"You met Zale?" he asked in genuine surprise.
"Your reasonable man threatened my life if I didn't drop the investigation."
"I find that hard to accept."
"Believe it!" Loren said nastily. "Take my advice, Leo. Distance yourself from Cerberus. They're going down, and going down big time, and Zale will be lucky if he doesn't end up on death row."
Sturgis watched her turn and stride away, immaculate in a beige tweed wool suit cinched at the waist with a suede belt. She carried a briefcase whose dyed leather matched the color of her suit. It was her trademark.
Loren did not go back to her office. It was late in the evening, and she went directly to her car in the congressional underground parking level of her office building. Her mind wandered over the day's events as she made her way through the tail end of the rush-hour traffic. Forty-five minutes later, she reached her town house in Alexandria. As she stopped and clicked the remote to her garage door, a woman stepped from the shadows and approached her from the driver's side. Unafraid, Loren turned and rolled down her window.
"Congresswoman Smith. Forgive the intrusion, but it's most urgent that we talk."
"Who are you?"
"My name is Sally Morse. I am the chairman of the Yukon Oil Company."
Loren studied the woman, who was dressed only in denim slacks with a light blue cotton sweater. There was a sincerity in the eyes that appealed to Loren. "Step into the garage."
Loren parked the car and closed the garage door. "Please come inside." She led the way into a living room. The decor was ultramodern, each piece of furniture individually designed by artisans. "Please sit down. Would you like a cup of coffee?"
"I'd prefer something a little stronger, thank you."
"Name your poison," Loren said, as she opened a liquor cabinet whose glass doors were etched with exotic floral designs.
"Scotch on the rocks?"
"Spoken like a man."
Loren poured a shot of Cutty Sark scotch over ice and handed the glass to Sally. Then she opened a Coors beer and sat across a coffee table from her. "Now, Ms. Morse, why come to me?"
"Because you're heading the congressional investigation into the Cerberus empire and its impact on the oil market."
Loren's heart began to increase its beat and she forced herself to act composed. "Am I to assume you have information you'd like to share with me?"
Sally took a large swallow of the scotch, made a sour face and took a deep breath. "I hope you'll understand something. From this moment on, my life is in extreme danger, my property will likely be destroyed and my reputation and my position that I worked so long and hard to achieve will be scourged."
Loren did not push Sally, but sat patiently. "You're a very brave woman."
Sally shook her head sadly. "Not really. I'm only fortunate that I have no family for Curtis Merlin Zale to threaten or murder, as his henchmen have done with so many others."
Loren's adrenaline was beginning to pump. The mere mention of Zale's name came like a lightning strike on the roof.
"You're privy to his criminal activities," she ventured.
"From the time he recruited me and formed the cartel with other major oil companies' corporate executive officers."
"I wasn't aware of a cartel." Loren was beginning to feel she had struck the mother lode.
"Oh yes, indeed," said Sally. "Zale's plan was to form a secret merger of our companies in order to create a nation that is no longer dependent on foreign oil. At first, it seemed like a noble cause. But then it became apparent that his plans went far beyond simply cutting off OPEC supplies."
"What is his ultimate goal?"
"To become more powerful than the United States government. To dictate his schemes to a country so dependent on fair-priced oil and abundant supplies that it'll applaud his efforts, never knowing that someday he'll pull the rug out from under it once he has a total monopoly and foreign oil is banned from our shores."
"I don't see how that is possible," said Loren, unable to grasp the full extent of what Sally was saying. "How can he achieve a monopoly without bringing in huge new oil fields in North America?"
"By having all American and Canadian restrictions on drilling and on exploiting government-owned lands lifted. By casting aside all environmental concerns. And by buying off and controlling Washington. Worst of all, convincing the American public to protest and riot against foreign oil shipments into the country."