Young leaned back in his seat and took a deep breath before nodding at Hawk.
“Thank you, Mr. President,” Hawk said. “We all appreciate your vote of confidence. And I understand why some of you might feel this is a dangerous game. But this mission is more than just about rescuing two of our people—it’s also about uncovering one of Al Hasib’s hiding spots. If I can convince Karif Fazil that his agent was simply a bad shot, it extends our communication window with Fazil. And if we can find him, we can eliminate him once and for all. And as you all know, he’s slippery.”
“Except when he’s walking free around the streets of New York,” one of the Secret Service agents chided.
“He did have a nuclear bomb in his briefcase with a dead man’s switch,” Hawk fired back. “I wouldn’t exactly call that walking free around the streets of New York.”
“So, what’s the plan?” another agent asked.
Hawk flipped over a large corkboard, revealing a detailed sketch of Andrews Air Force Base. He pushed a pin into the last hangar on the runway.
“The Al Hasib rocket man is going to be here,” Hawk said, tapping the drawing for emphasis. “It’s going to be a perfect spot to take a shot at Air Force One as it begins to climb, but it’s a terrible location to shoot from if you want to disrupt anything else.”
“Disrupt?” one of the agents said.
“Disrupt, kill, eliminate. I don’t care what you call it, but that’s what that Al Hasib agent is here to do. Their preference would be to kill Young—at least, that’s their end goal. But I want to at least give off the illusion that I tried to help them.”
“Fazil is no fool,” Young said. “If his agent isn’t successful, he’s going to know you did something.”
“Perhaps, but this should prolong the conversation with him. And if we’re still talking, we can only hope that he still has the hostages alive and with him. Meanwhile, I’m still working on a way to find out the location of their camp.”
“Back to the plan,” one of the agents chimed in.
“I encouraged the Al Hasib agent to stash his weapon ahead of time,” Hawk said. “And based off security logs I had pulled, he went there earlier today. I’m going to sabotage his missile launcher so that it will fire but miss badly. But we need to have a contingency plan in case things go awry and he decides to fire while the president and his aides are boarding Air Force One.”
Hawk turned back to the sketch and inserted another pin.
“This is where the plane will be boarded. However, we’re going to park a fuel tanker at an angle here so that the agent’s view will be obstructed. Once everyone ascends the steps, they will proceed to the back of the plane and exit through the service entrance. From there, everyone will be loaded into a catering company truck, out of the agent’s line of sight.”
“Do the pilots know what they’re in for on this flight?” an agent asked. “If this goes sideways, they're probably going to die.”
“Air Force One can take off and land without anyone in the cockpit,” Hawk continued. “It’s one of the contingency plans in case something were to ever happen to both pilots. The plane can be flown remotely if necessary.”
“Like a drone?”
“More or less,” Hawk said.
“And how will you handle the Al Hasib agent?”
“I know his position. The moment he fires, I’m going to put a bullet in his head.”
“How confident are you that this will work?” Young asked.
“If I thought that I was putting anyone in harm’s way—real harm’s way—I wouldn’t do it. But I do think we’ll be able to execute this plan and achieve all our objectives.”
“You better be right,” Young said. “My fate—and the fate of this republic—hangs in your ability to deliver.”
“Don’t worry, sir,” Hawk said. “If I get a sense that something else is going wrong, we will abort everything. The cost of failure will be high, but I won’t let it include your life or the lives of those around you.”
“I find that somewhat reassuring,” Young said. “I’m still a little uncomfortable with everything.”
“That’s how I feel every mission, sir. And things rarely go exactly as planned, but that’s why we have contingencies.”
Young dismissed the Secret Service agents but asked Hawk to stay behind. Once the last agent filed out of the room, Young sat in the chair directly across from Hawk.
“Are you really sure this is going to work?” Young asked again.
Hawk nodded confidently. “We’re going to stop this agent and get Blunt and Alex back home.”
“And Fazil?”
“I’m hoping I get a chance to take care of him. But if not now, soon. He’s needed to be stopped for a long time. His threats are growing old and tiresome.”
“I agree—I just hope that I can give you everything you need to be successful with Firestorm once I take over the office on a more permanent basis.”
“I do, too, but there’s still the issue of Jared Fowler’s threat hanging over your head,” Hawk said. “Have you given any thought to what you’re going to do? The deadline is tomorrow evening.”
Young stood and walked over to his desk. He grabbed a folder and handed it to Hawk before sitting back down.
“You know what’s been bugging me about this whole ordeal?” Young asked.
“That some no-name guy who has no connections to Washington got his hands on that tape and seems to have no apparent agenda other than to throw the election into chaos?” Hawk said.
“Great minds think alike,” Young said. “Those are almost my exact thoughts about Fowler. How did he come to get possession
