The 13: Fall (16 page)

“He’s watching us,” she said. “Let’s get out of here. Now!”

“He said five minutes. We’ve been in here less than two. Look around for anything quickly.”

“What! Have you lost your mind, Keene?”

So much for first names.

“Fine!” he snapped. “Then you go, and I’ll stay.”

Keene holstered his gun and started moving around the room. It was empty. He trained his flashlight beam around the edges of the room, hoping to find anything that may have gotten left behind. There were a couple fragments of newspapers. He remembered that the video of the man showed a wall of computer monitors behind him, confirming the day of the broadcast. But nothing else. But now the place was empty. Next he pushed the light upward along the rafters. Wires. And lots of them. Strung from one beam to another.

“Look around. There’s nothing here but this stool and this note,” Taylor said finally.

“And those,” he said, pointing up to the rafters.

“Okay, let’s go,” she said finally.

Just then, a beeping sound could be heard. First it started slow then sped up. Rapidly.

“I think our five minutes just got cut short,” Taylor said.

“Either that or your watch is broken. C’mon!” he said grabbing her arm.

He had no idea what kind of explosives this nut job had used on this building or how big the explosion would be. But he had learned one thing in his time as a SEAL. When the beeping got faster, you didn’t stick around to find out. Especially if you weren’t the one who set the charge.

The beeping noise continued to speed up as he pulled her toward the door of the open room. He reached out and grabbed the handle and pulled it open. Just then the beep stopped speeding up. Now it was a continuous tone.

“Get down!” he shouted as he pushed her through the doorway.

First, there was a giant white flash. Then, like a giant vacuum, the air around them sucked back into the room. Then with deafening thunder, the room exploded. The concussion wave threw both of them down the hall as the building went up in flames.

   CHAPTER 25   

P
resident Grant said good-bye to the students as they filed out of the Oval Office. Some fifth graders from Baltimore were cashing in on a contest they had won—part of an initiative the First Lady had started. The pinnacle of the trip, a meeting with the president. This was his last appointment for the day before going upstairs to check on Tess. She hadn’t been feeling well these last few days. He had lost an uncle to cancer when he was young. And now seeing his wife go through this was pure agony. The good news, though, was that the doctors had discovered it in the earliest stages. They had been sure that during the operation they got it all. Now it was just the pain and sickness from the chemotherapy. She was expected to make a full recovery. That didn’t surprise him. Tess was the strongest person he had ever met.

He made his way to the elevator that led to the private residence.

Upstairs he found his wife lying on the couch reading a magazine.

“Hello, my love,” he said, bending down to kiss her forehead. “How was your day?”

“Better than yours,” she joked. It was their customary greeting each evening. “How’s everything downstairs? Any word on what happened last night?”

“Nothing yet,” he said. “But I have some really good people looking into it. How are you feeling?”

“As good as can be, I suppose. But I’m feeling better every day. That’s enough about me. So what are you going to do about this Prophet?”

“Honestly, I don’t know. I mean, what if this guy is really just a whack job trying to scare people? On the other hand, what if he’s not?”

“Do you believe that?”

“What?”

“That he’s a whack job, as you put it.”

“Everything in me says yes. But what if I’m wrong? Boz seems to think he may be for real.”

“Honey, you’re the president. If there was an impending threat against this nation, don’t you think you’d know about it?”

He laughed out loud. “You’d think! But with Marianne Levy running everything over there, it’s hard to tell what she knows and doesn’t.”

“Can’t you find out from the Pentagon or something?”

“It has been my mission, since I took this office to get this whole thing reversed. Eight years of a president that abdicated his responsibility as commander in chief has left us this mess. Right now, Marianne holds the keys to this nation’s security. The law was almost unanimously passed in both the Senate and the House, for goodness’ sake!”

He knew he was letting his temper get the best of him. And he didn’t want to upset her, knowing she wasn’t feeling well. He took a long deep breath and sighed.

“I’m sorry. You don’t need to hear all of this.”

“Your problems are my problems. I want to hear it.”

“The woman thinks she’s beyond the scope of this office. I have to repeatedly remind her that she still serves under me.”

“Have you talked about this Prophet with her?”

This was a tricky subject. By all rights, he still was the president and was able to control certain operations. He was well within his authority to task Jon Keene and Megan Taylor to investigate this. But technically, he was supposed to advise the director of Homeland Security on all matters domestic and seek her cooperation.

“No,” he answered. “I haven’t. But she knows. She made it a point this morning to come into my office and tell me as much.”

“You need to talk to her. You don’t need to make her any more of an enemy to you than she already is. Last thing you want is to be dragged in front of a congressional committee.”

He knew she was right. He just hated the thought of having her stick her nose in this, given what was at stake. He didn’t care if she
was
head of all the agencies. The reality of it was, both the CIA and FBI directors didn’t trust her either. They both made that adamantly clear to him. But rules were rules.

“You’re right. I’ll call her into my office tomorrow.”

“You know,” Tess said, “you could just go there. Might be a nice gesture.”

“Hmph.”

“Hmph, indeed,” she quipped back. “So what about this Prophet?”

He thought about that for a minute. On one hand, he wanted to get on television and tell the American people that they, he—all of them—needed to do what the man said: start working on fixing this nation. On the other hand, he knew that he would jeopardize his job if he did. And it wasn’t that he was afraid of losing his job. The job was only temporary anyway. But he also knew that the next guy may not share his convictions. And he really was set on changing this country. He looked at his wife with genuine uncertainty.

“I don’t know, Tess. I just don’t know.”

Just then the phone rang in the hallway. Grant walked over and lifted the handset.

“Yes?”

“Calvin, it’s Boz. There’s been an accident.”

   CHAPTER 26   

B
oz and Special Agent Franks were sitting outside the warehouse, behind the building, making small talk as they waited for word from Keene and Taylor. Boz had just asked Franks to check in with them on the radio when it happened.

First there was a low growl. Then the ground rumbled slightly. Boz knew instantly what was happening. He jumped across the hood of the SUV and grabbed Franks by his coat. He pulled with all his strength and dragged the man down to the ground.

Glass flew everywhere as the blast blew out the upstairs windows. A huge fireball reached up and licked the sky as black smoke plumed out of the now gaping rooftop.

Boz, who was now lying on top of Franks, rolled onto his back, flat on the pavement.

“You okay?”

“Yeah? You?”

“I’m good. Other than a few scratches.”

Suddenly Franks jumped to his feet. “Keene! Taylor!”

He started to run into the building, but Boz grabbed him and pulled him up short.

“Don’t!” he said. “This whole place is going to come down in a few seconds. Try to reach them on the radio. I’ll go around front.”

“We have to go in there!” Franks argued.

“Listen to me,” Boz said. “I’ve seen that kind of charge before. That whole roof is coming down in the next few minutes. You go in there, you’re probably not coming out. Stay here and try to get them on the radio.”

Boz didn’t wait for the man to argue any further. The flames were getting higher, and he could already hear the sirens from the first responders.

He needed to get to the front and check on Keene and Taylor. He ran as fast as he could around to the front.

The front of the building looked much better. The blast seemed to have been contained in the rear of the building. Huge plumes of white smoke were the only thing happening up here. He pulled his shirt up over his face, leaving only his eyes exposed and kicked in the door.

He couldn’t see much. A thick layer of haze blanketed his view. Turning on his flashlight, he dropped low and crawled down the long hallway. He had only gone about a third of the way down before he saw them. Keene and Taylor were lying on the floor, Keene lying on top of Taylor.

Quickly, he checked over them and found no apparent injuries. They were just unconscious, it appeared. Boz pushed Keene off of Taylor and smacked his face. Hard.

“Jon! Jon! Wake up! Can you hear me?”

As if someone flipped a switch, Keene’s eyes popped open as he gasped.

“You okay?” Boz asked.

“Yeah, I’m good.”

“C’mon! Let’s go.”

Boz grabbed Taylor, held his breath, and stood up. He threw Taylor over his shoulder and headed back down the hallway. Keene was already in front of him.

As they exited the building, Franks was there waiting. He grabbed Keene as he stumbled out the door and helped him across the street, lying him down on the sidewalk. Boz arrived a second later with Taylor. He checked her pulse. It seamed to be good, but she was still unconscious. Just then an ambulance turned the corner, followed by two fire trucks. Boz waived down the paramedic as the firemen went to work on the building.

One paramedic checked Taylor’s vitals as the other placed an oxygen mask over her face. A few seconds later, her eyes fluttered open. Keene, Boz, and Franks all stood silently, waiting for the word.

“She’s going to be okay,” the paramedic said. “Just looks like she got some smoke inhalation.”