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had, of course, been apprised of the contents of the last meeting but was keen to go over the reasons for their current course of action one more time.
                'Four witnesses in the upcoming Peroza trial could not be persuaded to retract their statements', Burr said. 'Surprising I know; we don't usually have too much trouble in this area. They are due to testify in two weeks. We have stalled this process as long as we can, they should have testified almost six weeks ago. As we know, their testimonies will no doubt result in the conviction of Manuel Peroza who we used last year to convert five million of the Animi's laundered capital into untraceable real estate in Los Feliz'.
                'Why go after the witnesses?' Brittles asked, 'Why not just go after Peroza? Seems to me if there is no Peroza, there is no problem'.
                'Manuel Peroza is the cousin of one of our most influential backers and they have called in their marker', Burr stated. 'His elimination was not, and is not, an option. I can say without any reservation at all that we do not want to make an enemy out of this particular backer. That of course, left us the only choice of ensuring that the witnesses at the trial do not testify. And that in turn left us with the problem that we are dealing with today. Four witnesses disappearing at the same time are a problem – and one that would not come without its own substantial investigation. We needed to ensure that we knew exactly where whoever was carrying out these actions was going to be once the actions were completed. We can't run the risk of employing anyone to carry out these actions then being picked up somewhere down the line on an unrelated charge and having us as leverage to plead out a lesser charge. Our plan was for Caldwell, The Chemist's real name by the way, to be released, eliminate the four witnesses, then be returned to San Quentin, no questions asked'.
                McCrane took the floor. ‘Caldwell was placed in a safe house with two guards who thought they were safeguarding a witness to a mafia hit. To cut a long story short, both of the guards were killed – nastily I might add – and Caldwell escaped then completely disappeared; we looked of course but Caldwell became invisible. We, well both Jameson and I, assumed that Caldwell fled the state, maybe even the country. We tried our usual sources, pulled in several favours but nothing. And we didn’t hear anything until now.’
                ‘What about the usual means of tracking?’ Farrington wanted to know. ‘I assume that we took the usual precautions?’
                'Tracking?' Conway interjected. 'What do you mean tracking?'
                'We have only had cause to use this process twice before', Farrington stated. 'Before your time here actually, Senator. On both occasions we took the precaution of injecting a tracking device into the toe of our subjects so we could keep track of them and know exactly where they were if a situation like this ever arose'.
                ‘Of course we did’, McCrane stated indignantly, as if he would fail to implement such an important procedure! ‘The day after the guards were killed, I received this, mailed directly to my office, absolutely goddamn untraceable’. McCrane reached into his briefcase and pulled out a box. Setting it on the table, he gestured to Jameson Burr to open it.
                ‘It’s been in a storage facility all this time’, McCrane added, and as Burr opened the box, there was an audible sharp intake of breath around the room.
                ‘Jesus Christ’, Cyprian Hague was the first to speak, ‘Caldwell cut off the fucking toe you injected the tracker into’.
                ‘There is one other thing,’ McCrane continued. ‘And this is not a matter of public record’. He reached once more into the briefcase and pulled out a single