Chapter 19 #2
“Why Ukraine, though?” Gromov rubbed the whiskers of his beard, his eyes narrowing on her. “What makes you so interested in peace there?” He opened his palms. “You never did tell me.”
She smiled. “You never asked.”
“We have them.” Jess’s sudden words in his ear were like a shotgun to the chest—so damn powerful his heart nearly exploded.
He took in a sharp breath, and his eyes widened in Sam’s direction.
Sam reached for Gromov’s shoulder and pointed toward a group of Russian dignitaries not too far away. “Well . . .”
“What’s going on?” Owen asked Jess once Sam redirected Gromov’s focus away.
“They’re okay. Alive,” Jess said. “Can’t say the same for the guys guarding them, though. Gregoff Voyesky is dead, too.”
Relief slammed into him. “What about—”
“He wasn’t with them, but we’re switching to phase two now.”
Teteruk. Where are you?
“Still no eyes on the prince.”
“We’ll find him. Going dark now,” Jess announced.
“Copy that.”
Jess would be jamming every frequency and killing all cell service within a twenty-mile radius in case the Kozaks had a remote detonator and decided to set off the weapon early while Asher was in the middle of disarming it.
Owen went over to Sam and leaned forward to whisper in her ear, ignoring Gromov’s eyes in the process. “Phase two.”
“I have good news,” Sam said a beat later, as planned.
Gromov arched a brow. “And?”
“It’s a surprise.” She pointed to the screen slowly lowering from the ceiling where the stage was positioned at the opposite end of the large room. “President Rydell has decided to support our efforts, and he recorded a message he’d like to share tonight.”
Owen stared at Gromov, trying to get a read on him. Was the guy in Laszlo’s pocket or not? Then he noticed Laszlo out of the corner of his eye. He was talking to a tall blonde, and from the way he was smiling and touching her arm, he was flirting.
“Now this is something I look forward to hearing. I’ll gather everyone’s attention.” Gromov gave a light nod to Sam, as if saying, nice work.
When he left their side, Sam quickly faced Owen. “Are they okay?”
“Our people are alive,” he said.
She breathed a sigh of relief. “Thank God.” She glanced to the stage, where President Rydell’s frozen face now filled the screen. “It looks like Jessica managed to access their servers to upload the video.”
“We’ll be going radio silent the second the video begins.” He wrapped a hand around her elbow at the sight of Gromov pulling Laszlo away from the blonde. “I think he just informed Laszlo of the president’s message.”
She followed his gaze. “Where’s his son, though?”
He peered around the room again. “We didn’t get eyes on him from the security feeds before we had to loop them.” He gently squeezed her arm, his quiet way of telling her everything would be okay.
His people were safe.
Asher was disarming the weapon.
And now all they had to do was admit the truth to the world . . . and take out the Kozaks without any innocents getting hurt.
A few seconds later, Gromov made his way to the stage, and the room quieted down. “We are thrilled to have President Jones here with us tonight, but we were just informed that the current president of the United States would like to share some news with you all.”
“Here goes,” Sam said under her breath.
“Did you know about this?” It was Samantha’s father in his stiff three-piece suit, his eyes sharp on his daughter.
“Um, yeah.” She looked over at him and to the two guards flanking his sides.
Before Sam could say more, the video began.
The president made his introductions and discussed his support for better Ukrainian–Russian relations before his voice grew somber, and the prominent wrinkle in his brow creased even more.
“What I am about to tell you is not easy,” the president began, clasping his hands on his desk in the Oval. They couldn’t live-stream the video since Jess had to jam all incoming and outgoing signals, so POTUS had to record the tape ahead of time.
Owen kept his hold on Sam, not able to let her go, as he waited for POTUS to announce the truth to the world. It was Owen’s idea, and if it failed . . .
“Ten years ago, a Ukrainian militant, acting on his own and without government knowledge, kidnapped a Russian scientist, Tatyana Kozak.”
Gasps blew through the room. Owen looked straight at Laszlo.
The man’s shoulders sagged forward at the president’s words, and he turned away from the screen and began scanning the room. He was searching for someone, and the look on his face—
“He’s surprised,” Sam whispered over her shoulder, echoing Owen’s thoughts.
The president continued to explain the events that had taken place, but Owen could barely hear him as he tried to make sense of the situation at hand.
The look in Laszlo’s eyes now. The flirting with the blonde. “I don’t think Laszlo planned this,” he whispered into Sam’s ear.
“I’m here before you today asking for your forgiveness,” President Rydell said.
“Please do not let the wrongful actions of the past eclipse what you are trying to do here today.” He paused, and Owen looked back at the screen.
“The United States has every intention of rectifying the mistakes made, and I am asking for all three countries to work together for peace.”
“I have to find Alexander,” Owen said as the president finished his words, the room surprisingly silent, as if trying to work through their shock.
Sam faced him. “Did Laszlo really not know what his son was planning?”
“I don’t know, but the fire alarms are about to go off to clear the building,” he said softly, so no one would hear. “Stay with your dad’s Secret Service. The second the alarm goes off, get the hell out of here. Got it?” He gripped her shoulders, staring deep into her eyes.
This would be the hard part, the part of the plan where he’d have to leave her.
“What about Laszlo?” she asked, a frantic tone to her voice now that everything was actually happening.
He peeked at Laszlo rubbing the skin on his forehead as if reliving the loss of his wife. “If he’s guilty, he’ll stay behind.”
“Okay. Be safe,” she said as the alarms started to screech, and the howling sound created the intended panic among the guests.
Owen wished he could escort Sam out himself, but he might not be able to get back into the building, and he couldn’t leave, not with his men inside. He’d have to trust the Secret Service agents to keep her safe.
“I’ll be okay,” she said, reading his thoughts as people began bumping into them.
Her father reached for her arm and looked Owen’s way, perhaps recognizing Owen was behind the sudden commotion.
He didn’t know what to say at that moment, so he nodded and turned toward the kitchen, fighting against the storm of people.
Outside the banquet hall, he retrieved his pistol, maneuvered through the kitchen, and then took the flight of stairs below.
Two dimly lit tunnels.
Two directions.
He turned left and rushed down the basement hall.
No doors in sight, and the damn tunnel felt never-ending, but if Alexander Kozak was planning to escape, one of the tunnels would be his exit strategy.
“We’re . . . bah—on . . . comms.” Jess’s voice, with pops of static, sounded in his ear a few minutes later.
“Bravo Three deactivated the weapon?”
Static and muffled words.
Shit. He needed to get out of the tunnel to hear her, to make sure everything was okay.
He’d have to give up his hunt for Alexander and hope to hell one of his teammates had already gotten to him.
He hurried up the stairs and into the kitchen.
Flames were crawling up the walls and leaping from stoves to counters.
That sure as hell wasn’t part of the plan.
“Do you copy?” He covered his face with his shirt and made his way back to the banquet hall, finding that room up in flames as well. “What the fuck is going on?”
“Bravo Two, the device has been deactivated, but the place is burning,” Jess announced.
Owen glanced around at the flames now climbing all of the red floor-to-ceiling drapes. He lowered his shirt from his mouth to answer, “Yeah, I’m still inside.”
“We have a problem,” Jess announced, and it had him slowing near the double doors that led to the exit. “I did a deep dive into the metadata tonight while I was waiting, and—”
Her words had him halting altogether. “Just tell me. What is it?”
“It wasn’t Laszlo Kozak who paid Cheng.”
“Bravo Two, you copy?” It was Luke’s voice on the line now, interrupting Jess.
“Copy,” he sputtered, trying to process Jess’s news. He began to cough from the smoke, and he caught sight of firefighters heading through the doors, motioning for him to come toward them.
But his feet were stuck to the fucking ground.
A crackling sound. Static. And then Luke’s low voice came over the line. “Samantha never exited the building.”