The 13: Fall (29 page)

Taylor, who had been listening the whole time, asked, “Can I jump in here?”

“Why not?” Keene sighed.

“You know, I’ve tried to keep a relatively unbiased opinion on all of this. And yes, I’ll admit. Even as a Christian it’s been hard for me to just accept that God is talking to this guy. But I gotta tell you, everything in me says this is for real. I’m with Boz on this.”

How was he ever going to find the people responsible for this, when the two people he was being forced to work with wouldn’t listen to reason? He rubbed his eyes with the heels of his palms. This was getting worse by the second.

“Then, what?” he finally said. “Where does that leave us? Either way, we have a job to do. We have to find this guy. We’re still operating under a time frame. And we have to find this assassin and figure out where she fits into all of this. Or maybe the two of you just think we should just sit back and watch.”

“No,” Boz said. “I don’t think we just sit back here and watch. I think we continue to move forward and find these people. Just because God has allowed all of this to start happening, it doesn’t mean that He has abandoned us. He has promised that He would never forsake His children.”

“Then how do you explain all of this?”

Boz folded his hands and hunched his shoulders. “Because there are a lot of us who aren’t His children.”

Just then, the phone in Keene’s pocket began to buzz. He stood up and left the room. All three of them had been waiting for this call. When he got outside the door, he hit the button.

“This is Keene.”

“It’s me, Jennings.”

“What’s the word?”

“President Walker is giving me full latitude to find out what’s going on. You are to continue as you were.”

President Walker.
That just doesn’t sound right
, he thought, glancing back through the doorway to see President Grant in bed.

“What about Marianne Levy?”

“No one’s seen her since she left, after Grant took back DHS. Her office says she’s taking personal time.”

“What’s Walker’s take on it?”

“Seriously? You know as well as I do the only reason the man was on the ticket was because he could carry Ohio, Pennsylvania, and New York. Nice guy, yeah. But nowhere near ready to run this country. He has no idea what he’s doing.”

“Any word on the shooter?”

The line was quiet for a moment. Then, “We think it’s
her.
”

Keene gripped the phone tighter. “I want everything you have on her, Kevin.”

“And you’ll get it. Just not yet. Right now, I want you tracking down this Prophet and finding him. He may be able to lead us to her.”

“We’ve spent almost two weeks looking for him, and nothing!”

“That was before. Now you have a name and a driver’s license. Find him.”

The phone went dead.

Keene entered the room again and sat back down. “That was Jennings.”

“What did he say?” Megan asked.

“Exactly what we thought. Walker is giving Jennings full control.”

“What about Director Levy?” Boz asked.

“Walker was told she’s taking personal time. Who knows? She’s probably home, celebrating, trying to figure out how to get DHS back. She’s not going to be a problem, though.”

“If Walker is going to give over control to someone, shouldn’t it be Director Preston?” Taylor asked. “I mean, FBI is supposed to be all things domestic.”

“Jennings can be very persuasive,” Keene said.

“And the shooter?” Megan asked.

“Jennings confirmed what I thought.”

“You know who she is?” Megan asked.

“No. But I’ve run into her work a couple times. Not literally. I mean, there’ve been some hits in the past that we believed to be a woman. Russian. No one’s ever seen her. All we’ve ever had was a vague description and a photo we
think
is her. But she’s good. Real good.”

“Obviously,” Boz said. “I mean, she got the jump on you.”

“Funny,” Keene said.

“Then how do we find her?” Taylor asked.

“We don’t. Not yet. Jennings wants us looking for the Prophet.”

“I agree,” Boz said.

Keene was taken aback for a moment. This actually surprised him. “You do? And why’s that? I thought you were—”

“Listen,” Boz cut him off. “Whether or not you buy into all of this doesn’t matter. This all started with him. He has the answers. And we have less than a week.”

“If there even
is
a threat,” Keene said. “We don’t know! What if all this guy was talking about was this shot on President Grant?”

“Doesn’t matter,” Boz said. “We can’t take the chance. If this guy’s telling the truth and something else is coming, we need to find out. Before it happens.”

“Why?” Keene said. “According to you we wouldn’t be able to stop it anyway.”

“Maybe it’s not our job to stop it,” Boz said, matching his tone. “But it might be our job to warn people of it.”

“I agree,” Taylor said. “Now we know who he is, and we have his picture. Let’s get it done.”

As badly as Keene wanted to go against Jennings’s orders and hunt down the Russian woman, he knew Taylor and Boz were right. They had to find this guy. If he did have answers, they needed them. And Keene was sure that whatever they found out, eventually it was going to lead them back to the Russian.

   CHAPTER 48   

M
arianne Levy finished packing the few things that she wanted to bring with her in her carry-on. There would be no checked luggage. With three hundred and fifty million dollars—which could have been four hundred and fifty million—she could buy whatever she wanted. When she was finished she set the small bag down in the living room and looked around the house one last time. She would miss this old place.

She had finally heard from Alex. The conversation was quick and via text. All it said was that she was coming here and that she would be there in less than two hours. The two hours were almost up.

She pulled a chair out from the small kitchen table and sat down, her back facing the wall and her eyes facing the door. She let the small handgun rest in her lap. Alex was a trained assassin. And while she had no grand visions of being able to catch her by surprise, she certainly was not going to let the woman catch her in the same way. She didn’t get to be the director of DHS by underestimating people. There were only two ways into this room, both directly in front of her. And if Alex had any inclination to shoot her, she would have to come in one of these two doorways.

She heard the faint click of the front door latch. She grabbed the pistol and raised it to a firing position. Then she heard the faint footsteps. Alex was coming through the living room. She had her finger on the trigger, not knowing what to fully expect, waiting for the woman to show her face. But instead, the footsteps stopped just short of coming into view.

“You can put it away, Marianne. I’m not here to kill you.”

She kept the gun in position and said, “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“Yes, you do. You’re not stupid,” came the reply. “And it’s exactly what I would do.”

Just then, Alex peeked her head around the corner, her hands up, palms out. “I’m not here to kill you,” she said again.

Marianne motioned for her to come into full view.

Alex continued walking into the kitchen and grabbed a stool from under the island bar. She sat down and folded her arms.

“You can’t blame me,” Marianne said. “I mean, I am a loose end. Isn’t that what you call it?”

Alex nodded. “Yes, but let’s be honest. If I wanted you dead, you’d already be that way. I came to give you these.”

Marianne set the small pistol on the table beside her and reached for the small pouch in Alex’s hand. She unzipped the thing and reached inside and pulled out three passports. Alex had promised her these a few weeks back. She opened them up, one by one, and thumbed through them. They were all hers. Different names, different nationalities, complete with stamps from several different countries.

“What about you?” Marianne said.

Alex shrugged her shoulders. “I’ve been doing this for a long time. I think I’m going to retire.”

“Retire? Really? Somehow I doubt that. People like you don’t retire.”

“Yeah, maybe not. But I’m going to at least go away for a long time. Can’t stay here,” Alex laughed. “And as much as I really like my place back home, I’m going to have to leave it. Can’t take the chance. You don’t win the Super Bowl and go unnoticed.”

“I wouldn’t say
won.
”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Just what I said. He’s not dead.”

Alex narrowed her eyes at her. “He’s in a coma. And if he ever wakes up—and that’s a big if—he’s gonna be brain-dead. He’s as good as dead.”

“But not dead.”

“Semantics.”

“Whatever. Doesn’t matter. Chin isn’t just coming here to drill.”

“I know.”

“What? How do you know that?”

“Marianne, for someone as smart as you appear to be, you can be naive. You know that? Or are you so narcissistic that you actually believed that you could get away with all of this and this country would just accept it, after the fact? There’s no way. The Chinese are too smart for that. They used you. Face it. They’ve always intended on coming here. This isn’t just about oil and the fact that this country is indebted to them. This is about domination. They are a communist regime. It’s their way of life. Take over and assimilate. Just because they’ve done it through capitalism for the last seventy-five years doesn’t mean that they’ve gotten weak.”

“Well,” Marianne sighed, “like I said. It doesn’t matter. I’m leaving. You’re leaving. We won’t be here when it happens. Where will you go?”

“Where are
you
going?”

She smiled and nodded her head. “Right. Okay then. I guess I’ll be seeing you later.”

“No you won’t.”

“You know you shot that Jon Keene guy, right?”

“Yeah, so?”

“You know he’s going to come looking for you, don’t you?”

“I doubt it. He’s going to have his hands full for a while. But even if he does, that’s fine. I’ve got unfinished business with him.”

“How’s that?”

“Oh, it’s nothing. Let’s just say we’ve crossed paths before. And besides, he’s going to come looking for you long before he comes looking for me.” She stood up from the stool. “Take care, Marianne.”

   CHAPTER 49