the woman’s feet seemed to touch the ground.
“Are you all right, Mr. President?” asked Foster anxiously after they were safely inside the chopper. “We’ll need to get you and the First Lady checked out medically.”
“I’m fine. We’re fine.” He eyed Chuck Waters. “Good call. We put the masks on as soon as the gas started coming in.”
“That was Sean King’s doing, sir, not mine. But even then, I didn’t think the gas would be in that house. We thought it was all clear.”
“Well, I’ll have to thank Mr. King.” He glanced at his wife. “Again.”
A pale Foster added, “If I suspected for a second that the place was booby-trapped like that, sir, I never would have let you go in.”
Cox slipped the gun from his waistband and handed it back to Foster. “Well, I really didn’t give you a choice, did I? Whoever put that thing together was extremely clever. From the sophistication of the plot, it seems that a well-funded terrorist organization was behind this. And my stupid antics really put you between a rock and a hard place, Larry. I’m sorry.”
Foster’s face reddened. It was rare for a president to apologize to anyone, much less a Secret Service agent.
“Apology accepted, Mr. President.” The two men shook hands.
As the door to the chopper slammed shut, the president said, “We need to get back to D.C. pronto.”
“I couldn’t agree more, Mr. President,” said a relieved Foster.
“And your niece?” said Waters.
“After what just happened, there seems little hope of her still being alive. If their goal was to kill me, they obviously never intended to release her.”
Jane Cox let out a sob and covered her face. The president put a supportive arm around her. “But we must continue to do everything we can.” He looked around the interior of the chopper. “We must not give up hope. But we must also prepare for the worst. Those bastards tried to kill me and my wife today, but they failed. America will never give in to evil like this. Never. They can keep trying to get to me, but I will never let them win. Not on my watch.”
Every agent on the chopper looked at Dan Cox with immense pride, forgetting that a few minutes ago he’d been a raging madman with a gun pressed to his temple, more worried about being reelected than getting his niece back. He had bravely walked into what turned out to be a trap in order to save his niece. And now, having barely escaped death, he was being supportive of his wife and rallying the troops. That was some serious street cred that U.S. presidents typically never earned.
Before they lifted off it was decided that, under the circumstances, the Coxes should not travel on the same chopper together. Jane was shuttled off to the second chopper with six agents and a couple of HRT members, while the bulk of the firepower and Agent Chuck Waters stayed with the president. Two agents remained behind to deal with the local police and Tippi Quarry’s body.
CHAPTER 83
QUARRY THREW DOWN the SAT phone and with a scream of rage he raced back inside the mine.
Watching from their cover position Sean said, “He doesn’t look very happy.”
“I think he just found out the man isn’t dead.”
“What are you two talking about?” asked an attentive Gabriel. “What man?”
“Gabriel, how well do you know the interior of the mine?”
Michelle broke in. “Sean, no!”
“Michelle, we can’t go in there blind.”
“He’s just a kid.”
“There may be another kid in there too.”
Gabriel spoke up. “I’ll go. I know the place real well. I want to go in there. I can talk to Mr. Sam.”
Sean said, “He wants to go.”
Michelle looked at Sean and then at Gabriel’s pleading face.
“Michelle, we don’t have much time. You saw Quarry tear in there.”