Imminent Threat

by Jeff Gunhus

  The ground jolted, sending all of them sprawling on the pavement.

  A torrent of flame shot out from the escape hatch, a hundred feet long, pouring into the building facing the park like a geyser.

  Glass shattered in the buildings all around them.

  The trees around the park moved like straw in the wind, back and forth. Then dozens of them fell, caving in toward the center of the park.

  The air filled with the sound of the trees snapping in half, the screams of people nearby, the sirens from emergency vehicles.

  Then slowly, everything came to a stop.

  A cloud of dust and debris rose up and spread, covering everything.

  Scott wondered whether the dust was filled with radioactivity. He covered his mouth, but he knew it wouldn’t do much good.

  The ground beneath his feet lurched one more time, but then that, too, settled.

  For a moment, Scott just stood in place. Waiting. Still not believing it was really over.

  The night was filled with alarms from the buildings all around them. Fire and police sirens followed soon after.

  Scott staggered forward and bent over Rick, who was sprawled out on the asphalt.

  “Rick?” Scott said, rolling him over. “Rick?”

  Rick’s eyes fluttered open, unfocused.

  “Medic!” Scott cried out. “I need a medic! C’mon, Rick. Hang in there.”

  “You press the button,” Rick whispered. “You press the button.”

  Scott leaned closer, not sure what he was saying.

  “Asset, you do it,” Rick said. “You press the button. The nuke. Never agreed to a nuke. That’s you. You press the button.”

  Scott thought he had heard wrong. The man was delirious. But maybe . . . just maybe . . .

  Oh Jesus.

  “Are you Omega?” he asked. “Rick, are you Omega?”

  For a second, Rick’s eyes focused and looked right at Scott. A sudden moment of clarity. He grinned wide, his teeth and lips covered in blood.

  “We’re going to burn down the world,” he said. “You can’t stop Omega. We’re everywhere.”

  Before Scott could respond, Rick’s eyes went wide. His mouth opened in a silent scream while his legs kicked and jerked. A wet, gurgling sound came from his throat.

  Scott rocked back on his knees. There was nothing to do except watch. Scott felt numb at the revelation. The only thought that came to him was that if the son of a bitch in front of him didn’t die in the next ten seconds, he’d strangle him with his own bare hands.

  That wasn’t necessary.

  Rick stopped moving, his open eyes staring up blankly into the night sky.

  “Dad? Dad? Are you there?”

  It was Mara in the earpiece. He didn’t know what to say. What to tell her. The truth eventually. It had to be the truth. But how?

  He didn’t have a clue.

  “Dad?”

  “I’m here, Mara,” he said. “I’m here.”

  He heard her sob on the other end of the connection. “Oh God, I thought . . . when you didn’t answer . . .”

  Scott stood and immediately stumbled. He felt off-balance, disoriented.

  “I’m fine,” he said. “I’m fine.”

  How did he tell her?

  “And Rick?” she said, her voice cracking.

  He blinked back tears. Not wanting to break his little girl’s heart, not once, but twice. “I got Rick out, honey,” he said. “But he didn’t make it. I’m so sorry.”

  A long pause on the line. He thought they’d been cut off. But she came back on, her voice thick with emotion. “Thank you for trying,” she said. “Where is he? I want to see him.”

  “You can’t come down here. There’s no telling what the radioactivity might be,” he said. It was true, but he also wanted to put off the inevitable conversation. He had to tell her in person. He had to be there for her when she found out. “I’ll stay with him,” he said.

  “You must be by the emergency exit,” she said. “I’m coming down.”

  “Mara, no,” he said. “Listen to me. He’s gone. There are thousands of people who need help right now. There’s no way of telling how bad the radiation is here. There’s a fight ahead of us with Omega. You need to get somewhere safe.”

  Nothing.

  He was desperate for her to stay away. Some of the radiation likely was in the library too, but the thick walls would have stopped most of it.

  There was only one way he could think to stop her from coming down.

  “Honey, I’m so sorry,” he said. “I have to tell you this. Rick. He was Omega. He was helping Asset. He admitted it before he died.”

  A long pause.

  “I’m so sorry. But you can’t come down here. Not for him. Do you hear me?” he said, begging. “Not for him.”

  Another long pause.

  It was Jordi who answered, speaking softly. “She heard you,” he said. “Then she turned off her earpiece. Is it true?” Jordi paused before saying, “Please tell me you were just saying that to keep her from coming down there.”

  Scott took a deep breath. “I wish I was, Jordi.” He felt nauseated. “Maybe I should have never told her.”

  “Everything Rick ever touched has to be investigated,” Jordi said. “You know that. It could lead us to Omega. But beyond that, she deserved to know.”

  “What she deserved is to not have another person she loves turn out to be nothing but lies and betrayal.”

  “But do you––”

  Scott never heard the end of whatever he was saying. He pulled the earpiece out and shoved it into his pocket.

  He walked back into Bryant Park. Intellectually, he knew he should be walking in the other direction, but had to see. The ground had heaved up from the blast, creating a berm of dirt, smashed concrete sidewalk, and fallen trees. He climbed through the wreckage until he was on top looking down.

  The entire lawn area of the park had collapsed almost twenty feet into a massive sinkhole. Giant trees lay scattered in a heap, but he saw no openings. No fissures leaking smoke. No glow of hot embers.

  Nor did he see any evidence of any people down in the pit.

  He figured there would be some injuries from the stampede he’d caused. There’d likely be some commission convened to investigate the night where men and women would second-guess his actions. But from what he could see, it had worked. And that was enough for him.

  He wondered at the scene. The engineering designed to keep the books safe from moisture and decay had saved thousands of lives.

  Omega was defeated. For today.

  But he knew for certain that they would try again.

  The earpiece he’d removed buzzed in his pocket. Jordi’s way to signal an urgent message. He dug it out and held it to his ear in case it was Mara reconnecting.

  “Go ahead, I’m here,” he said.

  “Coms at the black site just came back on,” Jordi said. “They came for Scarvan. There was a firefight.”

  “Anna?” Scott said. “What about Anna?”

  Jordi told him what had happened, Scott’s heart hammering in his chest. Before Jordi was even done, Scott had already broken into a sprint back toward Grand Central Station.

  The exhaustion he’d felt only seconds before was gone, replaced with a surge of adrenaline.

  Anna. He didn’t want to lose her.

  He reached the door to the stairwell, punched in his code.

  Nothing.

  “I’ve got it,” Jordi said in his ear.

  The door buzzed open.

  Scott rushed through and hit the stairs, taking them three and four at a time.

  As he got closer to the black site, he smelled the cordite from the gunfight in the air. Smoke wafted up.

  Jordi had informed the security team on-site that Scott was coming. They opened the last doors for him and he ran through.

  Bodies were strewn all over the site. Some CIA. Others dressed in tactical gear.

  The fight had been brutal a
nd in close quarters.

  Then he saw her, sitting in a chair, her hair matted with blood.

  He ran to her. She groaned in pain as he carefully embraced her.

  “Are you shot?” he asked.

  She shook her head. “Last time I was shot, it was by you,” she said. “Might have a few broken ribs, is all. These assholes didn’t know who they were dealing with.”

  He kissed her forehead, ignoring the fact that the blood pasting her hair back likely wasn’t hers. Anna was a fighter. He could only imagine the defense she’d mounted.

  “Scarvan . . .” Anna said.

  “It’s okay,” Scott said. “You did your best. We’ll find him again.”

  Anna looked at him oddly. “You think I’d let these pricks take him? I stashed him in the cleaning supplies closet. We still have him.”

  Scott grinned. “Now you’re just showing off.”

  “That’s what I’ve been up to,” she said. “What happened up there? Is Mara all right?”

  Scott reached out and took her hand in his. He leaned forward and gently touched their foreheads together. “She’s alive. It will take a while for her to be all right, but she’s alive.”

  Anna didn’t ask for clarification. She just held him. And he let her.

  For a few moments, the rest of the world didn’t exist. But they both knew that wouldn’t last for long. Even though the attack had been thwarted, a nuclear device had been detonated in the middle of New York City.

  The second that happened, the world had changed forever.

  CHAPTER 72

  Mara stared down her beer, not taking her eyes off it when Hawthorn took the seat next to her.

  “Did my dad send you here?” she asked.

  “He may have mentioned he was meeting you here to watch the president’s address,” he said. “Seemed like as good a place as any.”

  “I’m not changing my mind.”

  Hawthorn ignored the comment. “I’ve sat at this bar a lot over the years,” Hawthorn said, ordering a drink. “Quite a few times with your father.” He pointed at her. “More than once when he had the same expression you have on your face right now.”

  They were at Old Ebbit Grill, a landmark establishment that was walking distance to the White House. All dark wood and brass, it was a mix of tourists and government workers on the job. The bar had mounted animal heads above it, some with fake antlers, adding some whimsy to the place.

  Mara wasn’t in the mood for whimsy. In fact, she wasn’t in the mood for anything. The last five days were a whirlwind that had left her feeling both physically and emotionally hollowed out.

  In the aftermath of the bombing, every law enforcement official in America had taken part in the hunt for co-conspirators. The body of Alexis Papadopoulos had been found, but the trail had stopped there. Asset was long gone. There were no other leads.

  The world reeled from the new reality of a nuclear device finally being used in a terrorist act. Markets closed for three days to hold back panic selling. Still, on the fourth day, world markets plunged precipitously. But, by the end of the trading session, cooler heads prevailed, and they stabilized.

  In the midst of all this, with demands on every minute of her day, Mara was processing the unthinkable. The man she’d thought she loved was the enemy. Playing her the entire time.

  Her skin crawled at the thought of his touch. Of the intimacy they’d shared. Her stomach twisted at the idea that she’d nearly helped these madmen achieve their goal.

  The frantic pace of the days had helped. There was no time to dwell on what it all meant. Or fixate on how her and her dad’s lives had formed into this bizarre parallel, both of them deceived by the person they loved.

  All she had time for was work. Even so, more than a few times each day, she had to excuse herself, find a private spot, and let the emotion pour out of her. Anger. Grief. Shame. All of it bursting out of her. Sometimes in shuddering tears, other times in blind rage, still others curled up into herself, knees to chest, beating herself up for letting it happen.

  Five days. And it still felt no better.

  “You saved thousands of lives,” Hawthorn said. “Not a bad day at the office.”

  “We were lucky,” Mara said.

  “Maybe we were good,” Hawthorn said, taking a drink of his beer.

  “We were lucky,” Mara insisted. “Things could have gone the other way. My mistake. My lapse in judgment could have destroyed the world.”

  “You’re not the only one who made a mistake with Rick Hallsey,” Hawthorn said. “The Secret Service hired him. Mitch Dreslan put him on the presidential detail.”

  “None of them were sleeping with him,” she countered. That was easier than saying she’d fallen in love with him. That she’d considered he might be the person to be with for the rest of her life.

  It may have been easier for her to talk about it that way, but it caused Hawthorn to take a long drink.

  “That’s true, they weren’t sleeping with him,” he said. “But they trusted him. I trusted him. It’s what makes this Omega threat so terrifying. If feels like they are everywhere.”

  “Which is why you want me to stay?” Mara said.

  “No, it’s why I need you to stay,” he said. “Now more than ever.”

  She took another drink of her beer. “Give me a week,” she said.

  He smiled, the cat who knew how the game with the mouse would turn out. He raised his pint and they clinked glasses. “In a week,” he said. “Good decisions happen after a week. It took about that long for me to decide to ask Francie McKee out on a second date, for example.”

  Mara had known Hawthorn’s wife, Francie. They’d had the kind of marriage everyone around them envied. Mara had been at her funeral after she lost her battle with cancer.

  “What? How could it have taken that long to ask her out?”

  “I was nervous. Uncertain where it would lead. Scared to death, to be honest. And look what happened. That decision ended up creating the very best thing in my life,” Hawthorn said. “Three children. Eight grandchildren. What will they all end up doing? What great things will occur because they are here on this Earth?”

  “Thank goodness you asked Francie out on that second date,” Mara said, smiling.

  “Thank goodness, indeed.”

  She raised her glass again. “I miss her.”

  He raised his. “Not nearly as much as I do,” he whispered.

  Scott and Anna joined them. “What the hell are you two drinking? Pilsners? Ugh.” He waved at the bartender. “Two of the hoppiest IPAs you can find, please.”

  Anna kissed Mara on each cheek and took the seat next to her. Scott squeezed her shoulder.

  “I just saw the latest briefing,” Anna said. “Seven fatalities, including the bad guys. They’re adding Scarvan to the count. It’s better he’s dead to the rest of the world.”

  “Radiation levels have stabilized,” Hawthorn said. “Most of the site is contained.”

  Scott nodded. “The blast collapsed the tunnel leading from the stacks to the main library, so no radiation escaped in that direction.”

  “And the escape hatch area?” Mara asked.

  Hawthorn answered. “That area is the biggest problem. The people who were near it will need to be monitored for several years, but the docs are optimistic.”

  “They told me my exposure was similar to what astronauts experience in space,” Scott said.

  “When they’re in space for a year,” Anna said. “Don’t minimize this. I know you; you’ll make it a reason not to do the check-ups.”

  “Where’s Jordi?” Mara asked. “I thought you were bringing him?”

  “’Ere I am, darling,” Jordi said, coming in from the adjoining room.

  Mara jumped up and gave him a hug. He’d been a good friend in the last five days, helping her through the terrific struggle of dealing with Rick’s betrayal. In fact, they’d all been great. The only one who’d beat her up over the whole thing was herself.


  Hawthorn checked his watch. “Couple more minutes,” he said.

  President Patterson was scheduled to address the nation and they were all interested to hear what he had to say. All the networks were covering it and there was a rumor that a major policy initiative was to be announced. Hawthorn knew, but he was playing it close to his vest. He assured them they would find it interesting.

  Mara positioned herself so she could see all of their faces.

  “Before this starts, I want to thank all of you for giving me my space in the last five days,” Mara said. “It’s been hard to process this.” She paused for a beat, pushing aside the easy dark jokes she could make, knowing they were all just a defense mechanism. She took a deep breath. “Really hard. But the support here means everything to me. Thank you.”

  The group lifted their glasses toward Mara and took a drink. Scott got up and hugged her, giving her a kiss on the cheek.

  “You’re going to be okay,” he whispered.

  She nodded, staying close to his shoulder to hide her tears from the rest of the group.

  “I’ll feel better when we find Omega and put these assholes in the ground,” she said.

  Scott held her tighter. “That’s my girl. We’ll get them. And we’ll make them pay. I promise.”

  Mara pulled back and wiped her eyes, getting herself back together. “You’re buying the next round,” she said. “And we’re staying here late. We’ll start looking for Omega tomorrow.”

  “I’d love nothing more,” Scott said.

  “We’re in,” Anna and Jordi said together.

  “For which part?” Mara asked.

  “For the drinking late tonight and the hunting tomorrow,” Anna said, sliding an arm around Scott’s midsection. “I’m here for all of it.”

  “Everyone, the president’s on,” Hawthorn said.

  They all turned toward the screen, huddled close together. Not because there wasn’t enough space, but because right then, all of them needed to feel part of something greater than themselves. That none of them were alone. That they had found a family.

  The entire restaurant fell silent as the screen changed to President Patterson sitting in the Oval Office.