The pilot lifted off fast, banking and taking several evasive maneuvers just in case there was a gunman, or worse, hidden somewhere out there in the darkness.
The torque was obviously painful for Helena and Mordechai, but neither of them complained.
As soon as they cleared Damien’s estate, the pilot raced toward the Reston Hospital Center.
Looking down, Harvath could see that the traffic was still terrible. He had some decisions to make.
The first had to do with Mordechai and Helena. They couldn’t go to a regular hospital. Not with his gunshot wounds and her trauma, and not with the virus spreading. There was only one option.
Asking Ashby to hand him the sat phone from his bag, Harvath called Lydia Ryan.
“Agreed,” he said, after explaining the situation to her and listening to her response. “You’ll have that relayed to the pilot?”
When Ryan said she would, Harvath thanked her, put his headset back on, and handed the phone back to Ashby.
“What’s the plan?” she asked.
“We’re dropping you and Chase in Reston to pick up his vehicle. The pilot will drop me at my place, and then he’ll fly Helena and Mr. Mordechai to The Farm for medical treatment. Lydia Ryan is already there waiting for them.”
“Once we have Chase’s truck, what do you want us to do?”
“Since you’ll be in Reston, you might as well go to the office,” said Harvath. “Get a shower, get changed, and start figuring out how the hell we’re going to find Damien.”
“Roger that,” she replied.
When the helicopter landed in his front yard, Harvath grabbed his gear and hopped out. He would have just enough time to toss everything inside, take a quick shower, and grab something to eat. He was worried about getting Lara safely to her plane, and wanted to do it himself.
He found Lara and the Old Man seated at the kitchen table watching the news. They both had plates of Arroz Carreteiro in front of them, but neither was eating.
“What’s going on?” Harvath asked.
“Someone talked,” Carlton replied. “The entire world now knows that the President is under observation at Bethesda.”
“Are they saying he’s sick? Have we gotten any classified updates?”
“Publically, they’re downplaying it.”
“And privately?”
The Old Man didn’t respond.
Harvath looked at him. “He’s got it? African Hemorrhagic Fever?”
Carlton nodded.
“My God. How long does he have?”
“They don’t know. You know how fast this thing moves. It could be hours, it could be days.”
“Or he could beat it.”
“I think we better get ready for what happens if he doesn’t,” said Carlton.
“And the Vice President?”
“They’ve already invoked the Twenty-fifth Amendment. He’s going to address the nation shortly.”
“This is bad,” Harvath replied.
“Any idea where Damien is?”
Harvath shook his head. “None. They worked Helena over real bad. Whatever information she gave up was enough to spook Damien into taking off. Speaking of which, we’re watching his plane, correct?”
The Old Man nodded. “And I’ve put a team on his pilots as well.”
“Good. I told our surveillance people at his estate to stay in place in case somebody comes back. He lost a lot of men. If it were me, I’d want to know what happened.”
“If he was worried enough to flee, he’ll chalk up their disappearance to whatever he’s running from. He’s not coming back. We need to let those surveillance people get home to their families.”
“What about Damien’s staff? The people who come in to maintain the grounds? The people who take care of the animals? If they show up, they might have an idea of where he went.”
Gesturing toward the TV, the Old Man said, “That’s a big if. I don’t think anyone’s going to be showing up for work for a while.”
Harvath disagreed, especially when it came to whoever was responsible for taking care of the animals. They’d have a hard time staying away. In fact, it was probably someone local who did it, someone in town. He made a mental note to get Nicholas on it.
Lara offered to fix him a plate, and he thanked her as he sat down at the table and watched the crisis unfold.
Though the newscasters didn’t have all of the information, they had enough.
He ate in silence as he listened to the reports. Then, once he had finished his meal, he ran upstairs to grab a shower and change.
After soaping up, he threw the temperature selector all the way to cold and stood there for as long as he could stand before climbing out and toweling off. The news that the President had contracted the virus had left a desperate pit in his stomach. It had been all he could do to get his food down.
Throwing on jeans and a shirt, he returned to the kitchen. Lara was waiting there with her bag. He looked around, but didn’t see the Old Man.
“Where’s Reed?”
“He said now that you’re back, he needed to get going.”
Harvath peered out the kitchen window. He saw Nicholas’s van in the drive, but Carlton’s vehicle was gone.
“He said you’d understand.”
Harvath did understand. “Did he take any supplies with him?”
“No. He told me he’d figure everything out later.”
That, Harvath didn’t understand, but the Old Man was stubborn. He was also proud. Still, he should have taken something. Things were going to get much worse. Harvath could feel it. He was glad he was getting Lara and her family to safety.
“You ready to go?” he asked.
“Am I ready? Yes. Do I want to? No.”
Harvath reached out and pulled her close to him. “You’re going to be okay. Jon and Anya are going to take good care of you.”
“We don’t need taking care of.”
He smiled. “I’ll be out there as soon as I can.”
She tried to smile back, but it came off looking as forced as it felt.
“Hey,” he said, lifting her chin. “We’re all going to be okay. I promise you.”
He thought she was moving in to kiss him, but instead she buried her face in his shoulder.
They stood there like that for several moments, and he wondered if she was crying. When she finally pulled away, she turned so he couldn’t see her face.
“I want to say goodbye to Nicholas,” she stated, walking toward the front door.
“I’ll put your bag in the Tahoe,” he replied, watching her go.
Reaching the entry hall, he remembered that he had left something in his study and jogged down the hall to get it.
It was a children’s woodworking kit, a present he had purchased for Marco. He had intended to give it to Lara on their fall colors trip.
Returning to the entry hall, he slipped it inside her suitcase and stepped outside.
Nicholas was standing outside his van, the dogs at his side, chatting with Lara. He watched as she bent down and gave him a long hug and then scratched each of the dogs behind their ears. He let them enjoy their moment before stepping out of the house and walking over to his SUV.
“All good?” he asked.
Lara turned and smiled, her eyes moist. “All good.”
He looked at Nicholas. “How about Nina?”
“She just got picked up. She’ll probably arrive at Reagan right about the same time you do.”
“I’ll give her a hug for you,” Lara stated.
“Thank you,” Nicholas replied. Then, jerking his thumb over his shoulder toward the inside of his van, he added, “I’ve got to get back to work.”
The two hugged once more, and as Lara walked over to get in Harvath’s SUV, Harvath added another item to Nicholas’s to-do list — tracking down any of the staff that worked at Damien’s estate.