Chapter 73
Knuckles found George Wolffe in his office, talking on the phone. Wolffe saw them and waved to two seats in front of his desk.
He listened on the phone for a few seconds, then said, “I agree, it’s not optimal, but right now Pike’s the closest element
we have to the crisis site. If you get something in play, he’ll stand down, but until then, he’s staying in the fight.”
He hung up and rubbed his face. Knuckles said, “Pike screwing things up again?”
Wolffe said, “That was Oglethorpe. He’s got JSOC spun up and is afraid that Pike will compromise their ability to conduct
hostage rescue. They’re launching from Bragg right now, and he wants Pike to stand down, letting them take over the entire
mission set in coordination with Israel and Argentina.”
Brett chuckled, saying, “Wow. So in fifteen hours they’ll touch down somewhere—where that is, we don’t know yet—and then will
spend another fifteen building a target package. There’s no way they’ll be able to resolve this. It’s going to happen a hell
of a lot sooner.”
“Yeah, I agree, but try telling the military or Department of State that the fate of the hostages resides in a four-man pickup
team of Americans and Israelis.”
“You mean two men and two women.”
Wolffe smiled and said, “You’re making their point, as far as they’re concerned.”
Knuckles said, “Obviously, they’ve never met Shoshana.”
“Well, she may be a killer, but I’d rather have you guys down there with him right now. Why did Pike send you up here again?”
Knuckles ignored the question, saying, “What’s the Oversight Council saying? Oglethorpe can wear his military hat, but he
can be overruled when it comes to Pike.”
Wolffe leaned back in his chair and said, “There is no Oversight Council right now. Everyone’s working their day jobs, with
one member—Amanda Croft—obviously not giving any input. The Council is effectively dead.”
“What about the president?”
“I’m not bugging him right now. Trust me, he has his hands full with a multicountry hostage situation and a possible terrorist
attack here in Washington, DC. Right now, everyone’s arguing about continuity of government and whether they need to alert
the public or evacuate. It’s a shit show.”
“And that’s why Pike sent us up here. Those idiots at the Capitol can’t even decide if they’re going to work tomorrow in a
different state, forget about actually stopping the attack. Brett and I are going to need those DHS credentials again.”
“You can’t do anything here. The Taskforce is forbidden from operating CONUS. I told Pike that. It’s the very reason I wanted
you to stay with him.”
Brett chuckled and said, “Seems like nobody’s going to know at this point. The Council isn’t even around to ask.”
Wolffe sighed, then said, “Fuck it. Go sign them out. Tell Mike I said it was okay. You got anything to go on?”
Knuckles said, “I’ve got Creed working on a couple of angles, but nothing so far. What’s Israel doing?”
“Who the hell knows. Their prime minister is on a plane next to Amanda. Mossad may be talking to Kerry Bostwick and the CIA,
but they sure as shit aren’t talking to me. If I were to guess, they’re as paralyzed as we are.”
“They got the word about the planned attack in ‘Palestine’?”
Wolffe nodded, saying, “We gave them all we had, but they haven’t told us what they’re doing about it, which is fine, because we aren’t keeping them informed about what we’re doing here in DC, mainly because it’s fucking embarrassing.”
Brett said, “What about Pike?”
“Believe it or not, he’s chasing the hostage plane right now in the Rock Star Bird. They’re both still in the air and running
out of places to go, but he’s the closest thing we’ve got to a hostage rescue force. Right now, it’s looking like all three
attacks are going to succeed.”
Knuckles heard a knock on the doorframe and turned around, seeing Creed holding a laptop.
He said, “Sorry to interrupt, but I think we’ve found the rental car.”
Knuckles stood up and said, “Where?”
“I don’t know where at this moment, but he’s most definitely in DC.”
Wolffe said, “How did you find it?”
Knuckles explained his theory and Creed said, “We started the morning after the last sighting. There were a total of fourteen
infractions involving licenses. We eliminated all extraneous ones, like expired registration or plates that were damaged or
too dirty to read, and ended up with three. Two of those were local and went nowhere. One was from Arkansas, and that license
pinged in DC at multiple places.”
“Show me.”
Creed put the laptop on the table and displayed a selection of four photos, each one matching the rental car description.
One was on the 495 loop, one on the George Washington Parkway, one at a light on a road called Michigan Avenue, and one in
a parking lot.
Creed said, “As you can see, most of the sightings are of him moving around, so it’s not a lot of help to locate him, but
it does prove he’s here, in Washington, DC.”
Wolffe said, “Can we just put the new license in the system, and when one of these scanners pings it, it’ll send out an alert?”
“Unfortunately, no. It doesn’t work that way.
They’re like toll road readers. You can see when someone’s been by, if you go look at all the cars that did, but it doesn’t actively search.
It’s just a passive recording device that goes into a database.
We can, of course, put the new license in the system and have a BOLO to every police department in the area. ”
Knuckles said, “What’s this one here, at the parking lot?”
“It’s not a hotel, if that’s what you’re thinking. It’s the National Zoo.”
Wolffe said, “The zoo? Why the fuck would he park there? Surely that’s not the target.”
Brett said, “Maybe he’s going to kill the pandas to get us in a war with China.”
Knuckles said, “Only one way to find out. One thing’s for sure—he didn’t do it to kill time. Creed, do you have a laptop that
does facial recognition?”
“Yeah, I have a program, but I need something to put in it.”
“Go get it. We’re going to use the only thing on that Qatar license that’s legit—his photo. Brett, see Mike for our DHS creds.”
They left the room and Knuckles said, “If I get any pushback over there, I’m going to be a bull in a china shop, so I’m going
to need some backup. If they start asking about needing warrants or something else, I’m calling back here.”
Wolffe nodded, saying, “Take one of the black Suburbans. It’ll make you look official.”
Knuckles went to the door, then stopped, saying, “It’s probably not going to happen, but if I get hot on his trail, you know
I’m not calling back here for permission, right?”
Wolffe said, “Go to a team room. Take what you need.”