"If I had to guess, I'd say pretty much on the same trail you are. Where exactly are you headed?"
"We don't know, Sean. I told you that before."
"I know, but I thought that status would've changed by now. You're with the president and you don't know where you're going?"
"Everything's screwed up. We're flying blind here, stomping on every rule and protocol in the Secret Service manual. Larry Foster is the detail chief and he's about to have a coronary. But after that confrontation in the Oval Office the next thing we know we're in Alabama taking a chopper to a set of map coordinates."
"Aaron, that's nuts. You could be walking right into a trap."
"Tell me something I don't know. You think the Service is happy about this? But he's the president, man."
"You're telling me the director of the Secret Service is letting this happen? Or the president's senior advisors? How about the vice president?"
"You know it's all a balancing act. He's the commander in chief and we're his serfs. But we've worked our butts off behind the scenes, called in support from the FBI and the military, and we think we have a decent protection bubble set up even given the crummy circumstances."
Waters looked over and motioned for Betack to give him the phone.
"King? This is Chuck Waters."
"Hey, Chuck, I left you a message."
"What the hell are you doing?"
"If I told you, Chuck, you wouldn't believe me. Aaron filled me in on what's going on there. You guys could be heading into an ambush."
"Yeah, but what the president doesn't know is that we've got two choppers full of HRT riding ahead of us. By the time we land, and before the president steps one foot off his bird, they'll have scoped the area and set up a perimeter that not even an ant could get through. Then if we still don't like what we see, we're out of here, president or not."
"But what if they shoot you out of the sky?"
"We got that covered too. Each of the choppers is equipped with the latest air-to-air and ground-to-air countermeasures. Plus we got military birds all over the place riding shotgun over us. And a battalion of Apache gunships is moving outward grid-by-grid from the ground zero coordinates we were given, looking for any threat. And, man, you see an Apache heading your way you either surrender, shit your pants, or both."
"Okay, but we found something that you need to know about. Maybe an Achilles' heel." Sean explained about the metal cylinders.
"Where'd you find them?"
"I'll explain later. I hope you got something to counter it."
"I'll see what I can do. Where are you now?"
"Headed to an abandoned mine with a little boy named Gabriel."
"Gabriel? And why a mine?"
"Because I think there might be a little girl there."
"Willa?"
"Hoping and praying, Chuck. Let's keep in touch. And good luck."
CHAPTER 79
SAM QUARRY stared down so intently at the improvised SAT phone in his hand it was like he was cradling a poisonous snake. It wasn't nearly time for Carlos to be calling him but a part of him wanted the call to have already come. He wanted this over.
He checked with Daryl to make sure everything was ready and then headed to Willa's room. When he entered, she and Diane were huddled around the table. He'd decided that on this day, this last day, the two women should be together. They looked up when he walked in and closed the door behind him.
He leaned against a wall and lit up a cigarette.
"What's going on?" Willa said in a trembling voice. She had never been the same since she'd discovered it was possible something had happened to her family.
"It's just about over," said Quarry. "At least I'm hoping it is."
"Hoping?" said Diane, her face weary and her voice equally tired.
"Yeah, hoping," said Quarry. "And praying."
"And what if your hopes don't turn out?" asked Willa.
"Yeah, tell us. Mr. Sam," said Diane coldly. "What then?"
He ignored her and looked at Willa. "I brought my daughter home. The sick one."
"Why'd you do that?"
He shrugged. "It was time. Said my goodbyes and all. It's all good."
"Your goodbyes?" asked Willa in a fearful voice.
"See, whichever way this turns out, things are over for me. All done. Ain't gonna see anybody anymore."
"Are you going to kill yourself?" said Diane, with a hopeful edge to her voice.
Quarry's lips eased into a smile. "Can't kill a man who's already dead."
Diane merely looked away, but Willa said, "Who'll take care of your daughter if you can't?"
Diane looked back over with a curious expression. It was obvious that she had not even considered this issue.
Quarry shrugged. "It'll be okay for her."
"But-"
He moved to the door. "You two just sit tight."
He left.
Diane drew close. "It's not going to be okay, Willa."
Willa just stared at the door.
"Willa, do you hear me?"
Apparently Willa didn't hear her. She just kept staring at the door. The plane hadn't been there so Michelle was driving hard. Gabriel was next to her feeding directions and Sean was in the backseat looking at the sky and checking for a chopper carrying a president and a First Lady who had much to answer for.
"Turn there, left," said Gabriel.
Michelle cut a hard left that flung Sean across the backseat.
"If we die before we get there, it will really be counterproductive," he said sharply as he struggled to sit back up and slipped on his safety harness.
"How much further, Gabriel?" said Michelle.
"Another hour," he said. "Mr. Sam can make it there a lot faster in the plane. I've never been on a plane before, have you?"
Michelle was studying the road ahead. Every time they came to a straightway she would floor it, but as they moved up into hilly ground the straight roads were rapidly disappearing. "Yeah, I've been on a plane." She jerked her head in Sean's direction. "He's been on Air Force One with the president."
Gabriel turned to stare in awe at Sean. "You met the president?"
Sean nodded. "But remember, he puts his pants on the same way you and I do. Only when he has his on he can push a button and blow up the world."
Michelle turned around and gave him a "what the hell?" look before saying, "If you want to go on a plane ride one day, Gabriel, we can arrange it."
"That'd be cool. You go right at the next road."
"What road?" said Sean as another jarring bump nearly unseated him. "You mean this obstacle course we've been on for the last ten miles?"
As she made the turn and the road grew steeper, Michelle engaged her four-wheel drive and they bumped along.
"Tell us about the mine, Gabriel," said Michelle.
"Like what?"
"One entrance in or more?"
"Just the one I know about. Got a grassy runway Mr. Sam put in. I came up here in the truck with him sometimes and we'd mow the grass flat."
"Keep going," Michelle said encouragingly. "The more we know the better we'll be prepared."
He explained about the shafts and the rooms Quarry had built inside.
"Why did he do all that?" asked Sean
"He said if the world was coming to an end that we'd all go up there and stay. He has food, water, lanterns, stuff like that."
"And guns," said Michelle.
"And guns," agreed Gabriel. "Probably lots of them."
Sean pulled out his own nine millimeter along with two extra mags he always carried.
Two pistols, a few extra mags, a little boy, two potential hostages, and going into a dark mine where the other side was armed to the teeth, knew every crevice, and you didn't. He caught Michelle's gaze in the rearview mirror.
She was obviously thinking the same thing he was because she mouthed, "I know."
Sean's eyes went to the side window. The terrain here was growing ever steeper. Even
as the warming sun came up, it seemed dark and cold. He thought back to the room at Atlee. To a story on a wall that had probably taken Sam Quarry years to construct. Then he thought back to that night in Georgia, walking down that street, seeing the young lady on top of the future president, falling out of the car with her panties dangling around her ankles. The man had a beautiful, intelligent wife at home waiting for him. He'd just been elected to the U.S. Senate. And he was getting balled by some twenty-year-old chick in a car?
And then his mind turned to another woman. Tippi Quarry.
He raped me, Daddy.
A bloody abortion.
A coma for all these years.
Persistent vegetative state, Quarry had written on the wall, underlining each word three times.
Sean had no children. But if he had and something like that had happened to his daughter, what would he do? How far would he go? What sort of a story on a wall would he construct? How many people could he kill?
He slid the gun back in his belt holster.
They would find Sam Quarry up at the mine. He was sure of that. They would find Willa and this Diane woman too. Whether alive or not he was uncertain.
But as to the question of what he and Michelle should do about it all?
He really didn't know.
CHAPTER 80
AN HOUR BEFORE the two choppers carrying the president and his security detail landed, a pair of large helicopters with two dozen Hostage Rescue Team members and lots of equipment hit the dirt about a hundred yards from Quarry's little house. The men rolled off and then fanned out, guns ready. Equipment was hauled off the chopper and then deployed. They did a recon of the immediate area but came up with zero.
In the lead-lined bunker, Carlos, who had heard the chopper come in, hunkered down below the grade line, but his gaze never left the TV monitor set up in front of him. He did make the sign of the cross and mumble a short prayer.
Half the HRT squad set up a temporary perimeter while the other half pulled some more equipment from the second chopper.
Principal among these were two mobile robots, weighing about a hundred pounds apiece. They set them on the ground, fired them up, and one HRT member, using what looked like a very sophisticated joystick, sent the first robot into action. It rolled around and around the perimeter of the house, growing closer to it with each pass and finally entering the house and making a sweep inside. If there were any mines, IEDs, or other explosives here, the robot's onboard infrared sensors would detect them before detonation occurred. Then the HRT explosives specialists could dispose of them safely.
No explosives were detected, so they sent out the second robot. This was even more cutting-edge than the first. The HRT squad had named this machine the Gamma Hound. Its role was to detect radiological, biological, or chemical substances over whatever ground it passed. The HRT squad member used a practiced hand at the joystick to send Gamma Hound on its rounds, even rolling it up on the porch and into the house. Gamma Hound never once "barked." The place was clean.
Only then did the HRT squad approach the house and then go inside. What they found in there stunned even the most veteran members of the group.
The leader got on his two-way and reported, "We got a nonresponsive Caucasian female between thirty and forty in a hospital bed hooked up to what appears to be an elaborate life support system juiced by a battery generator. We've checked the place for weapons and other threats and found none. Other than her the place is clean."
The squad leader waiting outside listened to this report and then exclaimed, "What in the hell did you just say?"
His man repeated it. The HRT leader in turn radioed this information back to the president's chopper.
One of his men looked at him and said, "What do we do now?"
"We go over that house with a fine-toothed comb. And we lock this whole area. I don't want one living thing, other than the coma lady in there, within a thousand yards of this place."
"Who is she?"
"I have no idea, and I don't need to know. All I know is the president is coming and nothing is going to harm him on my watch. Now move out!"
Another careful search was made of the area. HRT men tramped on and around the bunker where Carlos sat huddled. They didn't find the camera in the tree because Quarry, ever the detail man, had cut a hole in the oak, placed the camera inside, and patched up the hole with bark glued on so that only the camera lens was showing. And as high up as it was, and covered from the ground by dense foliage, except for the sightline Quarry had cut in it, it might as well have been invisible.
Some of the HRT went back inside the house and used a crowbar to pry up one of Quarry's fine floorboards. Underneath was a standard sheet of one-inch plywood. An HRT member pounded on it with his fist. "Solid as a rock. Must be the cement foundation underneath."
"Make sure," said the squad leader.
A drill was brought in and they drilled through the plywood until the drill bit hit something hard and would go no farther.
"Solid."
"Okay, good enough."
They put the floorboard back. And then did the same probe with each of the four walls. Solid again.
The area secured, no threats found, and the perimeter established, the HRT squad patiently waited for the president of the United States to land. Once he got here they had no idea what he intended to do. All they knew was if a threat did show up, they would destroy it with enough firepower to take out an Army battalion. They'd parked the SUV and gotten out. They had no choice because the road had ended at a wall of fallen boulders.
"That wasn't here before," said Gabriel. "Used to be able to drive up to the door."
"That probably wasn't going to be an option for us anyway," said Sean.
With Gabriel leading, they headed toward the mine. They had to scramble over more rock and slippery dirt. Sean tumbled down one section before righting himself.
"Showing my age," he said with an embarrassed look.
"Hey, when's the last time you took a weapons refresher course?" asked Michelle.
"If we run into something that needs to be hit, I'll hit it. I'm just counting on you to hit it first."
"Gee, I'll try to keep that in mind."
They kept moving forward.
Gabriel said, "I don't have a key to the door to the mine."
"That won't be a problem," said Michelle. "Just get us to it."
A few minutes later they cleared the rock and could see the grass runway.
"Is that his plane?" Sean asked, pointing at the little Cessna.
"That's it."
He suddenly pointed to the right. "And that's Mr. Sam," he whispered.
They all looked in that direction.
Sam Quarry had come out of the mine carrying what looked to be a small black box. From their hiding spot Michelle took aim with her pistol, but from this distance there was no guarantee of a killing round with the sidearm. She glanced at Sean and shook her head.
"He's older than I would have thought," whispered Sean as he studied the tall, white-haired man.
"Strong as a bull," said Gabriel. "I seen him knock a man down even bigger than him and half his age 'cause the fella cursed at my momma. He fights real good."
"I hope I don't have to find out how good," said Sean dryly.
"But we came up here to make sure everybody's okay. That girl and Mr. Sam, right?"
Sean and Michelle exchanged another glance.
"Right. But look, Gabriel, that's up to him. If he starts something, then we have to respond, okay?"
"I'll talk to him. It'll be okay. He won't hurt anybody. I know Mr. Sam."
Michelle eyed Sean. Neither of them looked nearly as confident as Gabriel about how this would turn out.
CHAPTER 81
THE TWO CHOPPERS landed softly.
The president looked out the window and his face flushed. "What the hell is going on here? Who are they?" He was pointing to the HRT squad.
Before anyone could answer, Chuck W
aters tapped on the glass. One agent opened the chopper door and put down the staircase.
"Who are they?" the president demanded again.
Waters said, "HRT, sir. They came ahead to secure the area."
"That was not authorized by me."
"No sir, it was okayed by the director of the FBI."
Cox didn't look happy about this, but the FBI director was the one man who did not serve at his pleasure but rather was appointed to a fixed term and remained there regardless of whether there was a change in the White House.
As they watched, the two bomb-sniffing dogs from the other chopper were led by their handlers toward the building. Even though the robot had already made a sweep of the area, when the president's safety was at issue, redundancy was standard procedure. The dogs patrolled the perimeter and then went inside. A few minutes later they came out, with one of the handlers signaling the all-clear.
Back at the chopper Waters continued, "He was advised of the situation by the Secret Service director and concluded that this was the best course of action if you insisted on coming here, sir."
"How very thoughtful. Let's hope that my niece isn't dead because of his little conclusion."
"So that is why we're here?" asked Larry Foster. "Because the kidnappers made some demand?"
Everyone looked over at Jane Cox.
Waters said, "We know the letter that I took from you, Mrs. Cox, was not the real thing. Did the actual letter tell you to come here?"
"No, it gave a phone number to call. I did. On that call I was told to come here with the president, if I wanted to get my niece back alive."
"Did the caller tell you what you had to do once you got here?"
"Go inside a house and see a woman in a bed," she said.
"Well, the HRT found a lady in a bed in that building. She's hooked up to life support systems. Who is she?"
"I don't know," Jane said firmly. "I'm just here to get my niece back."
Waters said skeptically, "You don't know her? You're sure?"
"How am I supposed to know? I haven't even seen who she is!" snapped Jane.
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