“I wish I had the chance to really get to know you,” Alex said. “I don’t believe you’re as horrible of a person as you portray yourself to be.”
Petrov forced a nervous laugh. “Well, I don’t portray myself to be any such way. I am simply a servant to my country, doing whatever is asked of me. When I was married to your father and became pregnant with you, I did what was asked, which was to raise you up and love you as I would any child I gave birth to. And I did it well. While I hate to disappoint you, I don’t feel the same way as you. Getting to know you was never a priority of mine. You were nothing more than a mistake, an extra burden to my assignment.”
Alex’s voice quivered. “I don’t believe you.”
“I can’t make you believe it, but it doesn’t matter. It’s the truth. I’m not sorry for abandoning you or anything that I did. To be honest, you’re lucky to be alive.”
“What is that supposed to mean?” Alex said.
“If you haven’t learned by now, if you don’t want to hear the answer, don’t ask the question.”
Alex relented. “We will work hard to show the world what your true legacy is—and that your biggest ‘mistake’ turned out to be the only good thing that came from you.”
“Goodbye, Alex,” Petrov said. “You probably deserved better, but it doesn’t change the fact that you were a mistake.”
“Just do it, Hawk,” Alex said.
Petrov ripped out the earpiece and threw it at Hawk.
“Make it quick,” she said.
Hawk obliged, putting a bullet in the center of her forehead. Petrov crumpled to the ground. He grabbed a rope and tied it to both of Petrov’s legs. Then he found a sandbag and tethered it to her body. Moving swiftly, he peeked out the door. With no other pedestrians lurking around, he rushed to the deck and dropped Petrov’s body into the water. She sank fast and went unnoticed by anyone on the observation deck.
“She’s gone,” Hawk said over the coms. “And she’s never coming back.”
Alex’s sigh was audible followed by a whispered “thank you.”
Hawk returned to the top of the ferry with the rest of the pedestrians. He sat down but couldn’t relax. He still had plenty of work to do.
CHAPTER 28
LATER THAT EVENING, Hawk reunited at a hotel with Blunt, Alex, and General Van Fortner. Fortner explained how Samuels had been flown back to the military hospital on his base and was in critical condition.
“What are the doctors saying?” Hawk asked.
“It’s still touch and go at this point,” Fortner said. “The surgeon I spoke to said he’d give Samuels a 50-50 chance of surviving.”
“He sacrificed everything for this mission. Keep us posted, will you?”
Hawk glanced at Alex, whose eyes welled up with tears.
“Stay strong,” Hawk said. “He could still pull through.”
Hawk then recounted for everyone how he killed Petrov. Sensitive to Alex, he didn’t go into all the details, sticking to the basics. He could see relief on the faces of everyone in the room. Then Hawk proceeded to share his final conversation with Petrov.
“She said that we wouldn’t be able to stop the one world currency movement at this point, even with her out of the way,” Hawk said.
“I hate to say this, but she’s probably right,” Blunt said as he sat propped up in one of the beds. “There are a lot of moving parts in this push to change, and she did a great job at generating momentum in all of the sectors that mattered most. The financial decision makers, the court of pubic opinion, the international political bodies—she approached this like a pro and certainly understood what she was doing.”
“In that case, we simply need to reverse everything she did,” Hawk said. “I’m sure there were plenty of people who felt cajoled by her actions, if not outright threatened.”
Fortner nodded. “Probably true, but she’s done a great job at creating a groundswell of support among the general public. Any politician worth his weight in salt isn’t going to ignore that at this point.”
“You’re not suggesting we give up, are you?” Hawk asked.
Fortner shook his head. “At times, we need to be shrewder in how we solve a problem.”
“So, what do you suggest?” Hawk asked.
Fortner paced around the room. “We need to undermine the movement and expose it for what it really is—a Russian attempt at a power grab of the global economy. Nobody has made much of the Russian banks being the ones with all the power in setting the conversion rates when countries exchange their money in for the new one world currency.”
“And each nation has to have their share backed up by gold, trading for it,” Blunt said.
“Once Russia gets control of all the gold, they could bankrupt their own system and leave the other nations broke,” Hawk said.
“That’s precisely why this is such an important issue.”
“But wouldn’t such a move likely leave Russia with more enemies than it could possibly fight off?” Hawk asked. “It’d be the world against Russia.”
Blunt shrugged. “But how would these countries pay their soldiers if their coffers are bare? No one would accept that worthless money, making the buildup of an effective campaign that much more difficult.”
“Petrov’s bosses really thought of everything, didn’t they?” Hawk asked.
“Yes, but they didn’t count on a small force like Firestorm being so disruptive,” Blunt said. “We can still stop this before everyone transfers their gold to the Russians.”
“That looks like it’s our only shot,” Hawk said.
“We need ironclad proof that leaders are being tricked and manipulated into doing this,” Blunt said.
After listening in silence, Alex finally spoke up.
“We already have some,” she said. “If we can show everyone that Petrov had Michaels under her thumb, we’ll be able to convince journalists and other world leaders.”
“And we know some well-placed journalists,” Hawk said.
“Where is all this information? And how did
