Chapter 37 #2
“Listen,” he said, trying to put out the fire before the bridge between them was completely burned. “It’s a terrible question. I apologize, but I had to ask.”
Gaines took a breath and exhaled. “I get it. And yeah, it sucks, but I would have asked it too.”
“Do you have any idea how the information could have gotten out?”
“Zero,” the Secret Service man replied. “The security of our protectees and their personal information is sacrosanct. That doesn’t end just because we’re no longer actively protecting them.”
Harvath didn’t waste time feeling guilty about asking the question. It had to be asked. It had been asked. And he now had his answer. But the topic couldn’t be closed. Not without a follow-up.
“And the attackers who hit the motorcade? Where do you think they got their information?”
It was a gut punch, but the question didn’t come as a surprise to Gaines. “I’ve been asking myself the same thing.”
“I’m not trying to rub salt in the wound,” said Harvath. “Not after what the Secret Service has been through today.”
“It’s a fair question and you’re not going to be the only one asking it. We’re in for a lot of scrutiny. And rightfully so.”
“While we’re on the subject, there’s something else from Monday night that you might want to be thinking about.”
Gaines looked at him. “What’s that?”
“Secret Service has a CAT team behind the gates at the Naval Observatory, but they have to stay put and defend the residence. They can’t get baited out onto the street, especially when it could be a ruse by bad actors wanting to get inside.
So how did the attackers know that? How did they know that the D.C.
Metro police would be the only guns in that fight? ”
“Shit,” the man said, shaking his head. “You’re right.”
“I don’t want to be right,” Harvath replied. “I want to be wrong. Because, if I’m right, then there’s a source inside the Secret Service who’s working for some very bad people.”
The weight of it all was growing on Gaines by the second. Harvath could see it in the man’s posture. There was no need to keep pressing the point.
Instead he pivoted to how he and S?lvi were getting back to D.C. His hope was that once authorities began clearing the pileup, Sorola could take them.
Unfortunately, Gaines explained, because the Tahoe had been grazed by one of the RPGs, it was part of the investigation and needed to stay exactly where it was. This entire section of the Dulles Access Road was going to remain shut down for the rest of the night.
Buses were being sent to pick up surviving members of the delegations and transport them to their respective embassies, where they were likely to be debriefed by their people and then taken to their accommodations.
Harvath asked when the buses would arrive, but Gaines had no idea. With rush-hour traffic building, plus a chunk of the access road being out of commission, it could take hours.
He explained that S?lvi didn’t have hours.
She needed to get back to the Prime Minister ASAP.
Not only was waiting for buses to arrive not an option, but neither was spending all evening walking the investigative team through everything that had happened in the woods.
S?lvi would be happy to give the Secret Service a full, detailed debrief, just not right now.
Before Gaines could push back, Harvath let him know that they would get themselves back to D.C. and that if anyone needed to reach S?lvi, they could do so through the Norwegian Embassy.
Gaines knew he couldn’t force them to stay—at least not without things getting very ugly. Shaking hands, they said their goodbyes and the Secret Service man promised that if he heard anything regarding Rogers, he’d let Harvath know right away.
Scot thanked him, and after rejoining S?lvi they walked back over to Sorola to hand over what was left of the Tahoe’s medical kit and to let him know that they were going to arrange their own transport back to D.C.
They extended their condolences again over the loss of his colleagues and then, after Harvath had collected his suit jacket, went to check in one last time with Bente.
She was right where they had left her, although now she was being treated by a pair of paramedics.
While they checked her blood pressure and examined her injuries, S?lvi shared with her everything she had learned from Henrik, minus the deaths of Bente’s fellow PST agents and the others in her SUV, which she already knew about.
Harvath asked if there was anything they could do for her, and Bente shook her head. She understood that they had to leave, and she encouraged them to get moving. You could get paid doing a lot of things in Norway, but standing around wasn’t one of them.
S?lvi found the one place on her friend’s face that hadn’t been injured, gave her a kiss, and promised to call her as soon as she knew that Stang was safe and what everyone was planning to do next.
Bente nodded and said goodbye.
“So how are we getting out of here?” S?lvi asked as they began walking toward the nearest exit ramp. “Uber?”
Harvath shook his head. “I already checked. They’re backed up for hours. The Carlton Group, though, is less than eight miles away.”
This time it was S?lvi who shook her head. “I’ve had a bad day. I’m sorry, but we’re not walking eight miles.”
“Of course not,” he replied as he finished composing a text and hit send. “I’m having Nicholas come pick us up.”
“And take us back to D.C.?”
“Sure. Why not?”
“Because it’s the exact opposite direction he needs to go to get home.”
“That’s okay. What are friends for?”
“He and Nina are exhausted. The baby has colic and they lost their night nurse. They haven’t slept in a week. Give the guy a break.”
“You know who else hasn’t slept much and is on the verge of developing colic?” he asked, pointing at himself.
S?lvi wasn’t in the mood. “Find a Plan B.”
Taking his phone back out, he texted Nicholas again. A few moments later, he received a response.
“We good?” she asked.
Harvath nodded. “Yep, but you’re not going to like it.”