Chapter 9
The next morning Dane and Shana dressed as island vacationers, which wasn’t much different than their usual.
But the distinctions were important. They wore sunglasses as always, but these included some extra capabilities including tracking and two-way communications.
There was no “off” switch. Dane had asked.
Shana had resorted to using hand signals as if she knew sign language. Maybe she did. But it didn’t matter since Dane had no clue what she was trying to say. Besides, he had to keep his hands on the wheel as he pulled into the far reaches of the parking lot at Martha’s Vineyard Airport.
“Pretty good-size crowd,” Shana said.
He smiled because he knew that would annoy Andrews and Goodley, who would want some kind of official estimate.
She smiled back and exited the Jeep. When he met her around her side of the car to walk toward where the crowd waited—he estimated about eight hundred to a thousand people—she brazenly took her sunglasses off and stuffed them into her large handbag.
Then she reached up and stole his off his face and made them disappear into the bag as well.
He let her and took a deep breath.
“I needed that. The silence was killing me.” He kept his voice low.
She pressed her mouth to his ear, leaning in, and spoke.
“How are we going to find out from Acer if he’s found a picture of the couple yet?”
“We’ll have to go blind today.”
“Unless we can have him meet us here. I have my throwaway cell. I could call him.”
“Taking a big chance.”
She looked around. They were walking around the corner of the terminal building, joining others on the way to the same crowd to get a look at the President and Air Force One. If he weren’t involved in protection, Dane would have been more interested in the plane.
“I think as soon as we’re lost in the crowd, before we spot any Secret Service, we can get away with a quick call. We need to not be blind about this.”
He nodded. She slipped the phone from the bag as if she were a magician pulling a rabbit from a hat and pressed the numbers with a staccato beat. He took the phone from her just as she was about to press it to her ear. He heard it ringing and kissed her surprised lips.
“If either of us gets in trouble for this, it should be me.” He knew that wouldn’t quell her annoyance, but it was the truth. If he was being overprotective, then so be it. Acer answered on the third ring.
“Almost didn’t hear the phone with the hammering.”
“You haven’t finished the build-out yet?”
“A few finishing touches. Ronnie wants it to look foolproof. I agree. He brought some decor to make it look real. I now have a few pet spiders. I drew the line at the rat—”
“Meet us at the airport for the Air Force One landing. Bring the photos.”
“How do you know I got the photographs?”
“Did you?”
“They’re grainy and not full face, but yeah. I returned the hacking favor--”
“Don’t tell me how. Bring paper copies. Small ones. We may have to eat them.”
Acer laughed and Dane shut the phone down.
Shana took the phone, but instead of putting it back into her bag, she dropped it on the ground and then stomped on it with the spike heel of her innocent-looking sandals.
“I hope we don’t need to call anyone.”
“Don’t worry. We’re back online.” She reached into her bag and gave him his sunglasses back and slipped hers on.
There was an immediate blip as he put the sunglasses over his eyes.
He tapped the right side and, sure enough, Andrews was coming in loud and clear.
As he listened to the irate words, he took Shana’s hand and pulled her into the gut of the crowd to make their way toward the front where the ropes and a line of uniforms stopped them.
“Andrews, we’re in place and I’m going to work now, so pipe down or the people around me are going to hear you.” He spoke with a hand over his mouth.
“Damn you. Do not take those sunglasses off again.”
“If you keep it up, I’m going to accidently drop them where they’ll get stampeded by the crowd.”
That quieted the agent.
Shana said, “What’s the ETA?”
“We still have fifteen minutes,” Andrews said in a reasonable, even pleasant voice.
She nodded to Dane. That would give Acer plenty of time to get to them.
“See anyone?” Andrews asked.
“I see lots of couples, mostly older, or with kids or in groups, not fitting the profile.” Dane scanned the crowd along the perimeter.
That was their best guess of where the couple would be, but if it were him, he’d take high ground and a sniper rifle.
But then that’s why the Secret Service had all the rooftops within half a mile covered.
“I think we should flush them out before Air Force One lands.”
Shana looked at him as if she knew what he had in mind and gulped down her apprehension.
Their comm units buzzed to life with Andrews’s voice.
“What the hell are you talking about, Blaise? Don’t you do anything—”
“Hear me out.” Dane paused to make sure Andrews and whoever else was on the line was listening. After two beats of calm, he proceeded.
“We stage an altercation with a couple of Secret Service agents, get everyone’s attention, including our two assassins. Let them see us, let them see that we’re armed, and that we’ve been escorted out.”
“What the hell good will that do?”
“They’ll know who we are. They’ll assume we’re plan B.”
“Why would they?”
“Because it’ll fit with the rest of the breadcrumbs you left for them.”
“So how will it help today?”
“One of them will need to follow us to make sure we’re locked up. But they’ll see that we escape—we might need to knock one of your agents on the head—”
“No violence—not real violence. You can fake it.”
“So you’re on board.”
“Play it out for me. They see you escape and follow you, then what?”
“We disappear and they need to divide their time worrying about us rather than the President. But most importantly, it allows you to identify them.”
“We’ll be able to identify at least one of them. But—”
“You’re taking film of the crowd—you can back it up and find the second one if need be.”
Andrews didn’t say anything. Dane heard some commotion and low voices in his ear. He watched Shana’s face while he let the seconds go by. He loved her face. The pinch in his chest came and went quickly. He didn’t reach out to her. They stood together but apart enough for him to feel naked.
She gave him a bland smile, then she turned her head toward the sky like the others in the crowd, watching for the plane. He heard it in the distance. The crowd murmured. They had to act now.
“It’s go time, Andrews. No more time for your conference. Alert your agents, the two in suits about ten yards to the east of us.”
“Hang on. I need to coordinate it on our end. I’ll count it down for you.”
Though no one else would have, Dane noticed the quick stiffening of Shana’s spine, the tensing in her jaw. He reached out for her and moved closer to listen with her.
They eased further from the agents, to where the crowd thinned and allowed space to maneuver.
He wasn’t sure what kind of show they’d be putting on, but he wanted it to be noticeable so he angled them for the TV cameras.
The plane neared, getting louder and was now close enough that Dane could see an indistinct blue circle.
The crowd tensed with excitement and grew louder.
“Now, Andrews. I’m making a move.” Dane turned toward the two agents heading in their direction and opened his jacket enough to show his gun. They speeded up to a jog, shoving people aside.
Dane started backing away toward the perimeter of the crowd with Shana, keeping his eye on the agents. When they reached Dane and Shana, she hit one of them with her bag and they struggled against the two, while other law enforcement moved in.
Not good.
“Call off the others, Andrews. Direct them to do crowd control.” Dane spoke between gritted teeth while he struggled against one agent who looked like he thought this was for real.
Dane’s adrenaline galloped as he watched the other agent pull Shana’s arms behind her back.
There were screams and shouts now as the crowd took notice.
The TV cameras moved in. The uniformed police turned to forcing the crowd back.
The two agents were joined by others as they walked Dane and Shana toward the building.
Guns were drawn. He hoped to hell they were all on the comm and knew this was staged.
He scanned the crowd for their perps. A lone man was moving behind the line of police in the same direction, angling to follow him and Shana with their Secret Service entourage.
Had to be their guy. He was average height, average build, and wore a USMC baseball cap, white polo shirt and khakis. Bull’s-eye.
“Take us to a car and lose the other two agents,” Dane told the man dragging him away.
“I don’t take orders from you.” The man spoke under his breath.
“Do what he says, Agent Fowler.” Andrews’s voice popped up.
The man nodded at his partner. Then as they rounded the corner of the Aviation building he spoke to the other two agents who still had their weapons drawn.
“We’ll take it from here. We’re taking them in to check out their story.”
The other two agents stopped and nodded. Dane looked around for his man in the USMC cap. He was slipping around the other side of the building.
“I spotted our target.”
“We’ll decide who the target is.” The agent opened the back door of the black SUV and tossed Dane inside.
“Where are you taking us?” Shana said as she was allowed to slip inside next to Dane.
“To State Police Headquarters.”
“Perfect. We’ll stage our escape from there.”
The agent looked at him in the rearview mirror.
“We’ll see.”
“Don’t give me your bull—”
Andrews’s voice cut in, blasting across the comm device.
“We’ll see if the target follows. Dane, keep your eyes out. Agent Vale, you keep your eyes out as well.”
“Yes, sir,” the agent who’d gotten in the passenger seat said.
“And take it easy. We’re not in a hurry,” Dane said.
“I’ll see you at the station,” Andrews said.
Shana slipped her hands around front and took a mirror from her purse. “We can watch our rear with this. Less obvious.”
“What happened to your cuffs?” Dane couldn’t believe it.
“They were never locked—are yours?”
“Hell yeah.” Dane met the driver’s eyes in the mirror. The man had the audacity to smile and shrug. He was growing to dislike the Secret Service. A lot.
With his eyes on his side mirror, Agent Vale spoke up.
“I’m spotting a car following. Pulled out from the lot behind us.”
“Is the driver male with a baseball cap?” Dane asked.
“Affirmative.”
“We’re not in the military, Agent Vale, are we?” Dane needed these two to step back from their take-no-prisoners war-zone attitude.
“No sir.”
“I see him,” Shana said. “He’s the same guy we spotted earlier. Same nose and jawline.”
“How can you tell from this distance?” The agent driving the car, whose name they didn’t get, wasn’t standing on ceremony.
Shana said, “the mirror is special.”
Dane wanted to kiss her for that wisecrack. He leaned over and looked in the mirror with her.
“It’s him, all right.”
They neared the police station and veered into the parking lot.
“How are we staging this?”
Shana answered the agent. “I’ll take one of your guns and pretend to hit you. Then Dane can pretend to kick Agent Vale and we’ll take your car and—”
“You’re taking the car?”
“Don’t worry, Agent Warren. You’ll get your car back in due time,” Andrews said.
“This is all very irregular,” Agent Vale said as the car pulled to a stop outside the station. “Normally we’d have backup and the officers at the station would—”
“Never mind,” Andrews said. “We’re not running this regulation and chances are the target isn’t going to worry about it. They’ll buy into the escape.”
“If not—”
Dane said, “Never mind that. They can’t take a chance. Either way they’ll follow us. That’s the point.”
“Where are you taking them?” Andrews said. “We’ll meet you.”
“We’re not taking them anywhere. We’re losing the guy.”
“That’s a negative—”
“Think about it, Andrews. We have nothing on him if we take him now. We’d have to let him go and he’d be onto us.
If we lose him, he’ll still think Shana and I are assassins and he’ll focus on finding us.
He and his partner will still be in play and we’ll eventually get them for trying to kill me and Shana. ”
“We don’t want him to get another shot at the President.”
“We don’t have him for taking a shot at the President. You have him—and hopefully his partner—identified now. Surely you can stop them now that you know what they look like.”
Andrews went quiet. “Let me check on this.” He went offline for a few beats while they sat in the car in the lot with the engine running and pretending they were talking on the phone.
“We can’t stay here. That’ll make the target more nervous than anything and he might leave.”
Dane was watching the man a block away sitting in his car. The car pulled out.
“It’s go time. He’s on the move.”