Clark wound up having to disappear after all—and a lot sooner than he thought.
The day after Lisa dropped her bombshell, Clark withdrew everything in his retirement annuity. He received a briefcase full of cash. The bank security guard escorted him to his car. Clark had already packed the vehicle with essential belongings: his laptop and backup external drives containing important files, some clothes, important paperwork, including the documents Scott Baker had given him containing information on his new identity, and some photos of his daughters.
Then he disappeared.
And now after almost three years, the trail had led to here. To Tony Genova. Tony was the key to Livingston. And Livingston was the key to making it all go away.
Clark glanced at his watch. It had been thirty minutes since Tony Genova’s condo unit had been invaded by the still-unknown government agents. Nobody had come out since then.
Clark considered his options, going over them again in his head.
If the three assailants had intended to kill Tony, they would have done it already. That eliminated a team of Marano family assassins. He was sure of it. And he was positive that they weren’t employed by the Bureau. Were they CIA? Even less likely. One, they weren’t supposed to operate on US soil, and two, what the hell would they want with Genova anyway? In the dossier Scott Baker had given him a month ago when they’d located Tony’s new whereabouts and identity, Scott had been adamant that Tony did not interest the CIA. “He’s cooperating with the Livingston Administration,” he’d told Clark. “Only two people know of his existence outside of his handlers.”
That left only one option.
Black Lodge.
And if that was the case, and if Black Lodge really existed, the question was this: why were they interested in Tony Genova?
Clark took a deep breath. He felt his face grow flush with adrenalin. He was at the end of his rope, literally. Last month, Scott Baker had told him that a private investigation firm hired by Tyler Administration loyalists was looking into the circumstances surrounding several mysterious deaths. Keith Simpson, an RNC underling, had been killed in an underground parking garage, his throat slit from ear to ear; Natalie Combs, CEO of a Faith-based group that funded Tyler Administration projects and was a head cheerleader for the investigation into his death, was found dead in her apartment five months later of an apparent suicide. There were others, too, all over the course of the last two years, all people directly or loosely connected with the Tyler Administration and the investigation into the former President’s death. “These people are like bloodhounds on the scent,” Scott had said. “They can’t prove you had anything to do with these deaths, but they’ve made the connection. They realize somebody is behind them, maybe more than one person. If they connect you in any way—”
That was all it had taken. Clark had to get to the source. To the man who was the closest thing to former President Jeffrey Tyler: Donald Barker. The only problem was Barker was in Federal custody at an undisclosed location, and only President Augustus Livingston and a close circle of cabinet members and advisors had direct knowledge of it.
That was why Clark had come here. To use Tony Genova as a bargaining chip. The ex-wise guy was important to the Livingston Administration; even Scott Baker couldn’t get information on why Livingston had made such a sweet deal with the guy.
Clark’s plan with Livingston was simple: give me what I want or I not only expose Tony Genova and make you look bad to the entire country, I can have your illegitimate grandchild killed.
Clark had found out about Livingston’s son through Scott Baker’s efforts. He learned Livingston had recently made amends with him. During his widespread popularity in the months leading to his ascension to the presidency, Livingston’s son and his new family had come under a brief flurry of media attention. Livingston had quickly put them under Secret Service protection where they remained, to this day.
Thanks to Clark’s connections, he knew the man’s habits, as well as the daily routine of his wife and child.
He could have the kid killed easily. He could furnish Livingston with the proof. In fact, the proof was already sitting at the bottom of a barely used coat closet in the man’s house. Hidden beneath a pile of blankets and old clothes was a small box containing enough C-4 to take out the entire house. The trigger was voice-activated. Clark had installed a secondary, non-lethal explosive device in the man’s master bedroom that he would use to demonstrate he wasn’t fooling around. Livingston would have ten minutes to give Clark the access he needed to Donald Barker. If Clark did not have visual and confirmation that Barker was being transported to a less secure location, the C-4 would be detonated.