Just below him, Young kicked and twisted, grasping at the rope around his neck trying to avoid suffocating. Hawk shimmied down the rope.
“I need that chopper over here now with a harness on the end,” Hawk said over the coms as he slid down next to Young. He struggled for a few more seconds before passing out.
Clinging to the rope with one arm, Hawk hoisted Young up the wall and pinned him there with a knee. Hawk could hear the helicopter churning toward them as he struggled to keep Young from dropping.
“What’s happening?” Young asked as he slowly regained consciousness.
“Just stay still, sir,” Hawk said. “No sudden movements. I’ve got you.”
Young tilted his head down and screamed. “No, no,” he said. “This is not how I want to die.”
“You’ll kill the both of us if you don’t stay still. Now, please, sir, remain calm.”
Hawk’s arm was burning as he felt his hand starting slip down the rope. He wasn’t sure how much longer he could hold on.
* * *
AT LANGLEY, Alex removed her earpiece from the coms and asked someone else to monitor it for her. She hammered the keys at her terminal.
“How are we looking?” Blunt asked.
“I’m almost there.”
“So is that train. Please hurry.”
Alex glanced at the countdown she’d started. She knew she wasn’t going to make it.
“Tell Black to do something to keep those trains from reaching the terminal.”
“What can he do?”
“Tell him to get creative.”
* * *
BLACK RECEIVED THE MESSAGE from Alex over the coms that she needed him to buy her more time to keep the cell towers down. He thought for a moment what might actually work since they had no way of communicating with anyone on the train.
“What if the bomb had already exploded?” he wondered aloud.
Any competent engineer wouldn’t keep chugging into the station. He’d slam on the brakes and do everything to keep from tearing into a dangerous situation.
Black ran to a nearby bar and found several FBI agents he knew. “I need your help right now.”
“What are we doing?” one of the men asked.
"We're going to make Molotov cocktails."
They worked quickly to make a half dozen bombs to toss into the tunnel.
“The trains are going to be arriving in one minute,” Blunt said. “Whatever you’re doing, you better hurry.”
Black and one of the agents dashed down one tunnel, while the other two men took over in the opposite direction. After sprinting fifty yards deep, Black lit the cloth hanging out of the top and hurled it down the tracks, repeating the process until all three had turned into a roaring blaze.
Black sprinted back to the platform and strained to hear. After a few tense seconds, the sound of screeching brakes reverberated down the tunnel. Seconds later, he heard the same sound from the other direction as well.
“It’s done,” Black said.
“Almost there,” Alex said. “Just need two more minutes.”
Black sprinted back toward the flames to explain the situation to the engineer. After a couple of minutes, Alex was back on the coms with the good news.
“Check your phones,” she said.
“I’ve got nothing,” Black said.
He hustled back to the platform where A’isha was. She was curled up in a fetal position, sobbing quietly.
“It’s over,” he said. “I’m going to diffuse this bomb now.”
* * *
HAWK CLUNG TO THE ROPE and wondered if he could hold onto it and Young for more than another minute or so. If Hawk let go of Young, he would be dead very soon.
“Where’s that chopper?” Hawk asked.
“Look above you,” Wood said.
Hawk glanced up and saw two Marines descending out of a helicopter toward him, each holding a harness. The first soldier placed a harness on Young before slashing him free from the rope that secured him to the monument. Once that soldier was finished, the other one steadied Hawk before they were reeled upward. They were all reeled into the aircraft before it peeled away toward the hospital.
“Thanks,” Hawk said over the coms. “Mr. Deputy Director, the president is safe and is going to make it.”
“The whole nation needs to be thanking you, Hawk,” Wood said. “That was incredible. I thought the president was gone for good.”
“How are things at Union Station?” Hawk asked.
“They’re great,” Alex said. “Black just finished diffusing the bomb and is getting A’isha back to the hospital. She’s pretty shaken up as you can imagine, but she’s alive—and so is everyone else.”
“I knew you could do it, honey,” Hawk said.
“Well, I did need Black to buy me some extra time and keep the trains out of the station, but it was enough to get the job done.”
“Teamwork makes the dream work,” Hawk said with a chuckle. “Now, what about Evana Bahar? Any sign of her?”
“We’re still searching,” Wood said. “But so far, nothing.”
“We’ll find her, sir. Don’t worry. She’s got a lot to answer for.”
CHAPTER 30
TWO DAYS LATER, the Phoenix Foundation team reconvened at a CIA safe house just outside the capital to discuss how to move forward. Blunt lumbered to the head of the table, a cigar hanging out of his mouth. He flung a stack of file folders in front of the rest of his operatives.
“Well, that was one helluva night,” Blunt said. “The president told me he’d give you all commendation medals in a public ceremony except for that fact that this little outfit doesn’t really exist.”
“And we’d like to keep it that way,” Hawk said.
“Has anyone figured out how this all went down?” Alex asked. “This had to be meticulously planned.”
Blunt nodded. “It was—and it’s obvious that Evana Bahar did a masterful job of predicting what we would do every step of the way.”
“Until the very end,” Hawk said. “She was definitely counting on me to head to Union Station.”
“That was
