“You’re in the same place you were when you were continuing to lie to us,” Hawk said. “If it’s not already abundantly clear, my colleague and I aren’t big fans of blatant dishonesty. We’re not too fond of politicians either. So you’ve got two strikes against you. It’s up to you to make sure you don’t reach a third. We certainly don’t care for free swingers who think there are no consequences for their actions—or maybe you didn’t see what happened to your buddy Shane Samuels.”
“Who?” Joseph asked.
Hawk punched Joseph in the knee, eliciting several shrieks of pain. “Don’t try to play us for fools. Understand, Senator?”
Joseph nodded as he grimaced in pain.
“Good,” Hawk said. “I’m glad we could come to a mutual understanding for once. Now, I know based on some of your speeches in the senate that you’re not a big fan of waterboarding because you think it’s not a viable way to get terrorists to talk,” Hawk said. “However, I must disagree with you. In my experience, it’s worked wonders. But here’s your chance to prove me wrong. You be honest with me and I won’t resort to waterboarding. My colleague here has a really good bullshit meter. So, he’ll know if you’re trying to pull one over on us.”
Joseph’s eyes widened with fear. Hawk immediately knew he was dealing with a novice in handling a stressful situation.
“I’ll tell you what you want to know,” Joseph said.
“Let’s start with this question,” Hawk said. “How did you know Shane Samuels?”
Joseph looked down at his feet, his jaw clenched shut.
Hawk lifted his captive’s chin. “I don’t ask questions a second time, just FYI.”
Joseph sighed. “I met him at a fund raiser. He told me that he worked for a powerful group of people who could put me in high positions if I did what they asked.”
“And what did they ask you to do?”
“Nothing, at first,” Joseph said. “I was beginning to wonder if the whole encounter was just some sort of hoax. But then the money started to roll in to my campaign.”
“Illegally, of course,” Black said.
“No, it was all legal. Small donations from Americans all over the country. Everything was aboveboard there. And quite frankly, without that money, I probably wouldn’t have retained my seat in the senate.”
“So they had you by the throat,” Hawk said.
Joseph nodded.
“And did you meet any of these higher-ups?” Hawk asked.
“Aside from Samuels, I only knew of two other people affiliated with the group.”
“Who were they?” Black asked.
Joseph pursed his lips. “One was named Milton Reese, who recently passed away.”
“We’re familiar with him,” Hawk said. “And the other?”
“The other I met once at a charity gala in New York. This guy came up to me and told me that he was part of my funding group and said he was proud of the work I had done and was going to do.”
“I need a name,” Hawk said.
“Falcon Sinclair,” Joseph said.
“Sinclair of Sinclair Holdings?” Black asked. “The Australian billionaire who’s giving Elon Musk a run for his money on who can take tourists to the moon first?”
“That’s the one.”
Black whistled. “This is worse than I thought possible. Sinclair Holdings is one of the three richest investment companies in the world. If they’re making a serious play to gain control everywhere, we’ll all be under their thumb before we know it.”
“And what was your role in all of this tonight?” Hawk asked.
“I was meeting with President Young and had a cell phone that I was supposed to dial as soon as he left the room,” Joseph said as a tear streaked down his face. “I had no idea I would be setting off a bomb. If I had known they were going to ask me to do that, I would’ve refused.”
“Spare me the waterworks,” Hawk said. “You knew what you were doing was illegal, forming a partnership with some shadowy financial support group.”
“But I’m not a murderer,” Joseph pleaded. “At least, I never thought I’d ever be one.”
“We’ll let the courts decide about that,” Black said as he turned off the recording app on his phone. “We’ve got this entire conversation on tape. Maybe it’ll help with your trial because I can assure you that no prosecutor with an eye on any type of advancement is going to offer you a plea deal after you detonated the bomb that killed the first lady.”
“She’s dead?” Joseph asked, his face going white. “But she and I were—we were friends.”
“Apparently, she was friends with a lot of people in Washington,” Black said. “But it doesn’t matter now because she’s dead, thanks to you.”
Hawk signaled for Black to step out of earshot from Joseph so they could speak privately.
“What do you want to do with this dirt bag?” Black asked.
“Let’s have Randy Wood’s crew deal with him. We don’t need the headache—and we’ve got a new lead to track down.”
“Roger that,” Black said. “I’ll coordinate this pick through Blunt.”
“And I’ll update Alex and see if she has anything else for us.”
Hawk eased out of the office and dialed Alex’s number.
“We got him,” Hawk said.
“Joseph was there?”
“Along with Samuels, who was here when we arrived holding Joseph hostage. I’m not sure if it was an act or not, but we didn’t really have much time to ask questions.”
“So you caught Samuels?” Alex asked.
“He’s dead,” Hawk said. “He was about to shoot me when Black gave me a hand.”
Hawk could hear her measured breathing on the other end of the line as she remained quiet.
“Are you okay? I know he was your half-brother and all.”
“Yeah, I’m surprised at how I feel right now. I thought I’d be more relieved than sad, but I’m not.”
“Today’s been a hard day—but a good one in terms of justice.”
“And you think justice has been served?” she asked.
“I know that’s not really for me to decide, but we know Samuels was working for an organization that was intent on ruthlessly killing millions of people for
