The Wolf In The White House

by Bonnie Burrows

  She looked long and hard at the picture, scrolling to another picture with the same results.

  “It’s gone,” she whispered. “How could it be gone?”

  “Have you left Archer’s side since August?”

  “No, of course not. It’s a busy time, and I don’t usually take a vacation until the spring when things die down a little. I was even in Hawaii with them. I go everywhere with Archer and Elaine. I was Elaine’s Maid of Honor. Their children call me Aunt.”

  “So, there’s no time he could have gotten the scar touched up or removed?”

  “No. And I’ve seen the scar up close, it’s not something that would disappear with a few laser treatments.”

  “Then how do you explain it?”

  “I can’t.” Maci scrolled through, looking at each image up close, her confusion growing. “There has to be a logical explanation.”

  “The logical explanation is that he’s not really Archer.”

  “I find your story hard to believe,” she said honestly. “I don’t understand why someone would replace Archer with a clone, or how that would help any cause, no matter how nefarious.”

  “It’s not just Archer,” Logan said. “Archer is the most recent change. There are many men and women in DC who aren’t themselves anymore.”

  “You don’t think that is a little outlandish?”

  He shrugged.

  “I can’t tell you why, but I know that it’s happening, and I know that we have to stop it.”

  “We?”

  “You don’t think they’re going to let you get away with knowing this, do you?”

  “They?”

  He smiled.

  “You know, the infamous they. Except, this time, they really do exist, and I would lay money that they’re already on their way here.”

  Maci shot a nervous glance at the security camera display on the screen behind her laptop.

  “I don’t see anyone.”

  “Let’s not wait for them to get here,” he said. “Do you have a go bag?”

  “I do.”

  “Then let’s get going.” He stood, moving out of her way so she could get out of the chair. “Bring your laptop, but leave your phone.”

  “I can’t leave my phone.”

  “It’s got a tracking device in it. We can’t risk it.”

  “I’m not going with you.”

  He sighed heavily.

  “Then let’s take the car and park somewhere. If no one shows up here, then I’ll let you take me in.”

  “Promise?”

  “I promise.”

  “Okay. Let’s do this, then.”

  She started to leave the office when he stopped her.

  “Your go bag?”

  “Oh, right. I guess I should bring it, just in case you’re right.”

  She went to a large chair by the door, shoving it to the side and pulling away the area rug to reveal a floor safe. She opened the lock with her fingerprint, pulling out her bag and covering the safe again.

  “I’m ready,” she said, slinging the backpack over her shoulder.

  “It’s about time,” he said sarcastically.

  She went down the hall, and he followed her into the garage. He whistled low when he saw the convertible parked in her two-car garage.

  “That is not bad,” he said.

  “Thanks,” she said, putting her bag on the floor and getting in.

  She pulled out of the driveway, waiting until her garage closed completely before arming the house with her laptop.

  “That is quite a system,” he said in admiration.

  “I’ll have to get an upgrade now that you’ve bypassed it. I’m pretty ticked off about that.”

  “Don’t be too hard on it. I’m sure it would have worked otherwise.”

  She drove down the quiet, deserted streets, making a right turn at the four-way stop.

  “Isn’t the highway that way?” he asked, pointing left.

  “Yes, but there’s another way out. I don’t want to get trapped in case someone does show up.”

  “So, you’re starting to believe.”

  “Don’t congratulate yourself yet. I didn’t get where I am now by being reckless.”

  “I thought you got where you are because Archer put you there.”

  “Not even close. He appointed me to SSE, but everything else was my doing.”

  “I’m sure I’ll have more time to learn about you later,” he said as she turned down a little gravel road.

  She stopped a little way down the road, pulling into a turnout and parking the sleek car beneath a low-hanging tree. She balanced the computer on her lap, watching the security cameras and yawning.

  “Give them a minute.”

  “I’m giving you two more minutes, then we are going in and-” she stopped mid-sentence. “What the-”

  “Now, do you believe me?” he gloated.

  She watched, her face registering shock as a parade of black SUVs rolled down her street, surrounding her house in the early morning quiet. Men spilled out of the vehicles clad in tactical gear. Maci sucked in a quick breath.

  “That is not good,” she said.

  “We should get out of here,” Logan said.

  “I agree,” she said, pulling out from beneath the tree with the lights still out and guiding the car down the gravel road while Logan watched the video feed.

  She didn’t breathe until they reached the highway and headed west, away from DC and further into Virginia.

  “What in the world is going on?” she said on an exhale when she could finally breathe.

  “What in the world, indeed,” Logan said.

  CHAPTER FOUR

  Chad Hardwick stood outside the house as the agents piled out of the SUVs and went to the door. He kept his eyes on the video feed from the lead agent’s bodycam, watching with his heart pounding in his chest as they prepared the battering ram and took out the door. It took them several good tries before the wood of the doorframe finally splintered, giving way almost silently after the raucous noise of their pounding on the door. Chad laughed inwardly, amused that Maci was such a pain, even when she wasn’t home.

  There were men around the back and men on either side of the house, all watching just in case she decided to make a run for it out the window. But Chad knew that the entire operation was pointless. Maci had left with Logan almost fifteen minutes ago, and Chad knew that the two of them were safe and out of the reach of the FBI.

  The camera feed on his screen was grainy, and he squinted to see clearly as the men went through the hall. Half went up the stairs, the other half went down the hall and into the bathroom, office, and laundry room before calling out “clear!”

  Somewhere in the house, an alarm was going off, but Chad had already called the local PD to let them know that the FBI was running an operation and he didn’t expect any issues. Once the house was cleared, Chad would call the alarm company and have the alarm turned off. Until then, the annoying sound of the blaring alarm was going to continue, fading into the background while Chad and his team focused on more pressing issues.

  A man stepped out of the house, waving to Chad and the remaining team members to let them know that the house was cleared and empty. Chad hid a smile in the darkness, glad that Logan had managed to convince Maci to leave in time. They didn’t have a plan B, and Chad didn’t want to think about what would have happened if Logan hadn’t been able to do his part. Chad couldn’t stop the operation altogether; the order had come down from the very top and wasn’t negotiable. The Director was certain that Maci was involved in Logan’s escape somehow, no matter how much Chad insisted that she couldn’t have known that the prisoner was a werewolf. His protest fell on deaf ears, and he had been left between choosing his career and maintaining his cover, or insisting further and risking his own life. With Logan in the mix, and the fact that Maci could handle herself in almost any situation, Chad was sure that the only trail he had to cover was his own.

  Chad walked i
nto the house, looking around at the sparsely furnished place and smiling. There wasn’t much in the way of personal items in Maci’s house, but that was part of what made Maci, Maci. Everything was neat and orderly, with no family photos or anything else that would give clues to her whereabouts displayed. Chad knew she had a family, but that was all he knew.

  Picking up the phone that was ringing insistently off tune with the alarm, Chad gave the alarm company the FBI code, and the alarm was instantly silenced. Chad released a breath he hadn’t realized he had been holding and walked the rest of the house, though he knew that it was pointless.

  He watched with feigned interest as the agents went through Maci’s things, looking for any clue that would tell them where she had gone. He ducked into her office, using his foot to straighten out the little decorative rug beneath a chair in the corner. He stood there as one agent hurriedly went through her desk drawers and the dummy safe behind a picture frame, which held the deed to the house and a few other documents meant to distract anyone going through her things. Chad knew that the real safe was beneath the chair, because he had one exactly like it in his house and had used a recliner to cover his much like Maci had used the chair and area rug. If he were to guess, he would say that her go bag had been in there, and that the safe would be empty.

  Perfect, he thought.

  “Agent Hardwick?” a voice said behind him.

  He turned.

  “Yes?”

  “I think you need to see this,” he said, indicating that Chad should follow him up the stairs.

  The man took Chad to the master bedroom, showing him an area in the rug before pointing to the chair.

  “This chair has been moved,” the man said. “It was sitting here by the closet, turned to face the door so she would have a clear view of the door with the closet at her side while she sat down to put on her socks or shoes or whatever.”

  “OK?” Chad queried.

  “Someone moved this chair, putting it in front of the closet doors and facing the bed. Whoever it was sat in the chair long enough to leave an imprint in the carpet. I would say it was a man, judging by how heavy one would have to be to make the imprint we see here. The observer had a clear shot of her bed, and it was definitely not Maci Brown.”

  “What are you getting at?” Chad asked.

  “I think that Agent Brown is with that wolf, but I don’t think she went willingly. It looks like he broke into her house and watched her sleep. There are two empty hangers in the closet. Maci was meticulous, and all her empty hangers are neatly hung in the laundry room. She even has a section for hang dry and a side where the empty hangers are kept. It’s very obvious that she hangs her clothes straight from the dryer and puts them away.”

  Chad nodded and the man continued.

  “It looks like the mystery observer took the clothes out for her, forcing her to dress so that they could leave. I don’t know how long they’ve been gone, but Maci’s phone is still here, as is her purse. I think she’s a hostage.”

  Yes! Chad thought, keeping his face passive as he celebrated this little win inside. The only evidence suggested that Maci wasn’t a willing participant. Which was exactly what Chad was hoping for. As long as they thought she was a hostage, they would do everything in their power to protect her, and Chad had a chance of getting to Logan and Maci both before anyone else did.

  Things were going much better than Chad could have hoped.

  “Put out an All-Points Bulletin; let them know that there’s a potential hostage situation, and give a description of both Maci and the fugitive.”

  “But sir, we don’t even really know who the fugitive is. None of the videos we seized from the scene had a good enough angle on him to see his face. We picked up next to nothing from the place he was staying, and we are not even sure that the name we believe he is using is actually his name. What should we put out? ‘Be on the lookout for a woman with light brown hair and hazel eyes being held by a man who has brown hair and brown eyes’? We’ve pretty much described half of DC.”

  “Release a picture of her and a rough description of the suspect. Go ahead and release the information to radio stations and broadcast news. The more people looking for them, the more tips we’ll have.”

  “How far would you like me to spread the news coverage?”

  “DC and surrounding areas only. There’s no need to have the entire East Coast in a panic.”

  “You don’t think they’ll go further than that?”

  “No,” Chad said honestly. “That man is on a mission to get to the President, and I have a feeling that he’s not going to just walk away from this.”

  “Understood,” the agent said, leaving the room to do what Chad asked.

  Chad looked around the room one more time, looking to see if the agents had missed anything. There would probably be one final sweep, and he didn’t want anything coming up and throwing a wrench into things. This had gone well, and he didn’t want to risk it blowing up in his face because of something he had missed.

  Satisfied that everything was as expected, he left the room, heading down to the front door.

  “There’s no vehicle in the garage, sir,” the agent from the bedroom said.

  “Maci didn’t have a vehicle. She drove one of ours, and that SUV is in the shop.”

  “How did she get home, then?” the agent asked.

  “I would imagine she got a ride home. After the week we’ve had, there’s no way they had a loaner for her. I had a hard time getting a loaner for myself the other day.”

  The agent nodded, apparently okay with the explanation. Maci’s phone was sitting on the counter next to her purse. Chad took it off the charger and slipped it into his pocket. He didn’t want a forensic search done on the contents. Their conversation earlier in the evening had been innocent enough, but he didn’t want to push his luck. Plenty of evidence got “lost” between the crime scene and the DC office. No one would notice the cellphone, and if they did, it wouldn’t matter. He would dispose of it long before it became an issue.

  Another agent walked in, looking to Chad for direction.

  “We are done here. Call our recovery team and have someone put her door back in. She’s obviously been kidnapped, and we don’t want her coming home to find her door busted down and her house pilfered by hoodlums while she’s gone.”

  The man nodded, pulling out his phone to call for the door to be replaced. It wasn’t standard operating procedure everywhere, but in affluent DC, expectations were different. And Maci was one of their own. Now that everyone on the team “knew” that Maci was innocent, the feel of the group was different. Going after their own was always stressful—even people from other agencies. They wanted to believe that integrity was the same across the board, and now that they were sure that Maci was a victim and not a perpetrator, they felt vindicated. The good guys were still the good guys. As long as the line remained clear, the team would be able to sleep tonight. It was when one of the good guys went bad that morale suffered. No one wanted to believe that the person next to them might shoot them in the back one day.

  The men piled back into the SUVs, ready to head back to the office and call it a night just before dawn. Chad stayed behind, waving off the offer of a second agent to stay with him.

  “I’ll get a ride back in with the installers,” he said. “This neighborhood is quiet, but I don’t want to just leave the door open. There’s no reason for the rest of you to lose sleep.”

  Several relieved faces nodded, and the SUVs left. He watched their taillights fade into the distance before he pulled out his burner phone.

  Logan answered on the first ring.

  “You just missed us,” Logan said sarcastically.

  “I was getting nervous there, buddy. Is she with you?”

  “She is.”

  “How did she take the news about Johnson?”

  “She wasn’t thrilled, but she came around to it.”

  “Are you sure?”

  “She ca
me with me willingly, and she’s the one driving. You really think she could be taken against her will?”

  “Of course not,” Chad laughed. “Listen. The two of you need to get out of the DC area. I’ve only extended the All-Points Bulletin to the surrounding areas with the understanding that I think that you’re going after Johnson again. So now is a good time to lay low and out of the area.”

  “We don’t have that luxury,” Logan countered.

  “You’re going to have to take a few days. Everyone is on edge, and people are going to be looking for you and your hostage.”

  “Hostage?” Logan was obviously amused.

  “Yeah. Apparently, the hangers you left in her perfect closet made them think that you forced her out.”

  “I wish I could say that was intentional.”

  “No matter how it happened, it worked in our favor. You two just stay out of town. There’s a car coming; I have to run. They’ll be repairing her door; I can’t do anything about the mess they left.”

  Logan chuckled.

  “I wouldn’t tell her,” Chad said. “She’s just going to get agitated. People that keep their houses that neat don’t appreciate a good FBI toss.”

  “I’ll say not,” Logan said, ending the call without saying goodbye.

  Chad was chuckling when he put the burner phone in a hidden pocket inside his blazer. The car pulled up, stopping beside him. He smiled and nodded at the man in the driver seat.

  “Are you Agent Hardwick?” the man asked as his men opened the sliding door on the side and started getting out.

  “Yes. Are you here about the door?” he asked, indicating the house.

  “Not exactly,” the man said with a smile.

  “What are you here for if you’re-”

  There was a crack and a sizzle, cutting off his words. Chad seized, his body going rigid and his breath catching in his lungs. He tried to cry out in pain, but the sound barely escaped his constricted throat. He looked at the man in the driver’s seat, then his knees gave way and he collapsed.

  The two men who had come out the side door of the van caught him before he hit the pavement, using Chad’s momentum to toss him into the van. The cold floor pressed against his cheek, the drool pooling beneath his face as he struggled to maintain consciousness.