“The senator tells me you’re in a bit of a jam,” Bob said, his English accent becoming more pronounced with each sentence.
“That’s the understatement of the century,” Hawk said. “We’ll be going to prison for a very long time if anyone catches us.”
“Perhaps I can keep that from happening.”
“That’s what we’re hoping for,” Hawk said.
Bob turned toward the keyboard on the desk in front of him and began typing quickly. “I learned a little bit about your situation from Blunt as well as through news reports, so I started doing a little digging.”
“And what did you find?”
Bob tapped out a few more keystrokes before pushing back from the table and staring up at the largest monitor in the room, which was at least eight feet wide and six feet tall. Grainy black-and-white images appeared from a security camera.
“What are we looking at?” Hawk asked.
“Mate, this is the video some powerful person doesn’t want anyone to see.”
Hawk watched as a person forced masks on the faces of all the German bankers present. His jaw dropped as the footage continued to play.
“It looks like you, doesn’t it?” Bob asked.
Hawk nodded. “How the hell did they—?”
“Someone obviously baited you,” Bob said. “You were set up from the very first moment. They decided to get rid of two problems at once—the German bankers and then you.”
“How could I be in two places at once though?”
“These bastards timed how long it takes to get from one tower to the other. It’s about twenty minutes, eighteen if you really hustle.”
“And the outside cameras that could prove I never walked that route? Where were they?”
Bob smiled. “There was an outage at that time. Nary a one caught anything during that time. You can’t even have an alibi to prove otherwise. It was a perfect op . . . almost.”
“Almost?”
“Yes, let’s go back to the tape. Do you see the guy who’s supposed to be you putting masks on these bankers?”
Hawk nodded. “What of him?”
“Well, I saw a tattoo on his forearm that you don’t have.”
“And that’s proof?”
“Maybe a conspiracy theorist would conjure up some explanation he believed to be plausible, but forensic evidence rarely lies. But just in case that isn’t enough, I was able to extrapolate how tall this guy is based on the shadows on the wall. And he’s not even anywhere near as tall as you are.”
Hawk exhaled but still wore a furrowed brow. “But that doesn’t help with the little problem of there being footage of me gunning down these people from my perch on the building next door. I can’t deny I did that.”
“Yes, but there are ways around this.”
“Such as?”
“Leave it to me, but I think I know a way to fix it.”
Hawk stood. “When you do, can you send all the video to a journalist I know?” he asked as he held out a business card. “This is how you can get in touch with Lee Hendridge at the New York Times. If anyone can take this information and disseminate it to the public, he can—and I know he’ll do a good job.”
“Was that the journalist whose life you saved?” Bob asked.
Hawk nodded. “We saw him tied up in an Al Hasib camp. I couldn’t just leave him there, and the decision nearly got us killed.”
“Looks like it’ll be the one that might end up saving you, too, so you can get your life back.”
Hawk chuckled. “This is my life. Whether I have it back publicly or not makes little difference to me, though the other members of my team might not feel the same way. However, I would appreciate being able to move between countries without being suspected as an assassin.”
“Key word there—suspected.”
“If you can make this happen, I’ll be eternally indebted to you.”
Bob waved him off. “I might cash in that favor some day, but in the meantime, don’t worry about me. I’ll be fine in the dungeon of my own making.”
Hawk exited SnyperNet’s home and navigated through the dirty streets of Paris. For the first time, he felt like there was hope. The Chamber was on the verge of being fully exposed—and he couldn’t wait.
CHAPTER 26
New York City
LEE HENDRIDGE WALKED into Janet Carlisle’s office and dropped a typed manuscript on her desk. He crossed his arms and sighed, awaiting her response to his story. But she didn’t even pick it up, glancing up at him briefly before returning her attention to something else she was reading.
“Do you have a problem?” Carlisle asked.
“I brought by an article for you to publish,” Hendridge said. “I thought you might want to run this in tomorrow’s paper.”
“Why not just email it to me?” she asked, maintaining her focus on what was in front of her.
“I didn’t want you to dismiss it or send it to your junk mailbox,” he said. “I wanted to watch you read it.”
“I swear you’re one relentless little bastard.”
“If that’s the only disparaging remark you have to make about me today, I’ll take it.”
Carlisle took her glasses off and then slapped them down on a stack of papers to her right. “Do you see all these, Hendridge?”
He stared past her.
“Look,” she said. “I have actual work from actual employees that I need to get to today. I don’t have time to read your fantasy pieces when I could be—”
“It’s not fantasy, but it’s well sourced and is going to make the establishment squeamish at the very least.”
“I really don’t want to repeat myself.” She glanced up and nodded toward the door. “You can show yourself out.”
“Come on, Carlisle. Give this article a chance. Don’t make a decision until after you’ve read it. I think you’ll be pretty excited.”
She rolled her eyes, snatched it off the
