Riptide

the governor of New York? I'm not getting something
    here. Oh my God, Matlock--you're the Rebecca Matlock, the
    young woman who escaped the police and went into hiding?"
    "Yes, sir, I am."
    Andrew Bushman sat forward, his drink forgotten. "All right,
    Thomas, tell me everything, even stuff that Gaylan doesn't know. I
    need to have a leg up on him somewhere."
    "Krimakov wanted to flush me out. Somehow he found out
    that I have a daughter--Becca. We don't know how he found out
    about her, but it appears that he did and he came after her. That's
    why he's been terrorizing her, that's why he kicked her out of his
    car in front of One Police Plaza in New York."
    "To get you out in the open."
    "Yes, that's it exactly. It's not so complicated when you cut right
    to the chase. He wants to kill me and he wants to kill my daughter.
    All the rest is window dressing, it's drama, giving him the spotlight,
    showing the world how brilliant he is, how he's the one in
    control here." And Thomas thought, He can't kill Allison because she's
    dead already, and I wasn't there with her.
    It was Adam who ended things, saying, "So that's it, gentlemen.
    We found out that Krimakov was cremated, thus leaving doubt that
    it was indeed he who was killed. However, the man who kidnapped
    Ms. Matlock whispered in her ear before he shot a drug
    into her--"
    Becca interrupted. " 'Say hello to your daddy.' "
    So now there's simply no doubt," Thomas said. "The man cremated
    wasn't Krimakov."
    Gaylan said,"We've been spending hundreds of hours on this because
    there was the possibility that it could be Vasili Krimakov. Now
    that we know it's him, you need to stick your oar in, Andrew. Get a those talented people of yours involved in finding this maniac."

"I've got a man trying to track down an apartment we understand
    Krimakov owns somewhere in Crete, in addition to his
    house. When we find it, we want agents to go over it."
    Gaylan nodded. "As soon as we know, I've got a woman in
    Athens who can fly down and check it out for us. She's good. She's
    also got contacts among the local Greek cops. She won't get any
    problems from them."
    "It's Dillon Savich who's finding the apartment," Thomas said.
    Andrew Bushman raised an eyebrow. "Why am I not surprised?
    Savich is one of the best. I gather you're telling me now so that I
    can cool down before I bust his balls?"
    "That's right," Thomas said. "I knew Savich's father, Buck. I
    asked the son for help. He and Sherlock have been in the thick of
    things."
    Andrew Bushman sighed and took the last sip of his martini.
    "All right. Now, I've got lots of stuff to do, meetings to hold,
    people to assign to get this off and running. What about the
    NYPD?"
    Thomas said, "Hell, why not tell the world? Have Hawley in
    New York interface with the local cops."
    Bushman said, "Hawley is good, very good. He's tough and he
    deals well with the locals. Talk about bigfoot. He's a Mack truck
    when he needs to be. All right, gentlemen, we now tell the world."
    "Well, then--" Gaylan Woodhouse broke off as his stomach
    growled. "We forgot to order lunch. I want a hamburger, lots of
    red meat, something my wife, bless her heart, doesn't allow."
    Andrew said even as he was reading the menu, "I want everything
    to clear through the FBI before it goes to the media. We want
    our spin on things."
    "For sure," Becca said.

Chapter 22

    The black government car moved smoothly onto the Beltway. It
    was still too early for rush-hour traffic to gnarl things to the
    screaming point. It didn't help, though, that the temperature "was
    hovering at about ninety degrees. Inside the big car it was thankfully
    very cool. Their driver had said nothing at all since picking
    them up at The Eagle Has Landed. There was still no sign of the
    media. So far so good, Thomas had said. There would be a media
    release soon now.
    Adam was humming as he flipped off his cell phone. "Thomas,
    the photo you asked Gaylan Woodhouse to dig out for you is coming
    over right away. He's sorry that he couldn't immediately put his
    finger on it."
    Thomas turned from studying his daughter's profile to look at
    Adam. "I'm glad they finally located it. I was afraid I would have to
    use an artist and re-create him."
    Adam said to Becca,"It's a photo of Krimakov from over twenty
    years ago. We'll age it and both can go to the media to plaster
    everywhere."
    "Sir,"Becca said, "are you really a CIA director?"
    "That's not my title. I just used it because it would be familiar