“Yeah, but that’d take more time than we have.”
“You’re right,” Hawk said. “We’re low on time anyway since I have to circle back and explain all this to the FBI.”
“FBI?” Alex asked.
“I didn't have a chance to tell you,” Hawk said. “But it doesn't matter now. Some feds jumped me last night in front of the house, apprehending me to keep me away from Mrs. Templeton.”
“But you’re here,” she said. “What did you do?”
Hawk grimaced. “I broke free and sort of tied them up at one of their black sites.”
“Oh, Hawk,” she said. “And now Mrs. Templeton is dead.”
“And we need to get back to Washington,” Hawk said. “I’ll drop by and release them and give them a quick rundown of what happened. In the meantime, you two need to get to the airport and get the plane ready.”
“What business could Walsh have in Washington?” Black asked.
“The National Security Complex dedication,” Alex said. “That’s happening tomorrow afternoon.”
Hawk’s eyes widened. “Who all is going to be there?”
“Everybody,” she said. “All of Washington will be there to celebrate the opening of the facility.”
Hawk nodded. “We better hurry.”
CHAPTER 25
HAWK’S BRIEF RETURN to the FBI black site wasn’t a pleasant one as he delivered the news of Mrs. Templeton’s death before freeing all of the agents. Sanders was livid and promised that they would seek retribution for Hawk meddling with their operation. After apologizing a second time for how things went down, Hawk volunteered to return in his free time to help crack the smuggling ring. His offer wasn’t received all that well, but Hawk didn’t concern himself with it as he drove back to the airport. His team had far more pressing matters, the kind with national security implications.
The engines for the Phoenix Foundation’s jet whirred as Hawk stepped out of the SUV and onto the tarmac. He hustled over to the plane and joined Alex and Black, who were already settled in. After notifying the pilot that they were ready to depart, Hawk buckled up and closed his eyes for a moment. He needed a chance to process all the chaotic events that had just unfolded along with a plan on how to proceed.
Hawk leaned back and wondered if Walsh was right about trying to take down Obsidian. Perhaps the organization was too powerful and influential to be stopped. Maybe such efforts were a waste of his time. But Hawk refused to accept such a fate. He had to try to do something.
When he felt a gentle touch on his shoulders, he opened his eyes and looked up at Alex.
“You all right?” she asked.
“All things considered, I guess I’m okay,” he said.
“How’d your new friends at the FBI take the news about Mrs. Templeton?”
“About as well as you’d expect—livid, angry, upset, and vowing to get back at me somehow.”
She smiled. “That wouldn’t be the first time.”
“You can say that again.”
“I just can’t help but think how this plan to lure out Walsh led to Mrs. Templeton’s death. And we didn’t even get him.”
Hawk sighed. “I hate that she lost her life, but she sabotaged our entire operation by telling her son what we were doing—and she was trafficking illegal girls in the U.S. Just think about that. Sex trafficking, Alex. She wasn’t a good woman.”
“But Walsh didn’t even try to kill you.”
“Maybe he realized it was better to fight another day than to get into a shootout when he was outnumbered. I mean, you have to hand it to him—his plan worked. We were so distracted and confused that he was able to get away. Even worse, if he had any suspicion that we don't want to kill him, that episode this morning confirmed it for him. Our agenda is out in the open now, and he'll be able to use that to his advantage.”
“Our agenda is stopping Obsidian no matter what,” Alex said. “But maybe we’ve been approaching this the wrong way.”
Hawk sat upright in his chair. “What do you mean?”
“Everything we’ve been doing is reactive, not proactive. Obsidian is dictating the game.”
“Until we know what they’re trying to achieve, it’s hard to be anything other than reactive,” Black said.
“That’s why maybe we need to go on the offensive,” Alex said. “As much as it’d be nice to catch Walsh—and I know that you need that for closure, Hawk—we need to be more than just a mild pain in their ass. We need to disrupt everything they’re doing.”
Hawk nodded in agreement. “That sounds like a great plan, but we still need something—anything—to build off of, no matter how weak the connection might be. Outside of Walsh and what we can learn six months from now once we can get back into that Idaho mountain, we’re still flying blind. So, we need Walsh now.”
“And once we catch him, we start hunting these people one by one,” Black said. “After all, we’re the assassins here.”
The team came to a quick consensus that once they caught Walsh, they would shift gears. But given the gravity of the impending threat at the dedication the next day, they had no choice but to defend all the high-ranking state officials.
Hawk called Blunt and caught him up on the situation as well as the team’s desire to warn General Van Fortner about what Obsidian was planning.
“I think that’d be a waste of our time,” Blunt said. “Fortner isn’t going to cave to a possible terrorist attack. He’d see canceling the event as a sign of weakness. And there’s nothing more he wants to do right now that display strength, both as a leader and for the country.”
“You should at least tell him,” Hawk said. “He has a right to know.”
“Right now, I’m wary of telling anyone anything,” Blunt said. “The entire intelligence community seems like it’s riddled with so many leaks that we’re sinking into the abyss.”
“So, you’re just going to give up like that?”
“Absolutely not,” Blunt said. “You’re going to prevent that attack from ever taking place and make General
