Mounting Fears

11

ROBERT KINNEY, DIRECTOR OF THE FEDERAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION, LOOKED across the desk at Assistant Director Kerry Smith, the youngest AD every to hold that office. Kerry looked back at him expectantly.

"Kerry, you've been supervising the background check on Governor Martin Stanton, haven't you?"

"Yes, Director, but just oversight, not direct participation."

"There's an interview with the governor scheduled this afternoon."

"That's correct, Director."

"I want you to conduct it personally."

Smith's eyebrows went up.

"Don't question, just do."

"I take it this interview is of a special nature to the White House?"

"This appointment is of a special nature, Kerry. We've got a dead vice president, not even in the ground yet, and an appointment of a new one by the president on the fly in the middle of a nuclear event halfway around the world. There've been a lot of distractions for the president. He's ordinarily a careful man by nature, but I don't want him to miss something that's going to rise up and bite him on the ass later, like in the confirmation hearings in the Senate."

"Then he's going to appoint Stanton vice president to serve out Kiel's term?"

"You have to ask?"

"No, sir. Is there anything in particular that should be brought into this interview, apart from the draft of the information you've already seen?"

"Yes, two things: First, the governor has told the president that he and his wife are divorcing quite soon and that she will not be participating in the campaign."

"And the president is keeping him as his running mate? Wow."

"They intend for Stanton to announce this during his opening statement to the Senate Judiciary Committee. They figure it will blow over quickly."

"That seems like a good plan," Smith said.

"It's a good plan, if the governor has told them everything. It's my experience that no one ever tells anyone, let alone a Senate committee, everything about the circumstances of a pending divorce."

"I agree."

"What I want you to find out is everything, or at least everything the governor is willing to tell anybody."

"What methods do you wish me to employ to secure this information, Director?"

"I want you to ask him."

Smith blinked. "Oh."

"And then I want you to check out everything he says and, in addition, everything he doesn't say. I want you to do it fast, and I want you to do it good, because when I report to the president that his candidate is squeaky clean or, at least, highly unlikely to get caught doing anything that isn't squeaky clean, I want to be telling my president the truth. Do I make myself clear?"

"Yes, Director." Smith held up a folder. "I have his questionnaire, and there are some points in there that I will raise with him. Ah, you said there were two things you wanted me to raise with the governor. What was the other one?"

"I want you to ask him where he was born. That is, exactly where he was born."

"Exactly?"

"Get a street address, if you can."

"May I ask the relevance of this information, Director?"

"Not yet."

Smith flipped through the pages of his file on Stanton and came up with a sheet of paper. "His birth certificate says he was born at San Diego Women's Hospital, in California. Isn't that good enough?"

"Look just under the hospital name, Kerry. What does it say?"

Smith looked at the information. "It says 'in transit.' "

"I want you to find out exactly what that means."

"I expect it means in an ambulance, on the way to the hospital."

"I can tell you the governor wasn't born in an ambulance, and what the birth certificate doesn't tell us is where his mother was in transit from."

Smith shook his head. "I'm sorry, Director, but you're going to have to tell me what you're talking about, because I'm not getting it."

Kinney sat back in his chair and tossed a file across his desk. "Read this," he said. "I'll wait."

Smith read quickly through the two sheets of paper.

"Are you getting the drift, Kerry?"

"Having read his questionnaire, I can see how there may be problems. Is the governor aware of these circumstances?"

"From my reading of his questionnaire and the preliminary report, he is either not aware of them or is concealing them. I want to know if either of those things is true."

"Director, forgive me for asking, but if this information is not known to the governor, how did you come by it?"

"I had a phone call from someone who, if not in a position to know, was at least in a position to ask some questions."

"Was this person a member of the Republican Party?"

"That's enough questions, Kerry. Now get out of my office."

Smith gulped. He now realized that the file in his hand and what he would add to it in his investigation and interview of the governor might determine who the next vice president and, therefore, a potential future president would be.

Kerry Smith stood. "Sir, I will find out what you want to know."

"Thank you, Kerry," Kinney said. "And don't keep me waiting for information about this."

Kerry Smith got out of there fast.