“It’s too late for that. You’re going to attack Washington anyway—and not even you can stop those missiles.”
Sinclair shrugged. “You can blame Al Fatihin—and I’ll help you capture Evana Bahar. In fact, I’ll help you capture a dozen of the most wanted terrorists in the world. What do you have to lose?”
Young sighed and looked at the ground. He didn’t say a word as the seconds ticked past.
“I need an answer now,” Sinclair said.
CHAPTER 29
HAWK AND ALEX HELD their ground for the next minute, fending off a growing number of guards. As Hawk scanned the area in between shots, he estimated there were now eight of Sinclair’s men firing at his position from around the room. Hawk looked into his bag and realized he wasn’t going to be able to withstand the assault much longer.
“Mia, are you still there?” he asked over the coms.
“Still here,” she said. “Are you ready for me?”
“Almost. Can you tell where we are in the basement?”
“Yeah, I can see you on my screen.”
“Okay,” he said. “Can you disable the elevator and initiate a lockdown?”
“I’m still connected,” she said. “All of the buildings functions were on a different system than the mainframe, so I’ve got access to the doors, gates, elevators, and security cameras in the facility.”
“I’ll give you the go-ahead when we’re clear.”
“Copy that,” she said.
Hawk grabbed two smoke bombs out of his pack and opened the canisters before rolling them in the direction of the hostiles. When the smoke was sufficient to provide cover, he crouched low, shielding Alex as they hustled toward the elevator. Once they cross the threshold, they put their backs to the wall and pushed the button for the ground floor. Bullets peppered the elevator as the door closed, denting the aluminum. The moment they started to rise, he raised Mia on the coms.
“Commence the lockdown,” he said.
“Got it,” she said.
“I’ll let you know once we’re off the elevator so you can decommission it as well. That’ll buy us enough time to get out of here.”
Mia sighed, and Hawk immediately sensed something was wrong.
“What is it, Mia?” he asked.
“Well, I thought I should let you know that the coordinates I set for the missiles appear to have locked in,” she said.
“That’s great,” Alex said. “Good work.”
Mia groaned. “Uh, about that. You see, there’s a slight problem.”
“Spit it out, Mia,” Hawk said.
“The coordinates I entered are for the facility.”
“Which facility?” Hawk asked.
“The one you’re in.”
Hawk cursed as he looked at Alex and shook his head. “You do realize the President of the United States is in this building? Why wouldn’t you just drop them harmlessly somewhere else, like the ocean?”
“I wasn’t about to let this monster continue what he’s doing,” Mia said. “Besides, weren’t you going to rescue the president anyway?”
“Well, he has his own Secret Service detail, so we figured he’d be fine once the threat was mitigated,” Hawk said. “But I guess that’s not the case anymore.”
“Nor does President Young have any Secret Service members to help him,” Mia said.
Hawk scowled. “What do you mean?”
“The security cameras show that all of the men who were with the president are knocked out in another room, their bodies piled on top of one another.”
“Are they dead?” Alex asked.
“I’m not sure,” Mia said. “I don’t see any blood in the room. I’m just assuming they got knocked out by some kind of gas or injection.”
Hawk sighed. “How many are there?”
“Four.”
“Damn it,” Hawk said. “How much time do we have?”
“At their current rate of speed, the missiles should strike the compound in just under ten minutes.”
Hawk set his watch. “Roger that. Be ready to help the moment I ask for it—and we’ll have a talk about this when we get back.”
“I apologize for throwing a kink in your plan, but that would be a small sacrifice compared to what Sinclair plans to do to the world. And I think you would agree.”
“We’ll try to clean up your mess,” Hawk said, “but I’m not happy about this. This is not how we operate.”
Mia didn’t say anything. Hawk muted his mic, and Alex followed suit.
“Can you believe this?” he asked.
“Don’t blame me,” she said, throwing her hands in the air.
“I’m not. I know this is what we get for bringing someone like her onboard. This would’ve been a much bigger disaster if we hadn’t. But now, we don’t have much time.”
“We can still do this,” she said.
“I hope you’re right.”
The elevator came to a stop, and outside was an eerie silence. Hawk nodded knowingly at Alex as she clutched the gun in her right hand, her left arm bloodied from the earlier encounter. He was worried that she wasn’t up for the task.
“Are you okay?” he whispered.
“I’m great. Now let’s get Young and get the hell off this island.”
The doors slid open. Hawk and Alex didn’t move.
After a pregnant pause, a hail of bullets poured inside.
CHAPTER 30
A MAN POKED HIS HEAD through the open door in Sinclair’s control room. He glanced at his watch and then looked at Young, who still hadn’t uttered a word. Sinclair marched over to his assistant to find out why he needed to be bothered yet again.
“This better be good,” Sinclair said.
“Actually, I wish I had better news, but this is really urgent.”
“Spit it out.”
“Those missiles aren’t headed to Washington, D.C., anymore.”
Sinclair smiled. “Excellent. That’ll give us time to figure things out. How is this possibly bad news?”
“They’re headed straight for us.”
“What?”
The man nodded. “We have less than eight minutes to evacuate the premises before impact.”
Sinclair gritted his teeth and scanned the room. He’d planned for plenty of things, but this wasn’t one of them. He needed to think, but there wasn’t any time.
“Get everyone out of here,” Sinclair said. “I’ll handle this myself.”
“But, sir, the American
