The Outlaws (Presidential Agent 6)

“He came to me, sir.”

“And what did you tell him?”

“I told him I had no idea where he was,” Parker said.

“Charles?”

“Sir?” Montvale replied.

“Where is Castillo?”

“I don’t know, Mr. President.”

“I told you the next time I asked that question, I would expect an answer.”

“I’m working on it, Mr. President, but so far without any results.”

“Wonderful! It’s so nice to know that whenever I want to know something, all I have to do is ask my director of National Intelligence!”

There was another thirty-second silence, and then the President went on: “Far be it from me to try to tell the director of National Intelligence how to do his job, but I have just had this probably useless thought: If Roscoe Danton is looking for Colonel Castillo, perhaps he has an idea where he is. Has anyone thought of that? Where’s Danton?”

There was no reply.

“Find out for me, Charles, will you, please?”

“I’ll get right on it, Mr. President,” Montvale said.

[FOUR]

The Office of the Director of National Intelligence

Eisenhower Executive Office Building

17th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W.

Washington, D.C.

1805 5 February 2007

“I can’t think of anything else to do, can you?” Ambassador Montvale asked Truman C. Ellsworth, his executive assistant.

When Ellsworth had called The Washington Times-Post for Roscoe J. Danton, they refused to tell him where he was. They said they would contact Danton and tell him Ambassador Montvale wanted to speak with him. Ellsworth finally called the publisher, Bradley Benjamin III, and told him what had happened, and asked for his help. Mr. Benjamin told him that what he had already been offered was all he was going to get, and please give Ambassador Montvale his best regards.

Since both Truman C. Ellsworth and Charles M. Montvale would swear—because they believed it—that they were incapable of letting anger, or a bruised ego, interfere in the slightest with their judgment, or the execution of their offices, what happened next was attributed to the fervor with which they chose to meet the President’s request to locate Mr. Roscoe J. Danton.

The National Security Agency at Fort Meade, Maryland, was directed as the highest priority to acquire and relay to the ambassador’s office any traffic by telephone, or over the Internet, containing Mr. Danton’s name.

The Department of Homeland Security was directed to search the flight manifests of every passenger airliner taking off from either Reagan International Airport or Dulles International Airport during the past forty-eight hours for the name of Roscoe J. Danton, and if found to immediately report his destination and time of arrival thereat.

The Secret Service was ordered to obtain the residential address of Mr. Roscoe J. Danton and to place such premises under around-the-clock surveillance and to immediately report any sighting of Mr. Danton. They were further ordered to send agents to the National Press Club to see if any clue to his whereabouts could be obtained.

The cooperation of the FBI was sought and obtained to put out an immediate “locate but do not detain” bulletin on Mr. Danton.

“I just had an idea,” Mr. Ellsworth said when asked if he could think of anything else that could be done.

He told the White House operator get The Washington Times-Post for him again, this time the Corporate Travel department.

Montvale’s eyebrows rose, but he didn’t comment.