As the helicopter finally began to descend, Kate took a long, deep breath. She had always been decisive, able to take command and feel confident about her decisions, even if they were painful to make. Now, she hated the waffling within her, born from the reality that she was going ever deeper, entwining with an enemy she had fought against her entire political career.
As soon as the whirling began to diminish, the doors opened and the suits were waiting. A tall man with short gray hair followed her as she brushed past them, his long legs allowing him to keep up with her brisk pace.
“Where exactly did it happen?” she demanded.
“On the east side, on a service ramp, I’m told. Luckily no one heard or saw it.”
“No one heard a car crash and an agent get shot outside a federal building?”
“I asked the same question. It’s Sunday. If anyone is in downtown Memphis on the weekend, it’s on Beale Street. There’s also the distraction of a motel on fire at this moment.”
“Director Wolve, I cannot imagine how this could have been handled worse,” she said, walking into the building, the door held open for her by the accompanying agents. “And all I want to know is the location of my nephew.”
“Agent Hallow knows to give us a full briefing.”
“And my mother? Is she safe?”
“She’s been brought in. On her way to Washington now. She was not pleased. And as you anticipated, she was not alone. The woman…”
“Roxy Garth.”
“She had to be taken in as well. She threatened to put it all on social media.”
“And she would have. As I stated before: They are to both be treated with extreme care. Anything they need, they get. They’ll be furious that they are under constant watch, but as soon as I’ve addressed the mess you’ve made here, and made sure my nephew is safe, I’ll go to them.”
“That is the deal, Senator.”
“This way, ma’am,” one of the agents said, directing her to the elevator.
“And trust me on this,” Kate held up her finger as she stepped in. “My family will not stand for this. My sister is a well-connected journalist. My brother-in-law is a hell of a lawyer. We’re in for a battle on this one once they figure out my mother has been taken in. And just exactly how am I to explain this to them? That my nearly eighty-year-old mother is a potential deadly threat to all those around her?”
“You know what you’ve seen, Senator. We just have to determine why she hasn’t been activated like the others.”
The doors opened, and the agents led them down another empty hallway. At the end, they reached another office, where a man with an earpiece stood.
“Director, Mr. Hallow would like to see you for a moment—”
“He can see us both,” Kate said, striding over to the only other door in the room. “I assume he’s in there?”
“Ma’am—”
She opened the door to what had clearly become a war room in the last six hours. Along with multiple white Styrofoam coffee cups, laptops beside large monitors littered the room. Agents clustered around the screens.
In the midst of the chaos, Flynn Hallow rose, brushing his thin strands of hair across his forehead.
“Director Wolve,” he said. He looked over to Kate. “Senator.”
“Bring us up to speed, Agent Hallow. Everyone, continue your work, I want those people found,” the director said.
As the conversations continued at a much more subdued tone, Flynn walked through, brandishing an iPad.
Before he could begin to speak, Kate stepped forward. “Begin with where you think my nephew is at this very moment.”
“We believe with the same fanatics that took him in Little Rock.”
“How can that be, when you obviously blew up an entire hotel room to stop them?”
“Let me be clear that we are investigating at this very moment what caused the explosion, that it could very well have been these true believers—”
“Don’t bullshit me,” she said. “Spin it any way you want it to cover yourself, but don’t attempt it on me. While I wholeheartedly disagree with your methods, including the danger you put many innocent Tennesseans in, I have read the files. I understand that you believe this girl, even my nephew, pose some sort of danger—”
“Not some sort,” Flynn said.
“Agent Hallow, please explain to the senator what happened here,” Mark said.
“The car driving your nephew crashed and he is now missing. Three of our best agents were in that car.”
“How in the world did that happen?” Kate asked.
Flynn swiped the screen of his iPad, and turned it around. “The girl happened,” he said.
Kate covered her mouth at the sight of the photograph of two agents slumped over in the front seat of the smashed vehicle, their skin splotchy, their hair having fallen out in massive clumps.
“One of our agents survived, though. And verified what this video shows. There was a camera posted on the parking garage ramp.”
He swiped again, and surveillance video appeared on the screen. It showed the agents’ car suddenly speeding up and crashing into the side entrance. A white SUV pulled up alongside, and a man jumped out.
Kate held her breath as the man pulled her obviously disoriented nephew from the car and led him into the SUV. For a brief moment, a little girl could be seen reaching for William as the door shut behind him.
“An APB has been put out for that SUV,” Mark said.
“Only on private channels to law enforcement,” Flynn added. “We suspect they’ve already changed out the license plate, even though the agent who survived was unable to see it. But we’re monitoring cameras throughout the city, and social media. We are holding off putting it out to the media until we develop a next course of action.”
Kate frowned. “I want to make one thing very, very clear. I want my nephew found, but I will not have innocent people in my state—or any other state, for matter—put in danger. Blow up another building in Tennessee, and I’ll shut down your entire operation.”
Flynn’s face flushed. “You can’t—”
“I can and I will. I did what you asked in signing that order with the FBI. But I’m now going to be included in all your briefings. Is that understood?”
“Senator, we need time—”
“You have two hours to come up with a course of action to find him. We’ll meet again at nine o’clock. I’m issuing a statement that I am closely monitoring the investigation by the FBI. I won’t hover, but I won’t be far either. Find my nephew, gentlemen. Bring him in safely.”
“Ma’am, please realize there is much more to discuss,” Flynn said. “All this needs to get to the top levels—”
“When my nephew is unharmed and safe and I know exactly where he is, we can discuss more. He needs to be your top priority. Am I clear?”
Kate did not wait for their response before walking away and reaching for her phone, glad that her back was to them so they could not see how badly her hands were shaking.
EIGHT
William felt hands on his shoulders, shaking him, Quincy’s voice repeatedly asking what was wrong. When he opened his eyes to the familiar feeling of his throat scratchy from crying out, he could see the driver of the van had pulled over to the side of the road and was looking at him in astonishment beneath the brim of his hat.
Rudd turned around in his seat, wearing an annoyed expression. “Again with the screams?”
A soft hand rested on William’s own. Lily looked up at him, sitting so close that her eyes were only inches away from his.
In his nightmare, he saw those eyes trapped in stone.
“Seriously, are you OK?” Quincy asked from where he sat forward in the back seat. “You sounded like someone set you on fire. What the hell were you dreaming about?”