“They got the Pentagon,” Alex said.
Blunt cocked his head to one side. “That’s Arlington. It might as well be another planet compared to Washington. Just think how much more devastating 9/11 would’ve been had the terrorists managed to hit the White House.”
“So, let’s say they are trying to hit Washington,” Alex said. “Who’s going to be the one delivering that bomb?”
“Samuels,” Hawk said.
“Not if he’s holed up in his apartment for the next few days,” Blunt said.
“Unless . . .” Black said, raising his index finger.
“Unless what?” Alex said.
“Unless he’s already planted the bomb,” Black said. “He’ll have an alibi with that fancy security system of his and can set off the explosives from the comfort of his couch. Not a shabby plan at all.”
Blunt sighed and shook his head. “And I just can’t help but think he was feeding the first lady exactly what she wanted to hear regarding where the attacks were going to be. If he’s smart, he didn’t trust her—or Alex as the first lady—and wanted to give her something to satisfy her inquiries.”
“Are you playing a hunch here?” Hawk asked.
“Does a one-legged duck swim in a circle?” Blunt fired back. “That’s what I do. I hunch, and then you guys gather the intel and analyze it.”
“You want us to break into Samuels’s apartment, don’t you?” Alex asked.
“It’s like we’ve been working together so long that you can read my mind,” Blunt said. “There’s got to be something that punk has squirreled away somewhere in a desk or on a laptop. And I want it found so we can put a stop to this.”
“And what about Randy Wood?” Alex asked.
“I’ll deal with him,” Blunt said with a snarl. “Now, you guys get going.”
* * *
BLACK HAD ALREADY AGREED to grab a bite to eat with the rest of the team when his phone buzzed. He glanced at the name on his screen and announced that he’d catch up with everyone later at the restaurant. Once he found a quiet room, he shut the door behind him and answered the call.
“Took you long enough,” Black said. “I thought you were beginning to lose your magic touch.”
“I don’t know who you’re tangled up with this time, but these people are good,” the man on the other end of the line said. “I’ve only read about this type of encryption capability before but had never experienced it first hand—until now.”
“Did you crack it?”
“Sort of. I think one of the messages was actually sent in a code that would require a cipher of some sorts. But I’m not sure. I managed to extract what was sent in the raw data format, but I have no idea if it’s something that’s useable to you.”
“Send it to me,” Black said. “I’ll forward it to our resident guru. Between the two of you, we just might be able to figure out what those communiqués said.”
“All I ask is that you keep my name out of it,” the man said. “You know I don’t want to invite any more trouble. Lord knows it doesn’t need any help finding me.”
“You have my word,” Black said. “I’ll be discreet.”
Black hung up and hustled downstairs to catch up with the rest of the gang. He knew that if Alex found out whom he was working with, she might just sucker punch him in the gut. Black decided that if necessary, he’d take one for the team. Finding out what was on Fortner’s phone was vital if they were going to catch him and finally start to unravel the shroud covering the faces of Obsidian’s masterminds.
CHAPTER 20
HAWK STUDIED THE SCREEN on his laptop before directing his gaze toward the fifth-story floor of Shane Samuels’s apartment. The tracker Alex had planted on Samuels was likely still lodged inside the pants leg cuff, either lying on the bedroom floor or in a laundry hamper in his closet. But Samuels hadn’t gone anywhere. Based on Hawk’s visual observations, Samuels was still walking around his condo.
“Think this plan will work?” Alex asked from the driver’s seat.
“There’s only one way to find out,” Hawk said.
He activated his coms to test them. A high-pitched screeching noise made both Hawk and Alex writhe in pain for a moment.
“Geez, Hawk, you sure know how to make an entrance even on the coms,” Black said. “I think you just blew out my eardrums.”
“That’s what I was going for,” Hawk said. “I guess I’d consider this a success.”
“Real funny,” Black said.
“Are you in position?” Hawk asked, refocusing on the mission.
“Dressed and ready to go. The hottest fireman in Washington, D.C.”
Alex chuckled. “Second hottest fireman.”
“Do you always have to stick up for Hawk?” Black asked. “I mean, can’t you let him fight his own battles every once in a while?”
“She’s not fighting my battles,” Hawk said. “She’s just correcting you. But you gotta admit, if you’re going to play second fiddle to someone, it might as well be me.”
“I won’t admit that even if my life were on the line,” Black said. “I don’t cop to lies.”
“We’ll settle this later, gentlemen,” Alex said. “In the meantime, you two have a fire to start.”
“Roger that,” Black said.
Hawk watched through his binoculars from a half block away as Black jumped out of his EMT van and strode into the condo lobby entrance. A couple minutes passed smoke began pouring out of one of the first-floor windows and several residents fled through the front doors. Hawk directed his gaze to Samuels’s floor, but he could still be seen flashing by the window every few minutes or so.
“Did you pull the alarm?” Hawk asked.
“With sadistic glee,” Black said. “I haven’t yanked on one of those since the eighth grade just minutes before Mrs. Rast’s physical science mid-term that I hadn’t properly studied for.”
“It looks like most of the residents are heeding the warning,” Alex said.
“Every one of them except our good friend Shane Samuels,” Black said. “He’s staying put, isn’t he?”
“We didn’t think this would be easy, did we?” Hawk asked.
“This stuffy fire-retardant suit says no,” Black quipped.
“I’ll get him out,” Hawk said. “You just get ready to search the place.”
Hawk hustled across the street toward the condo and rushed inside. His mere presence was met with a plethora of thank yous from residents fleeing the building.
If you only knew . . .
He lowered his face guard to shield his identity and raced up the stairs to Samuels’s door. After knocking once and hearing no reply, Hawk shouted louder.
“Is anyone in there?” Hawk said. “There’s a fire in the building, and you need to evacuate immediately.”
“I’m fine,” Samuels shouted. “I’m sure you guys will handle it.”
“You need leave right this moment,” Hawk said, setting his bag that Alex had helped engineer to hide a smoke machine inside down by the door.
But there were no footfalls nearing the door even as plumes were pushed beneath the doorway.
“Please, sir,” Hawk said. “I’m begging you to come out now before it’s too late.”
Still no answer. Then Hawk drew back his axe and pummeled the door, splintering it in two hits. He kicked his way through and rushed inside, scanning the apartment for Samuels.
“Sir, I’ve got oxygen,” Hawk said as he continued looking around for any sign of Samuels. “I’ll help you get out of here.”
After a frantic half minute, Hawk found Samuels on his balcony, staring at the chaos in the streets below. Hawk grabbed Samuels and ushered him toward the door.
“We’ve gotta go now, sir,” Hawk said. “Your life is in danger. This building is becoming less structurally sound by the minute.”
Samuels didn’t budge.
“The longer we wait—”
“Okay, okay,” Samuels said, ripping his arm away f
rom Hawk’s grip. “I’m coming. Just let me get my computer.”
“We don’t have time for that,” Hawk said.
Samuels pulled out a gun and trained it on Hawk. “I say we do. Now step aside.”
Hawk put his hands in the air in a gesture of surrender and moved out of Samuels’s way. He strode toward his office, where he shoved his computer into a laptop case and flung it over his shoulder.
“I’m ready,” Samuels said, his weapon still aimed at Hawk.
“Can you put that thing away?” Hawk said. “That won’t be necessary.”
Samuels tucked the gun into his pants and started walking toward the exit. Hawk took Samuels by the arm and led him to the hallway before pricking him with a tranquilizer needle that knocked him out in a matter of seconds.
Scooping up Samuels, Hawk raced downstairs. The concoction only lasted ten minutes, which was cutting it close for the amount of time Alex would need to get the necessary information off the laptop.
When Hawk hit the sidewalk, he rushed Samuels over to another paramedic van that had just arrived on the scene.
“This man needs some attention,” Hawk said, handing off Samuels.
Then Hawk sprinted over to Alex, who was waiting in their vehicle nearby. He ripped the computer out of the bag, handing her the device along with Samuels’s cell phone.
“Time to get to work,” he said.
She tagged Samuels’s phone with a micro tracker before taking the computer and typing furiously. Using an algorithm she wrote to break the password, she initiated the transfer of all his files over to her hard drive. Hawk nervously paced around, waiting for her to finish.
“Come on, come on,” Hawk said. “He’s starting to wake up.”
“Almost there,” she said.
“He’s sitting up,” Hawk said. “I need it back right now.”
“Done,” Alex said as she disconnected the two devices and handed the computer back to Hawk. He shoved it into place and hustled to the paramedic vehicle tending to Samuels.
“Wha—what happened?” Samuels asked.
“You passed out, sir,” the paramedic said. “Smoke inhalation.”
“But I—where’s my laptop?”
The two men looked around but didn’t see it upon a cursory glance. But Hawk, who had slipped into the van from the front seat, pushed the bag into plain view just beneath the stretcher holding Samuels.
“Oh, here,” the paramedic said. “Is this it?”
“Yes, thank God,” Samuels said, clutching it tightly. “Did anyone else touch this?”
“No, it was right here the whole time.”
“Good,” Samuels said. “I need to get going.”
“But, sir, I’m not done checking you out yet.”
“Yes, you are,” Samuels said as he hopped down and walked away.
Hawk breathed a sigh of relief from the front passenger seat once Samuels vanished. The paramedic turned and looked at Hawk.
“Did you know that guy?” the paramedic asked.
Hawk shook his head.
“Strange dude,” the man said.
Hawk seamlessly wove his way into the now growing number of first responders crowding the street. He went inside and acted as if he was making a sweep of the first floor.
“The fire’s out,” Black said over the coms. “Time to get out of here.”
He’d barely finished talking before Alex’s voice followed.
“Uh, guys, Blunt was right,” she said.
“About what?” Hawk asked.
“About everything,” Alex said. “Obsidian isn’t going after the airports. They’re going for a much higher body count—and more chaos than we might have ever dreamed possible.”
CHAPTER 21
BLUNT LUMBERED INTO the Phoenix Foundation conference room and stared at the monitor on the far wall. He preferred his Sundays to be restful, but instead here he was leading a meeting just after the break of dawn. The rest of the team was already seated around the table, waiting for Alex to finish pushing all of her data onto the screen. Blunt leaned against the wall before digging in his pocket for a cigar.
“Never ignore a hunch,” he said. “You have them for a reason.”
“Are you going to light up that thing?” Hawk asked, gesturing to Blunt’s stogie.
“Being right about something isn’t necessarily the kind of victory I like to smoke to,” Blunt said. “Maybe I’ll fire this Cuban up after we eradicate Obsidian.”
“You might be waiting a while,” Black said. “These guys aren’t going to go down easily.”
Alex slapped the table, signaling she was finished. “It’s all there now.”
Everyone turned their attention to the information projected from her computer. A map of the world was dotted with locations marked for planned attacks by Obsidian along with an estimated casualty count. Instead of targeting airports, Obsidian planned to hit metro subway systems all over the globe.
Hawk’s mouth fell agape. “A hundred thousand people in all these places? That’s insane.”
“And locations easier to bomb than airports, too,” Alex said. “The security level at most international hubs has been there for a while, but the subway system? No metal detectors, easy to trap thousands of people at once, and only one way out.”
“Were you able to get any specific details about how Obsidian was planning to carry out these attacks?” Blunt asked.
Alex nodded. “There were several documents offering an analysis of how to achieve the highest casualty rate while also not inviting law enforcement scrutiny.”
“And what did you find?” Blunt asked.
Alex typed on her keyboard before another image appeared on the screen. “They’re going to borrow something from the Nazi playbook and gas the commuters.”
“Gas them?” Black asked.
“The idea is to set off bombs in strategic areas, trapping trains inside the tunnels near the platforms with a series of explosions. When the people attempt to flee the area, more explosions will occur near the exits, forcing pandemonium. Then the gas will be administered through a synchronized system of dispensers attached throughout the station.”
“This would be horrific,” Hawk said.
“Agreed,” Blunt chimed. “The attacks during 9/11 made us genuinely mistrust others as we questioned the safety of the airline industry. For millions of people around the world who rely on this type of transportation to get to work, it’s going to grind the workforce in so many of those major cities to a standstill. Not to mention, it will jumpstart a whole new cycle of fear in the public transportation sector.”
“And I would bet you anything that Obsidian also has a substantial investment in technology that would be able to quickly detect weapons designed for a mass transit system,” Blunt said. “Alex?”
She winked at Blunt and flashed a new slide on the screen. “Already ahead of you on this one. Micronics Industries just released a new prototype last week at Safety Expo in Chicago. It’s a complete body scan that takes less than a second. The technology is light years beyond what airports are currently using. And of course, I managed to find two major investors believed to have connections to Obsidian.”
“They’re going for a two-for-one approach here,” Blunt said. “They’re going to capitalize on the stock market swings as well as send their Mircronics stock soaring.”
“We’re going to need a lot of help on this one,” Alex said.
“I’m on it,” Blunt said as he stood. “Alex, I want you to keep digging through these files. Hawk and Black, I want you two staking out Samuels’s building. It’s time to bring him in for further questioning and find out what else he knows. But do it discreetly.”
“Roger that,” Hawk said before Blunt dismissed the team.
He returned to his office and dialed Randy Wood’s number.
“We need to talk,” Blunt said after Wood answered.
“What’d your team find?”
Blunt sighed. “It’s worse t
han we imagined. We uncovered Obsidian’s plans through Samuels’s laptop.”
“You went after him?” Wood said. “I thought I told you—”
“Don’t worry. He never even knew we had possession of his computer. It was just long enough for us to extract some very meaningful information off of it. I know you’ve got some plan to uncover the very top of Obsidian, but we don’t have time for that now. On Tuesday, they’re going to strike and kill thousands upon thousands of people if we don’t do something to stop them.”
“What’s their plan?”
“Metro railways all over the world. Trap the people during rush hour and then unleash a chemical gas on them that will kill them all. It won’t be pretty.”
“Are they doing that on U.S. soil?”
“I’m afraid so. Right now we know that New York and Chicago are in Obsidian’s sights. And we believe there could be more. We’re still trying to collect the intel and make the most informed decision.”
“Fine,” Wood said. “We can’t let Obsidian unleash that on us, but it might cost us more time.”
“I know. It’s not ideal, but it’s the right thing to do.”
“Send over the details, and I’ll contact Scotland Yard and Interpol and enlist their help.”
“Thanks,” Blunt said. “I’ll get all that over to you shortly, but please be judicious in who you give this information to. Obsidian has eyes and ears everywhere.”
Blunt spent the rest of the day poring over reports and scuttling over the important items to Wood for his analysts at the CIA to assess for additional threats. It was getting late when Hawk and Black contacted Blunt to let him know that they were going to retrieve Samuels.
“Thanks for the heads up,” Blunt said. “I’m going to settle in for the show.”
* * *
HAWK LOOKED THROUGH his binoculars in an effort to see any activity taking place inside Samuels’s apartment. With the shades drawn, there was no way to verify the target’s presence inside. However, Samuels’s silhouette flitted by the windows every so often, enough to convince Hawk that the man was still inside.
“He’s in there,” Black said. “That much is clear.”
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