The 13: Fall (7 page)

   CHAPTER 9   

T
his is ridiculous!” Keene said. He walked back and forth in front of Jennings’s desk, scuffing the newly polished hardwood. “I’m not about to go traipsing around the city with a computer nerd and a chapy trying to find him—”

“Hey!” Jennings stood up and put a halt to his operative’s rant. “Sit down,” he said, motioning to a chair.

Keene was still fuming and just looked at his boss.

“I said, sit down!” Jennings said, matching Keene’s tone.

Keene reluctantly took the seat.

“Let me tell you something,” Jennings continued as he sat back down. “When the president of the United States calls you at three thirty in the middle of the night and tells you—not asks,
tells
you—to bring someone to see him, you don’t ask questions. You do it! This is top priority, as far as he’s concerned. He asked me who the best guy I had was. Unfortunately, for both of us, that’s you! And if he decides to send you and this computer girl and this … this …”

“Chapy.”

“What?” Jennings looked at him.

“Chapy, chaplain. Military pastor.”

“Whatever. Then the three of you are going to do exactly what he asks. Do I make myself clear?”

“There’s something you need to know, man.” Keene stopped and chose his words carefully. “I think the president may be a little misguided on this.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Man, you know!” Keene said, waiting for Jennings to catch on.

Jennings stared blankly at him.

“C’mon, Kevin. Look, I’m not trying to suggest that the president is some religious zealot. But everyone knows his stand on faith and God. He actually suggested that this
Prophet
might not be a terrorist.”

Jennings stood back up, “I don’t care if this guy thinks he’s Moses himself. The president has asked—no,
told
—you that you’re on this. Whatever thoughts you have about God and faith are your problem.
Our
problem is finding who this guy is and what organization he belongs to before he does it again. Or worse. And that means you do whatever you need to do to get it done. Understood?”

Keene watched as Jennings walked over to the door and opened it.

“This is ridiculous!” Keene said, leaving the office the same way he came in.

   CHAPTER 10   

B
ill Preston looked up as the door to his office opened.

“How did the rest of your meeting go?”

“Oh, it went great!” Taylor said, her words dripping with sarcasm.

She plopped herself down in the chair in front of her boss’s desk. Preston continued looking over the document he had in front of him.

“Sir, he wants an answer for how this happened.”

“Okay, so give him one.” When Taylor said nothing, he finally put the document down and looked at her. “Actually, I’d like one, too. Care to share?”

“Funny.” Taylor grimaced. “You and I both know this is going to take some time. I’ve got to reverse-engineer the pathway and find out where it came from. Maybe then I can tell you more.”

“Well then,” Preston said, “better get to it.”

“Let me ask you something, sir.”

Preston nodded to her.

“How well do you know the president?”

“How do you mean?”

“I mean, how well do you know him? Are you purely business? Do you ever see him socially? Do your wives know each other? Are you—”

“Friends?” Preston finished her sentence for her. “No, not really. I mean, I’ve been to several of his functions. We’ve seen each other, on occasion, outside of federal business. He’s the president of the United States, Taylor. It’s not like he just goes out and hangs with the guys. Why?”

“I don’t want you to think I’m jumping to conclusions….”

“But?”

“But, well, the president has known about this guy from the video for three months now and hasn’t said anything to anyone.”

Preston just looked at her.

“Don’t you think that’s a little strange?”

Preston pursed his lips. “Strange? No. Breach of protocol, yes. But Grant has his reasons.”

Immediately she regretted saying anything. If her boss new about this and didn’t follow up with it, it could mean congressional hearings if something else were to happen as a result of keeping it quiet.

“Sir, I don’t want to start any trouble.”

“Too late for that now, Taylor. What are you talking about?”

Taylor felt the buzz inside her jacket. She fished the phone out and hit the button, grateful for the interruption.

“Taylor here.”

“It’s Keene.”

“Hold on.”

She pulled the phone away and covered it with her hand and whispered, “It’s that Jon Keene guy. From the White House this morning. I probably should take this.”

She backed out of the door and put the phone back to her ear, leaving her boss sitting where she found him.

“I’m back, what can I do for you, Mr. Keene?”

“First of all, it’s Jon. Or Keene. Either one of those is fine. Never Mr. Keene, got it?”

“Yeah, sure.” She pulled the phone away and looked at it and mouthed,
Whatever!

“Where are you?”

“At my office. Why?”

“Good, I’m outside. Black Pathfinder with black wheels. I’m in the visitor spot. Let’s go.”

“Go where? I’m not going anywhere with you.”

“You heard the man. We’re on this together. And you also heard him say I’m lead on this. Now let’s go. We’re going to see a guy. If you’re not out here in five minutes, I’m going by myself, and I’ll tell Grant you chose not to participate.”

The line went dead.

Taylor went from zero to fuming in a snap. First, she’d been in the same room with Keene and the president. She had not even once heard the president say Keene was in charge. Second, she had other things to be doing right now. Trying to find the source of that recording from last night, to start with. Not riding around in a car with some CIA macho wannabe superspy.

Nevertheless, the CIA was known for turning up people who didn’t want to be found. She needed to know who this particular someone was and if he was going to shed any light on the situation.

She grabbed her bag from her desk and headed out the door.

   CHAPTER 11   

L
ewis Hardy, the president’s chief of staff, stood in front of his boss, pleading his case for the third time. It really was a matter of perception, he argued. The American people deserved to know that there was a possible threat.

“I’m not about to go out there and tell the people some guy sent me a private e-mail threatening this nation. Have you lost your mind?”

“I’m not suggesting that, sir,” Hardy said. “But if you at least let
me
go out there and just announce that we’ve had some chatter increase and we’re raising the threat level in order to take all precautions, we’ll at least be covering our butts if something should happen.”

“And Marianne Levy will drag me before some judiciary committee and try to impeach me.”

“Mr. President, this could be serious.”

“I’m well aware of that. And I will meet with Director Levy and ask her if she is aware of anything out of the ordinary. We’ll take it from there.”

“And if she agrees with me?”

“Then we’ll revisit this and decide how to inform the American people.”

“And I’ll twist his arm to make sure.” Boz, silent until this moment, spoke at last.

Hardy looked relieved. “Yes, sir. Thank you!” Then to Boz, “And thank
you.
”

Boz nodded to him and smiled as Hardy turned and left the room.

“You’re not telling Levy anything. Are you?” Boz asked as Hardy disappeared.

“Nope.”

Boz laughed and said, “But we both know Lewis is right. You don’t go out there, and this becomes a whole ‘nother level of big deal….”

“Yeah, you’re probably right. But what if it
is
a whole ‘nother level?” Grant made the fake quotation marks with his fingers.

“That’s why I’m here, isn’t it?” Boz said, already knowing the answer.

“Boz, I don’t want to scare anyone, but you and I both know that if this is not some terrorist making threats, we have a big problem on our hands.”

“Correction,” Boz said. He walked to the window and pointed outside. “If this guy isn’t a terrorist …” He let it hang there for a moment. “That’s a lot of people out there, Calvin.” He paused, looking out at the city. “We’ll all have a big problem.”