by Rawlin Cash
“What was on it?”
“It was a printout of my daughter’s facebook profile.”
“So you took this to mean he was threatening your daughter.”
“Absolutely, I did. He also had photos of her. Real ones. Not from facebook.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean surveillance photos. Pictures of her going into her dorm room at school. Walking alone in the park with her backpack. Pictures of her in her pajamas through the window. Photos that showed he knew where she was and that he could get to her.”
“Then what happened?”
“He said, we’ll tell you what to do when the time comes.”
“And you’re aware that as a member of the US Senate, you’re required by law to register all threats of this type with Capital Police immediately.”
“Yes, of course I am.”
“Did you tell Caplan about this when he got back with the earrings?”
“Caplan never came back with the earrings.”
“What do you mean, he never came back?”
“There was a twelve car pileup on the beltway that night. He was killed.”
“I read about that accident,” Fawn said.
“Seven died,” Meredith said. “The worst accident in years. It would have been major news if it wasn’t for the assassination that night.”
“So Al-Wahad made the threat,” Fawn said.
“And then my boyfriend was dead, yes,” Meredith said, her voice strained. “So I took their threat very seriously. I got a call from the police telling me about the accident, and then a text message from a blocked number that said I was to attend the State of the Union like normal. I was in shock. I knew I should have told the FBI, but all I could think about was that man strangling my daughter. So I followed the orders.”
“And what were those orders?”
“First one was to attend the State of the Union.”
“Did you have any warning of what was going to happen that night?” Hale said.
“Of course I didn’t. I was as shocked as anyone.”
“But once it happened, you knew something very big was going down.”
“Yes, I knew it, but I told myself it had nothing to do with me. I wasn’t thinking straight, Hale. I was afraid. The world was going crazy. My boyfriend was dead. My cat was dead. The president was dead. I just went into denial.”
“And what was the next time they contacted you?” Hale said.
“Not until the morning after the bombing in the bunker.”
“Bull shit,” Hale said.
“It’s the truth.”
“Come on, Meredith. They got you to plant the bomb. Don’t lie to us.”
“They didn’t. I swear it,” Meredith said.
Fawn believed her. None of this added up otherwise. There was no way this mild-mannered senator was the mastermind of a plot like this. She was a pawn in a bigger picture.
“We need to get Hunter to kill this fucking assassin,” Fawn said.
Hale looked at her. “Let’s not get ahead of ourselves. We need to make sure this story checks out.”
“It checks out,” Fawn said, her temper rising. “We’ve waited too long as it is.”
“I want to speak to Al-Wahad,” Hale said.
“I want him dead,” Fawn said.
“I know he’s at the Saudi embassy,” Meredith said. “And so is the Crown Prince.”
Hale turned on her. “Let’s not get our panties in a twist, ladies. Right now, Meredith, I trust you about as far as I can throw you. You knew something was going on and now three presidents are dead and you’re standing in their place.”
“I swear this isn’t what it looks like,” she said.
Hale shook his head. “In my experience, things are usually exactly what they fucking look like. I think you know more than you’ve told us, and I think you’re the one who planted the bomb at Raven Rock.”
Meredith turned to Fawn. “I swear, I’m just doing my best. I didn’t hear from them again until after the Raven Rock explosion, and I was hurt in that explosion. I was concussed. I’m in survival mode.”
“So what did they say?”
“They sent me a list and told me to have everyone on the list detained by the DoD under section 49 of the Defense of the Nation Act.”
“That legislation was passed just one month ago.”
“I voted against it,” Meredith said.
The law had been passed in the aftermath of the Cartel Crisis and granted sweeping powers to the security services and DoD to protect the country. It was the legal basis for Fawn’s decision to use an airstrike to take out the gunman on the night of the first assassination.
“So you had us in custody.”
“I was just doing what they told me to do. I didn’t know what the objective was.”
“You pulled off the State of the Union address remarkably well for a woman acting under duress,” Fawn said.
“Believe me, I was in fear for my life. I was in fear for my daughter’s life. I’d seen what they could do. They’d killed the president, Fawn. They’d killed everyone they needed to kill to get what they wanted. They could have my daughter killed in a heartbeat. You know that’s true.”
“So, what is it that they’re after?”
“You know the answer to that better than I do,” Meredith said. “They want a quarter of a trillion dollar arms deal to go through. They want to be the regional superpower in the Middle East. They want us to go to war with Iran.”
“They also want first dibs on all our classified weaponry,” Hale said.
“Yes. Blanket access to all our research. The entire skunkworks. And they want our top scientists to go to Jeddah where they’re building their own classified R&D facility in a new military economic city.”
“Blanket access?” Fawn said.
Meredith nodded. “They’re also pushing us into a war that can only go badly for us.”
Fawn nodded. “We went to war with Iraq because the Saudis wanted us to. Now we’re doing it again in Iran.”
“Well, in the words of the Crown Prince, why waste Saudi soldiers when there are so many young Americans to be used.”
“He said that?”
“Yes.”
“When?”
“About an hour ago. He said it on the phone. I just flew out to their embassy to meet him but got turned around because of a security threat.”
“That was our guy.”
“Well, I’m not even sure I’m safe from him right now.”
“No, you’re not,” Hale said pointedly.
“He’s not as safe as he thinks either,” Meredith said.
“What does that mean?”
“The Saudis forced me to implement a coordination protocol.”
“Forced you?” Hale said.
“Yes.”
“Full coordination?”
“Yes.”
“What does that mean exactly?” Fawn said, looking at Hale.
“It means our defense systems and theirs are going to communicate,” Hale said.
“With what restrictions?”
“As few as possible.”
“Is that legal?”
“Well, we coordinate with battlefield allies during war.”
“We’re not at war,” Fawn said.
“We will be soon,” Meredith said.
“So that’s why you had the entire top level of the military detained?”
“That was one of the reasons, yes. They wanted it implemented before anyone was released.”
“So it’s already active?” Hale said.
Meredith nodded.
Fawn looked at them both. “And that means?”
“That means any enemy of a Saudi unit is an enemy of ours, and vice versa. It basically gives them access to do whatever the fuck they want and we’ve got to back them. They can operate in our territory. Request assistance from our units. Even request targeted strikes from our assets.”
“And we�
�ve got to obey?” Fawn said.
“It’s not that we’ve got to. But in ordinary circumstances, unless someone countermands the order, we will.”
Fawn turned to Meredith. “This is quite the arrangement.”
“You’ve given them the keys to the entire kingdom,” Hale said.
“I had no choice.”
“There’s always a choice.”
“You’ve got to believe me,” Meredith said. “I’m not the enemy. You can watch me all you like but you’ll be wasting your time. If we don’t fix this in the next couple of hours, we’ll be committing a million ground troops to a long and bloody desert war in which there’s absolutely nothing to gain.”
“A million ground troops?”
“Potentially.”
“We don’t have that many.”
“We could conscript them. That’s what the Saudis say.”
“That’s never going to happen.”
“It will if the president orders it,” Fawn said, looking at Meredith more closely. “Are you going to order it?”
“That’s what they’ve told me to do. If I don’t, my daughter’s dead.”
Fawn looked at Hale. “You know the second she fails to obey them, the kid’s dead,” she said.
“If they kill your daughter, they’ll lose their leverage.”
“I can’t take that risk,” Meredith said.
A security aide entered the kitchen. They all stopped talking and looked at him.
“Madam President,” he said. “The forensics from the Raven Rock attack have come back.”
“This is the CIA Director,” Meredith said to the aide. “You can speak.”
Fawn looked at Hale. This was what they’d been waiting for.
“It was a surgically implanted improvised explosive device, ma’am,” the aide said.
“A what?”
“The explosive was inside the body of one of Jennifer’s aides.”
“What does that mean?” Meredith said. “Inside the body? How is that possible?”
Hale nodded at the aide and the man left the room.
“It’s possible,” Hale said. “You get someone on a table, you knock them out with gas, you open them up, and you put a bomb inside them.”
Meredith looked like she was going to faint. “Wouldn’t that be detectable by the scanners?”
“Depends what the bomb was made of,” Hale said. “The Saudis have access to new explosive compounds and detonators. They also would have had the details of the security equipment at Raven Rock. It’s not like that place has all the newest bells and whistles.”
“So that lays to rest the suspicion that Meredith planted the bomb,” Fawn said.
Hale looked at Fawn and then back at Meredith. He was quiet for a moment, then moved on to his next point, ignoring Fawn’s statement.
“If they had access to a presidential aide, I mean, it doesn’t make sense that an aide would have a bomb inside their body.”
“Maybe they were blackmailing the aide,” Meredith said. “I mean, look what they’ve got me to do by threatening my daughter.”
“Or maybe the aide was a fanatic who believed in their cause?” Fawn said.
Hale sighed. “Look into it. I want to know what they had on that aide.”
“They have whatever they want on whoever they want,” Fawn said. “They’ve got free rein in this country, they’ve got a stronger military than Russia, and they’ve got the government in their pocket.”
“All right,” Hale said. “Fawn, tell Hunter to take out Al-Wahad. We can’t move while that sniper system is on the loose.”
“I’ll call him immediately.”
“Meredith, you keep playing along. Don’t let them know we’re on to them. Keep doing what they say.”
“They’re going to get me to move fast on Iran.”
“Well, stall as much as possible on that.”
“I’ll do my best.”
Hale made for the door. Fawn was about to follow him when Meredith spoke.
“There’s one other thing they’re worried about,” she said.
“What’s that?”
“There’s a story doing the rounds that the Crown Prince and a number of other high-profile Saudis are involved in a child sex scandal.”
“What?”
“They have sex parties in Jeddah,” Meredith said. “There are prostitutes there, trafficked sex workers, some of them are under age.”
“These guys are supposed to want to be leaders of the Islamic world. They’re religious puritans.”
“That’s why they’re worried about these photos.”
“So why hasn’t the story leaked?”
“The Post and the Times are sitting on it. You know how much money the Saudis funnel their way.”
“Who has the photos?”
“They don’t know yet. Whoever has them is trying to sell them to a media outlet that will publish them. So far, the Saudis have been able to prevent the sale, but they don’t know who the seller is.”
“Why don’t they buy them themselves?”
“The seller is politically motivated. He wants money, but he also wants the story to see the light of day from a major publication. He’s worried if he just posts them online they won’t be taken seriously.”
“What have the Saudis asked you to do?”
“They’ve asked me to find out who the seller is. I’ve got Fitz on it. They’ve also got word out that anyone who publishes these photos, anyone who so much as looks at them, isn’t going to live very long.”
“They’re going to get out eventually,” Hale said. “The Iranian state media will publish them if no one else does.”
“Not if the Saudis get to the seller first.”
“All right,” Hale said. “Maybe there’s something there we can use.”
Fifty-One
Hunter was still on the Watergate roof. He knew Al-Wahad was searching for him. There were seven drones flying overhead and they were clearly in search mode. He was lying in a ventilation duct about three yards from its opening. It ran the length of the roof. He wouldn’t be seen unless a drone came right up to the opening and peered in with lights. Possibly they’d detect him with some high spectrum frequencies but he didn’t know what cameras they were equipped with and the steel ductwork seemed pretty thick.
He hoped it was. His life depended on it. One drone spotting him and a bullet would follow in fractions of a second.
The duct provided excellent cover but it meant he had limited visibility. He could increase his field of view by getting closer to the opening but that put him at greater risk of being seen.
He scanned the part of the embassy he could see through his scope.
He knew the Crown Prince and the new ambassador were inside and he decided if he got eyes on either of them again, he’d take the shot.
His phone rang and he worried about the cell phone signal being tracked but he needed to talk to Fawn.
“What is it, Fawn?”
“Jamal’s in the embassy.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes. Meredith confirmed it.”
“Meredith?”
“Long story.”
“Got it,” he said. “I’ve got to get off the line.”
“There’s one more thing. There’s a coordination protocol in place.”
“With the Saudis?”
“Yes.”
“But there’s no battlefield to coordinate on.”
“Apparently there is,” Fawn said.
“Let me guess. I’m on it.”
“Good luck,” Fawn said.
He hung up the phone and let out a low whistle. That changed things.
He could see that the Saudis were uncomfortable. They’d brought in the Crown Prince, they were making a power play, they had the president of the country in their pocket, but there was a sniper outside their house and they couldn’t find him. No doubt they’d contact Meredith about it, but Hunter didn’t take his orders from Mered
ith. He didn’t take his orders from Hale. He was there on his own dime. It was as simple as that. When it came to a situation like this, orders weren’t the only thing that told a man how to act.
Hunter believed in the chain of command, he’d spent most of his adult life obeying it, but he wasn’t in the service any more. If he killed anyone today, it would be for one reason and one reason only. Because it needed to be done.
He just had to bide his time.
Saudi forces were swarming the grounds of the embassy and he knew it was only a matter of time before they came outside the gates. With the Crown Prince in the building, they’d stop at nothing to secure the area.
Such a move would normally be illegal. They had no jurisdiction outside the embassy. Exercising military action outside the embassy would be an infringement of American sovereignty. It would be tantamount to an act of war. Diplomatic law was extremely clear on that point.
But these were not ordinary times, and this was no ordinary embassy.
The drones in the air proved it. They were authorized under the coordination protocol. The Saudis could do whatever they wanted and no one would stop them.
And with the coordination protocol in place, Hunter wondered how long before they sent in American forces to flush him out. Why hold back? They had the president in their pocket. All they had to do was order her to send in US special forces, or even an air strike, and he’d be toast.
He’d have to step down. He had no desire to fight that fight.
The clock was ticking. The only good news was that he knew Al-Wahad was inside the embassy.
When he saw six firetrucks coming down the street toward his building, he knew he couldn’t stay where he was.
He backed slowly down the ductwork toward the fan and back inside the building. He had to be quiet. The drones could have been equipped with sound detection. He was confident their scanners couldn’t penetrate the steel, but a bullet might.
The firefighters began a sweep of the building. Hunter avoided them by breaking into apartments when they approached. He checked the windows and scanned the sky for drones. They were still there and he knew they were watching the building’s exits.
He descended, level by level, and on the ground floor he kicked in the door of an apartment and found a hockey bag on wheels. He made sure his rifle was loaded and packed it inside the bag. He also checked his sidearm. He put on a ball cap and coat that he found in a closet and pulled up the collar.