Designated Survivor (6 page)

Ben detailed the other two officers with similar backgrounds.

“Good work,” Grace said. “Get me print outs on all of them.
Now I need you to go back through all of the officers on the scene and pull up cellphone records. Look for anything out of line. Anything fishy.”

“How far back?” Ben said.

“Not far. Twelve hours to start,” Grace said. “Start with Jared Long again. Compare all the numbers he received calls from with everyone else.”

“Yes, sir. I mean, yes,” Ben said.

Grace turned to the leadership at the table. “I want to go door to door at the four homes they identified.”

“What will that give us?” Arrington said.

“Nothing, maybe, but if it provides one piece of evidence or a lead it’s worth it,” Grace said. “We need to find some connection back to who’s behind this and so far, this is our only lead.”

“Have you gotten anything from the Marine pilot?” Arrington said.

“No, he’s been unconscious,” Grace said. “We pumped him up with a lot of morphine. Once he’s stable we’ll talk to him.”

“We need some kind of progress and we need it soon. The media is going crazy,” Leighton said.

Arrington stared up at the four Capitol Police officers on the screens, his arms crossed and his right hand covering his mouth.

“Do it,” Arrington said. “Keep it as low key as possible, we don’t need neighbors calling cops for break-ins next door.”

“Low key is what we do,” Grace said.

“Really. Then why are there ten police cars at the Air & Space Museum trying to figure out how a Marine Blackhawk helicopter landed in the middle of the night and their security gate has been blown off?”

“The low key part is they haven’t figured it out yet,” Grace said.

CHAPTER 9

Grace left the control center and went to the elevator to go up and meet his team in front of the Homeland Security building. As the elevator door was closing a hand stopped it. When the door opened Amanda Paulson was standing there. She stepped in beside Grace and hit the button for the first floor.

“Think anyone suspects us yet?” she said.

“Nah, they’re clueless,” Grace said. “Plus I was impressed with your self control, not jumping across the table and ripping my shirt off.”

“I figured I’d save that for later,” she said. “So, SCS, huh? I knew you weren’t some standard issue analyst like you told me.”

“Yeah? How’s that?” Grace said.

“Analysts usually don’t have scars from bullet wounds on their backs,” she turned to him and wrapped her arms around his chest and stood on her tiptoes and kissed him.

Grace looked up into the corners of the elevator. “Aren’t you worried about security cameras?”

“The people who work down here don’t like having their pictures taken,” she said. “No cameras.”

He grinned and his hand went to the small of her back and pulled her in tight. When the elevator stopped at the first floor she pulled away and stood next to him.

“Hiding this is killing me,” she said. “But I guess it’s not the best career move for the assistant director of the FBI to be screwing the NSA’s top covert operative.”

“I can see the headlines now,” Grace said. “AD Paulson in relationship with some guy nobody knows.”

He hit the button for the sublevel of the building and stepped out and watched the elevator door close. The stolen black Mercedes Sprinter was still parked at the curb, a security car parked behind it. Grace waved at the officer as his team finished loading into the van and pulled away as the officer was getting out of the car.

It was still middle of the night and Highway 66 was moving fast. The federal government had closed all non-essential offices for security concerns and many private companies had followed suit so when morning came rush hour would be light. Many roads within D.C. were closed around the Capitol and security checkpoints had been set up.

The van left the highway at Rosslyn and made three turns then pulled up in front of the apartment complex that had been military housing forty years earlier.

“The unit is in the bottom level of the building on the right, down those stairs,” Corbin said. “How do you wanna play it?”

“You keep the van ready. Holden and Avery take perimeter, make sure nobody comes in on us and try not to draw any attention to yourselves,” Grace said.

Avery looked at Holden then back at Grace.

“How is Holden not supposed to draw any attention?” Avery said. “He looks like an NFL linebacker and dresses like a homeless man.”

“Chip, stay with the van and do your thing,” Grace said. “Levi and Netty you’re with me inside.”

“Shit, you’re actually letting me out of the van?” Netty said.

“I need someone to distract anyone who might come to the door and you have a better rack than Levi,” Grace said.

“Hell yeah, I do,” Netty lifted her breasts together with both hands.

Holden and Avery split up and went opposite directions while Grace, Levi and Netty moved down the long flight of stairs. The cement steps were old and cracked and the handrail was missing in several places. Where it wasn’t missing, the paint was worn off from being exposed to the elements for several decades. The cold January air allowed them to wear coats concealing their weapons.

“Looks clear,” Avery’s voice came from the earpiece.

“Same here so far,” Holden said.

Grace reached the door to the apartment and grabbed the doorknob with his left hand and slid a small metal tool into the keyhole with his right. The knob was loose on the door and the round plate that should be around the base of the knob was long gone. Three seconds later he opened the door.

“I love when people don’t use their deadbolt,” Grace said.

Levi turned a light on then pulled the shades closed. The windows faced out to a tall cement wall designed to block the building from the noises of Highway 66 and failed at it. Inside the apartment they spread out. Netty stayed in the front room while Grace went for the bedroom and Levi turned to the kitchen.

“Not much here,” Levi said. “You sure someone actually lives in this dump?”

“Got a twin bed mattress on the floor in the bedroom,” Grace said. “And a couple of Capitol Police uniforms in the closet, still in dry cleaner bags.”

“Kitchen’s empty except for an old coffee maker,” Holden said. “Nobody’s been shopping for a while. Or cleaning. Stinks like hell in the fridge.”

“Whoever’s been living here didn’t plan on coming back,” Grace said.

“I got something,” Netty’s voice came from the bathroom. “You two might wanna come in here.”

The two men went to the bathroom door and looked in. Netty had the top to the toilet tank off and turned upside down. Taped to the bottom was a thick manila envelope.

“Open it,” Grace said.

Netty pulled the tape off of the envelope and sat it on the counter then bent the metal tabs back and unfolded the opening. She tilted the envelope and poured the contents out onto the counter.

“Well, what do we have here?” Grace said.

“There’s a stack of cash, $20’s, maybe a grand’s worth,” Netty said. “And a passport.”

“Bingo,” Grace said. “Even if it’s a fake, which it probably is, it gives us something to start with. Let’s load up and hit the next address.”

They left the apartment, taking the envelope and the uniforms with them. Back in the van they left the apartment complex, leaving the headlights off until they turned onto the main road. Grace plugged the next address into the GPS.

Netty took the G.W. Parkway along the Potomac with Washington D.C. to their left across the water. She continued onto Route 1 past National Airport and into Alexandria. After a right turn onto King Street and one more left she parked on the street in front of a four unit building. They sat and watched the quiet street.

“Here we are,” she said.

“Okay, same drill,” Grace said.

They got out of the van and followed the same plan from the first apartment. Netty, Holden and Grace got to the front door and were in within a few seconds. They searched the rooms.

“Another envelope with cash and a passport in the toilet tank,” Netty said.

“Empty kitchen again,” Holden said.

Grace came out from the bedroom.

“Pretty much the same in there except for this,” he held up a thick work shirt with a logo embroidered on it. “Cunningham Construction. This was hanging beside a couple more uniforms.”

They continued to the other two apartments, one in Mount Vernon and the other in Anacostia before returning to Herndon.

CHAPTER 10

Levi and Holden stood outside a locked steel door. The Marine pilot Grace had shot was on the other side, zip ties still on his wrists and ankles.

“He ready for me?” Grace walked up.

“Yes, sir,” Holden said. “He just started waking up a few minutes ago. Arrington’s doctor checked him out while we were gone.”

Grace stepped in, carrying a folding metal chair and pulled the door shut behind him. Holden and Levi stepped into the room next door, a row of monitors and speakers showing everything going on in the room. Grace took two laps around the Marine pilot strapped to a chair in the middle of the room then came to a stop.

“Are we going to make this easy?” Grace said.

“As easy as I can,” the pilot said.

“Good to hear. Name?”

“Captain George Arnold.”

“Two first names, eh,” Grace said. “So why did you try to fire on me?”

George Arnold looked away and stared at the plain white wall as he thought then shook his head then looked at Grace.

“I got a phone call,” he said. “It was maybe ten minutes before we went wheels up at Quantico to come pick you up. The man knew we were going to get you, knew where we were going after that.”

“Did you even know where you were going yet?” Grace said.

“No. We were ordered to get in the air then receive our orders en route to Dulles.”

“What did he say?” Grace said. “And you’re sure it was a man?”

“Wasn’t a deep voice, but definitely a man. Sounded young. He said if I didn’t do as he said then my wife would be raped and then her head cut off,” George said.

“That’s rude,” Grace said.

“To say the least,” George said.

“So you believed him? This mystery voice on a phone,” Grace said.

“He knew my address, my phone numbers,” George said.

“Could it have been a buddy playing a prank?”

The pilot slowly shook his head. “No. Nobody I know would do that. And even if they did they’d be smart enough not to do it to my work phone.”

“And what exactly did he tell you to do?” Grace said.

“To ensure the mission fails, no matter what it took,” George said. “No matter who had to die. He said that. No matter who had to die, including me.”

“I’m guessing he didn’t give you his name?” Grace said. “Did he have an accent? Anything distinguishing?”

“Not at all. Sounded very, well, normal. That’s what made the threat seem so real,” George said. “His voice, it was just so average. You expect something like that to be screamed, growled, grunted. But this guy was cool and calm. Didn’t sound foreign or anything. Listen, can you check on my wife? Make sure she’s okay?”

“I’ll see if we can send a car over,” Grace said.

He went out of the interrogation room and back down the hall to the control center. Netty and Avery were walking around and followed him.

“Ben,” Grace said then looked at the new analysts. “And other Bens. Focus on the secure work cells. Start with the time of the first attack and work backwards. Start with Jared Long, the SEAL Hendricks and the Marine pilot, George Arnold. They’re our only known shooters. If you have any problem getting access to the records for the secure phones, tell Director Leighton. Or just hack in.”

“What are we looking for?” Ben said.

Grace stopped and turned to him.

“Whatever it is you guys look for. Anomalies, inconsistencies, freak occurrences, repeating numbers, whatever,” Grace said.

He turned to the conference table to hear raised voices.

“Under no condition should we send troops in!” Arrington was saying.

“I think it’s the right thing to do,” Graham said. “It’s been almost six hours since the Capitol was taken hostage and there’s been no progress towards freeing our leaders. The media is tearing us apart. The people need to see some progress. We need to send troops in before the sun comes up.”

“This isn’t a goddamn movie,” Admiral Darby said. “We don’t just send in a bunch of troops to entertain the masses.”

“What the hell is going on here?” Grace said.

Arrington stood calmly a few feet from the table listening to the argument.

“Graham wants to storm the Capitol,” he said.

“That’s stupid,” Grace said.

“Yup,” Arrington said.

“Excuse me?” Graham said. “I sure do appreciate what you’ve done so far, but you are not an executive leader of this country, Mr. Grace.”

“It’s just Grace.”

“Whatever,” Graham said. “You are a hired gun. A disposable resource. Not a strategist.”

Grace stepped over to Richard Graham until he was looking down at him, nose to nose. “I’ve done more to protect this country and its citizens than you ever will, Mr. Transportation Secretary. Do you recall the American nuclear physicist recovered from the Iran last month? Or the six CIA officers that were rescued from North Korea three months before that?”

“No, I don’t,” Graham said. “There’s been nothing about that on the news about a rescue for North Korea and Dr. Andrews was released by President Rouhani as an act of good will.”

“Rouhani doesn’t know what good will is,” Grace said. “They lost him and tried to spin it. That was me and these men.”

“And women,” Netty said.

“We went in there. We brought those people back without the media ever knowing,” Grace said. “Why? Because the media likes clean stories and neither of those were clean. There was bloodshed, but not one drop was American.”

“I got cut in Pyongyang,” Avery said behind him.

“That was a paper cut,” Grace said. “I also managed to plan the mission to bring you back in without you getting shot, Mr. Secretary. Don’t make me regret that.”