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IT WAS TUESDAY EVENING. I answered the phone. “Hey, Gamble.”
“I have that space you asked for, a friend of a friend’s martial arts studio.”
“What’s the arrangement?”
“The arrangement is that if he notices anything out of place, he ignores it. He’s being compensated—and the studio has no video security. The windows and doors are barred and alarmed, so he gave me the alarm code.”
“Okay, cool.”
He rattled off the info, but I ignored it.
We didn’t need no stinking alarm code.
Besides, using the code logged an entry. If we cleaned up after ourselves, Gamble’s “friend of a friend” would never know we’d been there. As far as he would ever know, he was being paid for nothing.
“This guy has lots of martial arts training equipment, including sticks.”
“Great! Thanks for setting this up for us, Gamble.”
“That’s what I do.”
***
“CALLISTER HERE.”
The disembodied male voice on the other end of the call was matter-of-fact. “Sitrep.”
“Sir, I have nothing definitive to report, only that the head of the President’s detail is leery of recent personnel changes.”
“Kennedy can’t influence White House postings other than his own detail, and we’ve given the repositioned agents sufficient inducements not to talk should Kennedy contact them and attempt to probe their abrupt change of station or departure from the Service. Alterations to the President’s schedule?”
“Kennedy appears to be meeting with the President in the privacy of the Residence more often than before. They may suspect that the Oval Office is tapped.”
“It would be difficult for them to prove that since our assets within the Service do the daily sweeps. Can you bug the Residence?”
“It would be . . . tricky, Mr. M—”
“Do not use my name.”
Callister swallowed. “It won’t happen again, sir.”
“Can you or can you not bug the Residence?”
“No, sir. I’m already on Kennedy’s radar. He knows I was on Harmon’s detail.”
“Hmm. Leave it to me, then. I have . . . additional assets in place. What about VP candidates?”
“The President’s discussions with his chief of staff and party leaders seem at an impasse. The candidates generating the most enthusiasm won’t pass the vote in Congress to confirm them. The President and his staff have exhausted their short list and appear to be working up another list.”
Silence stretched across the line as the caller pondered the information. When the caller replied, the response was terse. “I’ll pass this information up the chain. Anything else to report?”
“No, sir.”
Callister heard a click as the caller hung up.
~~**~~
