Chapter Seventeen
Sam was so relieved to see Jeannie awake and alert and to hear Helen had been rescued, too. “What about Joe?” she asked Malone.
“They’re working on getting to him.”
“Sam! Jake!”
She turned to see FBI Special Agent-in-Charge Avery Hill jogging toward them with his deputy, George Terrell. “We came as soon as we got the word.”
“We’re glad to see you,” Malone said. “Holland can brief you on details that may be relevant.”
“Earlier today, we picked up a John Doe who was later identified as Sergei Ivanov, a Russian, who’s leading the resistance against Petrov and his regime.
Ivanov has connections to Vice President Gretchen Henderson, who knew him at Oxford.
She’s been fired for keeping that relationship a secret.
Prior to the explosion, MPD officers and the Secret Service were in a standoff with a group from the Russian Embassy that had come to collect Ivanov’s body.
They were told the body was being examined and would be returned when the examination was complete.
They didn’t care for that answer. Then there was an explosion, Sergei Ivanov’s body is now missing, and we haven’t been able to locate Amara Robinson, a witness in another case who was near the morgue when the bomb detonated.
It’s possible the explosion could’ve been intended to create a distraction that would allow them to grab Ivanov. ”
“Jesus,” Terrell muttered under his breath.
“I’m very concerned about Amara, who’s eighteen. She just reported the murder of her brother and could now be caught up in something that has nothing at all to do with her.”
“Understood,” Avery said. “As soon as you’re able, get me a description of her and anything else that might be relevant.”
“We’ll be shifting operations to one of our subsidiary stations while HQ is processed,” Malone said. “We can issue the BOLO for Amara and get you those details once we’re set up over there.”
Shouting from inside the building caught their attention, and Sam turned to see EMTs wheeling the chief out of the building on a gurney. He was unconscious and covered with blood. The sight of him that way was so shocking, Sam could hardly breathe or move.
“Is he alive?” Malone asked.
“Yes,” an EMT said as they quickly loaded him into an ambulance that took off with sirens blaring a second later.
“Sam.”
She blinked and looked up at Malone.
“Breathe.”
Tears filled her eyes. “He… I…”
Malone hugged her. “He’s tough as nails.”
“We might have a second device!” Higgins said from the gaping hole where the main doors once were. “Everyone get back. Hurry!”
Malone kept an arm around Sam as he headed toward the street with Lindsey, Q, Freddie, Avery and George moving with them as others followed.
Sam pulled the vibrating BlackBerry out of her back pocket to take a call from Nick. “Hey.”
“Babe… I need to get you out of there right now. We’re not sure what’s happening, but it may not be contained to MPD. They want to move us to the bunker, but I won’t go without you.”
“Just go! I’ll catch up when I get home.”
“Samantha, I need you to comply with the directions of your detail right now. This is nonnegotiable. Please.”
Because he never used that word with her, she said, “I’ll be there as soon as I can.”
“Thank you. I love you. Please hurry.”
“I love you, too.”
“What’s wrong?” Freddie asked. “Other than the obvious.”
“The Secret Service wants to move the family to a bunker, but Nick won’t do that without me.”
“You should go,” Malone said.
“How do I leave with so much to be done?” she asked. “How do I drive away in my fortified SUV while everyone here is still in danger?”
“We’ve received an urgent order to get you back to the White House immediately,” Q said. “I’m afraid I have to insist you come with us right now.”
Sam looked around at the still-unfolding disaster outside the heavily damaged MPD headquarters, at her brothers and sisters in blue working a scene that included multiple casualties, a stolen corpse and a missing young woman, and knew a moment of absolute despair at being forced to leave.
“Go, Sam,” Freddie said. “We’ve got this.”
“Ma’am,” Q said, his tone as urgent as she’d ever heard it.
Sam gave a short nod and let Q propel her rapidly toward the SUV. Another agent was waiting to open the door for her, because God forbid she do it herself.
Sam didn’t recognize the female agent. “Is there any word on Vernon?”
“He’s being checked at the ER, but he says he’s fine and wants to get back to work,” Q said.
“I’m glad he’s being his usual feisty self.”
“We are, too,” Q said as he drove out of the parking lot, dodging pedestrians, EMS vehicles and personnel as they made their escape.
When they’d traveled a few blocks from HQ, she tried calling Amara but received the busy signal again.
What the hell was going on with cell service?
The minute she could, she’d be trying to figure out why the Russians would want Ivanov back so badly that they’d cause a massive international incident to create a distraction so they could steal him.
Especially since his dead body had been dumped by people in a vehicle with diplomatic plates in the first place.
Why would they dump him and then set off a bomb to get him back?
She hoped the answer to that question would explain this madness.
Nick paced the Oval Office as Terry and Nick’s lead agent, John Brantley Jr., looked on with an increasingly distressed expression. They wanted him moved to the bunker beneath the White House where the Littles already were, but he wasn’t going without Sam.
“Mrs. Cappuano is on her way home,” Brant said.
“That’s good,” Nick said with a sigh of relief. Thinking of her being in danger, especially because of him and his administration, was unbearable. They’d been informed by Sam’s detail that Sergei Ivanov’s body had gone missing after the explosion. “I want to see Gretchen.”
“Right away, sir,” Terry said.
After he left the room, Nick glanced at Brant. “Is Scotty home yet?”
“Almost.”
Nick wanted them all home, and he’d wanted it done an hour ago.
Scotty had been finishing an important exam and was now on his way home with his detail.
The agents made critical decisions on the fly every day as they walked the tightrope between providing robust security while allowing his family members to live their lives.
Here he was, safe in a gilded cage, while Sam and Scotty were still out there, vulnerable because the Russian president could be on a rampage over the U.S. VP’s involvement with his chief critic.
And all of it was the fault of the woman who came into the Oval Office, looking like a shell of her former confident, poised, polished self. Good. He hoped she was suffering over the shit storm she’d caused. Accompanying her was FBI Director Sally Monroe.
“Why would the Russians bomb the MPD headquarters to get Ivanov’s body?”
“They did what?” she asked, her expression gone flat with shock.
“You heard me, Gretchen. Why did they want to get him back badly enough to inflict a terrorist attack on our capital city?”
“I… I don’t know. I really don’t know.”
“Think hard about what Ivanov told you he was doing here. We need to know everything you know, and we need that information right fucking now.”
Gretchen began to cry as she visibly trembled. “He told me he was meeting with supporters, people who backed his cause.”
“Who were these people he met with?”
“He never told me. He only referred to them as supporters.”
“Did he say anything about the Russian Embassy?”
“Only that they were pricks and wouldn’t leave him alone when he had every right to move about freely.”
“What did he mean about not leaving him alone?”
“Everywhere he went, someone from the embassy showed up.”
“Did they confront him?”
“No, they just stared at him, making sure he knew they were watching him.”
“They must’ve loved when he stopped by your place and spent the night. I’m sure the Kremlin was on the highest alert, seeing as how the U.S. government appeared to be conspiring with the person trying to overthrow their government.”
Yes, he was screaming at her—again—but what the hell did she expect? She’d created a fucking nightmare for him—and now for Sam, too.
“At least four people are dead after the bombing. The chief of police, who Sam considers an uncle, is in critical condition. The deputy chief, another close friend of Sam’s, is pregnant and was buried under debris for more than an hour.”
Gretchen’s sobs did nothing to soften his anger toward her.
“My wife and the people closest to her outside of family could’ve been killed today, all because you decided it was no big deal to entertain a fucking Russian activist at your official residence. I’ll never be able to wrap my mind around your staggering lack of judgment.”
“Mr. President, please… I never intended for any of this to happen. Sergei was my close friend at school, and I… I so admired his work. He was trying to get his country back from an authoritarian ruler…”
“I fully support his work and the cause of freedom, but you were the vice president of the United States, and I shouldn’t have had to tell you that you couldn’t take meetings with any Russians that aren’t part of your official duties.
Now we’ve got the Kremlin thinking we’re actively working to overthrow Petrov, which couldn’t be further from the truth.
Would I like him gone? Hell yes, but what I don’t need is him thinking we’re conspiring to make that happen! ”
“I understand the optics are bad.”
“Bad,” Nick said with a chuckle. “Try catastrophic.” To Director Monroe, Nick said, “Has she finished her statement?”
“Yes, sir.”
“What’s the next move?”
“She’ll be thoroughly debriefed and possibly face criminal charges, depending on what the investigation uncovers,” Monroe said.
“What?” Gretchen was incredulous. “Charges?” Gretchen appealed to Nick. “You can’t let them do this to me! He’s my friend. Please, Mr. President. I made a mistake. That’s all this was.”
“This may be the only way I can save my presidency from what you’ve done.”
“My God. But, Mr. President… My children…”
“You should’ve thought of them before you allowed your good friend Sergei to spend multiple nights at your official residence. That’s all.”
Realizing she’d been dismissed, Gretchen said, “By treating my association with him like a crime, you’re squandering the best chance you might ever get to be rid of Petrov.”
“I’m not interested in that project. I have far more pressing concerns right here in this country.”
“Please come with me, ma’am,” Monroe said.
Nick appreciated that Sally didn’t refer to Gretchen as Madam Vice President. He glanced at Terry. “I need to announce her resignation.”
“Yes, sir.”
Nick was shaken by the day’s events. Just when he’d thought he had things under control… “Will it be enough?” he asked Terry.
“Sir?”
“To pin this on her?”
“It’s all hers. We had nothing to do with it, so yes, it should be enough.”
“What about for those who say I should’ve known what my vice president was doing?”
“Your job isn’t to monitor her activities, sir.”
“I’d like to know how Sergei slipped past our intelligence.”
“Teresa is working on that as we speak and promised a report by the morning briefing.
“Mr. President, we’re waiting to relocate you to the bunker,” Brant reminded him.
“No bunker, Brant. With a major threat to my presidency looming, I have to stay here and deal with it.” To Terry, he said, “Let’s make that statement to the media.”
“Yes, sir.”
After Terry left to set things up, Nick said to Brant, “I’m sorry to put you in this position, but I hope you understand…”
“I always understand, sir, but my job is to keep you safe and alive. Our requests are always one hundred percent related to that goal.”
“I know, and I appreciate all you do.”
The door to the Oval opened, and Scotty stuck his head in. “I was told you wanted to see me the second I got home. It happened about thirty seconds ago, so don’t be mad that your orders weren’t followed to the second, Mr. President.”
For the first time in hours, Nick smiled. “Come in here.”
“I’ll be right outside, sir,” Brant said.
“Why’s everyone so serious today?” Scotty asked.
“Something happened, and before I say anything else, Mom and the twins are fine.”
“Okay… What happened?”
“MPD headquarters was bombed.”
Scotty’s eyes went wide with shock. “Is this why they wouldn’t let me look at my phone on the way home?”
“Yes, I asked to be the one to tell you what happened so I could also assure you that Mom is safe. Uncle Joe is hurt, and we haven’t heard yet how bad it is, but Mom said he’s alive.
Jeannie was trapped by debris for a time, but the baby was moving when they took her to the hospital. Four people were killed.”
“Do we know them?” he asked tentatively.
“I don’t think so. Mom didn’t mention any names.”
“Damn. Who’d do that?”
“We have a pretty good idea, but that’s a long story that I’ll tell you later. The other thing you need to know is that I’ve requested the resignation of Vice President Henderson.”
“Whoa, and I thought my day sucked.”
“Why did your day suck?”
“Algebra. That’s all that needs to be said about it. I’m sorry about the VP. That must be upsetting for you to have to ask her to resign.”
Nick always appreciated that his son’s empathy for others ran deep, but especially on days like this. “It was rough.”
Scotty came over to the Resolute Desk and leaned in to hug Nick. “Figured you could use one.”
“I could, and your hugs are the best. Sorry about the algebra.”
“Another day, another nightmare at the hands of x. What the hell is x even trying to prove?”
Nick laughed and hugged his son a little tighter.
That’s where Sam found them when she came into the office.
“Wow, you’re home early, Mom.” Still standing next to Nick, he glanced toward his father. “Wait, did you make her come home?”
“I asked very politely,” Nick said with a smile for his wife.
He was always thrilled to see her, but more so after her life had been in danger.
That happened far more often than it should.
It stopped his heart to think about all the many ways he could lose her, even with her devoted detail by her side.
“Was he polite, Mom?”
“Ish. The tone could use some improvement, and we’re going to have a conversation about the word ‘nonnegotiable.’”
Scotty laughed. “You two are funny.”
“Sir,” Brant said from the door. “We’ve gotten the all clear. I’ll have the twins delivered to Mrs. Holland in the residence immediately.”
“Well, that’s a relief. No bunker for us.” Nick nudged his son. “Get out of my way so I can hug my woman.”
“Ew, I’m outta here.”
“Homework before anything else,” Nick said.
“There’s that tone again.”
“That was it exactly,” Sam said as she hugged Scotty.
“We’re in this together, Mama.”
“Thank goodness for that.”
“I can hear you two,” Nick said. “Standing right here.”
Scotty grinned at her, kissed her cheek and said, “Catch ya later, parentals.”