Capitol Punishment (An Art Jefferson Thriller Book 3) by Ryne Douglas Pearson

see,” Jones quipped. “Less than an hour ago.”
    “Did...what’s his name?”
    “Donovan,” Jones prompted. “No, he didn’t know this. But he also didn’t have any authorization to say what he did.”
    Bud tossed pages haphazardly onto his desk. “Dammit, Gordy! He goes on national TV and tells everybody things are under control, and then this!”
    “I know, Bud.”
    Bud picked up the last page and read the important section of the fax once more. “This is confirmed?”
    “By the Army commander on-scene. He rammed this through channels and into the Pentagon at light speed to get it here.”
    “Christ!” Bud exclaimed. “What’s Drew have out there—a four-star?”
    “A young buck captain,” Jones replied. Secretary of Defense Andrew Meyerson was also sufficiently impressed with the young officer’s tenacity, the FBI director knew from the call the secretary had made to pass the info along.
    “That takes balls,” Bud said. He thought again of the press briefing just completed. “I hope you’re going to bite a big chunk out of Donovan’s ass.”
    “I will. Don’t worry. He’s only been running the show out there for a while, but he knows better than to give everybody the safe signal on something like this before checking with me first. No excuse at all.”
    So a SAC was going to get the riot act read to him in a major way. As necessary as that was, it still wouldn’t undo the damage already done. “So what’s the plan now?”
    “Silence,” Jones said.
    “This may not be the best time to close our mouths, Gordy. Think of how the press will play it. FBI flubs first by telling the public all is A-OK, then they hide their mistake when it’s discovered. It doesn’t look good.”
    “I’m not concerned with appearances right now, Bud. That was the mistake Donovan made. He jumped the gun because he wanted this wrapped up. I’ve seen it before.” And Jones had suspected the new SAC in L.A. might live up to those low standards. But the senior senator from a state that possessed forty-three electoral votes liked the smoothness of Donovan, and certain things in the political arena had to be accepted with bared teeth disguised as a smile. “I don’t want this out because it might hamper what my people are going to have to do. L.A. is going to have to figure out more than just ‘who’ and ‘why’ now. We have to add ‘where’ to that list The press is going to find out at some point in any case. I just don’t want it to hamper an investigation. Hey, I’ll stand up to the plate afterwards and say that we fucked up royally. Until then, I don’t need reporters hounding me or my agents about a bad situation gone worse.”
    Jones did make his point with conviction. Bud was still uneasy about it, but he was not the number-two cop in the land. “You know what’s best, Gordy. So what is your read on this?”
    “I won’t know until I get something from L.A.”
    “When?”
    “Tonight I’m going to talk to Donovan after we’re done. I want his assistant to oversee this. Lou Hidalgo is his name. You know he lost a son in what happened? A fireman.”
    “Yeah, I read that in the Post . Is he going to be up to it?”
    “Lou is tough. But he will just be oversight. There are a couple agents already on the investigation working the Allen aspect of things. I’m sure Lou will use them as lead.”
    “I know from experience you have good people out there,” Bud said. “This Allen fellow had some pretty nasty affiliations, didn’t he?”
    “Aryan Brotherhood. But they operate pretty much behind bars, and he’s been out and on the run for quite a while. Like I said, I’ll know more later.”
    “Fair enough,” Bud said, knowing some things had to wait. But some things couldn’t. “Gordy, to be safe I’m going to have to let some people in on this.”
    “I understand. Just be particular.”
    “You know it,” Bud assured the director, then hung up. A sandwich was on his desk, calling his