“You can never be sure until you get a visual,” Hawk said.
“Nobody else has gone in or out of that apartment since Samuels returned after our staged fire. How else could he have escaped?”
“I don’t want to go up there until we know it’s him,” Hawk said. “It could be a trap.”
“Or we could be sitting out here jawing all night while he puts the finishing touches on setting up this big attack. I say we grab him now. Besides, I don’t want to spend all night out here. It’s getting really cold, and I can barely feel my fingers.”
“You know, there are these things called gloves you could wear. They’re a relatively new piece of technology, but word on the street is that they do a great job of keeping your hands warm.”
“If my hand didn’t feel like a piece of glass and I wasn’t afraid it was going to shatter if I hit you, I’d punch you right now.”
Hawk huffed a soft laugh through his nose and shook his head. “You know what your problem is? You’re too soft. Whining over cold hands. It’s a good thing Blunt doesn’t send you to the desert very often. You wouldn’t last one night there.”
Black shot Hawk a sideways glance. “Are you done?”
“Do you want me to be?”
“Let’s just go get our guy.”
The two men got out of the car and ascended the building to Samuels’s floor.
“Alex, are you reading all of this?” Hawk asked in a whisper.
“Loud and clear,” she said. “Your body cams are coming in perfectly.”
“Great,” Black said. “Let’s go get this sonofabitch.”
Hawk affixed the silencer to the end of his gun and blew the lock off in one shot. Black kicked the door in, and the two men fanned out across the apartment in search of Samuels.
As Hawk eased into the living room area, a shadowy figure caught his eye. He swung around to his left to shoot and noticed it was a cardboard cutout situated on an automated vacuum cleaner that was roving around the living room.
“Damn it,” Hawk said. “He pulled one over on us.”
“No kidding,” Black said, holding up a piece of paper he’d snatched off the kitchen counter. “Get a load of this.”
Hawk walked across the room and read the note. In the lower right corner, the microdot tracker was affixed to the page with a piece of tape. “Nice try,” were the only words scrawled in Samuels’s handwriting.
Hawk winced as his ears were pierced with the sound of Blunt launching into a string of expletives.
“Now what do we do?” Black said as he shook his head and looked at his partner.
“The only thing we can do—pray.”
CHAPTER 22
HAWK WANTED TO SKIP the act of drinking coffee and inject the caffeine directly into his veins. He squeezed his eyes shut and opened them again, hoping that the act would serve as a physical reboot for his body. But nothing changed. All the activity from the night before along with the combination of long hours trying to bring down Obsidian had left his tank nearly empty.
“Eat,” Alex said, shoving a bagel loaded with cream cheese in front of him.
Hawk looked up at her and furrowed his brow. “Alex? Is that you?”
She rolled her eyes. “You’re tired, but I have a feeling you’re still capable of deadpanning some joke you think is funny.”
Hawk ignored her comment, knowing he was about to prove her hunch correct. “I had no idea you possessed such maternal instincts. Forcing boys to eat and telling them they’re not eating enough are two things mothers do best for their sons.”
“I’m glad I could once again deliver shock and awe to you in the humblest of forms,” she said with a sneer. “It’s just a bagel. Put it in your mouth and eat it.”
The edges of Hawk’s lips curled upward, and then he opened wide. He wasn’t even done chewing his first bite before he flashed double thumbs up signs to her.
“This is so delicious,” Hawk said.
“And here’s a coffee for you as well,” she said as she slammed a cup onto the table next to his food.
“Aww,” Hawk said. “You thought of everything. I’ve never seen this side of you.”
“Shut up about it or I’ll deliver a throat punch while you still have your mouth full.”
Hawk swallowed and ate the remainder of his breakfast in silence. He had just finished with Blunt slipped into the room, toting an armful of folders.
“I’ve got some good news,” Blunt said.
“About time,” Black said. “We need to hear some after last night’s debacle.”
Blunt set the documents down, which cascaded across the table. “I just got a call from one of my contacts at Interpol. Law enforcement in London and Madrid were able to identify explosive devices after evacuating both subway systems last night. The bomb sweep was comprehensive, and officials are convinced they were able to uncover every device. They’re also trying to keep this out of the news in order to catch the bombers.”
“Good luck with that,” Black said.
“I know,” Blunt said. “That’s why we have to be prepared for anything here. The strike isn’t supposed to happen until tomorrow, but we have no idea how this might effect their plans and make Obsidian’s brass change course.”
Blunt’s phone buzzed with a text message. He picked it up and read the note aloud: “Explosives have also been found in Paris and Frankfurt. Both metro systems have been swept clean.”
“That’s great news,” Alex said. “Now we just need to hear about how our people are doing on this side of the Atlantic. Any word yet from New York and Chicago?”
Blunt shook his head. “Still waiting to hear from them.”
Hawk’s phone rattled across the table. “It’s Big Earv,” he announced. “Let me take this outside.”
He hustled out of the room and answered the call. “What’s going on?”
“I thought you might want to know that the first lady is meeting with Samuels right now,” Big Earv said.
“You need to grab him.”
“I can’t do that. I don’t have a justifiable reason.”
“Go with the idea that her life might be in danger,” Hawk said.
“But they’re family friends.”
“So what? Don’t you know that one in five homicides is committed by a family member? We just need a reason to apprehend him.”
“If I try to grab him now, the first lady will have me fired immediately and order the other agents to detain me.”
“I’m sure you work with reasonable people.”
Big Earv grunted. “You seriously don’t understand the type of person who applies for a job with the Secret Service, do you? Reasonable isn’t in their vocabulary. There’s only one part of the job that matters—and that’s protecting the asset. If the first lady says I’m endangering her by detaining someone she’s meeting with cordially and there’s no proof of a threat, I’m done. No one will back me up.”
“Grab him, and I’ll help you sort it out later.”
“I just can’t—but maybe you can. We just got to the first lady’s favorite park. If you hurry, maybe you can detain Samuels yourself.”
Hawk sighed. “Okay. I’ll be there as soon as I can. And if you won’t arrest Samuels for me, can you at least eavesdrop on their conversation?”
“That I can do.”
“See you in a bit.”
Hawk rushed back into the conference room and rehashed his conversation with Big Earv. “I’m heading out to the park. Black, I need you to come with me.”
Black nodded and then followed Hawk out to the car.
“We’re wading into some unprecedented waters here,” Hawk said as he navigated the gridlocked streets of Washington. “The first lady as an Obsidian recruit? Who would’ve imagined such a thing?”
“The president still doesn’t know, does he?”
Hawk shook his head. “I’m not sure he would believe it either. And if she’s working with Samuels, it’s the perfect cover since the
y’re related.”
“Maybe they’re more than that,” Black suggested.
“I guess it’s possible, but she’s like twenty years older than him. I’ve read that she treats him like the son she never had.”
Black shrugged. “Still doesn’t mean it’s not a possibility.”
“Either way, she’s in deep and positioned perfectly to manipulate the president to do exactly what Obsidian wants.”
A few minutes later, Hawk pulled up to the park. He and Black scanned the area for any sign of the first lady or the Secret Service.
“Are you sure this is where Big Earv told you to meet him?” Black asked.
Hawk nodded. “This is the only place she meets people in public. They must’ve left already.”
Convinced that the park was empty, they trudged to the car. Hawk ignited the engine with the push of a button and turned on his radio.
“In breaking news, sources tell our department that, today, law enforcement officials in both New York and Chicago have foiled a terrorist plot designed to blow up busy rail transit areas.”
“And the confirming text from Blunt,” Black said as he held up his cell phone.
“Well, if Obsidian didn’t know we were on to them before, they do now,” Hawk said. “But Samuels is still running free. And who knows what he’s cooking up with the first lady.”
They rolled along the surface streets of Washington, listening to a report of so-called security analyst experts debate the meaning of the attack and speculate on who was behind it and why.
“Doesn’t it make you want to just punch these guys in the face?” Hawk asked.
Black nodded. “It’s why I don’t listen to this crap. Because that’s all it is: a hot, steaming pile of garbage foisted on the American public as some strange form of entertainment.”
“When you keep your standards low, you’re rarely disappointed,” Hawk said with a smirk.
Black buried his head in his hands. “Can we please turn this off?” He paused. “No, actually, I’m demanding that you turn this off right now before I shoot up your radio.”
Hawk chuckled as he turned the power off. “It’s a good thing you became an operative instead of a politician.”
“I would’ve taken a flying leap off the top of the capitol building by now,” Black said.
“But knowing your luck, you probably would’ve survived.”
“No, that’s definitely good luck to survive, even in a situation as dire as that. No good luck for me, remember?”
Hawk was mulling over which of his two smart ass phrases to respond with when his phone buzzed.
“It’s Big Earv,” Hawk said. “Maybe he can tell us where the hell they went.”
Hawk wondered what could’ve taken so long for Big Earv to update him on the whereabouts of the first lady and Shane Samuels.
“I was beginning to think you’d abandoned us,” Hawk said as he answered.
“I’m sorry about that,” Big Earv said, his voice somber.
“What’s wrong, man?” Hawk asked. “You don’t sound right.”
“Meet me at the Dacha Beer Garden in a half hour. We need to talk.”
CHAPTER 23
HAWK APPROVED OF BIG EARV’S appointed meeting lunchtime location. A sprawling outdoor space with the constant ambient hum of conversations and random dogs barking in the beer garden made Dacha a great place to have a private conversation without looking like it was a secretive one. Hawk ordered a seltzer water and a sandwich while waiting for the Secret Service insider to arrive. After a five-minute wait, he ambled up to their table and took a seat.
“Sorry about being late,” he said. “I had to fill out some additional paperwork for my supervisor after our meeting this morning changed venues.”
Black waited for a moment before joining them.
“Where did he come from?” Big Earv asked.
“Black had to make sure you weren’t being followed,” Hawk said.
“You guys are a little paranoid.”
Black shook his head and scanned the area. “If we aren’t, we’re as good as dead.”
“So tell us what happened,” Hawk asked. “They changed locations on you?”
Big Earv nodded. “Less than five minutes after we arrived, Samuels demanded she relocate to another destination. He was concerned that someone knew her favorite spot and had tried to dupe him with a lookalike.”
Hawk cursed under his breath. “I thought Alex was a dead ringer for the first lady.”
“Yeah, well, Samuels asked her if her voice had gotten back to normal, and her response tipped him off that someone had tried to play him. Fortunately, he didn’t seem to recognize me or the other agent working both details.”
“So, were you able to hear what they were talking about?” Hawk asked.
“I bugged her purse so I could listen in,” Big Earv said.
“And?” Black said.
“Well, at first it wasn’t easy to figure out what they were talking about,” Big Earv said. “They just spoke in a very cryptic code. But the longer they chatted, the more they let their guard down and I figured out what they were talking about.”
“What was that?” Hawk asked.
“In short, Samuels is going to help the first lady do something,” Big Earv said.
“Do what? Are they . . .” Black said before pausing and staring blankly around the patio.
“I couldn’t hear everything as there was some strange interference during part of the conversation, and I’m not exactly one to go starting rumors,” Big Earv said. “But there was something about the way they looked, like they were more than just family.”
“Let me get this straight,” Black said. “You believe that the first lady and Samuels are somewhat of an item?”
Big Earv shrugged. “I don’t know what to think. But all I know is that I got a weird vibe while they were talking.”
“Was there anything specific you were able to glean from their conversation?” Hawk asked.
“Samuels warned her to be nowhere near the White House tomorrow. Apparently, he’s helping coordinate an attack on the presidential mansion.”
Black snapped his fingers. “That’s what Obsidian really cares about, isn’t it? I mean, the optics of gassing thousands of commuters worldwide at the same time in major metropolitan cities in Europe and the U.S. would be great. But a single strike against the White House would be a major blow against this country. It’d destabilize every market and give them a chance to move in under the guise of night, so to speak, and seize control where people are ready to cede it in exchange for the feeling of being safe.”
“Samuels didn’t give you any clues as to how they intended on accomplishing such an attack, did he?” Hawk asked.
“None whatsoever, just that it’s happening,” Big Earv said.
“And you heard the entire conversation?” Hawk asked.
“Not everything. Like I said, there was a point near the end where I got some interference. Not sure where it was coming from, but I heard everything but the last five minutes.”
Hawk finished off his seltzer water and set it down in front of him. “You should’ve arrested him right there.”
“For what?”
“For conspiring against the United States of America, that’s what,” Hawk said.
“But I didn’t record the conversation, only listened on it,” Big Earv said. “And if I tried to accuse her of such a thing, she’d fabricate something criminal against me, and my ass would be in jail before I could say Jack Frost.”
Black shook his head. “I would’ve shot the bastard on site.”
“That’s why I’m in the Secret Service and you’re an assassin,” Big Earv said. “There are some problems that are only exacerbated by killing a person.”
Black set his jaw. “Samuels wouldn’t be one of them.”
“I appreciate your patriotism, but if I made such an accusation against Samuels, you’d lose your man on the inside and you’d have no ide
a what was going on in the hallowed halls of the White House.”
Black drew a deep breath and was about to start talking before Hawk placed hand on his colleague’s arm and gave him a knowing look.
“I think what my partner is trying to say is that we appreciate what you were able to give us,” Hawk said. “We’re going to go after Samuels and do our best to make sure no attack on the White House happens tomorrow. You’ve been an amazing help, and I feel like I must buy you a drink.”
Big Earv smiled. “Since I’m off duty right now, I won’t refuse your generosity.”
Hawk signaled for the waiter and ordered Big Earv a beer. The three men chatted for a few more minutes before Hawk looked at Black and suggested that they needed to get moving.
“What are you going to do now?” Big Earv asked.
“I’m not sure,” Hawk said, reaching out to shake Big Earv’s hand. “But I’ll let you know as soon as we know something.”
Hawk forced a smile as Big Earv strode along the sidewalk.
Black turned toward Hawk. “You know exactly what you’re going to do, don’t you?”
Hawk grinned. “Of course I do. We’re going to tell the president.”
CHAPTER 24
BLUNT WAVED AT THE GUARD manning the security station just outside the White House gates. With a faint smile, Blunt held up his security badge for the man to study it. Scanning a list of names, he identified Blunt and returned his credentials.
“Mr. Blunt, you’ll need to leave that cigar right here,” the guard said. “There’s no smoking on the White House grounds.”
“Don’t worry, I only chew on these things,” Blunt said with a wink before he turned and ambled inside.
Blunt entered the west wing and descended to the private area below the main floor where the president conducted all his confidential conversations. While Blunt had visited the room many times in the past, he’d never been this nervous. It was one thing to deliver a grim report about the aftermath of a terrorist attack. But to inform the president that the one person he probably thought he could trust the most was sabotaging him and feeding intel to the enemy? There would be several stages of grief exhibited before he would believe it—and then he could become a loose canon. As Blunt mulled it over, he wondered if the CIA already knew that the first lady was a spy for Obsidian, and Randy Wood didn’t want to inform the president because he would leak the intel to her.”
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