“Yeah,” King said, “by itself maybe, but when you couple that with whatever he has on that helicopter, it will all fit.”
Kyle dropped his bomb. “Guys, I don’t think Thomas has anything with him on that helicopter.”
“What?” Sam said. “But why?”
“And that is the part that scares me. Everyone knows where Thomas Bishop is right now. But no one knows where Marcus Christian is. We found his plane in London, but he wasn’t on it. And we have no idea at the moment where he’s gone.”
“Have Dbie stop what she’s doing and zero in on that,” Sam said.
King was trying to pull everything together. As wild as what Kyle was saying was, it actually made sense. The diversions, the reasons for wanting Sam and King out of the way, the tying Juice into the ruse so he would call Kyle and bring all the attention to Mexico, it all could work, and it was brilliant. The one thing being left out was the supposed list of agents and how it fit into the entire thing, if at all.
“And one more thing,” Kyle said. “Sam, Dbie, and I think Raúl Ortega letting you know about the list this morning was the final backup plan. Whether Ortega was in on it or not, I believe Thomas dropped that little nugget for Ortega just in case any of the steps he took didn’t work. He could always throw that bait back in the water, and you two would bite. Because he knows how important it would be to both of you to protect those agents, and to protect your country from such a thing getting out.”
Kyle had just answered King’s question. And King was impressed.
“Good on you, Kyle,” Sam said. “Unbelievable putting all that together. Really.”
“It really is,” King said. “But the most important question is left unanswered.”
Omari looked over at King. “Why?”
King nodded. “Yep. Why go through all this mess? If there is such an intricate diversion, how big must the thing be that you are drawing attention from?”
“Exactly,” Kyle said. “Must be huge. And if we don’t find out why the massive diversion soon, I think we’ll be watching it on the news.”
That sucked the air out of the plane’s cabin. King buried his head in his hands and rubbed his face.
“Well, I can tell you what might be the worst-case scenario,” King said.
“All ears,” Kyle said.
“If Thomas’s other identity, Sergio Martinez, is known for dealing black market weapons, and possibly mini nuclear bombs from the man you caught, wouldn’t it be safe to say that the ‘exporter’ from Turkey, Marcus Christian, bought those mini nukes from Thomas? And that Marcus paid Thomas to clear him a path to use them?”
“We’d better call Director Lucas,” Sam said.
“Yeah, and we need a new heading,” King said.
“Let’s just get to Langley and have Director Lucas meet us at his office. We need all the resources we can recruit to find Marcus Christian and figure out whatever it is he’s planning.”
King stood and walked toward the cockpit. “I’ll tell Bob. Let’s just hope we’re not too late.”
28
CIA Headquarters,
Langley, Virginia, 2:00 am
By the time King and crew had flown the hour and a half to Langley, then transported over to CIA headquarters, Director Lucas had beaten them to his office. King, Sam, and Omari were ushered into Lucas’s office where he was waiting at his desk. King could see that Lucas was about to say something, but King’s phone began ringing.
“It’s Kyle, I have to take this.”
Lucas motioned for him to answer the phone. Sam introduced Omari while King stepped back in the corner.
“Just made it to Lucas’s office,” King answered. “Tell me something good.”
“We’re here at the private portion of Heathrow Airport, and it’s not good.”
Kyle’s voice was breathy and more than a little shaky. King swallowed the rising worry in order to respond.
“Okay, just lay it out. But let me bring everyone else in on the conversation so you only have to say it once.”
King walked over to Lucas’s desk and set his phone down. He hit the speaker button.
“Kyle, I have Director Lucas, Sam, and Omari. Let me bring Lucas up to speed, then you take over.”
“Hurry.”
“It won’t take long. Sam also briefed him on the way over.” Then to Director Lucas, King said, “Robert, Kyle and Dbie went to Heathrow Airport in London as soon as we found out Marcus Christian’s plane was there—”
“Xander,” Kyle broke in, “I just need to go. We have no time.”
Director Lucas sat forward in his chair. The tension in the room was almost thick enough to see.
“Go ahead,” King said.
“When we got here, we already had MI5 working on figuring out how Marcus Christian got here and then disappeared. When customs came out to check his plane that had arrived from Turkey, he and two of his people were on board. Their paperwork checked out. They had minimal luggage, which also checked out fine, and they were free to leave. But they never left the airport.”
“I don’t understand,” King said.
“You remember Agent Shawn Roberts?” Kyle said. “Helped you out when you were in London last year?”
“Yes.”
“They allowed him to go through all the CCTV footage surrounding the private portion of the airport, and there is video of Marcus walking into the airport from his plane with his two men, but they never left the parking lot.”
“So they just disappeared?” Director Lucas said.
“No, we believe he simply reappeared as someone else.”
“Make this make sense, Kyle,” King said.
“An hour after Marcus walked into the airport, Leo Davies walked out and got onto his plane. Before the plane left Heathrow, his paperwork was checked, and so was that of six people he had with him. It all checked out.”
“Clear this up, Kyle,” Sam said.
“Leo Davies was at his home, in the shower, just thirty minutes ago when MI5 went to check to make sure it was him on the plane.”
King moved closer to his phone. “So Marcus had fake passports made so he could leave London without being detected.”
“That’s right. And Leo’s plane? It landed at Dulles’s private terminal in Washington, DC, just over an hour ago.”
“Shit!” King said.
Kyle was quiet for a moment.
Director Lucas picked up his phone. “Stevens, get a team over to Ronald Reagan’s private terminal right now. As many as you can. Call the FBI as well. We are looking for Marcus Christian who is posing as Leo Davies. His plane landed there an hour ago. Get a team on the cameras. I want to know everywhere he’s been since he landed and where he is right now.” Lucas set his phone down. “My deputy director is pulling a team. Where do we go from here?”
King focused on speaking to Kyle. “What about luggage on Leo’s plane? Did Marcus have any?”
“No, but, X, he wouldn’t need to bring any. If Marcus has been involved with Thomas since Juice and I caught Burian Petrov last year, he could have been having these briefcase nukes transferred to the US over that period of time with no one knowing. We have no idea if some of Petrov’s nukes were sold before we got to him.”
“Holy shit,” Lucas said. “Are we saying that there are nukes here right now?”
“Kyle is saying there could be,” King said. “And now I’m saying, we need to get the president to safety, and we need to do it right now.”
Director Lucas didn’t hesitate. He immediately dialed his deputy director back and set in motion getting the president safely to a bunker.
“What are we talking about here, Kyle?” Director Lucas asked. “I know these types of nukes were big talk back in the sixties, but they were super heavy and didn’t pack much punch. How bad are these mini nukes now?”
“Don’t let the word mini fool you. They are deadly. Especially the way Petrov was able to work them. He was able to pack five kilotons into just
a fifty-pound frame. They can easily be carried in a hefty briefcase.”
“English, Kyle,” King said. “What does five kilotons mean?”
“Roughly, it means anything within a little over a football field from the detonation point is dead. And anything within a mile is likely dead or severely injured, and most buildings are collapsing. I can’t even comment on the radiation. It’s bad.”
Just then everyone in Director Lucas’s office felt a small rumble, followed by what sounded like thunder echoing in the distance. King looked over at Lucas, and the panic on his face frightened King in a way he hadn’t felt in a long time.
“Please God, tell me that wasn’t what I think it was,” Director Lucas said as he jumped up from his seat.
No one else could speak. They all ran over to the window that had a view to the east. It was still dark, and it was a clear morning, so they could see a fiery light that looked to be, from their vantage point, about the size of the head of a match.
“What is that? What are we looking at?” Omari said.
“Please, someone tell me that is not the White House,” Sam said.
“It’s in that direction,” Lucas said. “Might be south of it, but it’s in that direction!”
“What the hell is happening?” Kyle shouted from the phone.
King ran back over to the desk and picked up the phone. “Kyle, there’s been an explosion. I need—”
“I know, have Dbie scour the camera footage from the airport to see—”
“No!” King interrupted. “Lucas has a team doing that. We have to quit playing defense. I need to know why Marcus Christian has it out for the United States, and I need to know where he is going to be. Not where he has been.”
“I’ll get started on it with Dbie, but you know who we really need to talk to is Thomas Bishop. If anyone can fast-track this to help us catch Marcus before anything else happens, it’s him. But we don’t where he is or how to find him.”
King’s mind immediately jumped to Raúl Ortega. “I think I might have an idea.”
29
It didn’t take long for news of the explosion to get back to Director Lucas’s office. But by the time it did, King, Sam, and Omari had moved into a separate office to try to pull together anything they could without interrupting Lucas. Ultimately, it was Lucas who came to them to share what he’d found. The three of them looked up when he rushed into the room.
“Ronald Reagan Airport is basically gone.”
King’s stomach dropped at those words, but he was relieved it wasn’t closer to the White House.
“So the president is okay?” King said.
“He’s already in the air. He’s safe. But we have widespread panic and for good reason. I need to know what to tell the people who live around here. Do they need to evacuate? Where are we with this?”
King’s phone began ringing. “It’s Kyle.”
“Take the call,” Lucas said. “I have to get back to my office.”
“What do you have?”
“Listen, I just got off the phone with Juice. He’s getting on a plane to head back this way. I told him what was going on just in case he had an idea, and he may have had a damn good one.”
“We’ll take anything at this point.”
“I told him about the bomb near you that we are all assuming was a mini nuke. I told him we needed to find Thomas Bishop, and he immediately said to go straight to the source instead.”
“Which is?” King said.
“Burian Petrov. If nukes were bought from him by Marcus, he’ll know it. And he might know even more than that. I thought it was a—”
“Great suggestion,” King said. “I agree. You know where Petrov is in jail?”
“No, but Lucas can find out. It’s worth a shot. I’d offer him everything in the book if he has good information to stop what might be coming.”
“Thanks, Kyle. Have Juice fly into Dulles. We might be able to use him, and he seems to be pretty good at this sort of thing.”
“Will do. Call me with what you find.”
King was already out the door before the call was ended. He rushed down the hall to Lucas’s office and pushed right in.
“Mr. President, please hold a second.” Lucas covered the phone. “Kind of busy here, King, what is it?”
“Where is Burian Petrov being held?”
“The nuke guy? I don’t know, why?”
“I need to offer him a get-out-of-jail-free card.”
“You think he knows something?” Lucas said.
“I think we have to make headway here fast. They are linked together by only a small degree of separation. So if he’s close, I want to talk to him.”
“Let me make a call.”
Director Lucas went back to his call with the president. King walked back down the hall. When he turned the corner, Sam and Omari were just outside the office, and Sam looked as if she were about to pass out. When King looked past the two of them, he saw the reason Sam was looking so faint. Two security guards were holding a man by the arms, and King could hardly believe it himself. It was Thomas Bishop.
Reflex kicked in, and King charged toward him. Omari stepped in and caught him just before he made it to Thomas.
“You realize how many people you’ve killed!” King shouted.
Thomas tried to take a step back, but the guards held him in place. He hung his head. “I had no idea this was going to happen here.”
“You had no idea?” King shouted.
Thomas tried to look around King to meet Sam’s eyes. “Samantha, you have to believe me, I—”
“Don’t talk to her,” King shouted as he pushed against Omari again. “You’re talking to me! You’ve killed hundreds of people, maybe more!” Then to Omari. “O, let me go or I’ll have to make you.”
“He’s your problem, Thomas. Not mine.”
Omari let go and like an attack dog chasing a running criminal, King pounced on Thomas. He landed on top of him and knocked the two guards over in the process. Before they could recover, King got a punch in, and it nearly broke Thomas’s jaw in two.
“Enough!” King heard Sam shout from behind him. He was mid punch, but he’d managed to stop the downward swing in time to turn around. “Xander, get off him. Thomas, stand up and explain why you are here, right now, or I’ll let him go for good this time.” Sam’s face was a shade of red King had never seen.
“What is going on out here?” Director Lucas shouted as he came running up to the chaos.
The security guards were getting to their feet, and Thomas had only made it to his knees.
“Director Lucas,” one of the guards said, “Thomas Bishop is here to see you. Sorry it got out of hand. We tried to page you in your office, but you weren’t answering.”
Now it was Lucas who looked stunned. “Yes, well, I was on the phone with the president. All alerts were silent.”
Thomas managed to get back up to his feet. He was wincing as he rubbed his jaw. “I swear to you, I didn’t know about the bomb at the airport,” Thomas said as he worked the movement out in his jaw. “But I know where Marcus Christian is going, and I know what he is planning.”
“Everyone into my office. Now!” Lucas said.
Everyone followed him in, but King led the conversation. “How’d you get from Mexico to here without going through customs?”
“I realize this is complicated and you’ve been exposed to a lot of fallacies, but Marcus has been planning this for some time—”
“How?” King shouted.
“I wasn’t in Mexico. I flew on the plane here from London with Marcus. I—”
King lunged at him. Sam reached out to stop him, but he was already past. He didn’t hit him, though; instead, he rummaged his pockets for documentation. King found his passport. He opened it up, and the picture was of Thomas, but the name read Kenneth Sizemore.
“Kenneth Sizemore? The hell is this?”
“It’s my alias. I’m deep cover for MI6. For the past year I’
ve been working for Marcus Christian. Now can I tell you what I know so we can have the chance to stop it?”
“Bullshit!” King said. “Your alias didn’t come up on facial recognition, but your real name did.”
“That’s because MI6 has redacted my image from this passport in all searches.”
“Then why did your other alias James Carter ping in Mexico?”
“Because Marcus wanted it that way. He was going to pin this entire thing on me.”
“Back off for a second, King,” Lucas said. “Stop making this harder with what you think you know. Thomas, start explaining right now or I’ll just let him at you.”
“Start with why you faked your own death,” Sam said.
“Sam!” Lucas shouted. “Enough out of all of you. Let the man talk!”
“I’m happy to talk,” Thomas said. “But can we do it on the way to the airport? We need to leave, and it has to be right now.”
30
“You’d better talk fast and make good sense, Thomas,” King said. “We’ll be at the airport in ten minutes. So cut the fat and get to the meat.”
“How very American your metaphors are.”
King reached forward, but Omari stopped him from choking Thomas. They were in the back of a surveillance van, and Thomas was altogether too close for King’s comfort.
“Look, my man,” Omari said to Thomas, “next time you’re a smart-ass, I’ll just let him whip you for sake of stupid should be painful.”
“All right,” Thomas said, reconsidering his position. “I’ll make it fast so we can get right to the plane once we pull into the airport.”
King sat back.
“Go on then,” Sam said.
“Long story short, I am part of a super clandestine group within MI6. Last year I was about to bring down Burian Petrov for producing and trafficking massively illegal mini nukes. As you know, I was going by the name Sergio Martinez. I had Petrov dead to rights, and that is where all of this would have ended if your CIA hadn’t interfered.”
Power Move (Alexander King Book 4) Page 12