by Ken Fite
I nodded that I did. The bar lifted and I pulled through and parked in the same parking spot Willis had parked his Tahoe in. I climbed out and moved to the door. Stepped into the main entrance and caught the eye of the security guards. Slowly reached for my Glock and placed it on the counter for them to store for me. Placed my DHS credentials next to the Glock. “I should’ve held onto the visitor’s badge you gave me,” I said.
The man looked me up and down. “I remember you,” he said. “I’ll call Agent Reed. Just a moment.”
The woman took my weapon and pushed the visitor’s badge back across the desk to me while the other guard picked up a landline and pressed a few numbers. He waited a few seconds. Shook his head and disconnected. Tried again and got the same result. He dropped the receiver and walked back over to me.
“Not answering,” he said.
“I know where I’m going,” I said.
He nodded. “I’ll take you up with me.”
The woman pressed a button and I heard the magnet on the gate release. I stepped through and the guy walked me to the elevator. A minute later, we found Chris inside a conference room, and the security guy opened the door. “Agent Reed, I have Blake Jordan for you,” he said and gestured for me to enter.
I stepped inside. Tom Parker was sitting at the conference room table on my right. Directly across from him was Jami to my left. Chris Reed sat at the head. He looked over his shoulder and gave me the same strange look the woman at the guardhouse had just given me. “What the hell happened to you? ” he said.
Jami stood and walked over to me and gave me a hug. I winced in pain, but said nothing. “Are you okay?”
“No,” I said.
“What happened?” asked Parker, looking me over.
“Where’s Curt Willis?” I said.
Nobody spoke. Chris and Parker stood up from the table and stared at me blankly.
“Where is he?” I said.
Parker glanced at Reed briefly, then turned back to me. “We lost contact with both of you. An hour ago.”
“He tried to kill me,” I said.
Parker scoffed at the comment. I dug into my pocket. Pulled out the shield. Tossed it onto the conference room table. It made a loud clinking sound as it hit and slid over to Parker. He used the flat of his hand to stop it. He picked it up. Noticed the slug. Turned it over and inspected it.
“Good God,” he whispered as he saw the bent shape of the badge and looked me over for a long moment.
I glanced down and saw how wet my jeans and jacket and shirt were, and I understood the strange looks.
Jami furrowed her brow. “You’re all dirty,” she said, touching my mouth gently. “And you’re bleeding.”
Parker tossed the shield onto the table, back across to me. “Why would Curt Willis try to kill you?”
“Because I figured him out.”
Parker narrowed his eyes. “How so?”
I dropped the shield into my pocket. “His security clearance,” I said. “He used it to take the schematics.”
“At Homeland?”
I shook my head. “At the Bureau,” I said and turned to look at Reed. “Before he quit to take the DHS job.”
Silence in the room. Nobody spoke. Everyone just stared at me blankly.
“He told me everything,” I added. “Before he shot me and left me for dead. He told me the government shutdown had severely crippled the Bureau’s New York City field office. He formed a grudge against the president while he was working on a covert assignment to hunt down a terrorist who had supposedly entered the United States somehow.”
“Omar Malik,” said Jami.
I nodded. “His team started quitting. So he worked late nights, picking up the slack. He had a fiancée. Somebody broke into his home. She was killed.” I paused. Looked at each of them in turn.
“So what happened?” asked Parker.
I thought about it. “He poured himself into his work. He did it all himself. He finally tracked down Malik.”
“And?”
“And the guy made a deal with Willis. Told him he was going after the president.” I shook my head. “Guess Willis decided to work with him. Maybe temporarily. Maybe he was planning on bringing him in.”
“After Malik took the president out,” said Reed.
I nodded again. “He’s slowly and systematically taking out all of Omar Malik’s men. Maybe Malik is last.”
“So where is he now?” asked Parker.
“That’s what I need your help with,” I said. “If we find Curt Willis, we’ll find Omar Malik.”
More silence. Just empty stares. I glanced left. Saw Jami furrow her brow and look away. Chris Reed crossed his arms and turned to look out the conference room window. Parker looked to the side, thinking.
“Parker, why are you here?” I asked.
He said nothing.
“Why aren’t you back at DHS with Simon?”
He stepped forward and rested his hands on the back of his chair. Took in a deep breath and let it out. “Peter Mulvaney called me,” he began. “Said he needed to bring me in on something. He put together a meeting between Keller and Omar Malik. I just spoke with the president. He’s going to turn himself in.”
FORTY-NINE
I CROSSED MY arms. “I know,” I said. “Willis told me they were going to force Keller to surrender. Parker, how can Mulvaney go through with any of this? He’s just going to let the president be taken?”
Parker shook his head. “Mulvaney doesn’t know,” he said. “He just set up the secure line. I called the president myself, and he told me everything. Said he’s going to have Air Force One return to Andrews.”
“How will it go down?”
Parker said nothing.
“You need to tell Mulvaney.”
“Not yet,” he said. “We tell Mulvaney and he’ll relay the information to the Secret Service immediately.”
“Good.”
Parker shook his head again. “Then Omar Malik will use the drones to rain down missiles on every major US city. Every federal building. Maybe even the Hoover Building, Jordan. We have to play this smart.”
“Malik’s not going to do that,” I said. “He wants Keller. As long as he thinks he’s getting the president—”
“He’s already done it,” said Reed as he turned back from the window.
I turned to look at my friend. My eyes flicked between him and Parker, waiting for an explanation.
“Omar Malik fired a missile into the Pentagon,” said Parker.
Silence filled the room. Nobody spoke.
“Thirty minutes ago. Malik has assumed power and he’s showing us what he’s capable of.” Parker took a deep breath and let it out. “Do you know his background? You know why the guy’s doing all of this?”
I nodded. “His family,” I said. “They were killed in an airstrike.”
Parker furrowed his brow and stared at me for a second. “That’s right,” he said. “How do you know that?”
“Because I was there,” I said. “It’s a long story, but I was there. I watched the whole thing happen.”
Parker looked away briefly. He grew silent. Looked troubled. There was something he wasn’t telling me.
“What’s wrong, Parker?” I asked.
There was more silence. I glanced at Jami. She tucked a lock of hair behind an ear and looked down.
“Think about it, Jordan,” said Parker. “Do you really think Omar Malik wants Keller to turn himself in? You really think he’s going to take him hostage? You think the Secret Service would ever let that happen?”
I said nothing.
“I was sitting right here when Mulvaney came in and briefed me. You know Malik’s story. Guy’s been presumed dead for years. His whole family was killed. First drone strike in US history. They did it with one of the early model Predators, out in Afghanistan. There’s no way this guy really wants Keller to turn himself in. Even if Keller tries to do it, nobody on our side will let that happen. Malik’s gott
a know that. So what’s he doing, then? What’s the point of trying? Got to be something else going on. Some other plan we’re just not seeing. Time’s running out. They already struck the Pentagon. We’ve got to do something before Malik strikes another target.”
I thought about it. Parker was watching me. “You’re right,” I said. “Omar Malik doesn’t want the president to turn himself in. He knows that’ll never happen.” I paused. “He wants to kill him, Parker. With a drone.”
There was a knock at the door. A woman motioned for Jami to go with her. I remembered Maddie was here. Decided she was probably down at the Bureau’s infirmary being checked out. Jami told us she’d be right back, and I waited for the door to close before I said anything else. I thought about what Keller was doing and how he was answering the question Willis had asked. Yes, he’d surrender in order to save lives .
“We have to stop him, Parker,” I said.
“I know,” he said.
“We have to think of something.”
“What options do we have?”
Reed, Parker, and I stared at each other in silence, thinking about it. Then I remembered something. I reached across and grabbed a yellow legal pad and a pen from the middle of the table. Tore a sheet off and closed my eyes, trying to remember something. Opened them and wrote down one of the addresses and held it up for them to see. Parker furrowed his brow and stared. Said nothing.
“What’s that?” asked Reed.
I looked to the side, thinking about it. “Willis and I went to the home of Robert Hayes. We searched it. Found nothing but a laptop and a file folder. It had a list of clients and their addresses. Maybe defense contractors. Something having to do with drones. Two of them were prospective clients.” I looked at Parker and Reed in turn. “I took the laptop and the client list. We were leaving the home, and Willis wanted to go to Hayes’s work address. I told him that the FBI already had a team headed over there.”
“We did,” said Reed.
I nodded. “So Willis asked what I thought we should do. I showed him two addresses from the client list. Said we should check them out. Willis tensed up. I didn’t really understand it at the time. He suggested going to one of them, but it was farther away. I said we should go to the other one. It was closer.” I held up the sheet of paper. “Chris, we need to go to this address. The one Willis didn’t want to go to. Maybe Omar Malik and Willis are working from it. Like the place in the office park. Maybe they’re using it as a base to operate from. There’s got to be a reason Willis tensed up and didn’t want to go to this address.”
I told Parker he needed to figure something out to try to keep Keller safe. And if Keller tried to land, he needed to tell Mulvaney what was going on so the Bureau could relay the news to the Secret Service. Parker said he already had an idea on how to stop Keller from following through, but needed to make some phone calls to get the plan in motion, and would be in touch with the details as soon as he had them.
Reed and I left Parker in the conference room. We went down to the lobby and I retrieved my Glock. I handed my temporary visitor’s badge to the security guy. He said maybe I should hold onto it this time. I said I wasn’t planning on coming back.
We stepped out of the lobby and went into the garage and walked toward our vehicles. We were making our final plans when I heard someone behind us. “Are you crazy?” asked Jami, her voice echoing off the concrete walls.
I turned around and watched her approach. I said nothing. Just glanced at Reed for a moment and shrugged.
“You’re just going to leave without telling me? You trying to leave me out of this?”
I looked her over, thinking about it. “What about Maddie?”
“She’s asleep,” she said. “Blake, when we got here, she asked me if I would help her. She asked me if I could find her mom and dad. I said I would. She made me promise her. So you’re not leaving without me.”
I thought about it for a moment. Jami was right, we could use her help. “Okay,” I finally said. “Let’s go.”
FIFTY
WE LEFT IN one vehicle. Chris drove. Jami sat in the passenger seat and navigated us to the address. I sat behind her and kept my eyes closed. I was thinking about Willis and trying to figure out what his next move would be. Jami called Morgan on the way. She asked if he could use the satellite with infrared to scan the building and tell us how many hostiles we might be up against. He said it would take time to reposition the satellite for us. Time we didn’t have. She told him to forget it and keep working with Simon.
“He hasn’t heard from Simon in a while,” she said, disconnecting the call.
“He’s probably working on something for Parker,” I said.
I thought back to the conversation I’d had with Parker at the Hoover Building. Parker was probably busy convincing Keller to change his mind, and calling Simon to get an update on his work to stop the drones. Chris drove for ten more minutes. I kept my eyes closed, thinking through everything that had happened. Then the SUV came to a stop. I opened my eyes and saw Chris looking at me through the rearview mirror.
“What’s the plan?” he asked as Jami twisted in her seat and stared back at me.
I glanced out the backseat window. Looked down the long, dark street, thinking about it.
“We’ll have to split up,” I said. “Chris, you enter through the back of the building. We’ll take the front.”
Chris pushed open the door and stepped outside. Jami and I did the same. We closed our doors and stepped around to the back of the SUV. Chris pulled open the hatch and slid open a drawer. Handed us earpieces. I told him I didn’t have my phone, so he gave it to Jami so they could stay in communication.
He grabbed some extra mags and handed one to Jami and one to me. Found a Glock 17 he kept as a spare and gave it to Jami. I checked my 22 out of habit. Slid it back into my holster and stuffed the extra mag into a pocket. I watched Jami do the same. We stepped back from the SUV so Chris could shut the hatch.
Jami checked the earpiece and said a few words. Chris nodded that he could hear her okay. Said he’d draw them to the back so we could try to take anyone inside the building by surprise. Chris turned and headed north. He disappeared around the corner as Jami and I jogged south together. Neither of us spoke as we moved. We turned a corner and drew our weapons and kept them aimed at the ground as the building came into view. It was a flat, one-story office building. Looked newly built. It had the same name on the marquee I’d seen on the client sheet I’d found inside Hayes’s office. We slowed at the entrance and rested our backs flat against the wall, one of us on each side of the door. I looked over at her and nodded.
“Chris?” she said. There was a pause as she listened. “Copy that,” she added and stared at me and nodded.
I heard shots echoing from around the building. We waited ten seconds. Then I turned and fired at the door lock. The door opened an inch and I pushed it the whole way open. Kept my other hand wrapped around my Glock and stepped inside. It was dark. Jami stepped in behind me. I leveled my weapon and moved it side to side. Noticed some offices to my left and used four fingers to point at them with my left hand. I watched Jami move in that direction as I noticed a room up ahead of me to the right of the wall.
There were more shots fired from the back of the building. Then I saw a man step into view from the side room. I ducked behind a desk. He looked my way. Didn’t see me. Just turned toward Chris. I stood and leveled my weapon and moved past the room. “Drop it!” I yelled. The guy stood frozen. “Drop it now!”
He hesitated. Spun around. I fired two shots. The rounds hit him square in the chest and he fell backward.
“Blake!” I heard Jami yell from behind, followed by two more shots. I turned back and saw another guy had emerged from the side room. Jami had taken him out. I stepped closer to the guy I’d shot and kicked his weapon away from him. It slid across the floor. He was still alive, but bleeding out fast.
Chris approached from the back. He had his weapon in hi
s hands but aimed at the floor and said his side of the building was clear. Jami picked up the weapon I kicked away, and I pointed to the room the man had entered from. Chris moved in and Jami followed as I remained standing by the man I’d just shot.
“Where are they?” I said.
The man said nothing. Just stared up at me. He started to cough up blood and tried to suck in air.
“Omar Malik and Curt Willis,” I said. “Tell me where they are and I’ll try to help you.”
The man smiled. I leveled my weapon and thought about Willis. Us or them . “Willis isn’t on your side,” I said. “He killed some of your friends. He’s taking them all out.” I paused. “Tell me where I can find him.”
The smile faded. “Go to hell,” he whispered, and I watched as his chest stopped moving and he grew still.
“Damn it,” I said to myself.
I crouched and checked for a pulse. There was none. I heard Jami call for me. I stood and gripped my weapon tight as I entered through the doorway and saw her and Chris standing next to a blonde woman. She had a gag around her neck I figured they had pulled down before I had entered the room. The woman’s wrists were bound together. Jami had a hand on her arm, and Chris was using a knife to cut through the zip ties. He finished up. I watched as she massaged her wrists where the ties had dug into her.
“Are you okay?” asked Jami.
The woman nodded.
“What’s your name?” I said.
She hesitated. Looked at each of us in turn. “Patricia Hayes,” she said and paused for a brief moment. “Please, you have to help me. They have my daughter and my husband. They’re holding them hostage.”
“We know,” I said as Jami turned to face her.
“We have Maddie,” said Jami. “She’s at FBI headquarters, right down the street. She’s safe.”
Patricia Hayes stared at her. Tried to speak, but nothing came out. Jami smiled and nodded reassuringly.
“We need you to help us find your husband,” said Chris.
The woman looked at him, then turned to face me. She thought about it for a second before responding. “They had us all together,” she said. “Then they took Maddie away. The man in charge said to get rid of her. When his men never returned, he decided something had gone wrong. The man in charge told the people watching me to take me away. They brought me here.”