“And she was playing on your loyalty to your country.”
“If she thought for one second that I had any loyalty to you, she would’ve been sorely mistaken,” Hawk said.
“What’s done is done,” Michaels said.
“To be honest, you’re not done,” Hawk said, pointing to Michaels’s vest. “She could still have a change in heart and let you die.”
“She’ll give us the code,” Michaels said. “I know it.”
“You have a lot more confidence in her than I do. But I guess all we have to do now is wait.”
CHAPTER 41
HAWK CALLED BIG EARV and gave him an update as well as their location so the Secret Service could attend to President Michaels. While the Secret Service was embarrassed they allowed someone to kidnap the president, it wasn’t their fault. Michaels admitted that he ducked his detail in order to settle a score with Petrov. According to his story, she managed to slip out of her bindings and walked out with a shiv pressed into Michaels’s back. After taking a gun off one of the agents, she forced Michaels to drive her out to her old home in the country.
“You had a score to settle with Petrov?” Hawk asked. “What kind of score?”
Michaels sighed and stared at the ground.
“You’re not getting out of this one. I don’t care if you are the President of the United States of America, you need to talk.”
“Kill me now then,” Michaels said, “because I’m not telling you a damn thing.”
“It’s all going to come out, you know,” Hawk said. “Best to be up front with the American people. They’re a forgiving bunch. But try to hide something? You’ll never be respected ever again.”
Michaels turned his back and walked toward a row of seats in the hangar.
“Let me know when the Secret Service arrives.”
Hawk watched as Michaels shuffled away. “Whatever you do, leave Noah Young alone. That man is a patriot.”
Michaels threw his hand in the air, giving Hawk a dismissive wave.
Hawk followed the president.
Michaels turned sharply. “Look, I’m grateful for what you did and I promise to make sure your name is officially cleared, but that’s it. I don’t owe you anything else, including considerations for Young. That will be between us. Got it?”
Hawk nodded, though he disagreed.
* * *
AFTER PRESIDENT MICHAELS LEFT with his security detail, Hawk called Alex and Samuels before leaving for the safe house, filling them in on all the details while driving. Once Hawk arrived, Alex nearly bowled him over when he walked through the door. He gave her a kiss before looking up to see Samuels staring at them.
“Come on, man,” Samuels said. “That’s my sister.”
Hawk smiled and nodded. “Is this going to be awkward for you? Because I can tell you right now that it’s not changing.”
“I think it’s sweet,” Alex said. “I never had a big brother to look out for me like that before.”
“Sweetness aside, you have a choice to either fume in the corner or join us on the couch for a Bollywood movie marathon,” Hawk said.
“Not before I show you something,” Alex said. She tugged on Hawk’s arm, leading him to the kitchen.
Hawk sat next to Alex and craned his neck to see her laptop screen, while Samuels hovered over both of them.
“Now, I’m convinced Petrov set us up with that original flash drive Polat had,” Alex said. “However, he sent Blunt another one in the mail that had a few extra files on them, including some hidden folders I managed to uncover. Apparently, he was being extra careful, unconvinced he could even get this to Blunt without The Chamber finding out.”
“Yet he succeeded,” Hawk said.
“Yes, he did,” Alex said, tapping on the keyboard. “Take a look at this.”
A spreadsheet materialized on the screen that revealed a list of all The Chamber’s properties and holdings. It also listed known secret agents in each country with titles and positions.
“Killing those bankers was nothing,” Hawk said, his jaw going slack.
“Calling what we did the tip of the iceberg is an overstatement,” Samuels said. “More like a pebble in a quarry.”
“Exactly,” Alex said. “But there’s one name in particular I thought you might want to pay attention to.”
She scrolled down and highlighted one row.
“President Michaels,” Hawk said aloud. “I don’t know why that doesn’t surprise me.”
“Makes sense now why he tried to escape the watchful eye of the Secret Service,” Samuels said. “He didn’t want anyone to find out he was a traitor.”
“So, do you think his abduction was real or staged?” Alex asked.
“Oh, it was real,” Hawk said. “Something between them went wrong. Michaels seems hell bent on killing her now, if not out of some sense of remorse, definitely out of a sense of patriotism. I think he’s figured out what her end game is.”
“And what is that?” Samuels asked.
“It’s definitely not about money,” Hawk said. “This spreadsheet shows she’s got more than enough for several lifetimes.”
“She’s making a play for a one-world government,” Alex said. “That’s the only thing that makes sense.”
“And once she holds the keys, all she has to do is hand them off to the Russians and we’re screwed,” Hawk said. “The first step is the currency, but after that, it’s all downhill.”
“What are we gonna do about it then?” Samuels asked.
Hawk smiled. “What do you think? We’re going after her.”
“And thanks to Polat, we have a blueprint for that,” Alex said, tapping a few buttons on her screen to reveal another spreadsheet. “He left us a map of her daily movements and gave us suggested locations where we could ambush her and take her out.”
“Let’s make sure Polat doesn’t die in vain,” Hawk said. “And that reminds me of something.”
“What?” Samuels asked.
“I need to call a certain reporter and thank him for what he did.”
Hawk grabbed Alex’s cell phone and called Lee Hendridge, expressing gratitude for helping clear their names in the general public.
“So, do you have any other stories for me?” Hendridge asked.
“Not yet, but we will have something soon,” Hawk said.
