“Try me.”
CHAPTER 21
HAWK CINCHED THE ZIP TIE wrapped around Adelman’s hands for emphasis. There was no way he was escaping, but Hawk couldn’t resist the urge to yank on it once more. Adelman sat in the cabin of his catamaran at the table, what little hair he had left tousled during the windy ride back to his ship.
“You should probably start shaving that dome of yours,” Hawk said as he sat down opposite of Adelman. “It’ll help you look wiser.”
Adelman sighed and shook his head. “You always were a little smart ass.”
“Look, to be honest, I never thought I’d see you again after what happened on that last mission,” Hawk said. “And as shocking as that day was, I still have a hard time believing you would ever betray your country like this.”
Adelman set his jaw and stared out the window to his left. “You really don’t know what you’re getting yourself into. I’ve tried to warn you, but you’re so damn stubborn.”
“Being stubborn is a far better flaw than being a traitor.”
Adelman pounded his fists on the desk. “I’m not a traitor, you moron.”
“I’m curious how you’re going to spin this because it’s quite obvious that whatever you’re doing, you don’t have your country’s best interests at heart.”
“Hawk, you’re never going to find anyone as patriotic as me, but you simply don’t understand these people.”
“By all means, please enlighten me.”
Adelman sighed. “Where to begin?”
“How about at the beginning? We’ve got all the time in the world,” Alex said.
“Actually, you don’t. But I guess I’ll get to that later if you want me to start at the top,” Adelman said.
“Just get on with it,” Hawk said.
“Well, Obsidian didn’t just crop up overnight,” Adelman said. “This is well-funded and well-organized group that has been planning this takeover for years.”
“Takeover?” Hawk asked.
“It hasn’t happened yet, but it will—and there’s nothing you can do to stop it.”
“We’ll see about that.”
“By the time I’m finished, you’ll see just how futile any attempts are,” Adelman said as he continued. “This group has its tentacles in almost every single government on the planet and owns banks and media entities. Anything that can wield influence on the hapless public, you can bet Obsidian holds a stake in it.”
“And what’s their end game?” Alex asked.
“I wish I knew,” Adelman said. “But I think it’s safe to say that it would be pleased if it could force its will on the rest of the world.”
“Why is that safe to say? What do you know that you’re not telling us? Is there something they’re planning?”
Adelman nodded. “Yeah, and it’s going to significantly reduce the world’s population, making Obsidian’s goal of control much easier.”
“So, what’s it going to be?” Hawk asked. “Nuclear warheads, intercontinental ballistic missiles, dirty bombs?”
Adelman winced and then sighed. “No matter what you do, you can’t resist these people. They have a way of forcing you to do their bidding. Resisting them is a mortal mistake.”
“And you know this how?” Hawk asked.
“Unfortunately, I’ve seen others resist their initial overtures. The result was fatal. I’m a patriot, but I’m also not stupid.”
“Perhaps, but you still haven’t answered my question,” Hawk said as he narrowed his eyes. “What’s being planned?”
“Obsidian is going to take over by deploying a virus of some sort. It’s going to kill millions of people. Some of their estimates have casualties reaching as high as one billion people or more.”
“That’s insane,” Alex said. “How could they possibly pull off something like that?”
“They have their ways.”
“You mean they have people who have been coerced through nefarious means?”
“Blackmail, payoffs, you name it,” Adelman said. “There’s really nothing they won’t do to get what they want. And it’s far more effective than raising an army to battle against some of the most powerful forces in the world. Sabotage from within is their MO.”
“And you were part of that strategy, weren’t you?” Hawk asked.
Adelman looked down and closed his eyes as he shook his head. “This isn’t who I ever wanted to be, especially when it came to doing something against my country. But we’re not infallible. Maybe we need a change at the top as well as a transformation in the way we do things.”
“And you think Obsidian could do that for us?” Alex asked.
Adelman shrugged. “It’s possible. But I don’t really have a choice when it comes to my duties. If I don’t do what they say, they’ll kill me.”
“This virus,” Hawk said, “has it been released yet?”
“Not yet, but the day is drawing near. I don’t know if they’ve announced their release date outside of the top level of leadership. They are very secretive. But it’s only a matter of time before large portions of the western world’s population are writhing in pain, wishing they had never been born.”
“But you’re sure they haven’t released it yet?”
“Obsidian researchers are working on an antidote, though it hasn’t been completed yet.”
“Do you have any idea when it will be?” Hawk asked.
“Soon, very soon.”
“I assume there’s a lab somewhere handling all this,” Alex said.
Adelman nodded.
She studied him closely. “So, where is this lab that’s managing everything and developing an antidote?”
Adelman shrugged. “I have no idea. I was just called upon to make some introductions.”
“Introductions to whom?”
“Important people who are most likely involved in all of this against their will.”
Alex exhaled and looked skyward. “How do they contact you?”
Adelman nodded toward his left pocket. “There’s a cell phone there that they gave me, which can be used anytime, day or night.”
Alex pulled the chip out and copied all the information on the phone. She held it up and smiled. “You may not know all the answers, but this little thing right here is going to sing.”
CHAPTER 22
Washington, D.C.
AFTER THE LONG FLIGHT back to Washington, Hawk and Alex barely had a day to recover before Blunt beckoned them back to the Phoenix Foundation offices to piece together all the new information. Hawk guzzled an energy drink just to wake up, while Alex loaded up on caffeine with a large drink from Starbucks. Blunt was already poring over some of the documents Alex had compiled during their trip home and sharing them with Black.
Wearing a big grin on his face, Blunt looked up at Hawk and Alex as they entered the conference room. “I always wanted to send you two on a trip to the South Pacific,” Blunt said. “And from the looks of all these papers, I think it was a productive trip.”
Hawk still wore his sunglasses and fell into a chair across the table from Blunt, while Alex took the adjacent seat.
“It’s not exactly the kind of trip I’d hoped for, to be honest,” Hawk said. “I wanted something a little more relaxing. Maybe read a Brad Thor novel on the beach and drink a few margaritas.”
“That’s not what it was like?” Black asked, a slight grin leaking across his face.
“This is all your fault,” Alex said, pointing at Black. “You’re the one who supposedly found Adelman. Then we had to go do all the dirty work.”
“Well, you came back in one piece without any visible damage,” Black said. “It must’ve not been that difficult for you.”
“You don’t know the half of it,” Hawk said. “Let’s just say Admiral Adelman wasn’t exactly the most compliant target I’ve ever tracked down.”
Blunt shrugged. “Regardless of what kind of challenges you had while you were down there, the results are outstanding. You were able to
isolate all those calls from Adelman’s phone and determine who was involved.”
“Not exactly who,” Alex said. “To me, it’s more like a what was—and still is—involved.”
“What kind of conclusions did you draw?” Blunt asked.
“This certainly isn’t a simple investigation,” Alex said. “There are plenty of moving parts, so you’ll need to keep up. But the bottom line is I was able to use this phone number to search the dark web and discover linked accounts.”
“And what did that tell you?” Blunt asked.
“It didn’t tell me anything at first,” Alex said. “These guys are good at covering their tracks, whether that’s on the internet or through other means. But someone slipped up. That phone number was used to order large quantities of chemicals, the kind that you’d only need if you were dabbling in some sort of pharmaceutical endeavor.”
She stood and walked around the table. “I’m sorry,” she said. “That caffeine is really kicking in now.”
Blunt chuckled and pointed at the papers in his hand. “In that case, please explain what’s going on here.”
“So I was able to map all the incoming calls to this phone,” she said. “That provided a good visual for where this person was operating out of. I narrowed down all the potential sites that coincided with the cell towers nearby until I was able to draw more definitive conclusions.”
“That Otto McWilliams was involved?” Blunt asked.
Alex nodded. “I’m not sure to what level, but on the very surface, it appears as though the former Pantheon Pharmaceuticals CEO is at least providing some sort of facility for Obsidian to work in. They have leases on a dozen buildings in a five-mile radius in Jacksonville, Florida.”
“Very interesting,” Black said. “You think McWilliams is part of the mastermind behind Obsidian?”
“Based on everything I’ve seen, it’s hard to draw any final conclusions,” Hawk said. “We must take into account the fact that McWilliams’s office was where the request to hack the congressional network originated from, though Adelman was pretty adamant about the fact that Obsidian has a way of twisting everyone’s arm until they yield to impossible demands. It’s how the organization has chosen to operate, which seems to be pretty effective based on all the results up to this point.”
“Whether McWilliams is willingly involved or not is inconsequential,” Blunt said. “We need to find out what’s really going on and what they’re doing with all these chemicals.”
“If they’re creating an antidote as Adelman suggested, we can thwart their plans by uncovering the formula and open sourcing it to the world,” Alex said.
“That’s a great idea,” Blunt said. “The only problem is we don’t know where, if, or when that virus—or whatever it is—is going to be unleashed. And these aren’t exactly the easiest chemicals to get your hands on. If a crisis begins to unfold, the demand will soar through the roof. Getting any antidote will be an arduous process at best, impossible at worst.”
“That’s why we need to stop this before it reaches that point,” Black said.
“I know Senator Fontenot was insistent that his pal McWilliams couldn’t be involved in any of this,” Hawk said, “but the evidence says something different. I think he can be convinced to help us, especially if he understands what’s at stake.”
Blunt nodded. “I agree. Pay him a visit and see what Fontenot can do for us. We need to find out as soon as possible the exact location where Obsidian is developing this antidote before it’s too late.”
“I’m on it,” Hawk said. “I’ll get Fontenot to cooperate. He won’t be able to say no once he sees all of this.”
CHAPTER 23
SENATOR BERNARD FONTENOT stared wide-eyed at Hawk and Alex as they shared their hunches about Senator Otto McWilliams. With a broad range of initial reaction, Fontenot went from pacing around the room and shaking his head to sighing and collapsing onto the small couch in his office. He barely said a word but didn’t have to.
“Are you going to be okay?” Alex asked.
Fontenot shrugged. “I guess it depends on what happens when I speak to Otto. If he admits to this—”
“He’s not going to admit to this, and you know it,” Alex said. “We want to discern if his level of involvement is something more serious, perhaps even voluntary.”
Fontenot shook his head resolutely. “There’s absolutely no way that Otto is involved in any of this on his own volition. They must have pictures of him cheating on Nancy or a wiretap of him taking some campaign money illegally. He would never betray his country like this.”
“Maybe he doesn’t view what he’s doing as traitorous,” Hawk said. “It’s very possible that he’s convinced himself that he is doing this because he loves his country, not because he hates it. And if he doesn’t do something now, there is a possibility of even more danger in the future—a nefarious global organization running roughshod over our country and its freedoms.”
“That’s one theory,” Alex said. “But we can’t extrapolate the truth—or even some semblance thereof—if we don’t question him about his involvement. We need to look into his eyes. You need to look into his eyes.”
Fontenot hung his head for a moment before raising it. He set his jaw and eyed Hawk and Alex carefully. “Can I be sure that you two are going to make this as easy as possible for me?” Fontenot asked. “I really don’t want to be put in an awkward situation with Otto. We’ve been friends for so long and—”
“We get it,” Hawk said. “You’re frat pals and have been through a lot together—and now you’re both working as senators in a very cutthroat environment. To hear that one of your own betrayed you is a tough pill to swallow.”
Alex nodded in agreement. “This isn’t easy, but it’s only going to get worse when reality strikes. When there’s no more denying that he’s not being strong-armed and cajoled into working for Obsidian, you’ll feel differently. The sting of betrayal is not easily washed away—or forgotten. If what we believe about him matches up with what the team has been able to uncover, you would feel foolish for supporting him in the aftermath.”
“Just promise me you won’t throw him under the bus right away,” Fontenot said. “I want to at least extend him that courtesy.”
Hawk sighed yet nodded. “We can give him that, but we need to know the truth from you regarding Senator McWilliams. And by the truth, I mean everything that you learned or gleaned during your conversation with him, no matter how big or small. We need to find out what’s truly going on.”
Fontenot agreed, but Hawk wasn’t confident that the Louisiana senator could deliver when push came to shove. However, there was no other viable alternative, not with an impending attack. Even without knowing what the date was, Alex concluded that the dissemination of the virus had to be near. The phone number affiliated with the Pantheon research labs had simply vanished from every website the researchers had ordered from, a systematic internet scrubbing.
“What we really need to know is if you’re with us,” Alex said. “Because if you’re not, this operation is going to be doomed before it ever gets off the ground.”
Fontenot stroked his chin but looked Hawk and Alex directly in the eyes. “I need to do this,” Fontenot said, “partially for my own sanity but also for the sake of others. If I don’t do anything, you’ll be wondering all the time if there’s a traitor walking the hallways of the Capitol building.”
“And so will you,” Alex said.
“I’ll keep an open mind, but I just can’t even fathom that being the case, even with all that damning evidence you brought me,” Fontenot said. “There just has to be some other explanation.”
“Why don’t you find out firsthand tomorrow night at dinner?” Hawk said. “I heard he’s a big fan of Le Diplomate.”
* * *
FONTENOT SQUIRMED as Alex attached the wire to the inside of his blazer. Hawk straightened the senator’s tie and then swept the lint off his shoulders.
“You l
ook like a million bucks,” Hawk said.
“What about presidential?” Fontenot asked.
“Hmm. I’m not sure that’s quite the adjective I would use,” Hawk said.
“With an answer as diplomatic as that, there’s a future in politics for you, Hawk,” Fontenot said with a chuckle. “I know the truth: I’m still a Cajun at heart. There’s nothing presidential about me, nor should I ever set my heart on reaching 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue other than to visit Noah Young.”
Hawk shrugged. “You said it, not me.”
“Would it hurt you two to at least pretend like I wasn’t a fish out of water?”
Alex laughed. “No, but if you don’t hold still, this wire is going to be as visible as the nose on your face. And that’s the last thing you would want tonight.”
She handed him a comb and told him to fix his hair one final time.
“This isn’t a date,” Fontenot said. “And I’ve been friends with Otto forever. If I look too put together, he’s going to know something’s up.”
Alex reached up and tousled Fontenot’s hair, wearing a smirk the entire time she was making his hair messy.
“Is this really necessary?” Fontenot asked again.
“Just finger comb it and then go up to the restaurant,” Hawk said. “We’ll be down here listening in on everything, so make sure you don’t forget to ask him any of the questions we gave you on that list.”
Fontenot tapped his temple with his right forefinger. “I’ve got a mind like a steel trap. So you don’t need to worry. I’ll remember them all. After all, it’s how I got elected, being able to recall donors and constituents’ names in a matter of nanoseconds.”
“Okay, enough of you telling me about this memory of yours,” Hawk said. “It’s time for you to go out there and show me just how good it really is.”
With a gentle nudge toward the door, Fontenot strode upstairs and prepared to enter Le Diplomate for his evening dinner date with McWilliams.
Le Diplomate was the hottest new eatery in the capital, drawing long lines of patrons hoping to get a bite of something with a little French flair. Based on its history and clientele, Le Diplomate was the place people went to demonstrate their vast array of French knowledge, particularly regarding the European country’s cuisine.
Any Means Necessary Page 13
