Detective Danny Cavanaugh 01 - The Brink

could escape, Sergeant,” Shilling answered. “He dropped them in the Neptune water fountain just outside the library. The officer chasing him had to rescue them instead of pursuing him.”
    The president gave Danny a knowing look. “You’re thinking that he wanted to drop them all along, that he wanted to show us what his cronies at Monticello had taken.”
    “The thought had crossed my mind, yes sir,” Danny replied. “How did he get caught with the documents in the first place?”
    “A library police officer saw him holding something inside his coat. When he tried stopping him, the thief ran.”
    “Like I said, the thief goes to all that trouble and then makes a rookie mistake like that? No way. It was on purpose.”
    “But why?” Simon asked both of them.
    Danny eyed both men. “At his news conference, King Edward’s threat about Prime Minister Fantroy’s death was squarely aimed in our direction. Anyone have a vested interest in Great Britain and the United States going to war?”
    “Almost every terrorist on the planet would love to see that happen, Sergeant,” the president replied. “I spoke to the king and he admitted his comments were fueled by heavy emotions.”
    Danny nodded. “Let’s just focus on finding the thieves then. Any evidence from the Monticello break-in?”
    “Nothing,” Simon responded. “No fingerprints or any other hard evidence. They don’t even have cameras there.”
    “We’ve been over every piece of evidence we have ad nauseum, Sergeant,” the president added. “You’re welcome to look at the library tapes and the forensic reports all you like. Another pair of eyes may help.”
    “Who all knows that these documents exist, sir?” Danny asked the president.
    President Butcher motioned to Simon and then himself. “The two of us, a handful of my closest advisers, a National Archives expert, a couple constitution experts, and now the two of you. Everyone’s under a gag order.”
    “Except whatever group is responsible for bringing them back to life,” Simon added.
    The president gave him a look. “Yeah, those bastards, too.”
    Danny sighed. It just didn’t make any sense. But did anything in the world make much sense anymore? Danny needed to only look at his own situation to answer that question.
    Sydney piped up again. She clutched Article Eight and waved it around like it was nothing more than a flyer shoved underneath her windshield wiper. “But you don’t have to abide by this article. Can’t you just convene an emergency session of Congress to get it deleted or amended?”
    Simon Shilling vaulted to her, snatching the article from her with a venomous look. “Careful, Ms. Dumas. It might not mean much to you, but this is a priceless document.”
    Sydney paid almost no attention to Shilling. She waited for the president to answer her.
    “I could go to Congress with this and make it public, but there are several reasons why I’m not. While we’ve had it examined by experts and those experts believe that it is real, we have yet to put it through a complete battery of tests.”
    “So why don’t you?”
    The president motioned to the documents as Shilling carefully laid them out on the table. “Because, Ms. Dumas, there are already enough people that know they exist. More testing means more people in the mix and we don’t want this information getting out just yet. But it really doesn’t matter whether these are legal documents created by the Founding Fathers or counterfeit scraps of parchment. Whoever stole a copy from Monticello and tried to steal another copy from the library thinks that Article Eight is a way to dissolve the United States of America. We don’t want to let them know that we are reacting to it. That could make them advance their timetable for whatever they’re planning. Besides, even if I convened, to use your words, an emergency session of Congress, we would still need at the very least a two-thirds vote from Congress to nullify or even amend a Constitution article. I could name members of Congress on both hands who would want to conduct independent investigations that would take months to complete. Others would no doubt scream to convene a constitutional convention, which would take months to even arrange. Whatever is about to happen would be long over by then. Believe me, secrecy about Article Eight is the best policy for now.”
    Danny turned to Sydney. “You know what I’m going to say.”
    “That the Bilderbergers