“Who is she?”
“I have no idea, and I don’t need to know. All I know is the president is coming and nothing is going to harm him on my watch. Now move out!”
Another careful search was made of the area. HRT men tramped on and around the bunker where Carlos sat huddled. They didn’t find the camera in the tree because Quarry, ever the detail man, had cut a hole in the oak, placed the camera inside, and patched up the hole with bark glued on so that only the camera lens was showing. And as high up as it was, and covered from the ground by dense foliage, except for the sightline Quarry had cut in it, it might as well have been invisible.
Some of the HRT went back inside the house and used a crowbar to pry up one of Quarry’s fine floorboards. Underneath was a standard sheet of one-inch plywood. An HRT member pounded on it with his fist. “Solid as a rock. Must be the cement foundation underneath.”
“Make sure,” said the squad leader.
A drill was brought in and they drilled through the plywood until the drill bit hit something hard and would go no farther.
“Solid.”
“Okay, good enough.”
They put the floorboard back. And then did the same probe with each of the four walls. Solid again.
The area secured, no threats found, and the perimeter established, the HRT squad patiently waited for the president of the United States to land. Once he got here they had no idea what he intended to do. All they knew was if a threat did show up, they would destroy it with enough firepower to take out an Army battalion.
They’d parked the SUV and gotten out. They had no choice because the road had ended at a wall of fallen boulders.
“That wasn’t here before,” said Gabriel. “Used to be able to drive up to the door.”
“That probably wasn’t going to be an option for us anyway,” said Sean.
With Gabriel leading, they headed toward the mine. They had to scramble over more rock and slippery dirt. Sean tumbled down one section before righting himself.
“Showing my age,” he said with an embarrassed look.
“Hey, when’s the last time you took a weapons refresher course?” asked Michelle.
“If we run into something that needs to be hit, I’ll hit it. I’m just counting on you to hit it first.”
“Gee, I’ll try to keep that in mind.”
They kept moving forward.
Gabriel said, “I don’t have a key to the door to the mine.”
“That won’t be a problem,” said Michelle. “Just get us to it.”
A few minutes later they cleared the rock and could see the grass runway.
“Is that his plane?” Sean asked, pointing at the little Cessna.
“That’s it.”
He suddenly pointed to the right. “And that’s Mr. Sam,” he whispered.
They all looked in that direction.
Sam Quarry had come out of the mine carrying what looked to be a small black box. From their hiding spot Michelle took aim with her pistol, but from this distance there was no guarantee of a killing round with the sidearm. She glanced at Sean and shook her head.
“He’s older than I would have thought,” whispered Sean as he studied the tall, white-haired man.
“Strong as a bull,” said Gabriel. “I seen him knock a man down even bigger than him and half his age’cause the fella cursed at my momma. He fights real good.”
“I hope I don’t have to find out how good,” said Sean dryly.