Rielly wiped her hand on the sheet and extended it.
“Nice to meet you, Mitch.” Rielly gave a warm smile, showing off her dimples.” Very nice to meet you.” Rapp grinned and shook her hand.
Rielly then turned to Adams and shook his hand.
“What do you do here at the White House?” asked Rapp.
“I’m a reporter.” From the look on Rapp’s face, one would think they were on their first date and she had just told him she had a husband.
Oh, shit, Rapp thought to himself. This could be a problem.
“Who do you work for?”
“NEC. It was my first day on the job.”
“Nice timing,” Rapp said with a raised eyebrow.
“No shit.” Rielly shook her head.
“Where have you been held for the last several days?”
“In the White House mess.”
Rapp looked to Adams, who nodded and said, “That’s where I thought he would hold them. No exterior windows and the room is big enough.”
Rapp was worried about whether Aziz had kept all of the hostages together or split them up. As a general rule, that decision depended on assets and the layout of the building. With this in mind, Rapp was inclined to believe that with Aziz’s limited manpower, he would be forced to keep all of the hostages in one place.
“Were all of the hostages kept in the mess?”
“Yes.” Rielly shrugged her shoulders.
“At least I think so.”
“How many of you?”
Biting her bottom Up, Rielly thought about it for a moment and said, “I don’t know. Eighty… one hundred… a hundred and twenty…? I don’t know.”
“I really need you to think about this one. You don’t have to answer it right now, but I need you to try and remember how many people were in the mess.”
Rielly nodded.
“I’ll try.”
“What about Secret Service agents? Were they held in the same room as you?” Rapp knew Aziz well enough to bet that he would at. the very least separate the Secret Service agents from the hostages.
“I don’t know. When all this started, I’d only been on the job for about fifteen minutes. I don’t know what any of the agents look like.”
“You don’t have to know them personally to be able to pick them out.
They all have short haircuts, athletic builds… They stand out.” Rapp looked at her proddingly.
“Come on, you’re a reporter.” With a grin he added, “You’re supposed to notice stuff like that.”
Rielly thought about it.
“I don’t remember seeing anyone like that.”
“What about any marines or other military types?” asked Milt Adams.
Rielly shook her head immediately.
“I know for a fact I didn’t see anyone in a uniform.”
Rapp nodded to Adams, approving of the timely question.
That settled it for him. Aziz was either holding the Secret Service and military personnel in a different location, or he had killed all of them. Knowing Aziz, the latter was a distinct possibility.
“How many different terrorists did you see?”
Rielly closed her eyes for a second.
“I think I saw six of them, and I’m pretty sure I saw the leader. Some Prince something or other. I actually met him on the street on my way in the morning all of this started. He got out of a limo with Russ Piper, the chairman of the DNC. Russ is an old friend of my family.” Rielly paused.
“I haven’t seen him since this whole thing started… I hope he’s all right.”
“The leader is not a prince,” said Rapp.
“His name is Rafique Aziz.”
Rielly had a spasm of shivers and said, “Well, whoever he is, he’s evil, and I don’t mean just crazy or goofy, I mean evil.
He shot someone in cold blood just because they asked for blankets and food. He just lifted his gun without any warning and shot the man in the head.”
“That would be Rafique Aziz,” said Rapp somberly. Then looking down at his watch, he decided he had better get moving.
“Well, Ms. Rielly, we’ll have to continue this later. I have to go take care of something.”
“Please call me Anna.” Rielly smiled.
“All right’ Anna I don’t know how long this will take, but I should be back in an hour or less. Milt here will take care of you, so don’t worry. I know he doesn’t look like much, but don’t let that fool you.”
Adams looked at Rapp deadpan. Rapp grabbed the small fanny pack for his short excursion and strapped it around his waist. He turned his baseball cap around backward and placed his headset over the top, but after hearing only static interference, he turned off the small radio.
Rielly watched him intently as he moved about the room on his knees When he grabbed his submachine gun and stood, Rielly asked, “Who do you work for, Mitch?”
“The post office.” Rapp nodded for Adams to get up and then looked back at Rielly.
“Anna, we’ll have to finish this interview later.” With a wink, he added reassuringly, “Keep an eye on Milt for me.” THE SEARCH OF the second and third floors of the White House had taken almost twenty-five minutes.
The three men worked in unison, one always covering the other two, as they went from room to room checking the closets and under the beds. Aziz had been sure they would find her cowering in one of the closets, but they had not.
They descended from the third floor. Aziz, walking in the lead, was thinking. He was thinking about the building and how old it was, how much it bothered him that he couldn’t just walk from one building to the other without going outside.
If he could just have gotten his hands around the president in his office, he would not have had to spread his people so thin. But Aziz knew if he wanted to get the Americans to meet all of his demands, he would have to extract the cowardly president from the safety of his bunker. And the only way he could do that was if his little thief, his gift from Saddam, was successful in his task.
Aziz stopped suddenly and did an about-face. Bengazi and Ragib stopped just short of running into their leader. They were dred and their reaction time dulled. Aziz pointed back down the hall and said, “Follow me. I have decided there is something else we need to check while we are here.”
The two men stood aside, and Aziz marched off in the direction from which they had come. As they continued down the staircase to the first basement, Aziz opened the fire door and stepped into the hallway. He stood there for several seconds, looking in both directions, and then he walked back into the staircase and continued down to the second basement. He repeated his actions on this floor, pausing just long enough to look down the hallway.
When they reached the third basement, Aziz pointed to the stairwell door and said to Ragib, “You wait here. “Aziz then marched down the hall with Bengazi.
When the corridor ended, the two men turned to the left and continued for another thirty feet. Aziz was immediately surprised by the lack of noise when he had checked on his little thief some four hours earlier, the sound had been pronounced.
Slightly alarmed by the change, Aziz brought his assault rifle up to a leveled position. Bengazi, sensing his boss’s tension, did the same. The outer door that Mustafa had broken through on the first night was only half open. As Aziz approached, he could see only a portion of the outer room to the president’s bunker, and his little thief was not in sight.
Aziz walked to the left so he could see the right side of the room.
There was still nothing: no sound, no Mustafa.
Without stopping, Aziz slid through the partially opened door and snapped the muzzle of his MP-5 to the left.
