He opened his eyes as Colonel Moore’s voice came over the phone’s tinny speaker. “I have control of the plane. Repeat, I have the plane. Climbing to ten thousand feet. That was rather close. I thank you, Drummond, my wife thanks you, everyone on board thanks you. The president especially.”
72
KNIGHT TO G3 CHECK
Nicholas heard the cheering but shut it off, too much more to do. “Colonel Moore? I don’t know how long the patch will hold. You need to land, right now.”
“We’re in contact with the TRACON in Halifax, Nova Scotia, will be on the ground in less than ten. Can’t wait to shake your hand, young man. Drinks are on me, dinner’s on my wife. Thank you. This is Reynolds, out.”
The vice president’s voice came over the line. “Special Agent Drummond? I see you do live up to your reputation. Good job. How did this happen?”
“It was Spenser, ma’am. Mike was forced to shoot him, but not before he started the countdown to blow up Air Force One. As he pressed the button, he yelled, ‘I’m the beginning!’ There must be more coming. All I can think is that Spenser was to kill the president, which means Damari is still out there, gunning for you.”
A brief pause, then, “I understand. I will speak to you soon.”
Then Savich was at his side. “Everything is stable now, Nicholas?”
Nicholas turned to look at Savich. “Yes. Thankfully, the plane will be landing shortly. Now I have Matthew Spenser’s phone. I’ll continue decrypting it and find if he was also involved in killing the vice president. We do know this was his goal, and, hopefully, his finale.”
“You had to kill him, Mike?”
“Yes, I did, but he still had time to press the button on his phone.”
Savich watched Nicholas rise and take her arms in his hands. “Listen to me, you did what you had to do and you did it in the right order. I’m very proud of you.” He paused, then, “Thank you for helping me, Mike.”
Carrie came out of the hospital room. “Hey, guys, look what I found sewn in the cuff of Spenser’s trousers.” She held up two gold coins. “Are these his undetectable bombs, the ones that blew up Bayway?”
“Yes,” Mike said, staring at those harmless-looking gold coins, so small, so innocent-looking. “Hold them gently, Carrie.”
“You can bet your sweet patoot on that,” Carrie said.
Savich cleared both Nicholas and Mike through, saying quietly, “You and Nicholas need to get on out of here, let the crime scene unit come in and do their jobs. Go to the Hoover Building. Sherlock will meet you and take you to the command center with all the cameras on Yorktown. Questions later.”
Nicholas nodded. “We have no idea what’s going to happen, but if what Vanessa said is correct and Spenser did have the opportunity to plant bombs on-site, we’ve got to find them. We can’t let anyone else get hurt.”
“Already done,” Savich said, and ushered them onto the elevator. “They have two bomb units there searching, but they’ve been coming up dry. Since the bombs are meant to be undetectable, they’ve evacuated everyone anyway.”
Before they parted company Mike handed her gun over, procedure, watched an agent slip it into an evidence bag, and wanted to cry. At least she had a small snub-nosed Glock in an ankle holster in her motorcycle boot. It would do.
Savich gripped Nicholas’s shoulder. “You did great, both of you,” he said, and headed back into the fray.
Nicholas felt a bolt of pleasure at Savich’s words, then shook his head. No time to bask. He turned back to Mike, saw myriad feelings play across her face. He didn’t blame her.
“Let’s get out of here, Agent Caine. I think we both could use a nice cup of hot tea.”
She didn’t know where it came from, but she laughed. She let him take her hand.
“If you’re a good girl, I might even add a dollop of whiskey.”
She felt the depression begin to lift. “You know, that might be a good idea.”
“And maybe that’ll make you want to talk.”
“Not a chance.”
• • •
They stopped at a coffee shop near the State Department and got the tea, but alas, no whiskey, plus bagels hot and ready to be smeared thick with cream cheese. She hadn’t realized she was hungry, but when she took that first bite, her taste buds started a stampede.