The 13: Fall (30 page)

K
eene and Director Jennings sat in the Oval Office, waiting for President Walker. Boz and Taylor were back at her office, trying to get another lead on the Prophet with her supercomputer. Keene and Jennings were here to convince President Walker to increase the threat level. The man was incorrigible. He refused to even entertain that an impending attack could be coming. His focus right now, he said, was getting the American people to stop panicking over the stock market.

“He’s not gonna do it, Kevin.”

“Probably not. But at least we can say we told you so.”

“Fat lot of good that’s going to do us if someone blows up New York.”

“He’s scared. He’s just been thrown into the big chair because Grant has been shot, and he has a financial crisis on his hands.”

Just then, newly installed President Walker entered the room. Both men stood—out of respect for the office—and shook his hand.

“Now, gentlemen,” Walker said, “what can I do for you?”

Keene started to speak, but Jennings put a hand on his shoulder to quiet him.

“Mr. President, we really need to talk to you about this impending threat assessment.”

“Jennings, do you have any idea what I’m dealing with right now?”

“Yes, sir, but—”

“No, I don’t think you do,” he interrupted. “I have a president lying comatose in Bethesda; I’ve got the FBI crawling all over me about this bomb in front of the Capitol; and our country is on the brink of financial collapse. Do you understand what’s going to happen in the next three days if this market doesn’t turn around?”

“Yes, sir,” Jennings said quickly, taking his opportunity to cut in. “But don’t you think it’s reasonable to believe that all of this is connected to something bigger?”

“Now you’re starting to sound like Calvin.”

Strangely, that remark didn’t bother Keene. He didn’t know why.

“Mr. President,” Keene jumped in, “I’ve been tracking this Prophet guy for almost two weeks. I’m with you, sir. I don’t know how any of this plays into the other, but we can’t just dismiss it. The guy has been in contact with President Grant for months now. He’s been warning us that something like this was going to happen. We need to take him seriously and raise the threat level. The Fourth is just a couple days away.”

President Walker furrowed his brow and said, “Mr. Keene, you can’t honestly think that someone would try to attack this country on our Independence Day. That’s when our security is at its highest! Many have tried. All have failed. Our brave men and women in this country understand that. They will be fully engaged in looking for any type of threat. You’re overreacting.”

“President Walker, listen to me!” Keene pleaded. “You are naive if you think this country is secure right now. Our brave men and women, as you put it, are busy trying to keep the people of this country from rioting and degenerating into full-on civil unrest. They wouldn’t have the manpower or resources to stop an attack right now if they had to. And you don’t even know where your director of Homeland Security is! Our military is stretched so far that we have less than eighty thousand troops stateside. I served, sir. I did the things that you people need done but didn’t want anyone else to know. So I know how to run a military op. And I’m telling you, we are vulnerable. If this Prophet is even somewhat right, you need to raise the threat level. Let the American people know that there is an imminent threat. Even if we can’t prove it.”

President Walker placed his hands on the desk and lowered his head. He took a deep breath and looked up again. “Mr. Keene, I can’t,” he said in a saddened tone. “Do you understand that if I do this, our country will completely deteriorate within hours. Even if nothing ever happens. On the heels of the bomb at the Capitol and the market crashing, people will think the sky is falling. There could be riots. Heck, they’re already happening! And it would just get worse. I cannot take that chance. I’m sorry. I truly am. But if you think that this threat is real, then you need to follow up on it. If and when you have solid information, we can talk again.”

President Walker stood up and moved to the door. He opened it and said, “Now, if you gentlemen will excuse me, I have some pressing matters to attend to.”

“He’s wrong, Kevin,” Keene said, back in the car.

“Maybe. But weren’t you the one, just last week, saying this Prophet guy was a kook? And that President Grant was crazy?”

Keene sat there for a moment. Kevin had a good point. He was the one who had been adamantly against all of this. And he didn’t know why, but something had changed. The deeper he got into this, the more he had to admit he didn’t know what to think.

“I don’t know,” he said, frustrated. “I mean, here’s this guy. Hacks into Grant’s private e-mail; Taylor says she can’t figure out how—and she’s supposedly the best hacker alive. I tried to convince myself that the guy tried to kill us in Chicago, but Boz is right. That charge was set to blow up and out. And … the man warned us to get out. Who does that if he’s trying to kill you? And then the Russian shows up. I’m supposed to believe that this seminary student has ties to a Russian hitter? Yeah. That’s real likely.”

“Could happen,” Jennings said. “I’ve seen stranger things.”

“Yeah, me, too. But not this. Look, I agree with them that this guy is probably not responsible for President Grant or the bomb at the Capitol. But he knows something. How, I have no idea. But he does. And we’ve got to find him. If Walker isn’t willing to listen to any of us, maybe he’ll listen to him. I’ve just got to find him first. And find out what he knows.”

“I agree. And in the meantime, I’ll try to meet with Bob Sykes and the rest of the Joint Chiefs. I know they haven’t had their eyes and ears focused here. But with Marianne gone, I’m going to need their help. And I’m going to need Taylor to get over to DHS and start digging around in Marianne’s files.”

“Why’s that?”

“Think about it. The director of Homeland Security just disappears?”

“I never thought you, of all people, would care about that.”

“I don’t. Not that she’s gone, anyway,” Jennings laughed. “But where’d she go? And why?”

Keene had been so focused on the Prophet, he didn’t even stop to consider… “You don’t think she could have anything to do with any of this do you?”

“I’ve seen stranger things,” Jennings said again.

Keene’s phone began to ring.

“This is Keene.”

“Jon, it’s Megan. Where are you?”

“Headed back with Jennings. What’s up?”

“You need to get over here. I think I’ve found him.”

   CHAPTER 50   

O
kay, so check this out,” Taylor said, pointing to her screen. “This is a traffic camera in St. Louis. It’s from a red-light camera off an exit on I-44.”

She pulled the picture up. It showed a car turning from the light onto the southbound lanes of the interstate.

“Apparently, there is a no-turn-on-red right there. Our guy must’ve not seen it and turned anyway. When he did, he set off the motion sensor, and it snapped his picture, both front and back.

She zoomed in on the license plate, and then on another screen she pulled up the photo and did the same thing.

“That’s him!” Keene said.

“Yes, it is. But this is from five days ago. Now look here.”

She clicked around on the keyboard. The two images disappeared, and a video came up.

“This is from a traffic feed in Fort Worth. They have cameras like this in a lot of cities. News crews use it to give local traffic reports. Look. Here’s our guy again.”

She played the footage. There was the car, moving slowly through rush-hour traffic.

“When was this?” Keene asked. “How did you find this?” He was genuinely impressed.

“Two days ago,” she said. And then, “I told you. There’s not much I can’t do on this thing.” She patted the monitor. “And then finally, there’s this.”

Next she put up another video of a street in what looked like an older, smaller town. Pedestrians walked by casually, as the camera stood sentry over the town square. Seconds later, the Prophet came into view. He strolled casually by the camera and entered a small shop.

“This is one of those city-cams that a lot of towns have. People can go online and just watch what’s going on in their town or city. Again, a lot of news crews use these when doing weather or traffic. This is Edinburg, Texas.”

“He went home,” Keene said.

“He’s home!” Taylor affirmed. “Now we at least know where he is.”

“He could be gone by now,” Boz said. “Just because that’s where he’s from doesn’t mean that’s where he lives.”

“Maybe,” Megan said. “But this is from today. And these are from the last two days.” She pulled up similar video feeds, all from the same place. In each one, the Prophet was seen going in and out of the camera’s purview. “He may not live there, but he’s there right now. And it doesn’t look like he’s in a hurry to leave.”

“Why would he?” Keene said. “He’s less than an hour away from the Mexican border. If he felt like we were close, he could just skip across and disappear again.”

“So what do we do now?” Taylor asked.

Just then, Jennings stepped into the office. He had been across the hall with Director Preston. “What we do now is split you three up.”

“What?” Taylor asked. “Why?”

“Because,” Jennings said, “there are a couple things we need done. And I can’t have all three of you chasing them down one at a time.” He stopped and pointed to Keene. “Jon, I want you down on the border. Boz, I want you with me and Bill when we go talk to the Joint Chiefs tomorrow. And Megan, I need you to take a trip across town and go visit DHS.”

“I don’t understand,” she said.

“I want to know where Marianne Levy is. And I want to know why she’s not bullying her way back into DHS. You have complete access to her files and computer and her office. Go see what you can turn up.”

“Okay.”

“Boz, with your military record, the Joint Chiefs will be more likely to listen to you.”

“What are you asking them to do?” It was Keene.

“I’m going to ask them to start calling our boys back here. As many as they can spare. If this threat is real, we need to be prepared.”

“It’ll take over a week to get our ships back here from the Middle East,” Keene said.

“Then we better get them moving. Don’t you think?” Jennings said.

Taylor understood the need to split them up. But she didn’t want Keene going to Texas by himself. She had a bad feeling that if Keene found the Prophet, there wouldn’t be much left of him to question.

“Sir,” she said, interrupting, “I know you want me to go to DHS, but shouldn’t we be focusing on this Prophet? I mean, what if Jon needs backup? Shouldn’t I go with him? I can go to DHS once we find him.”

Jennings looked at her with a condescending smile. “Ms. Taylor, Jon can take care of himself. I want you over at DHS.” Then to Keene, “Walk with me. Something I want to talk to you about.”

Jennings turned and left the office as quickly as he’d come in. Keene started to follow, but Megan grabbed him by the arm.

“Jon, promise me something.”

He turned to face her.

“Don’t do anything stupid. Remember what you promised President Grant.”

“Relax,” Keene said. “I’m not going to kill him. Unless he tries to kill me first.”