Detective Danny Cavanaugh 01 - The Brink

a few steps away from the president’s desk. Not knowing where to go, he just stood as still as he could and tried to find something to say.
    The president finally looked up and laughed. “I’ve used that one a half dozen times now, and no one’s ever challenged me on it.”
    “It’s hard to challenge the president of the United States, sir.”
    The president nodded with a distant look in his eye. “I’m sure Ms. Dumas would if she was here.”
    “About that sir, where is Sydney? They separated us as soon as you left.”
    “I assume that’s the Secret Service’s standard operating procedure. You can rest assured that she’s fine. My administration doesn’t condone waterboarding, especially not here.” The president stood and switched to the guest chair on the far side of his desk. He motioned for Danny to sit in his own chair. “Why don’t you take a load off?”
    Danny looked down at the actual, physical most powerful seat in the world— the catbird seat. “Oh no, sir, I couldn’t.”
    “Come on, Sergeant. It’ll be your only chance, for I’m sure that you’re no politician. You’re too honest a man for that line of work.”
    It’s hard to challenge the president of the United States. Danny accepted his host’s offer and took a seat. He eased into the chair timidly, as if it was wired to explode at any moment. Once he let his full weight down, he took a deep breath and relaxed. His position behind the desk in the Oval Office gave him a shot of confidence.
    “Sir, about the Bilderbergers, we never really got your thoughts on them.”
    The president sighed and stared at Danny for a long moment. “If you’re asking do I know of their existence, then the answer is yes. They are real, and they are dangerous.”
    Danny didn’t know how to ask the next question. Fortunately, President Butcher seemed to read his thoughts. “You’re wondering if I’m a member?”
    “The question did come up, sir.”
    “They courted me when I became senator of Pennsylvania. I guess they thought I was someone special, because I was the ranking member on the Senate Intelligence Committee. I went to a meeting of theirs in Istanbul. Guests are given a dog and pony show, but any halfway intelligent person could read between the lines. They want to exterminate whole populations of people. They’re even involved with eugenics. That’s the—”
    “Engineering of superior human beings,” Danny interrupted. “Sydney told me, sir.”
    “It’s like Hitler and the Nazis all over again, but instead of tanks and propaganda, they are using complex economic theorems and clandestine foreign policies. I politely turned them down.”
    “So you believe Sydney’s story? About their agenda to take over the world?”
    The president nodded. “Although the PC term is creating a one-world government.”
    “Is that what you got pulled away for, sir?”
    “Could be our Bilderberger friends.” A wave of dread rolled across the president’s face. “We found a third dirty bomb.”
    The words plummeted into Danny’s core. “Where?”
    The president shuffled through his papers. He plucked out a photo and placed it on the desk. Danny recognized the building, which had an uncanny resemblance to the White House.
    “That’s the Greenbrier Hotel.”
    “You’ve stayed there?”
    “My parents did, a long time ago.”
    “CEOS, the Congressional Emergency Operations Shelter, is there.”
    The memory of his parents telling him about a strange tour they took during their stay at the hotel poured into the forefront of Danny’s mind. “It’s a bunker, underneath the hotel, right?”
    “Most of it’s underneath the eighteenth hole, yes.”
    “Mr. President, how can it be an emergency shelter? It’s open to the public. My parents took a tour of it.”
    “After 9/11, the previous administration realized that most of our emergency operations facilities had blown covers, including Mt. Weather in northern Virginia, Area R just outside of Camp David, and the Greenbrier. So, the powers that be at the time decided why not use one that the public already knows about. CEOS is located in a section of the bunker that’s still off-limits.”
    Danny huffed. “Hidden in plain sight. Smart.”
    “The Greenbrier is the safest and strongest of them all. Not to mention it has a hell of a golf course.”
    “That’s where the bomb was found?”
    “Not inside CEOS.” The president pulled another photo from the papers and laid it on the