The 13: Fall (24 page)

“Yes, sir. I’ll let you know when we’re ready to leave, sir.”

“That will be all. Thank you.”

“Yes, sir,” Greene said, leaving the office.

When the door closed, he pushed away from his desk and stood up. Taking his suit coat off, he draped it over the back of the chair and then knelt down beside the desk. It had been too long since he had found himself in this position. And though his knees rebelled against him for being on the ground like this, it felt good.

He folded his hands and bowed his head and began.

“Father in Heaven …”

   CHAPTER 41   

B
oz waited in the living room while Keene finished cleaning up. They had less than an hour before they had to be at the Capitol. That wasn’t much time, considering it was a fifteen-minute drive and the fact that they wanted to be there early to get a look around at where the president was going to give his speech.

Then just as he got antsy, Keene appeared, pulling his shirt on.

“I’m good,” Keene said. “Let’s roll.”

Boz looked again at his watch. “You know what? We still have a couple minutes. Can we talk for a sec?”

Keene raised an eyebrow. “Sure. Okay. What’s up?”

Boz sat down in one of the chairs there in the den. He had tried to have similar conversations in the past week with him but to no avail. Something or someone had interrupted them every time. Or Keene had gotten mad and walked away. But here they were. No one to interrupt.

“There’s something I need to talk to you about. But you just won’t let me.”

Keene sat down across from him, blank-faced. “Really? You want to do this
now
? We’re about to go see if this guy shows up at the speech, and you want to do this now?”

Boz smiled. “Yep. I do. Listen. For the last week, I’ve followed you around. I’ve taken your lead on all of this. And where has it gotten us?”

“Oh, so this is all of a sudden my fault?”

“No.” He sighed. “I’m not saying that. I’m saying maybe it’s no one’s fault.”

“Here we go!”

“Why are you so bent on dismissing that this guy could actually be who he says he is?”

“Listen to yourself, Boz! You seriously think that God would pick some random guy to just harass the president because all of a sudden He cares? He doesn’t care! This is absurd.”

“First of all,” Boz said, “God has used random people throughout history to accomplish His will. Secondly, yes, He does care. He’s always cared.”

“Yeah.” Keene rolled his eyes.

“Jon, listen.”

“No, you listen. I grew up in church. I went to Sunday school. I learned all the little songs and all the prayers. And when I went into the Marines, I trusted that He would take care of me. And then I got married. And I believed that He had brought her into my life. And so He would take care of her, too. That was supposed to be part of the deal.” He sat there with a clenched jaw for a moment. Then continued, “And then some other idiot, who believed in
his
god, and who thought that his god told him to kill everyone who isn’t like him, killed her. That pretty much sums it up. Doesn’t it? The God you say cares so much, He cares so much that He took her away from me. So don’t you sit there and tell me that He cares. If He cared, He would’ve never let that happen.”

“I’m sorry—”

“No, chapy, you wanted to have this conversation. We’re having it. You want to know why I think all of this with this guy is a bunch of garbage? Because God doesn’t care! And to be completely honest with you, I’m not even sure anymore that He ever existed to begin with.”

Boz waited a few seconds when Keene was finished. It was good for him to get it out. Keene probably had never said that to anyone—keeping it bottled up inside for years. Finally Boz said, “What I was going to say was, I’m sorry you’ve been misled. I wasn’t apologizing for the loss of your wife.”

Keene sat there a moment and then said, “What’s that supposed to mean? Misled?”

“It means what it means. Somewhere along the line, you were led to believe that God is here for our pleasure and that He should do what we want.”

“And that makes it so much better.”

“Actually, it does. See, your problem is, you think that because God allowed your wife to die, that somehow it was a personal vendetta against you. Or that He somehow abdicated His responsibility. When in reality, what you don’t understand is, God loved her more than you could ever love her. And to see her die in pain, like that, brings Him no joy. But you have to understand, there’s more to it than that.”

“I understand He let her die.”

“Yes, He allowed it to happen.”

“So you prove my point.”

“Quite the opposite. You have to understand that God allows things to happen because He is working all things to their appointed end. And we may not understand why some things happen, but we have to trust that there is a reason for it. God calls us to come to Him, to lean on Him when these things happen. He allows these things to happen because our world is broken. And in due time, He will come back and restore all things to their rightful state. You think He doesn’t care. I’m telling you He cares more than you’ll ever know.”

“Well, He’s got a poor way of showing it.”

Boz looked back to his watch. The time was getting away from them. “Listen, we need to go. But will you at least continue this conversation with me later? There’s a lot more to it. I really want to try to explain and help you understand.”

“Tell you what,” Keene said standing up, “you promise me that you’ll put every effort into finding this guy, as if he was a terrorist, not some freak, and I’ll think about it.”

“Deal,” Boz said. “Now, let’s go hear a speech.”

   CHAPTER 42   

A
lex knew the only way the president was going to be taken away from the steps of the Capitol quickly was if there was an immediate threat. So she had to make that happen. How, was the question. Once they took him, she would be ready. Since Marianne had given her the evacuation plan, she knew exactly where the president would be taken en route to the motorcade.

She’d spent her young career imagining all the different ways to distract a mark or plan a diversion. She had tried some different weapons, investigated different explosives, tested out certain poisons, all to prepare her for immediate and unforeseen scenarios. Today all of that planning would pay off.

A couple years ago, she’d encountered a young Afghani bomb maker. He was very impressive. After the wars in the Middle East, his country had been left all but devastated. The American troops had pulled out way too soon, leaving the radical factions of his country to move back in and take over the nation. Eventually, the Americans returned but not before the damage had become so extensive the country was hardly recognizable. The years that followed were deadly. And still were to this day. But he had been brought up in a village that had some very talented men when it came to explosives. His grandfather had taught him the trade of bomb making. And he had showed him new ways to conceal an IED, an improvised explosive device.

It was his work that Alex was going to use this evening. While the president was giving his speech on the steps of the Capitol, Alex would be waiting in the stairwell of the hallway. And the explosion, she was sure, would send the agents running, with the president in tow.

Getting the device past security was simple. She had already visited the place earlier today. With the DHS identification Marianne had provided, she was able to walk right in, without even acknowledging the security guard. Not that it would have mattered if he had stopped her.

The device was completely unassuming. Just a child’s toy. And completely undetectable to all known explosive-detection technology. She wove her way through the corridors to the place she wanted to set the charge. There, in front of the window. She took the item out of the bag and placed it exactly how she needed it.

The room was an upstairs office, unused, like many of the rooms in this building. From the looks of it, the place had probably been left unattended for months. It was perfect. And when the time came, it would do, she was sure, exactly what it was supposed to do. Of course, there might be collateral damage. This was something she wasn’t a huge fan of, but given the enormity of the target, she guessed she could overlook it this time.

She checked the device one last time and then left the same way she came in. She took care to make sure no one noticed her coming out, and when she was sure she was good, she casually walked on. The president was scheduled to arrive in less than fifteen minutes. She would need to wait until he was on the steps before getting in place. That gave her, she figured, no more than twenty minutes. She needed to hurry.

Agent Brian Greene checked with the other agents on-site, one last time, as the motorcade arrived at the Capitol. All four zones reported all clear. That still didn’t make him feel any better. Of course, an impromptu speech like this did work to their advantage on some levels. With little to no planning, it gave potential threats little time to plan themselves. Statistically, the risk should actually be lower. But his job wasn’t to play the odds. It was to do everything in his power to make sure the man whose life he was to protect at all costs stayed alive.