Shannon had said the same thing. Of course, she would have heard it from him. Cooper said, “You had to know that targeting it put innocent people at risk.”
“A calculated risk. I wasn’t hoping it would be empty. I planned for it to be.”
“Nice work.”
“As I said, I got beaten.”
“What was the plan?”
“To release a video to every major media organization announcing that I planned to blow up the Exchange at two o’clock the following day. In it I’d say that any effort to disarm the bombs would result in me triggering them early. That they had until then to clear everyone out and evacuate the area.”
“So why didn’t you release it?”
“I did.”
“You—what?” Cooper had been jumping ahead, old interrogation habits, and the answer threw him.
“I did release it. Sent it to seven media outlets. The networks, CNN, MSNBC, even Fox.”
“But—”
“But you didn’t see it.” Smith nodded. “Yeah. That was where I got beat.”
“You’re saying that you sent the warning, and that none of the networks—”
“None of them aired it. Not one. Not before, and not after. Seven allegedly independent media organizations knew that I intended to blow up the building. They knew that it would happen around two o’clock. They knew that if they didn’t broadcast it, people would die. Eleven hundred and forty-three people, as it turned out.”
Vertigo strobed through Cooper again, though he sat nowhere near the edge. “You’re saying someone blocked that story?”
“Yes. Spiked it seven times. My turn. Who has the power to do that?”
Cooper hesitated.
“Who can convince, or force, seven independent networks to bury a story? Could a rogue group do it? A terrorist?”
“No.”
“No. Only someone in the system. Only the system itself.”
“Drew Peters again.”
“Maybe.” Smith shrugged. “I don’t know exactly. All I know is, when they didn’t air that video, when I saw that the government wasn’t evacuating, I realized what would happen if those bombs went off. And so I activated my contingency plan.”
“Shannon.”
“Shannon.”
Cooper thought back to that moment six month ago, him running down the hall at her, Shannon looking up, telling him to wait, that he didn’t understand. Jesus.
Would she have succeeded in stopping the bombs if he hadn’t caught her? Was this one more load on his creaking conscience?
“So who benefits from something like this, Cooper? Who benefits from the Exchange blowing up?”
“You asked your question.”
“Call this a follow-up.”
He knew the answer, both the one Smith wanted to hear and the larger truth behind it. Yesterday, he couldn’t have imagined admitting it. But this morning, as the first sharp rays of the sun split the horizon, he just said what his gift told him. “People who want a war.”
“That’s right. People who want a war. People who believe that it will make them richer, or more powerful. A few, even, who might truly believe that a war is necessary. But while there have been a handful of times in history when war truly was necessary, never, not once, has a war against our own children been justified. No, the people who want to start this war, they want to benefit from it.”
“How did the bombs go off if you didn’t trigger them?”
“Is that your question?”
“Call it a follow-up.”
Smith laughed. “All five had a radio trigger with a specific code frequency. No one but me knew the code.”
“So how—”
“Because I warned them.”
He stopped talking, let Cooper work it out. “Your message gave someone enough time to find the bombs and break the code.”
“Again, I didn’t realize just how ruthless my enemy was. I knew they hated me, knew they wanted a war. But even I never believed they would blow up their own building, kill a thousand people, just to foster it.”
“But…why?”
“Men will always find a reason.”
Cooper thought about that. Thought that it was probably true. “Next question. What about the rest?”
“The rest?”
“The other things you’ve done. Assassinations. Explosions. Viral attacks. All of it.”
A long silence. The sun broke the horizon, spilling bloody light across the east. As if on cue, Cooper heard birdsong, though he couldn’t see any birds.
Finally Smith said, “Are you asking if my hands are clean? They’re filthy. I’m sorry, but you wanted truth.”
“You are a terrorist.”
“I’m fighting a war. I’m fighting for my human rights, and the rights of people like me. I’m fighting for you, and Shannon, and the other million of us. Like your daughter.”
Cooper found himself on his feet before he realized he’d moved. “Be careful, John. Be very careful.”
“Oh, come off it.” Smith looked up at him mildly. “You want to kill me? You can. I’m no match for you in a fight. I knew you could last night, and I knew you could when I brought you up here. You don’t want me to talk about Kate? Fine. But I’m not the one who wants to put her in an academy.”
“That’s not going to happen.”
“Why? Because you throw me off this rock?”
“Because…” Drew Peters’s voice in his head. Your daughter will never be tested. Whatever happens, I’ll take care of your family.
He sank to his knees. No more. Please. Enough. Not them, too.
I’ll take care of your family.
“No one has clean hands,” Smith said. “Not me, not Shannon, not you. But the system is the bloodiest. The new world is being forged one gear at a time, and those gears drip blood. My turn. What kind of world do you want for your abnorm daughter, Cooper? And while we’re at it, what kind of world do you want for you normal son?”
He fought for breath. I’ll take care of your family. In his effort to protect them, in his blindness, he’d left them under the protection of the most dangerous man imaginable. To protect his children, he’d let a lion into their bedroom.
No.
“This evidence,” Cooper said. “Shannon said you had evidence. Of the things you’re claiming.”
“That’s a longer story.”
“I’ve got time.”
“After I met Senator Hemner at the Monocle, I headed home. Never made it. I saw police all along my block, my apartment lit up with floodlights. I didn’t know what was going on, but I knew enough to run. Which was what Peters wanted. What’s the point of creating a myth like John Smith if you catch him right away? Better to let him run. To let him lurk out there in the darkness, a national boogeyman. More funding in it.” He laughed without humor.
“So I ran, and I transformed myself from an activist into a soldier. I started building an army. And then I went digging. I wanted to know who my enemy was.
“It didn’t take long to figure out that it was Equitable Services. Your agency benefited more than any other. But that wasn’t proof. I had the why, and the who. So I went after the how.”
“The how?”
“Someone had orchestrated the massacre. That same person had faked the footage of it. That was exceptional work. It had to be perfect, or as near as possible. That meant a gifted. A man who can do with image and media what I can do with a chessboard or what Shannon can do with a crowded room. That was all I needed to know to find him.”