothing more than piss off the panel of representatives, some of whom saw him as a way to derail his father’s political career.
But if they were calling him in because of Root Source, Inc., it was because the Congressional investigations—both in the Senate and in the House—had followed the same evidence the DOJ’s Special Counsel, Travis Reynolds, had uncovered. Reynolds wasn’t a man to be taken lightly. His investigation had already ensnared former Senator Mark Graham in wrongdoing, with Graham resigning once the federal charges accusing him of illegal deals with North Star International were unsealed. Now Reynold’s laser-like focus was on Richard and Jamie, and no one believed it would end well.
Jamie had yet to be called in for a deposition by that particular investigation. Regardless, he knew that despite whatever evidence Reynolds was collecting, the case he was building against Jamie came from fabricated information.
Leakedfabricated information.
They had CIA Deputy Director Carter Bennett to thank for that.
Richard folded up the subpoena and handed it back to Jamie. He pocketed it, and nothing more was said on the issue until they were all, as a family, back at the luxury hotel the campaign had rented rooms in for this leg of the trip. Considering the current cost of keeping the campaign afloat despite the negative press, it was a good thing the Callahans were billionaires. But a cornerstone of their money and business stood a chance of being damaged in the near future though, and that was what Richard zeroed in on once the soundproofing was enacted in the suite’s office.
“We should never have let you use Empyrean,” Richard snarled as he glared at Jamie.
“I made the call to not move forward with that aspect of the mission,” Jamie reminded him.
“It shouldn’t have been an option to begin with!”
Empyrean was the premiere luxury space cruise line that catered to the ultra-wealthy of the world. The fleet of space ships took guests on trips around the Earth and the Moon in expensive comfort.
Root Source, Inc. had been created to help the Pavluhkins undermine the English company, Saunders & Associates, by mining their contacts in order to entrap the rich. ThePresnenskaya Bratvaemployed Nikolaas Jansen, a known metahuman with a strong empathy power, to manipulate their rich targets into buying up shell companies to help fund the criminal organization. All illegal activities, for the most part, were tied to people who could not be traced back to the Pavluhkins and thePresnenskaya Bratva.
Jamie and his team, on orders from the MDF and in conjunction with the UMG, had helped destroy the Saunders’ family business. When Stanislav and his father, Yakov, no longer had any use for the company, they’d turned their attention to Jamie and his family’s contacts. The Pavluhkins had wanted Jamie to reach out to customers and investors within Empyrean and give them access to new targets, new money.
Jamie had gone along with it right up until the moment he’d become aware that Alexei and Sean had been kidnapped by Cillian Halloran on Stanislav’s orders. Making that field decision alone, with no prior warning to the brass, hadn’t endeared his actions to them. Jamie still stood by his decision, but it looked like what he’d done during the mission all last year was coming back to bite him on the ass.
“You know why I asked,” Jamie said.
Richard glared at him. “Yes, because you’re so good at following orders when it pertains toyourcareer.”
“You do enough damage on your own, Father. You don’t need me to make it worse for you when you’re skilled enough in that area.”
“What isthatsupposed to mean?”
Before Jamie could respond, Charlotte spoke up. “This is not the time nor place for that particular argument.”
The steely-eyed look she leveled on Jamie and Richard was enough to table that fight for the moment. It didn’t stop them from addressing the latest problem.
“You will wait to respond to the subpoena until we can bring our attorneys into the loop,” Richard ordered through gritted teeth.
Jamie raised one eyebrow. “The MDF will want to take lead on my defense, just like last time. You can inform your attorneys all you like, but you aren’t calling the shots here, Father. Not when it comes to me.”
“I’m well aware of what your decisions have cost me and this family, Jamie.”
The accusation grated, but Jamie held his tongue. He wouldn’t apologize for doing his job and sticking beside his team. As it was, he’d split his time too much between his duty and his father’s needs. That wasn’t helpful to anyone, least of all himself.
