“They know where he is, John. Doesn’t that bother you?” Hatfield bristled.
Merrick dug through files of the latest arrests stacked on the table in front of him. “Listen, Bill, I trust Marty to make the right moves. He’s no dummy. If he thinks that surprising them is better than tipping them off, I’ll buy it.”
Hatfield looked at his watch. “We’ve barely more than thirteen hours to go. Why are we being coy here?”
Merrick understood Hatfield’s tendency to panic, but he was tired and wanted to be certain of his judgment, so he glanced at Fisk for reassurance.
“He’s right, Bill,” Fisk said. “We’ve got to give Marty and Louis and Walt their opportunity to clean up this mess.”
Hatfield looked back and forth between Merrick and Fisk. “I can’t believe you two are taking this so calmly. Don’t either of you understand the ramifications of the White House going up in flames? Even if it’s abandoned it will symbolize the extent of our vulnerability and encourage all kinds of terrorist attacks. Anyone with a slingshot will try picking off government employees going to their cars.”
While Merrick reviewed his latest E-mail from the FBI War Room, he said. “I’m not real eager to make a mistake here, Bill. Let these guys do their job. I just spent the past three hours with that damn phone stuck to my ear and I’m getting briefed every thirty minutes. I believe Walt knows what’s at stake.”
Hatfield grimaced but said nothing.
Merrick read from his E-mail. “Walt’s got a task force on its way to Payson already. Apparently, the Gila County Sheriff’s Department has set up roadblocks disguised as sobriety checkpoints so they don’t raise any suspicions, but they’ll scrutinize everything they see. He feels confident that we’re closing in.”
“John, you’re making a mistake,” Hatfield said, with a restrained voice. “This is a golden opportunity to-”
Merrick reached behind the sofa to a button on the wall. He turned the button to the right and Bob Dylan’s nasally voice boomed over the ceiling speakers. Dylan was pining about some cryptic burden that Merrick was sure even the CIA couldn’t decipher. It did, however, drown out Hatfield’s ineffectual argument and that’s all that mattered.
Hatfield stood, pointed to Merrick, and yelled over the dirge of harmonicas and steel guitars. “This is a flagrant miscalculation!”
Merrick held his hand to his ear and shrugged. A few aides poked their head into the doorway to see what the commotion was all about. They got there soon enough to see Hatfield throw up his arms and storm out of the room.
Fisk hopped up and took a seat on the sofa next to Merrick. He centered the laptop in front of him and continued opening E-mail messages in Hatfield’s absence.
“Do you think I’m being too hard on him, Sam?” Merrick asked.
“You know how I feel about him. I plead the fifth.”
Fisk checked the final E-mail. It was forwarded from FBI Headquarters where Kharrazi had been sending his demands. “Look at this,” Fisk elbowed Merrick.
The message was preceded with a note from the Assistant Special Agent in Charge. It read, “This seems legitimate. The trace came back with a dead end. A pre-paid server with a P.O. Box address, never been used before, like the others.”
Merrick scrolled down to the body of the E-maiclass="underline"
President Merrick,
We both know that your time is running out. You don’t have the support of the American people any longer. I realize that you are hiding in your bunker like the coward you are. Tonight, when the White House explodes into a beautiful fireball, the United States will no longer be under your command. The media will disembowel you publicly and there will be nothing to prevent the impeachment process. Congress will not allow America to be destroyed over the tepid support for a country that means little to its citizens. It’s only your ego that precludes you from doing the right thing and saving your presidency and the nation you swore to defend. Order your troops out of Turkey before midnight, and you will be safe. It is the only logical thing to do.
By now, you must be receiving intelligence suggesting that they cannot find the missiles that will destroy your home. They won’t, Mr. President. And even if they do there is nothing they can do to prevent its launch. They can only expedite it.
I look forward to your press conference.
KK
Fisk shook his head. “Good old fashioned Georgetown education. The asshole knows his politics.”
Merrick looked at him. “He’s right about one thing.” He pointed up. “If this baby takes a hit tonight, I might not be impeached, but I could start packing my bags. It’s six weeks until the election and I haven’t left this damn building in three days. I could count on one hand the amount of votes I’d be certain of, and I’m including me and my wife.”
Fisk scratched his ear. “If you withdraw troops from Turkey, you’re fucked. You would forever be the President that cowered to terrorist demands.”
Merrick nodded, still staring at the E-mail. The reward was nowhere near the risks, reputation or not. Didn’t he have a responsibility to protect U.S. citizens?
“On the other hand,” Fisk added, “if we’re able to find these guys and put this issue to bed, you’d be the President who caught Kemel Kharrazi-the world’s most notorious terrorist.”
Merrick sat back in his chair and folded his arms, still regarding Kharrazi’s words on the screen in front of him. “Missiles.”
“What’s that?”
Merrick pointed to the screen. “He said missiles. As in more than one.”
Fisk patted his friend’s back. “Don’t worry, John, we’ll get him.”
Merrick turned toward him. “You know something that I don’t?”
Fisk picked up a file and began reading, as if the question was never asked.
Merrick pulled a half-unrolled package of Tums from his pocket and with practiced agility popped one into his mouth and crunched down hard on the chalky tablet. “Boy, Sam, this better be good.”
Nihad Tansu had taken a lab coat from the supply room and hid a couple of scalpels in his outside coat pocket for easy access. As he approached Julie Bracco’s hospital room he walked directly toward the stocky officer guarding the door. He made no pretense to avoid a confrontation. The man stared at him as he smiled a greeting. “Hello, Officer, I’m Dr. Marshall. I believe Marie called you about my visit.”
Tansu had his hand in his coat pocket, ready for a quick nick of the carotid artery. To his credit, the man did not appear comfortable with the last minute addition. He kept a stoic expression, as if he was waiting for Tansu to crack; but Tansu stood his ground, a cheap forgery of a smile planted on his face.
The officer said, “Can I see some I.D.?”
Tansu pulled his fake identification from his pocket and handed it to the man. The officer looked at the photo, then Tansu. Finally, he handed the card back to Tansu and nodded toward the door. “Go ahead.”
Tansu had altered his appearance slightly, dying his hair blonde and adding blue contact lenses. He knew that would be all he needed to get close enough to Julie Bracco to slit her throat.
Tansu abruptly entered the room, hoping that a quick confident entrance would seem more routine. He smiled at the woman sitting up in the bed, but the woman’s head was slumped to the side. Was she dead already? He was actually disappointed that he hadn’t had the chance to be the instrument of her death. Especially after she had the nerve to survive one of his best shots at a moving target.
“She’s been asleep for almost an hour, Doc,” a voice came from corner of the room behind him. A man dressed in a white robe sat cross-legged in a shiny, padded chair scrutinizing the inside of a newspaper. The man had gauze dressing covering half of his face and a long cast on his left leg. A wooden cane leaned against the wall beside him. The man never took his attention away from the newspaper.