Patricia looked at Steve and shrugged her shoulders.
As they approached the Hudson River, the driver made a hard right turn, into the underground garage of a high-rise building. He brought the car to a screeching halt by the elevator. One agent got out of the car and hit the call button for the elevator. When it arrived, he locked it in position, ordered Patricia and Steve from the car, and into the elevator. They brought them both up and into a fourth floor apartment, where they closed and triple barred the door. From the outside it may have looked like in normal apartment, however, from the inside, it was an armed camp. It took up one third of the entire fourth floor. There were concrete barriers and two large safe rooms, one on each side of the apartment. It had a commercial kitchen, with two huge refrigerators, a grill, and an oven that could fit three turkeys in it. The entire set up looked like it could cook for 30 to 40 people at one time.
They separated Steve and Patricia, so they could interrogate both of them individually. After 15 minutes, they realized the meeting was completely accidental. Blown operations normally happened this way.
In Washington, the Director of the FBI was in the daily presidential briefing, when one of his staff members came in, and handed him an urgent message. He did not realize he verbalized it, when he said, "Fuck."
The president and those around the table, who knew the calm and cool director of the FBI, for many years, turned their heads toward him and laughed.
The president was not going to let Michael off the hook, because it had been a long time since he had something he could razz him on. "Michael, would you like to let us in on your little word problem?"
"Mister President, it is a female problem."
"Are you having an affair, Michael, or would you like to explain that answer."
"Mister President, would you the awful truth, or a gory lie"
"Somehow, Michael, I think the real story is going to be more fascinating than the lie to us this morning."
"Approximately 7 weeks ago, a 22-year-old woman walked in to our building. She handed us material that could help us bring down the five New York crime families. Her only request was that she be allowed to take down the Valentino family by herself. The supervisor she was speaking to said no, because she had no law enforcement experience or training. She stood up, and before she left said, "I am going to shut down all your computers tomorrow at noon. Goodbye." The supervisor laughed at her, because he thought it was not possible for anyone to do that to our computers. She gave him a card with her cell phone number on it. She said the only way to have the computers turned back on, was for me personally to call her, and beg her to turn them back on. The supervisor called the head of our computer security area. He told him about the threat to our computer system, and he was laughed off the phone. The next day, at 11:55 AM this young woman called the supervisor to make sure he had her card available. He said he did. She said, into two minutes, the building would go dark. Mister President, for the first time in FBI history, at 12 PM exactly our computers, our building, and our backups at Fort Meade went off-line for no apparent reason. All of our systems went out at the same exact moment. There was no rational cause for it. Our engineers could not find a reason. The supervisor called me and told me about the previous day's threat, and gave me Patricia's phone number. I called her immediately and told her in no uncertain terms to put our computers back on line. She joked with me for a few minutes, stating that our computers could not possibly be off-line, because it was impossible to do. I had to beg her to put them back on line, because our nationwide police system could not function without them. She taped me offering her complete immunity against state, federal, local, and municipal crimes, and told me in 30 seconds the computers would be back online. Mister President, in 30 seconds everything was back to normal. I hit the panic button, and ordered the building sealed because I did not want this woman to get out of our building after she told me she was in our cafeteria. I went down to the cafeteria and talked with her and her attorney, who I know very well, about what she did, and how she did it. I was so impressed with her; I hid her from the CIA, Homeland Security, and the NSA, when they showed up at my building to try and take her from me. As she was getting ready to leave, she asked if she could use our main frame. I gave her permission to do it at any time she wanted. She said she wanted to use it that day to give the Chinese a cold. When I asked her what she meant, she replied that she wanted to turn off every computer in China. Mister President, she was not kidding. Her program can do it. I got out of it gracefully, by saying that we did not do that stuff out of our building. I told her it was the Treasury Departments job to do it. She said, "Okay, I will go over there tomorrow and introduce myself. I will turn all of their computers off from there. I only wished she was joking, but in my heart I knew she was not."
She wormed her way into the Valentino crime family somehow, and ingratiated herself to both the Don and his son, Stephano. The Don liked her so much that he had her help him find a man that turned out to be Patricia's father. She knew this, before the actual event. She warned her father to be prepared to move and he did right after the event. She helped lead us to their satellite tracking facility in the Florida Everglades, something we were unable to find before. She did this by having herself injected with an extremely high dosage of a radioactive isotope. After she successfully did what Don Valentino needed her to do, she became ill with radioactive poisoning and had to be rushed to a Miami hospital. Her doctor did not know this, but I had a team waiting for her. She barely survived. This morning, quite by accident, a fellow student of hers from Amherst saw her in downtown New York. He crossed the Street and yelled, "We all thought you had died in the blast at school." Two of the Don's people were following her as a protection detail. When they realized she was our mole, one of them went to make a phone call, and the other drew her pistol to kill her. One of my men shot the woman with the gun, and another stopped the woman before she could make a phone call. This young woman will not allow us to keep her cooped up. She is so hardheaded that logic does not work on her. She will still want to take down the family by herself. I cannot put her in jail because she has done nothing illegal. I have no idea what I am going to do with her, Mister President. She is going to cause me the heart attack my two daughters have been trying to give me for the past 16 years. I do not want to lose that girl, I would never forgive myself.
The president looked around the room and asked for suggestions. The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff suggested inducting her into the military, because we were at war. The head of the NSA said to give her to him. He would let her play with the Cray 4 computer, when things were slow.
Michael Free said, "Do not do that. It would cause the end of civilization as we know it." The president laughed at him
"Michael," the president said, "I am declaring that girl a 'National Treasure. I want her delivered to Fort Killian, Texas, as soon as possible, and in chains, if necessary. Put a tank battalion around her and protect her at all costs. Give her access to any computer she wants, and if she wants to walk around the perimeter of the base, let her. However, she is not allowed to step 1 inch off of it. If she wants to take any playmates with her, she can; just get her out of here and safe. Go Michael, do it now."
"Thank you, Mister President; I am on my way to New York."
Patricia was thinking the same thing. They are going to put me in a hole in the ground. They will never let me free again. I will not let that happen. Maybe I should get sick again, and escape from the hospital. She liked that idea, but that would only be step one. She needed to get out of New York and the surrounding area; otherwise she would still be trapped like a rat. She needed an airplane. She had the money to rent one, but with the FBI and the mob looking for her to do something like that. Her chances of success were minimal. She needed outside help, and there was one person, on the outside that could help her; her dad.
She opened her computer and went to her website and typed in a question, "Papa, I you are there, I need help. I am in trouble. My cover was blown this morning. Contact me as soon as you can."
"William was online. He was showing his blushing bride the pictures of Laura and Patricia on the ranch in Glen Falls, as part of the preparation for her to have someplace to go, if something were to happen to him. When the icon popped up in the corner of his screen, he clicked on it, and saw the message. He replied immediately.
"Daughter, I am here. Do you have any ideas on how would you like me to handle things, or would you like me to set it up?"
"Papa, they are holding me in a fortress like building. An army could not get me out of here. I am going to get sick, and they are going to have to take me to the nearest hospital. We are close to the Hudson River, between 9th and 10
th
Ave. The Greater New York Hospital is at 75 Ninth Avenue. I plan to escape from that hospital. However, I do not know what to do from there. The feds will try to stop me. If the Valentino's find out I am there, the Don will try to kill me. I have to get out of town as quickly as possible; that means an airplane. I have the money for that, thanks to you, but if I try to rent an aircraft, everyone will know it. Do you have any ideas?"
Daughter, I have many ideas. However, I must tell you something first. Please do not be angry with me. I was married a few days ago to a lovely young woman a few years older than yourself. I love her dearly, as I loved your mother. Her memory will always be with me, however, I could not live in the past forever. I hope you understand.
"Papa, I am happy for you. I believe mom would be also. She knew if you could have had the opportunity to be with her, you would have been there. It was never to be. I hope the both of you have a long and happy marriage."
"Thank you very much for your kind words, Patricia. Jemma and I look forward to seeing you very soon. This is my idea, and I believe it will work to your advantage. I have found your hospital on the web. It is very close to 16
th
Street. Run as fast as you can, West on 16
th
