CHAPTER 21
BLUNT LUMBERED INTO the Phoenix Foundation conference room and stared at the monitor on the far wall. He preferred his Sundays to be restful, but instead here he was leading a meeting just after the break of dawn. The rest of the team was already seated around the table, waiting for Alex to finish pushing all of her data onto the screen. Blunt leaned against the wall before digging in his pocket for a cigar.
“Never ignore a hunch,” he said. “You have them for a reason.”
“Are you going to light up that thing?” Hawk asked, gesturing to Blunt’s stogie.
“Being right about something isn’t necessarily the kind of victory I like to smoke to,” Blunt said. “Maybe I’ll fire this Cuban up after we eradicate Obsidian.”
“You might be waiting a while,” Black said. “These guys aren’t going to go down easily.”
Alex slapped the table, signaling she was finished. “It’s all there now.”
Everyone turned their attention to the information projected from her computer. A map of the world was dotted with locations marked for planned attacks by Obsidian along with an estimated casualty count. Instead of targeting airports, Obsidian planned to hit metro subway systems all over the globe.
Hawk’s mouth fell agape. “A hundred thousand people in all these places? That’s insane.”
“And locations easier to bomb than airports, too,” Alex said. “The security level at most international hubs has been there for a while, but the subway system? No metal detectors, easy to trap thousands of people at once, and only one way out.”
“Were you able to get any specific details about how Obsidian was planning to carry out these attacks?” Blunt asked.
Alex nodded. “There were several documents offering an analysis of how to achieve the highest casualty rate while also not inviting law enforcement scrutiny.”
“And what did you find?” Blunt asked.
Alex typed on her keyboard before another image appeared on the screen. “They’re going to borrow something from the Nazi playbook and gas the commuters.”
“Gas them?” Black asked.
“The idea is to set off bombs in strategic areas, trapping trains inside the tunnels near the platforms with a series of explosions. When the people attempt to flee the area, more explosions will occur near the exits, forcing pandemonium. Then the gas will be administered through a synchronized system of dispensers attached throughout the station.”
“This would be horrific,” Hawk said.
“Agreed,” Blunt chimed. “The attacks during 9/11 made us genuinely mistrust others as we questioned the safety of the airline industry. For millions of people around the world who rely on this type of transportation to get to work, it’s going to grind the workforce in so many of those major cities to a standstill. Not to mention, it will jumpstart a whole new cycle of fear in the public transportation sector.”
“And I would bet you anything that Obsidian also has a substantial investment in technology that would be able to quickly detect weapons designed for a mass transit system,” Blunt said. “Alex?”
She winked at Blunt and flashed a new slide on the screen. “Already ahead of you on this one. Micronics Industries just released a new prototype last week at Safety Expo in Chicago. It’s a complete body scan that takes less than a second. The technology is light years beyond what airports are currently using. And of course, I managed to find two major investors believed to have connections to Obsidian.”
“They’re going for a two-for-one approach here,” Blunt said. “They’re going to capitalize on the stock market swings as well as send their Mircronics stock soaring.”
“We’re going to need a lot of help on this one,” Alex said.
“I’m on it,” Blunt said as he stood. “Alex, I want you to keep digging through these files. Hawk and Black, I want you two staking out Samuels’s building. It’s time to bring him in for further questioning and find out what else he knows. But do it discreetly.”
“Roger that,” Hawk said before Blunt dismissed the team.
He returned to his office and dialed Randy Wood’s number.
“We need to talk,” Blunt said after Wood answered.
“What’d your team find?”
Blunt sighed. “It’s worse than we imagined. We uncovered Obsidian’s plans through Samuels’s laptop.”
“You went after him?” Wood said. “I thought I told you—”
“Don’t worry. He never even knew we had possession of his computer. It was just long enough for us to extract some very meaningful information off of it. I know you’ve got some plan to uncover the very top of Obsidian, but we don’t have time for that now. On Tuesday, they’re going to strike and kill thousands upon thousands of people if we don’t do something to stop them.”
“What’s their plan?”
“Metro railways all over the world. Trap the people during rush hour and then unleash a chemical gas on them that will kill them all. It won’t be pretty.”
“Are they doing that on U.S. soil?”
“I’m afraid so. Right now we know that New York and Chicago are in Obsidian’s sights. And we believe there could be more. We’re still trying to collect the intel and make the most informed decision.”
“Fine,” Wood said. “We can’t let Obsidian unleash that on us, but it might cost us more time.”
“I know. It’s not ideal, but it’s the right thing to do.”
“Send over the details, and I’ll contact Scotland Yard and Interpol and enlist their help.”
“Thanks,” Blunt said. “I’ll get all that over to you shortly, but please be judicious in who you give this information to. Obsidian has eyes and ears everywhere.”
Blunt spent the rest of the day poring over reports and scuttling over the important items to Wood for his analysts at the CIA to assess for additional threats. It was getting late when Hawk and Black contacted Blunt to let him know that they were going to retrieve Samuels.
“Thanks for the heads up,” Blunt said. “I’m going to settle in for the show.”
* * *
