“Look, I hate the political side of this as much as you do.”
“It’s why I left the senate,” Blunt said. “I wanted to get away from this bureaucratic shit storm that always rolled downhill on me. And now it’s happening again, only it’s hurting our country’s security this time.”
“Unfortunately, we can’t get away from that.”
Blunt grunted and said nothing.
“What are you thinking, J.D.?”
“I need to at least speak with Orlovsky so I can set something up.”
“Talking with him is the only thing you can do.”
“I’m going to need to incentivize him, too,” Blunt said. “Give me the power to authorize something that would make his life more comfortable.”
“I’ll see what I can do,” Wood said. “Just know that I’ll work as hard as I can to get you what you need. I just can’t give you Orlovsky.”
“I understand. We’ll adjust accordingly. But for the record, I don’t like it.”
“I’ll be in touch.”
Blunt hung up and sat back down. He pushed Wood to see if he could set up the ideal situation with Orlovsky, but the roadblock wasn’t the end of the world. The situation would present more of a challenge without a doubt. However, Blunt was confident he could utilize a compliant Orlovsky.
A few minutes later, Hawk and Alex walked through the door and greeted Blunt. He glanced at his watch.
“You’re late,” Blunt said.
“It was a long trip back,” Hawk said. “But you’re not usually so concerned with how prompt we are. What’s eating at you?”
“The president is threatening to pull the plug on the Phoenix Foundation if we don’t get him a win,” Blunt said.
“A win?” Alex asked. “We could reveal that his wife is a traitor.”
“That’s not the kind of thing he’s looking for,” Blunt said. “He needs something that’s going to turn the poll numbers around.”
“What do you need us to do?” Hawk asked.
“As much as it pains me to say this, we’re going to need to table our pursuit of Obsidian for the time being,” Blunt said.
“You’ve got to be joking,” Alex said. “We just flew to Cape Verde and—”
“I don’t like it any more than you do,” Blunt said. “But with the pressure Young is putting on us, we can’t just ignore his demands. Sometimes we must play the political game.”
“Politics,” Hawk said. “It’s ruining this country.”
“I won’t disagree with you,” Blunt said, “but it’s a necessary evil at the moment. We want everyone in this country to feel safe at night when they lay their head on a pillow to go to sleep.”
“So, what now?” Hawk asked.
“I’m going to have Andrei Orlovsky arrange a meeting for us with Evana Bahar,” Blunt said.
“You think he’s going to help us?” Alex asked.
“We’ll do our best to make him want to help us,” Blunt said. “But you leave that to me. Just go home and get ready for a flight to Afghanistan. We’re going to flush her out.”
“Sounds like my kind of plan,” Hawk said.
“Good,” Blunt said. “I’m counting on you to deliver for us. I’ll call you later with the details.”
Hawk and Alex exited the room, leaving Blunt to ponder his next move. He needed to make a good one. Not only did the fate of The Phoenix Foundation depend upon his ability to craft a plausible scenario, but so did the safety of the country.
Blunt needed another drink.
CHAPTER 10
BLUNT NEEDED TO RELAX. Each looming decision weighed heavily on him as he considered the best path forward. Preventing Obsidian from getting its tentacles into President Young appeared to be the highest priority. And if funding for the black ops program was lost, Blunt would be powerless to do anything in the future. However, he was willing to sacrifice all of it to save his niece, Morgan. He couldn’t live with himself if she became an innocent casualty in this shadow war.
Based on the information he’d gathered about how Obsidian operated, Blunt was concerned about Morgan’s treatment. He could only imagine how scared she was, especially since she probably never considered that she could be a pawn in a terrorist’s game before officially becoming part of the intelligence community. Blunt needed to get her out of there as soon as possible since rescuing her meant he could warn Young about how dangerous Falcon Sinclair really was.
With Hawk and Alex set to travel to Afghanistan, Blunt only had one other option to help with his niece: Titus Black.
Blunt called his other operative and briefed him on the mission.
“Are you sure this is something you want to do?” Black asked. “If something goes wrong, this situation won’t end well for her.”
“Do you think you’re going to fail?”
“Of course not,” Black said. “But that’s before I know exactly what this rescue will entail. You’ve told me the end game—”
“Something you aren’t to tell anyone else about,” Blunt said.
“That goes without saying, sir. You’ve told me what you want, but I still have no operational details, starting with the location of the facility and the blueprints for it.”
“I’ll have that for you in the morning. I’ve got someone working on it for me. Triangulating their exact location has been quite challenging since they’re routing their calls all over the place. They are professionals in every sense of the word, but I’m confident that we’ll be able to pinpoint where they are.”
“None of this seems ideal for an op of this magnitude,” Black said. “Knowing that this is your niece I’m attempting to save should make you more cautious, not less.”
“What choice do I have?” Blunt said, his voice quivering. “I can’t let them do this to her.”
“How did they even find out about her?” Black asked. “I didn’t even know you had a niece.”
“It’s not something I advertise, but I do have a half-sister. We were never really close, but her daughter reached out to me recently after she learned who I was. Our relationship
