I got up early the next morning to have time to play with Tyler.
The Washington Daily Star was carrying two major stories on Carmaya: Rias’s and mine. Jerry had the Today show on, and they were reporting that Senator Dalton had been in Carmaya because her father had been a casualty in the attack. NBC had wanted to talk with Senator Dalton, but she was not available. That must have been Michael’s doing.
Neither Rias’s nor my story had anything about Rufus, yet one reporter had found him helping at the hospital. Rufus hadn’t gone on camera, but did say that he and Harley Rogers were lifelong friends and that he had been visiting, doing some fishing and diving, and had been with Sherman Rogers at the time of the attack.
Jerry clicked the remote with great dexterity, hitting all the networks. Our articles were a subject of much discussion and speculation. Nobody had tied the US Senate into any of this. Any mentions of Tutoxtamen were relative to the FDA’s rejection of the drug and Travis’s report about the positive results of the drug in Germany.
The networks and cable news had many different guesses as to what came first: the Germans, Carmayans, or Rogers. That showed how little homework any of the media had done. The FDA’s only statement was that it would not be making one because the product and the treatments were outside the United States.
Lassiter called, knowing I would be going directly to the Pentagon. CNN had interviewed Travis, and she had a tape of it. The CNN reporter had tried to tie the German drug to Rogers, but Travis only had knowledge that a German pharmaceutical company was behind the clinic outside Frankfurt. He knew nothing about Rogers Pharmaceuticals in the States.
Lassiter said there had been several requests to interview me. Basically, they wanted to know why I had been in Carmaya. She had turned them all down.
Most media reports assumed that Rogers was involved in the German clinic. Travis had not reported that. However, no reports went so far as to say Rogers was manufacturing and shipping Tutoxtamen to Germany. They assumed that the recently constructed offshore facility, which had been attacked by unknown assailants—unknown to the media at least— was, in all likelihood, a processing plant. Some suspected terrorism, but hadn’t a clue about who was behind it. One talking head on Fox wondered why anyone would deliberately want to destroy a drug that every cancer patient could use.
Ro called me at 8:15, asking that I go to the Pentagon’s north gate. “Bring your diplomatic papers, if you still—”
“They’re in my work bag.”
“Good. I talked to Dad. Things are looking up for Sherman.”
“That’s great. Some TV reporter quoted your dad. He wouldn’t go on camera.”
“I haven’t been watching. Michael and I were in here before 7:00 on other matters.”
“We’re media hounds in our house. Jerry’s been expertly exercising the remote.”
I heard her chuckle. “Dad, Major DeMarco, and Chief Driscoll will be in the communications bunker and hooked up to the Pentagon. Driscoll worked the satellite pictures down to the day after Dad arrived in Carmaya.”
“We know your Dad’s not the mole.”
“He said his plane stopped at Bridgetown, Barbados, and then flew on to Carmaya. I know he and Johnny would have never thought about being covert.”
“I’m sure,” I said. “Let me extrapolate, though. Suppose the pharmas had found the Rogers island by following your father. That was no more than a week before they attacked.”
“Coincidently, the day your paper broke the German story,” she acknowledged.
“If they had tracked Rufus, they had their own jet and would have landed in Barbados too. We need flight plans of planes taking that same route as your Dad on that same day. The jet might also have had to refuel.
“Is that something you can get from the FAA?” Ro asked. “Somebody from that plane . . . we need Driscoll to interview all Rogers employees, and somebody should talk to the wounded who have already returned to New Jersey. Maybe somebody making like a tourist visited that heretofore uninhabited archipelago, known for its excellent SCUBA diving, a few days before the attack.”
“I see why you’re so good at what you do. You’re saying someone went out to C-2?”
“Yes, and that tells me they most likely rented a boat.” My brain was racing, searching for other options. “Another job for the Marines,” I said. “Maybe the major could ask Harley about contacting the New Jersey returnees.”
“I’ll suggest that to him,” she answered quickly.
I thought I heard a soft edge of excitement in Ro’s voice.