Title: Extortion
Author: A. Karswyll
Summary: Extortion is a dangerous business under any circumstances. But never more so when one's target is presidential adviser Major General J. O'Neill. [Celebrating Jack's Birthday on 20 October.]
Rating: M Season: Season 9 Complete: Yes Date: 16-October-2010 Word Count: 7,679
Posting schedule: chapter one on 20 October, chapter two on 21 October, chapter three on 22 October, chapter four on 23 October, and chapter five on 24 October.

Chapter 1

The six young men in their early twenties, each a privilege scion of the world's wealthiest multibillionaires, lounged about in the seclusion of their private room in the equally private club that catered to young men of their stature.

While all were sharing a bottle of fifty-year-old whisky, two indulged themselves in a friendly game of pool, two were observing the pool game, and the remaining two read through a military dossier the other four had already read.

Harvey Gold III looked up from chalking his pool cue when Marcus Wilson made a sound in the back of his throat and leaned back in his chair, having finished with the last page of the folder. James McAllister continued reading the papers in his hand.

"Well, what do you think?" Harvey inquired.

Marcus picked up his glass of whisky, swished it around, and thought about the military file he had just read. A file about an officer who was apparently prime desk material judging from the amount of times he had been brought back into the fold after his deactivations as a result of Post-Traumatic Stress Syndrome which clearly demonstrated he was unable to cope with combat stress the few times he had been in the field. Usually he was shuffled around various bases as liaison or instructor but had spent the last decade or so sitting comfortable underneath a thousand feet of rock working with NORAD.

"What about him?" Marcus asked lazily.

"That's what I asked too," Donald Mackay VI, Harvey's pool opponent, chimed in. Colton Robertson and Lucas Sharpe nodded their agreement with Donald's statement.

"Come on guys, can't you see the potential?" Harvey cajoled.

"What potential?" James inquired as he finished his reading. "The guy is an asset behind the desk but can't cut it in the field."

"Exactly," Harvey exclaimed as he pointed his cue at James. He sighed at the five blank faces that looked back at him. "You guys have no imagination. Just think, what is his current position?"

James checked the file again and read off, "Presidential advisor."

"For what?" Colton inquired.

"Who cares?" Harvey waved Colton's question away. "The point is he's a newly arrived general here that doesn't know the ropes and might be open to a little… persuasion, because clearly he can't handle stress."

Marcus shifted his weight forward as he began to look interested, and he was not the only one.

"What sort of persuasion are you thinking of applying?" Donald asked with a smirk while he leaned against the pool table.

"Well, after finding the file Dad left out, I did a little more digging. It seems that the guy, after getting himself a star, got himself hitched to a former subordinate who is much, much younger than himself."

The five young men made sounds of interest but it was Lucas who asked a question first: "Is she hot?"

"She is smoking," Harvey answered as he thought of the pictures of the stunning blue-eyed blonde bombshell his investigator had returned to him. "And it seems that she just got herself a new and equally young CO back in their old home state of Colorado while her loving husband is here in Washington."

Six smirks curled the lips of the men as they thought about the possibilities the situation presented to opportunistic individuals such as themselves.

"You think that is the right pressure to apply?" James asked.

Harvey nodded his head. "So we apply a little pressure in the form of some naughty photos that would otherwise go to the press that even if she's just his latest squeeze, would attract too much attention that would lose him his cushy job advising the prez, so the guy has to cave and do a few favours for us."

"Well then," Marcus raised his whisky glass, "let's get on it. To Major General J. O'Neill and all that he's going to deliver to us."

"To Major General J. O'Neill," the five other men chorused as they raised their glasses in agreement, certain of their imminent success.

. . .

Harvey and Donald looked distastefully at their unitary surroundings but endured it because of the richness this endeavour would reap for them. It had taken calling in a surprising number of favours to arrange a meeting with Hayes's newest military advisor but when O'Neill was theirs, those favours would hardly be missed.

As the two young men were ushered by General O'Neill's aid into an equally unitary office, the grey haired man with a face softened by weight seated behind the desk looked up at them over the rims of his reading glasses. "Misters Mackay and Gold?"

"Harvey Gold," Harvey said as he put himself slightly forward before gesturing to Donald, "Donald Mackay."

The old man put the pages he had been reading down and watched as the two young men in their early twenties assuredly took seats in the chairs in front of his desk without being invited to. "I have been led to believe you have some… interesting information you would like to share with me?"

Harvey and Donald smiled at the old general, both fighting to keep the smiles from becoming smirks—for now.

"We do have some information we would like to share with you," Donald said urbanely, "and believe upon seeing it you will be most helpfully."

The old man's scarred left eyebrow cocked quizzically at them, looking a touch wary at their poorly concealed predatory natures as Harvey set the briefcase he was carrying onto his lap and opened it.

With deliberate movements he unlocked the briefcase, withdrew a five by seven manila coloured envelope, secured the briefcase again, and then placed the envelope on the desk between themselves and the general.

Harvey withdrew his hand and waited until, with clear reluctance, the general reached forward and picked up the envelope.

"How do you believe I would be helpful?" O'Neill asked as his fingers slid open the envelope's flap and slipped in to grasp the small collection of five by seven photographs within. Photographs that were face down so that all he saw as he drew them out was the white backs.

Harvey and Donald waited until O'Neill turned the photographs over and the general's breath caught in a strangled gasp before speaking.

Harvey no longer attempted to conceal his smirk as he regally surveyed his caught prey. He took great pleasure in the old man's white complexion and the tremor in O'Neill's hands as he shuffled through the graphic sexual photographs he held.

"We would be very regretful if anything was to impugn upon your—or the president's—reputation. The president I am very sure would be very regretful as well," Harvey's voice oozed false sincerity.

O'Neill didn't look up as his heart screamed denial at the photographs his eyes were seeing and the timestamp in the right corners. Intense images of his second wife engaged in graphic sex with another man. A man who was known to him and significantly younger than himself.

"It would be most unfortunate for your wife as well if those were to get out, wouldn't they sir?" Donald said O'Neill's title insolently.

"Wh-what do you want?" O'Neill asked, his posture defeated and voice shaken, as he finally looked up at Harvey and Donald.

Harvey smiled contemptuously. "Want General O'Neill? Of course we want nothing more than to ensure the good name of yourself and the president. Just think of the scandal if the negatives were to fall into far more unscrupulous hands than ours."

"You have the negatives?" O'Neill pleaded.

"I am certain something can be arranged for them," Harvey said as he stood. "But this has been such a shock to you, why don't you take the weekend to think it over?"