“What do you think we should do about this?” he asked.
A military aide walked into the room. “I’m sorry to interrupt, Madam Secretary.”
“Go ahead Frank. It’s the night for interruptions.”
“Madam Secretary. We’ve just had reports of another three ships that have been sunk near the Bahamas. Two cargo ships and one barge.”
“They’re attacking all of our ships now!” Sam said. “Do we know what they were carrying?”
The military Aide looked at his notepad. “I don’t have the manifest for the two cargo ships, but the barge ran ashore right on to the beach in Miami. According to bystanders, it was carrying a massive rectangular stone, at least forty feet wide by twenty high.”
“The key stone!” Sam looked at the Secretary of Defense. “It’s hunting THEM. It went for Senator Croft, now it’s attacked someone who was working for her.”
She looked at the Aide. “Thank you Mr. Renwick. You may leave now.”
Frank Renwick turned and left her office. “Good night Madam Secretary.”
She waited until he’d left the room and closed the door. “So first she becomes responsible for blocking the development of a new energy source to free mankind from fossil fuels and now she’s purchased a weapon that’s threatening to shut down our own shipping lanes!”
“If it makes you feel better. She’s no longer in control of the weapon.”
“No it does not make me feel any better.”
Sam stood up. “Okay then. My team’s currently hunting the collective hive down. We have a large EMP designed to incapacitate the nanobots. It’s only a matter of time before we destroy it. What do you want me to do?”
“We can’t go public. It would be a political nightmare. They’d be fighting about her involvement and if she’d broken any real laws for so long that she’d probably end up completing two terms in Office before anything was done.”
Sam smiled. It wasn’t every day that the Secretary of Defense surprised him. “So you want her to disappear?”
“Of course we need to get rid of her, but how? She’s President Elect — we can’t just have her assassinated!”
“Why not?” Sam laughed.
“You know damn well why not! We don’t go around killing our Presidents and we certainly don’t assassinate our President Elects!”
Chapter One Hundred and Three
Sam’s cell phone rang at exactly 11:30 a.m. the next day.
Sam picked it up and smiled. “President Elect Croft. I hear congratulations are in order. To what do I owe the pleasure of this call?”
“We need to talk.” She spoke in short, fast words.
“Sure. Do you want me to come to you?”
“No. Not in public.” The cell went silent for a moment. “I need to know what you have found. I need to know that we’re getting somewhere with this outbreak from the hive. I’ve just been informed that another eight ships have been attacked along the east coast. Some as far north as Carolina.”
“It’s trying to break out of its current environment!”
“Exactly. The nanobots are allowing the plankton to leave the warmer equatorial waters.”
Sam looked at his watch. It would be lunch soon. “Where would you like me to meet you?”
“There’s a private security room. It’s below the White House. If you go to the White House I’ll have someone escort you there.”
“When do you want to see me?”
“Now, of course.”
Chapter One Hundred and Four
Sam was met at the front gate of the White House by someone who clearly didn’t need to see his credentials to let him through the gate. The man wore a full military dress uniform. It was covered in an array of medals.
He was guided through the series of corridors and stairs that resided below the White House. The man then used his swipe card to unlock an elevator door. Sam stepped inside. The man leaned inside and pressed the lowest number — Five, and then stepped out, leaving Sam alone.
The elevator began its long descent into the secure rooms located deep below the Whitehouse. Unlike a normal elevator that counted levels, this one appeared to count in hundreds of feet. He felt his ears pop as they equalized to the newer pressure as he descended.
The door opened and the President Elect stood alone on the other side. “Hello President Elect Croft.”
“Hello Mr. Reilly. Tell me you have some good news?”
Sam looked around the room. There were several computers lined up along the back wall and a large rectangular desk in the middle, but the room appeared empty of people — with the exception of himself and President Elect Croft.
“Are you certain this room is secure from listening devices?” he asked.
“Absolutely certain. No one even knows we’re here. I told the Officer who escorted you in to make you wait at the fifth level. I’ve been in a briefing meeting on the fourth. He thinks that I’m going to let you wait on your own for an hour before I go to see you. Of course, we’ll be done long before then, and no one will ever know that you and I had this meeting. Why else do you think I ordered you down here? Now, tell me some good news.”
Sam smiled and handed her copies of the files Luke had given him. “I’m afraid not all the news is good for you.”
She picked up the manila envelope. The first image made her gasp. “Jesus Christ! Where did you get these?” She smiled beautifully in an attempt to cover up her concern.
“Luke gave them to me.”
She smiled like she was on show, but the tiniest of sweat on her forehead betrayed her anxiety. “I thought you said you hadn’t seen Luke since school?”
Sam smiled. He was enjoying this. “I hadn’t. He gave me this when I saw him yesterday.”
He watched her face turn red. “He’s still alive?”
“Yes. Isn’t that good news. He said that Timothy Locke kindly gave them to him just before he hanged himself.”
She swore. Then collected herself. “What are you doing here Mr. Reilly?”
“I came because you asked for my help to catch the bad guy. Only, none of us realized that the bad guy was really a girl all along.”
“Okay. What do you want?” she mistook Sam for someone who could be bought, or at least reasoned with.
“You tried to steal the future of the human race, free from fossil fuels. Then you purchased a terrible weapon. Since then, you’ve lost control of it, and the damn thing’s seems intent on hunting you down.”
“I’m a very busy woman, Mr. Reilly. We both know what I’ve done. Now tell me what you want to do about it?”
Sam gritted his teeth in a rage of hatred. “I’d like you to go hang yourself so that I don’t have to kill you.”
The pupils in her eyes widened with fear. “You wouldn’t dare!”
“Why not? You said yourself that no one knows that you’re down here with me.”
“But you’re beneath the White House. You’d never get away with it.”
Sam smiled viciously. “My father’s put three of the last five Presidents in this Office. I’ve been granted access through this maze since I was a boy. I’m a familiar face as the Secretary of Defense’s poster child. She made me who I am, and there’s no way she would let anyone take me away from the task that she has set for me. I’m willing to take a bet that I could get away with it.”
“She sanctioned this, didn’t she!” True horror now radiated in her dilated pupils.