This was obviously a lie, but Nick was hoping that the grain of truth in it would be convincing enough. While button two wasn’t a distress signal, it did give the read of the fob’s location when pressed. That was how the reindeer would make it back to Santa when he held down the button. Jack had also said that it didn’t give off the GPS coordinates because the GPS somehow interfered with the cloaking device. You couldn’t be cloaked and call for the sleigh. If you pressed and held the button, the cloak would shut off for ten seconds to show command back at the North Pole where Santa was.
“Why doesn’t it always give off the GPS coordinates?” Nasir said, still holding his gun on Brooke.
Nick would have asked the same question. Nick gave the explanation about the cloak interference, leaving out the part about it sending the reindeer back.
Nasir pulled down his gun and put it away. “We must leave now. You two, take the woman. You know what to do with her. Santa, you’re coming with me. I’m excited to see where I’ll be spending most of my time from now on.”
Nick knew he meant the North Pole. A terrorist’s dream location. He also knew that he couldn’t let Nasir’s men take Brooke. No matter what. Because they were absolutely going to kill her.
“I’d love to take you to the North Pole, but you’re a desert man. You’ll freeze to death up there. I don’t want that on my conscience.”
Nick had nothing else. He hoped by using sarcasm, Nasir might at least take a minute to beat the hell out of him. Maybe that could give Nick a window.
“I’m not worried about your conscience. Take me to the sleigh, right now, or I’ll shoot her where she stands.”
Nasir didn’t go for it.
“I would if I could,” Nick said. “But the sleigh isn’t here, and I’ll only tell you how to get it back here if you let her go.”
Nasir went for that one. He took his pistol back out, took the barrel in his hand, and pistol-whipped Nick on the top of the head with the butt of the gun. Nick dropped to a knee. The sting of the blow wasn’t pleasant, but Nasir maybe weighed a buck-thirty soaking wet, so it didn’t do the damage to Nick that he knew Nasir had hoped.
“Lie to me again, and she’s dead. I’m not threatening again. She means absolutely nothing to me!”
There was real anger in his voice now. Nick had to tread lightly.
“I know where the sleigh is, I saw it out front when I had the infrareds on. I just need you to fly it!”
“I’m telling you, it’s not there. Look again. I haven’t lied to you yet.”
Nasir stepped away from Nick and walked over to the window that looked out over the road. Nick was hoping that the button to send the sleigh home had worked. If it was still there, he was going to have to risk everything to try to save Brooke from Nasir’s wrath. The man that was holding Nick stood him up. Nick turned his head enough to watch Nasir. Nasir pulled the goggles back over the brim of his hat and down over his eyes. He immediately took them back off and threw them on the ground in anger. But before Nick could be happy about the sleigh being gone, and before Nasir could turn around to take his anger out on Nick, three black Ford Crown Vics came sliding into view, followed by a black van that had the glorious acronym ‘S.W.A.T.’ in big, white, bold letters down its side.
Jim had come through. Zeke had got him the message.
21
As soon as Nick read the letters S.W.A.T. on the black van, Nasir disappeared. He literally vanished into thin air. Nick already knew how powerful this technology was in the wrong hands, but watching a cornered terrorist—one of the most dangerous humans on Earth—be there one second and gone the next drove home just how disastrous it would be to let him get away as a ghost. Especially since they were only about a mile from the most powerful American on the planet—the President of the United States.
Nick had never been all that into politics. However, when your future missions overseas depend on the political climate at home, word gets around about certain things. One of the most discussed topics on any military base was the public feud between Nasir Samara and President Clark. Both had vowed to kill each other, and remembering that made Nick sick with worry that he didn’t currently have eyes on Nasir.
Nick watched armed men step out of the van on the street. Then he spun into the man holding him so fast that the man couldn’t hold his grip. Nick drove his forehead down on the man’s nose and rammed his knee into the man’s groin. He immediately kicked the man in the leg that was holding Brooke, driving his foot down into the side of the man’s knee. The man shouted in pain as it caved in sideways, and collapsed to the floor. Nick grabbed Brooke by the collar of her coat and yanked her to the floor. Her momentum slid her underneath the dining room table, and finally, the other two men in the room caught up and began firing at Nick.
Nick dropped to the ground as bullets from a semi-automatic rifle pelted the wall, shattering the mirror behind him. He reached into the man’s holster that he had just headbutted to unconsciousness. He pointed the gun to his left and shot the man on the ground with the busted knee as he was pulling a gun of his own. Next, he scooted on his knees over to and behind the far end of the dining room table. Nasir’s men had not stopped shooting. Nick knew that the black cars, and SWAT, outside were because of the call he had Zeke make to Jim. He also knew that they would not enter this building while live rounds were still blasting. They wouldn’t know who to shoot, and who not to. Nick had to get Brooke out of this himself. Then he had to get to Nasir. A sinking suspicion that he was heading straight for the White House needled at the back of Nick’s brain.
That would have to wait.
Nick listened as the two men continued to fire on him. Bullets sprayed the table, the wall, and even the chair beside him. Then he heard the man on the left’s magazine click empty, so Nick dove to his left and shot three times for the man’s chest. Before he could watch him drop, Nick rolled back over, just dodging a string of bullets from the last man standing. Then that man’s mag was empty too. Nick rose up to put an end to the situation, but before he could shoot, the man dove behind the island in the middle of the open kitchen. Nick heard him lock a fresh magazine in place.
He had to act fast.
The last roll he made on the floor put him beside Kimber’s body. The image of Nasir disappearing flashed in his mind, spurring him to reach in Kimber’s pocket for the second cloaking fob. When his hand found it, just as he hit the button and rolled into Brooke under the table, the man stood up in the kitchen and fired into the now empty looking room. Only a couple of shots in, the man stopped, most likely baffled by the absence of his target. Nick poked his torso above the table and shot the man twice, one round hit his chest, the other right in the neck.
Nick turned and saw the armed men had taken up position outside. He knew they had already surrounded the house by going around back as well.
“Brooke, I have to go after Nasir,” he said as he pressed the button on the fob to uncloak himself.
Brooke stood up. She was breathing heavy. Nick was used to firefights, but it was clear that Brooke was not by the dazed look on her face. Nick stepped forward and took her face in his hands. “Brooke, get outside and tell them to lock down the White House. Make sure they get the President somewhere safe!”
Brooke snapped out of her trance. “You can’t go after him. Let the FBI and Secret Service handle it.”
Nick moved toward the hallway that led to the back of the house. He was certain this was the way Nasir had gone. “Brooke, they’re not going to understand this cloaking device and how dangerous it is. How Nasir can just walk right through the front door of the White House and security won’t even know it. Just make sure the President is secured, and make sure police, FBI, CIA, and whoever else you can, lock down the airports. Including the private planes. I’ve got to go.”
“Okay. Just—be careful! I’ll get on trying to find out where Nasir came into the country.”
Nick nodded, hit the cloaking button, and turned down the hall
way. As soon as he did, SWAT burst into the front and back doors. Nick sucked himself up against the wall as three men in full tactical gear raced by him, then he walked out the front door like a breeze through a window.
The first thing he did was jog a block down the street that ran behind the townhomes and hide behind a big inflatable Santa Claus lawn decoration. The irony wasn’t lost on him as he uncloaked himself. He had to call Zeke and he couldn’t do so while the device was active. It jammed the cell phone signal.
“Boss, you okay?”
“Zeke, is there a way to shut these cloaking devices down from command?”
Silence.
“Zeke!”
“I’m thinking. I’ve never thought about it. Never had a reason—”
“Zeke, the President of the United States is in trouble. The bad guy has the cloaking fob, and I need you to shut it off before he is able to find the president. You understand?”
Zeke replied lazily, “Well . . . I can take a look—”
“Zeke! This is life or death. I need you to work fast. Got it? Like if you’re old pal Santa was delivering presents and was going to die if you couldn’t shut down the device. That kind of fast.”
Zeke’s tone changed. “Okay, yeah! I’m on it!”
Nick was about to say something else, but hung up instead when two agents came around the back of the townhome on his right. He pulled up the navigation app on his phone and typed in the walking directions to 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. He looked at the turn by turn, and he was less than a mile. When he rose to his feet to start running, something across the street stopped him in his tracks.
Nick cloaked himself, waited for a couple of cars to pass, then ran right over to the black SUV with the tailgate lifted wide open. Normally it wouldn’t have mattered to him, but no one was around, and he remembered that Nasir had come in through the back of the townhome earlier. When he got to the back of the truck, whatever worry he had for the president a moment ago, it immediately turned into panic.
Sitting in the back of the SUV were three backpacks. Nick opened the one closeted to him and his fear was confirmed. It was a bomb. Nick realized that the entire plan of attack for Nasir’s act of terror had been based solely on getting Nick to bring the cloaking technology right where Nasir wanted it. Where he could do the most damage. Nick had fallen right for it.
And now the entire White House was about to pay for it.
22
As he had countless other times in his life, Nick was heading straight toward danger when most would have been running from it. He’d had the thought on multiple occasions that he had to either be stupid or crazy to throw himself into the situations he had over the past two decades. He’d always come to the conclusion that he was probably a little bit of both. However, in this situation, he had just been plain stupid.
Instead of helping to keep his beloved country safe from monsters like Nasir Samara, he’d all but thrown the president to the unseeable wolves. He didn’t think that the problem was that he had acted too fast; he just should have never gone to the CIA with what he had at the North Pole in the first place. That was the lesson he should have learned from the real Santa. Only let people believe or not believe that you exist, don’t actually show them. Because that was when evil could find you too. Nick was beating himself up about it while he was still a quarter of a mile away, because once he made it to the White House, his focus would need to be at a hundred and ten percent.
Nick swerved onto Pennsylvania Avenue. The morning sun was strong, and blinding him through the windshield. He didn’t have time to worry about the people that would see the driverless SUV that he was whipping toward the White House while cloaked in invisibility. And he wasn’t going to have time to care what security thought when he crashed right through the gates. Because he would be a ghost on his way into the White House by the time they could get there to check it out.
Nick had only visited the White House once in his life. So he only had a vague recollection of what it looked like and how it was laid out. But that didn’t really matter. He was hoping that he wouldn’t have to even go inside. Of course, his hopes were resting in the hands of a half-crazy elf at the North Pole, but Zeke was a mad scientist when it came to weaponry, so Nick did his best to believe that Zeke would be able to remove Nasir’s cloak. By Nick’s estimation, he and Nasir should be getting to the president’s home at about the same time. He just hoped he wouldn’t be too late.
Nick could see the White House now in the distance. He was swerving in and out of morning traffic—even using the oncoming lane and the shoulder when he had to. He was so focused on what part of the security barrier he would crash through that he jumped when his cell phone rang.
“Zeke, give me the good news!” Nick swerved right, then all the way back left into oncoming traffic as he dodged the commuters.
“I can disable the cloak, but . . .” Zeke sounded unsure.
“But what, I don’t have time to waste!”
“But it will disable yours too. That okay?”
The White House was just a block away now. Nick scanned the grounds and found a place in the fence to drive the SUV through. Then he found which path he would take to the entrance.
“Nick?”
“Count to thirty and shut them down. Make sure you put howdy-dos in between each number.”
“Howdy what?”
“One-howdy-do.” Nick swerved one last time and floored the gas pedal. “Two howdy-do, and so on. Got it?” he shouted. His adrenaline was pumping.
“Oh, yeah. Never heard anyone say it like—”
“Zeke!” Nick shouted as the SUV approached the gate that surrounded the White House. “Focus! As soon as the cloak goes down, find Nasir on the ASE and pipe it into my phone. Got it?”
“Got it.”
Nick ended the call and slid the phone back inside his pocket just as the grill of the SUV slammed into the eight-foot-high, black wrought iron fence. The collision jarred him so hard that he slammed his forehead against the top of the steering wheel. The SUV barely made it through, but it was enough for Nick to move forward. He shook his head to clear the cobwebs. The front end of the SUV was hissing at him. It was unquestionably damaged beyond the ability to keep driving. He unbuckled his seatbelt, exited the truck, and started toward the White House. With a glance over his shoulder, he could already see security coming his way.
Good thing he was still invisible.
By Nick’s count, he had about fifteen seconds before the cloak was removed. All he could hope was that Nasir had yet to be able to place the bomb. Nick was no explosives expert, but what was in those bags looked nasty enough to do some serious damage. Nasir wouldn’t even have to be inside the White House for them to be catastrophic. Nick also didn’t know if one or two bags were missing. If Nasir had been able to place two bombs, if Brooke hadn’t been able to move word up the chain of command fast enough to get the president down in the PEOC, there was actually a good chance the POTUS could die today.
That thought spurred Nick into a jog. Ten seconds to go until he was just an unknown crazy that crashed himself into the White House fence. He made his way toward the left side. There were plenty of trees and brush there to give him cover while he scanned for Nasir.
With five seconds left, Nick ducked behind a row of trees. He heard some commotion on the street at the opposite side of the White House. Once again, the black van and the SWAT acronym in white was a hopeful sight. Especially with two more behind it, followed by a couple of camouflage Humvees. It meant that Brooke had been able to get word to the president. But that didn’t mean he was safe. Nick still had to find this bomb, and he needed help.
Time should have passed for the cloak to be removed. He took a knee behind a tree and checked his fob. The light was red. He was now visible. Which meant Nasir was too. To be sure, he dialed Zeke.
“You’re all good,” Zeke answered.
“You mean I’m visible?”
“Oh yeah. Already f
ound you on the ASE. Is that the White House?”
Nick ignored the question. “I need you to call Brooke, right now. Tell her there is one bomb bag, possibly two, and I need everyone to help me find it. I’d talk to them myself, but I just ran a truck through the gate. I’m pretty sure they’ll take me down.”
“Dialing her now.”
“While you do that, bring up Nasir on the ASE. And send it to my phone. I’ve got to stop him!”
“Ahead of you. Just pulled him up. Nick, he’s at the White House too. He just set some sort of timer on a machine. Not good.”
“Gotta go. Call Brooke and get me some help. I’ve got a terrorist to catch.”
Nick ended the call, swiped over on his phone, and pulled up the ASE app that would allow him to see what Zeke was seeing right there on his phone. He tapped the app and a little elf danced on the screen to signify loading. And it just kept dancing.
Nick looked up and saw that the SUV he’d crashed was swarmed with military and security personnel. Sirens were echoing across the city. A city that no doubt was going into lockdown mode. If it hadn’t been Christmas Eve, Nick would never have made it here in time—if he had actually made it in time. Traffic on a normal Tuesday wouldn’t have allowed it. And it wouldn’t have allowed the extra armed men coming to help to get there so quickly either. He was at least thankful for that.
Finally, the elf stopped dancing, and Nick rose to his feet. Just in time to see Nasir running toward someone standing in a bunch of trees.
Nick felt a heavy blow on the back of his head before he could realize it was Nick himself that Nasir had been running toward. Later he would kick himself for relying too much on technology, and not the combat instincts he’d expertly honed over his twenty years in the Army. But right then, he couldn’t kick himself for anything, because he was too busy falling to the ground—unconscious.
Saint Nick Page 10
