Harrison followed him to the garage door, stopping as Mixell reached a speedboat tied up along the wharf. He leaned against the door opening and raised his left arm, taking aim as Mixell cast off the last line and gunned the throttle.
He squeezed the trigger and Mixell lurched sideways, collapsing onto the side of the boat, then his body slid into the river, disappearing under the water as the speedboat plowed on, captainless, vanishing into the darkness.
Harrison leaned against the warehouse wall and let the tension ease from his body. He had taken two bullets, but neither appeared to have hit a critical organ.
He heard a moan behind him, and turned to find Khalila on her back. He knelt beside her and assessed her condition. Her skin was pale and she had her hands pressed against her wounds, one in her abdomen and one in her chest, as blood oozed between her fingers.
He slipped his jacket off and gingerly removed his shirt — his right arm was almost useless — then ripped it in half with his good arm and a knee. He placed the linen over the wounds and applied pressure to one while Khalila placed both hands over the other.
“Did you kill him?” she asked. Her words were weak, but understandable.
“I think so. I put three rounds in him and he fell into the river. Hopefully, we’ll recover his body to confirm.”
In the background, Harrison heard the faint sound of approaching sirens.
“I called for backup before I entered,” she said.
“How did you know I was here?”
“I’ve been following Kendall, hoping she’d eventually lead me to Mixell.”
“Why?”
“I was working on the stripper lead, and I tracked down one of her friends from the club. She had an old picture of the two of them. The stripper was blond and younger, but it was Kendall.”
Khalila turned her head slowly, glancing at Kendall’s body on the floor, then returned her gaze to Harrison.
“I told you she was dirty.”
Across the Potomac River, bright plumes of fire streaked upward. Harrison watched as a quartet of anti-air missiles rose skyward, curving southwest toward a small pinprick of red light speeding toward the District. The four missiles descended toward the target, with one of them scoring a hit, breaking the incoming missile into several pieces that spiraled to the ground.
One of Kazan’s missiles had been shot down.
Harrison waited tensely for more Kalibr missiles to arrive, but none appeared.
The steadily increasing sound of sirens, followed by lights flashing through the warehouse windows, indicated help had arrived.
As they waited for assistance to enter the warehouse, Khalila searched Harrison’s eyes for a moment, then said, “It’s Fatima.”
“What’s Fatima?”
“When we were in Damascus, you asked me what my real first name was.”
“And your real last name?”
Khalila’s body spasmed and she coughed, spraying Harrison’s face with flecks of blood. After the pain subsided, she answered. “One day I might tell you.” Then she smiled weakly and added, “If I don’t kill you first.”
80
WASHINGTON, D.C.
Christine O’Connor’s black Lincoln Navigator traveled down West Executive Avenue, approaching the White House. During the short journey from Langley, she had paused from reviewing the file in her lap to stare at the District in the distance, imagining what the skyline might have looked like this morning if Kazan’s missile hadn’t been destroyed.
The previous evening, she had returned to Langley after receiving the report that Kazan had launched, remaining through the night as additional reports filtered in: a single missile had been launched and shot down, Kazan had been sunk, and then there was the unexpected report that Mixell had been located and killed, with Harrison and Khalila seriously wounded. Both were at Inova Alexandria Hospital, with Harrison stable and doing well, while Khalila was in critical condition with the outcome uncertain.
A stunning revelation last night had been Pat Kendall’s involvement with Mixell. PJ Rolow had been with Christine when they learned of Kendall’s duplicity, and a dark mood had settled over the DDO, who seemed to be admonishing himself for his lack of insight. Harrison’s injuries didn’t seem to faze Rolow, but his mood had grown darker when he learned of Khalila’s life-threatening wounds. It was clear there was a special relationship between her DDO and Khalila, and Christine filed that fact away.
The Lincoln Navigator passed through the White House gates, stopping outside the West Wing’s north entrance. Christine stepped from her SUV and passed between the two Marines guarding the White House entrance, then entered the Situation Room in the West Wing basement, joining several members of the president’s cabinet and staff. The president and Chief of Staff Kevin Hardison entered a moment later.
Secretary of Defense Tom Drapac was the first to brief, covering Kazan’s missile launch and the Russian submarine’s sinking. Concluding his report was a bit of good news: USS Pittsburgh’s crew had been rescued from the ocean bottom near Iceland; the Engine Room watchstanders had made it to a forward compartment after the torpedo explosion breached the hull, and the entire crew had survived. Secretary of Homeland Security Nova Conover went next, confirming what most already knew: Kazan had launched only a single missile, aimed at Washington, D.C., which had been shot down and the nuclear warhead recovered.
Christine followed, delivering information most were unaware of: Mixell had procured a Russian missile launcher from a Syrian arms dealer and had intended to shoot down Air Force One as the president evacuated Washington. There were stunned looks around the table after the revelation, although there was no visible reaction from the president.
Thankfully, Mixell had been located and killed before Air Force One took off, and the search for his body, which had slipped into the Potomac River, had commenced this morning. Christine decided not to delve into the details: Kendall’s involvement and death, along with Harrison’s and Khalila’s injuries, although she intended to discuss the Kendall issue with the president once the investigation into her involvement had been completed.
Christine then provided new information uncovered by her DDA the previous day.
“We’ve tracked down the sixty-million-dollar payment made to Mixell, which he used to fund Kazan’s attack and the procurement of the missile launcher. It came from an account linked to al-Qaeda.”
Christine went on to explain that Mixell had revealed the same to Jake Harrison, plus additional details: Zawahiri had survived the drone attack the previous year and had paid Mixell to orchestrate an attack even more devastating than 9/11, hoping to unite as many of the jihadist organizations under his leadership as possible.
“It’s clear that al-Qaeda remains a significant threat and that more attacks are likely.”
The president evaluated Christine’s report, then replied, “Track Zawahiri down and work with SecDef on a plan to eliminate him. Brief me when you’re ready.”
81
LANGLEY, VIRGINIA
“What have you got?”
Christine O’Connor was joined at the table in her office by her DDO and Deputy Director for Analysis Tracey McFarland. The president’s order had been clear — eliminate the man responsible for the havoc wrought by Mixell — and Christine and her deputy directors had been searching for a way to track down Zawahiri. They hadn’t even realized he had survived the earlier drone attack, and if tracking down the top man at al-Qaeda was easy, they would have done so repeatedly, eliminating each new al-Qaeda leader. There seemed to have been a breakthrough, however, indicated by the DDO’s request for a meeting this morning.