“I’m here with Blunt and Wood,” she said. “You’re on speaker too.”
“Hawk, this is Randy Wood. I hope you’re on your way to Union Station.”
“Agent Black is handling that, sir,” Hawk said.
Wood grunted. “We can’t let all those people die. Noah would never want you to sacrifice all those people for him, especially when it’s no guarantee that you can save him.”
“We’re not sacrificing anyone today,” Hawk said. “Were you able to confirm everything Evana said regarding her contingency plan?”
“Yes,” Alex said. “We have no way of warning the trains. Someone has taken over the railway servers and is controlling all the communications both on the trains and along the tracks. Short of parking a dump truck at a crossing, we’re not stopping anything.”
“And what about A’isha? Have you found her yet?”
“She’s fastened to a bench near the main platform,” Alex said. “There’s a tripwire on the lock that’s keeping her there.”
“Evana truly is evil,” Hawk said. “She’s weaponized our humanity against us.”
“However, we identified the man who took her there, and an FBI team took him down. They’re questioning him right now.”
Hawk sighed. “By my count, we have seventeen minutes left. It’s all going to be too late, especially if I can’t figure out a way to get inside the monument.”
“There’s a secret entrance,” a woman blurted out in the back.
“Who said that?” Hawk asked.
“It’s me, Laura. During the construction, they didn’t want to be seen carting all the supplies and materials into the entrance, so the contractors built a tunnel underneath. I guess now it’s like every other building in the city.”
“Okay, how do I get to it?”
She explained how Hawk could reach the underground entrance through the nearby visitor’s center.
“Hawk, I’m not sure this plan is going to work,” Wood said. “There’s too much that can go wrong here.”
“Sir, I’m afraid everything has already gone all wrong,” Hawk said before shooting out the glass to the visitor’s center door. He carefully climbed through the glass to get inside. “If we don’t try this, we’ll all regret it. At least we’ll have a chance with this.”
“Fine,” Wood said. “We’ll do it your way. What else do you need?”
“I need a chopper at the White House, ready and waiting to lift off and pick us up on my command.”
“I’m not sure we can get something over there that quickly.”
“Make it happen,” Hawk said. “We only have sixteen minutes left by my count. I’m going up now. Just keep me posted.”
Hawk entered the tunnel and sprinted toward the base of the monument. He hustled up to ground level and took a moment to catch his breath. The elevator display showed Evana had already taken Young to the top. After opening the door to the stairwell, Hawk looked upward and shook his head. The steps wound around the massive elevator shaft. He needed to climb five hundred steps, and he’d only have a couple minutes to spare once he reached the viewing deck.
A pair of shots from above echoed throughout the structure.
Hawk drew a deep breath and began his ascent.
* * *
WITH EIGHT MINUTES REMAINING until the two trains were set to converge on Union Station, Black hustled up to the FBI SWAT members surrounding the entrances. He flashed his badge to one of the men, who waved him inside.
One of the FBI agents rushed over and introduced himself as Agent Reed.
“You looking for the girl?” Reed asked.
Black nodded. “Have you inspected the bomb yet?”
Reed shook his head. “We were instructed to stay away until you arrived.”
“Take me to her.”
Reed led Black to the platform where A’isha was screaming as she tried to yank her wrist free of the chain that tethered her to the bench.
“You have anyone who can speak Arabic here?” Black said. “We need to get her to calm down.”
Reed radioed for someone to come over. “Any onsite agents fluent in Arabic?”
There was no response.
“Anyone?” Reed asked again.
Nothing.
Black crouched down in front of A’isha. “I’m going to help you get your leg off.”
She furrowed her brow.
“I’m here to help you,” Black said. “Can I lift up your skirt so I can see your leg?”
Black gestured what he wanted A’isha to do. She hesitated at first before slowly tugging up the hem so he could look at her prosthetic limb. After studying it for a few seconds, he shook his head.
“Alex,” this is Black. “We’ve got a problem.”
“What now?”
“I don’t have time to disarm this bomb, and I can’t detach it either.”
“That’s not surprising given how this is playing out,” Alex said. “The man the FBI apprehended who brought A’isha to the train station doesn’t have anything on him. He’s not the one controlling the detonator.”
“Then who is?”
* * *
EVANA BAHAR FORMED a noose with her rope and tugged on it to make sure it was tight. She walked up to the camera that was streaming the public execution of President Young and grinned.
“This is the moment the world has been waiting for,” Evana said. “It’s time for some of America’s leaders to atone for their sins against the rest of the world. All the oppression and imperialism that this nation has perpetrated against everyone else for over two hundred years is going to come crashing down today. Are you ready?”
The Al Fatihin terrorist behind the lens panned over to Young, who was slumped in the corner, blood streaming down his face from another beating Evana had administered upon reaching the top.
Evana stuck her face back in front of the camera. “Too bad he didn’t get to finish that stirring speech that was supposed to unite all Americans. Well, what’s about to happen is going to bring together all of those citizens of other countries who have been marginalized by America’s despotic regimes and tyrannical rule. This is not President Young’s world. And he’s about to learn that in the most public execution in history.”
“It’s all lies,” Young growled. “She’s a liar.”
She spun and cracked him
