Problem with most anarchists was they didn’t push for what they wanted. Freedom from ruthless government would never happen unless it was made to happen. That’s what FreeNow was all about. Tex would do anything to see its goals reached. And they would do it. Stone’s organization remained underground and secretive yet was run with tight precision. Its top-notch engineer and tech members had created the perfect solution. And today was D-day.
FreeNow had planned for this event for two years—starting long before news of the IRS and NSA scandals hit. Showed how right-on the organization was. They’d
known.
Now everything and everyone stood in place. No way would Tex not complete his task.
Tex had no doubt if he failed to find the two women, Stone would have him killed. Just as he’d called on Tex to kill Nooley for his failure to get the flash drive that could stop everything. Tex made a disgusted sound in his throat. Killing Nooley hadn’t been difficult, given all the wounds the man had already suffered in his botched mission. The traitor Eddington must have fought back hard. Nooley shouldn’t have been allowed to join the group in the first place. Man was an idiot.
In searching for Hannah Shire, Tex first needed to learn where she worked. Armed with that knowledge he’d tracked down the home of the physician she served and banged on the man’s door before sunrise. A flash of his FBI badge had gotten the perturbed doctor talking. He hadn’t spoken to Hannah Shire since the previous Friday, the doctor said, and had no idea where she was. But Hannah had worked for him for years, and he knew quite a bit about her and her family. “She lost her husband, Jeff, two years ago,” the doctor said. “That’s been very hard on her.”
He refused to believe she would have any involvement in a murder. “Not possible.” He shook his head. “Hurting another person isn’t a part of Hannah Shire’s makeup.”
Tex changed tactics. “Then she may be in danger. We need to find her at once. Who would she turn to in a crisis?”
The good physician had told Tex everything he needed to know.
A
t Aunt Margie’s words, my face froze. I would have jumped back in the car and raced away if it weren’t for the closing garage door. Had she lured me here just to turn me in?
My aunt raised her hand. “Don’t worry, I’ve not called the police. I learned a long time ago you can’t believe everything you hear on television.”
I nodded, my heart beating sideways.
“Well, come on, get your mother out of the car. You both look like something the cat dragged in.”
Mom was already fumbling with her seat belt. I unfastened it for her and helped her out.
“Margie!” Mom spread her hands for a hug. “How nice to see you!”
The two women hugged. Aunt Margie engulfed my mother’s small frame.
“You still smell like roses.” Mom turned to me, waving her fingers at Aunt Margie. “She still does.”
“Same toilet water. Keep thinking it might sweeten me up some.” Aunt Margie walked over to hug me too. “Come on in the kitchen. We’ll have something to eat, and you can tell me your story. I imagine it’s a whopping one.” She took Mom’s arm and began ushering her out of the garage. I followed on hollow legs.
“Do you have tea?” Mom asked.
“Of course I do.”
“Oh, good. You know, I had a friend named Margie once.”
“Well, you’ll just have to tell me about her sometime. But for now, let’s get you some tea.”
They stepped through the kitchen door. I grabbed my purse from the car and trailed behind.
My aunt sat us down at the table, then bustled about making tea, toast, and scrambled eggs. For a few moments I watched her, my body graceless and my mind on hold. Aunt Margie was smart enough to give Mom her tea as soon as possible. My mother gave a soft crow of delight and lifted the cup to her lips. “Ah.
So
good!”
I wanted the moment to last forever. Mom satisfied. The two of us safe. After the night we’d had, everything seemed so surreal.
Emily.
“Oh!” I pushed back from the table. “I have to call my daughter.”
“Of course.” Aunt Margie whisked eggs in a bowl. “You can go down the hall to the guest bedroom, if you like. There’s a phone in there.”
“Thanks.” I rose. “Stay here, Mom. Okay?”
She nodded and sipped her tea. As I left the kitchen, I heard her say, “Did you know the Bad People are after us?”
I hurried into the bedroom and dialed Emily’s work number. And was informed she’d gone home sick.
“You mean she was there and left?” I sank down on the bed. This was not good. Emily was much safer at work than in her apartment alone. And she hadn’t seemed sick the last time we talked.
“Yes, she just walked out the door a minute ago.”
I checked my watch. It was now 9:45. “All right, thanks. I’ll try her cell phone.”
Emily answered on the first ring. “Hello?”
“Em, it’s me. Are you sick?”
“Mom, thank God! Where are you?” Emily’s breath came in puffs, her voice with an echo.
“At your Great Aunt Margie’s in Fresno. Are you sick?”
“No. I have stuff to tell you. How are you and Grand?”
“Not good. Did you see me on the news?”
“What? No!”
“The sheriff’s department says I’m a ‘person of interest’ in Leringer’s death, and that I’ve fled to escape. And that I also likely killed two other men—a man who worked for Leringer,
and
the deputy who was watching my house.
Three men
, Emily.
Everyone’s looking for me. Everyone. They showed my picture and even gave out my make of car and license plate.”
“That’s . . . ” Emily exhaled over the line. “This is
insane
.”
“Yeah. I know.”
“I saw national news about Leringer’s and the other guy’s murder—what’s his name, Eddington?—but nothing about you.”
“This was local news, the latest update. It was the same reporter who showed up at the scene.”
“And they think
you
killed all those people.”
“They can’t really think that. I told you Harcroft and Wade couldn’t be trusted. This is their way of getting everyone to help bring me in.”
“This is just crazy.” Emily’s voice rose. “They really are after you.”
“I told you.”
A beat passed. I could still hear Emily breathing hard. “Where are you?”
“I’m going down the back stairs to my car. I needed to get out of the office an hour ago, but I got pulled into this meeting. So frustrating! Now we’ve lost time.”
At Emily’s last sentence the echo in her voice stopped. I could hear wind over the line. “Time?”
“I’m at my car now, but I have to tell you.” Emily rattled off the news about finding a stunning message on the video.
A terrorist attack—for real?
I listened, unable to utter a word. “That’s today, Mom, get it? Tonight at seven o’clock the West Coast goes dark. And Washington, D.C.—that means the government.
Tomorrow it’s the East, and next day it’s Texas. The
whole
country. Who knows for how long. I don’t even know if we’ll be able to call each other. I mean, how do cell phone towers work without electricity?”
My lungs felt like lead, and my brain chugged. This couldn’t be happening. I couldn’t take it all in. The West Coast
and
Washington, D.C? After that, the rest of the country? Our nation would be crippled.
This couldn’t be true.
“So I’m taking the video and the encryption code to the FBI office in Los Angeles. I Google-mapped the address. It’s an hour and forty-five minutes away. I gotta get going.”
I shook my head hard. “Emily, you can’t get any more involved in this! All I did was stop to help a man at an accident, and look what’s happened to me. Your grandmother and I were almost killed. I told you before—I don’t want them after you too.”
“Even if someone did come after me, they wouldn’t be fast enough. Once I get to the FBI,
they
can worry about this.”
“You really believe you’re safe? Then why did you tell your office you’re going home sick? Apparently you’re worried about telling anyone else about this.”
Emily had no response to that.
“And how do you know you’ll get a real FBI agent? He could be fake, like the ones who tried to kill me.”
“Those men showed up at your door with fake badges, Mom. Anybody can get a fake badge. I’m going to their big office in L.A. Where they work every day. That’s different.”
A stunning new thought sped through my brain. “Emily, what if Rutger and Samuelson
are
real FBI agents? If people in the FBI are involved in this, we
really
don’t know who to trust.”
“Why should they be real agents? One of them tried to kill you.”
“That’s just the point.”
“Deputy Harcroft told you they weren’t real agents.”
“Yeah, and look how much we trust him.”
Emily fell silent for a moment. “It doesn’t make sense. If those men had been real agents, and working with the terrorists just like Harcroft and Wade are, Harcroft wouldn’t have brought you to the station so fast. He wouldn’t have put surveillance on your house to protect you.”
I closed my eyes, trying to logic through it. “But they all
are
working together, whether those FBI agents are fake or real. Looks like that whole thing of ‘protecting us’ was nothing but a set-up.”
“Still, even if those fake agents were real ones, it doesn’t mean
all
of them are bad.”
“Emily. The sheriff’s department already has that video. Let them handle this.”
“No, not the whole sheriff’s department. The two men who interviewed you have it. And if they’re bad guys, you know they’re not showing it around.”
“But maybe someone else at the department has seen it. Someone who’ll try to stop this.”
“Even if that’s true, what if they haven’t seen that message I found? You want to chance having the entire West Coast and Washington, D.C. go black tonight? Think of the chaos. And that’s just for starters.”
“This can’t be true.” I got up and paced the room. “It just can’t be.”
“I know. I kept trying to tell myself that. But we have to believe it. I mean, this country’s known about homegrown terrorists for years. Remember the blown-up building in Oklahoma City?”
Emily had been nine. She’d watched the news at some friend’s house, including the covered bodies of children being carried out. She’d come home sobbing.
Still, I didn’t want to believe this. Even after everything that had happened. I just wanted to go back to my peaceful life, where the hardest thing was putting up with Mom’s music. That life never had to face down the reality that Americans like this existed.
“At least let me drive down and go with you. Maybe Aunt Margie will lend me her car.”
“That’ll take too long. And you’re much safer where you are.”
Tears scratched my eyes. If something happened to my daughter, I would never forgive myself. “Emily, please don’t do this. You don’t have to save the world.”
“Well, Mom, apparently I do. Whether we like it or not.”
My thoughts tripped over themselves. “No, don’t. I’ll go. I’ll turn myself in to the police here. I’ll tell them about the message on the video. They can download a copy from our online account, just like you did. They can call the FBI.”
“And first thing, you’ll be turned over to Harcroft and Wade. Who might just put you in a jail cell with the wrong person. Besides, I deleted our account.”
“You what? Why?”
“So they couldn’t trace a download of that video back to me.”
Oh. Of course.
I shivered. “Well, anyway, once the information is in the hands of authorities who can stop this from happening, there’s no reason for the terrorists to still want me dead. It’ll be too late.”
“Really? What if you’re wrong? And what happens to Grand while you’re in jail for murder until all this gets figured out?”
I don’t know, I don’t know!
Tears dropped onto my lap. Why were they chasing me in the first place? As if I could stop any of this.
“They won’t do that,” I said. “I’ll tell the FBI that Harcroft and Wade are lying.”
“Oh, like they’re just going to believe you over their own buddies.”
Now it was my turn to be silent.
“Look, Mom, if I go, maybe I can clear up these lies about you. I won’t tell them where you are. And while you’re safe, once the FBI starts investigating Harcroft and Wade, they’ll find some dirt on ’em.”
Maybe. And maybe she was just being naïve.
Emily sighed. “Thing is, no one, not even the real FBI, can
stop the attack from happening tonight—unless we find out what
Raleigh
means.
If
that word is the key to the encrypted message in the first place.”
What if that encrypted message had nothing to do with stopping the attack? It could be nonsense, for all we knew.
But Raleigh had to mean something. Even now I could picture Morton’s stricken face as he mouthed the word.
“I gotta go, Mom.”
“Emily, no. Please let
me
go.”
“Mom.
Stay where you are
. You’re safe at Aunt Margie’s.”
I quit pacing, unable to move. Emily and I hung on the phone, breathing. Argued out.
If this was all true, if the electricity was being taken down tonight, what would happen to us? To our country?
“Hannah!” Mom’s distant voice trailed into the bedroom. “Your breakfast is ready!”
“Mom,” Emily said in my ear, “I’m losing time. I
have
to go.”
I knew she had to. Millions of people, maybe even lives, depended on the attack being stopped. But why
my
daughter? “No, Emily. Please. I’ll do it.”
“No way. Not. If you call the police, they’ll arrest you. Then I won’t be able to call you and tell you what happened.
Don’t
do that.”
I hung my head, spent and sick to the core.
“Okay,” I said. “But watch out for a young, lanky guy with a buzz cut and a Southern drawl. He’s no FBI agent you can trust.”
“Got it.”
“The other one was older. And muscular. But I don’t think you have to worry about him. I shot him so many times—” I pressed my hand against my forehand. “I think I killed him.”