Maybe I’m overthinking this.
Blunt trusted his hunches most of the time. And if he was right about this one, he considered that he might be about to shove a wrench into the CIA’s plans.
He pulled out his phone and texted Wood.
You knew about the first lady, didn’t you?
Then came the reply.
Sorry, we couldn’t risk you telling Young and blowing our operation.
Blunt hammered away furiously. “Too late now. Young must be read in so we can stop the impending attack on the White House.”
His phone buzzed with a reply from Wood: “Don’t do it!”
Blunt turned his phone off and slipped it into his pocket. Wood and the CIA had a chance to put a stop to this, but letting Madeline Young carry on without at least a threat allowed Obsidian to be on the cusp of terrorizing a nation even more so than how 9/11 did. Watching office towers crumble in a massive metropolitan area struck fear in most Americans, but to have enduring images of the White House smoldering in ashes after an attack? That would wreak havoc with the country’s collective psyche, possibly to an irreparable point.
Blunt took a seat in the room and waited for Young. After five minutes, the president appeared, escorted inside by a pair of Secret Service agents. The two men exited, leaving Blunt alone with Young.
“What’s this emergency all about?” Young asked. “I thought Homeland Security sniffed out those two threats in Chicago and New York. Are there others that weren’t in my briefing?”
Blunt’s face fell as he looked down at his feet. “There’s one we just found out about.”
“Where? L.A.? Dallas? Miami?”
“Washington,” Blunt said. “And to be quite specific, the White House.”
Young scowled. “This is the most secure place in the world, you know that. I know you have to take these things seriously, but these grounds are virtually impenetrable.”
“Not if no one suspects you.”
Young cocked his head to one side. “You’re suggesting that it’s going to be an inside job, aren’t you?”
Blunt nodded. “I’m not really suggesting anything. I’m telling you that someone very close to you is plotting an attack tomorrow.”
“Is it one of my advisors?”
“Sir, I hate to be the one to break it to you like this, but it’s Madeline, your wife.”
Young laughed and shook his head. “You’re joking right?”
“I wish it all was a lie, but I’m afraid it’s not. I verified this information myself.”
“Oh, come on, Madeline is a patriot. She’d never do anything like that.”
“I have sworn affidavits from a couple of the men in the Secret Service if you still don’t believe me.”
“Someone must be blackmailing her,” Young said. “Madeline wouldn’t conceive of such an idea on her own. That’s the only way that makes sense.”
“It’s perhaps more personal than you can comprehend right now.”
“What do you mean?”
Blunt sighed. “We think she’s romantically involved with someone.”
Young furrowed his brow and drew back. “Think or know?”
“You know I always shoot you straight, sir, but the signs are all there.”
“Who’s she with? Is it one of my younger aides? My advisors? A cabinet member? You must have some sort of an idea.”
Blunt shrugged. “We can’t say for sure, but we’re confident there’s someone.”
“Why are you telling me this?”
“Your country needs you, sir,” Blunt said. “Probably more than ever before—if not for the republic’s sake, for your own. We need to find out all the details if we’re going to stop this before tomorrow.”
“What do you need me to do?”
“I need you to clone Madeline’s phone. Think you can make that happen for us?”
Young moaned. “That damn phone. She sleeps with it under her pillow. I can’t get her to put it down for hardly more than a couple minutes at a time. Who knows what she does on it all day.”
“That’s what we’d like to find out. You just need to separate her from it for about five minutes, which is how much time we need to extract vital information to make a working replica.”
“That’s going to be a monumental task,” Young said. “She’s always on social media, sharing moments and images with her massive group of followers, tweeting out ridiculous inane things that happen here at the White House. It makes me feel like my time in office is more like a reality TV show. And I’ll tell you what. If I could ban social media, I would. It’s what’s ruining this country.”
“I’d drop everything I was doing to help you campaign if I thought this could be a reality.”
Young chuckled. “It’s just a pipe dream. But as long as I’m sitting in the Oval Office, who knows what can happen.”
Blunt patted Young on the back and handed him a phone. “I’ll have someone on your team connect with Alex. She’ll walk you through the mechanics of how to clone it. And don’t worry: that phone is already turned on.”
A faint smile crept across Young’s lips. “I can handle it.”
“For what it’s worth, I’m sorry to have to break this news to you.”
Young shrugged. “It’s all right. I’ve felt this was coming for a while, though I didn’t think she would cheat on me. It’s probably my fault anyway. These things happen when you put your ambitions ahead of your family, right?”
Blunt shook his head. “Sometimes they do. But I’ve almost forgotten what that’s like. It’s been so long for me. But since my wife died, my family has been my team. They’re all like my kids. And I love ‘em to pieces.”
“That’s how it should be,” Young said. He glanced at the phone in his hand. “I’ll get this done for you. We’ll stop these bastards—Madeline included.”
CHAPTER 25
PRESIDENT YOUNG HAD TO SET ASIDE grief over the loss of his marriage. He and
