Chapter 41

"Mr. President, Steve Grosse is here."

"Thank you Sarah. Please send him right in."

Jack and I had spent an hour tearing apart everything I thought I knew about Ken Stanton. Each time I convinced myself I was being paranoid, Jack pulled some slight memory out of me that turned me back around.

His strongest argument was the one that went, "How sure were you that Jason couldn't have been a part of the attempts on you and Charles?"

Holy crap ... Ken???

"You need to call the auditors. Have them crawl up his butt and keep digging till they see daylight. I want to know everything. Have them look for anything that connects him to Jason or Cutler. I can't see it, but I am tempted to believe it."

Steve walked in and greeted Jack. I explained that I had a huge problem, and the he and Jack were the only ones I was able to tell without getting laughed at, or killed. True to his personality, when I mentioned killed, he sat up straighter and looked at the door.

"Here's the problem..." Jack and I briefed him for over thirty minutes. He sat like a stone throughout and never so much as coughed. His attention was focused one hundred percent on the problem, and I knew the instant he converted to seeing it our way.

"Mr. President – I know, John - there's no precedent for this. We have no roadmap for how to proceed or what to do. My responsibility is to keep you safe. I will kill the Vice President if I have to. He will not harm you, and now that I know what you know, I will be all over this, but carefully and quietly."

"Steve, I called in every member of my detail. Sarah arranged for them to be separated until you and Jack can question each one individually, compare notes, look into details, and start to find the rotten ones. They are waiting, and I don't really care how long they wait. What I care about is you having all the time in the world to pick their stories apart and look at them from all sides.

Jack spoke up. "John has asked me to conduct a top down forensic audit of Ken Stanton, and those close to him. Our people work with some of the best hackers in the world. We will know much more about Stanton, when they are done, than he knows about himself, but that's just the start. Our audit will spread out to investigate EVERYONE that has even casual contact with him, and everyone they have significant contact with.

"The audit will include exhaustive analysis of their cell phone records, purchases of throw away phones, calls from government offices, and who they meet, where they eat, and what they spend money on. I intend to have enough information when we're done, that Ken Stanton will resign and leave the country. After that I intend to share that info with Val Buena, so he knows who cut him down."

I could see Steve nodding in agreement, then he said, "We can't do the same thing, John. Treasury would leak it to the Vice President instantly, and that might trigger another attempt on your life, which could come from within the Secret Service. There's no telling how deep Stanton's roots go, and who is loyal to him instead of the country."

We talked about that and I made a snap decision based on Steve's concerns. Picking up the phone beside the table I said, "Sarah get me Greg Fromeier. Have him call me here immediately."

It didn't take long and my phone rang. "Mr. President, your chief counsel is on line one."

"Greg. I need to notify the Speaker and Minority Leader of the House, and the Majority Leader of the Senate, along with the Minority Leaders that I am appointing Steve Grosse to Director of the Secret Service, and nominating Shane Victorello, the current Director of Intelligence at the FBI, to Secretary of the Treasury. I have also appointed Anderson Little as Head of the Federal Marshalls Service. Can you get the proper documentation together in time for breakfast?"

"Of course, Mr. President. Everything will be with your briefing bag in the morning." He rang off, and I said to Steve. "It will take some time to get a hearing scheduled, but that's Ok, because you need to be totally all in on my safety. As soon as Ken figures out I am cutting his people off from me, he might feel he has to act."

Jack clearly wanted the floor. "John is right, but you have to cut them off from contact with him right now. It makes no difference whether they are suspected of a crime. The President's safety always trumps protocol and evidence. When Kennedy was killed, not a single member of his detail, or those close to the director were ever allowed anywhere near the White House or President Johnson, again.

"That has to happen here and now. There's historical precedent, so you can just say that you are following the steps taken by those in charge after the JFK shooting. It will be nearly impossible to argue with your decision. But – anyone who does argue becomes suspect number one."

Rick called and asked if I was too busy to see him, and I was thrilled to find him still at Camp David. We spent another half hour briefing him in and getting his ideas.

"Mr. President, now that you have taken the step of announcing to the house and senate your choices for Sec Treas, Director of the Secret Service, and a new Director of the Federal Marshalls, they begin their job immediately, pending confirmation."

Turning to Steve, he said, "You are the new Director of the Secret Service, technically, only the Acting Director until the hearings. I will notify Treasury, and Secret Service, as well as FBI of the new appointments, then notify Victorello and Little of their appointments. While they are basking in the glow of the moment, I will ask them to come in for a face-to-face briefing to get things off on the right foot, right now.

"I suggest the new Secret Service Director reassign every single member of the President's detail to out of town postings, effective tomorrow morning. Let the news percolate through channels that everybody that 'allowed' the President and his family die is considered tainted, and will have to work their way into good graces with the Director before any consideration of reappointment to critical positions would be possible. It wouldn't hurt to casually comment that the chances of any of them living to see the day they are back in the inner fold is about the same as attending a snow ball fight in Hell. That'll cause a rash of convenient retirements.