“Look,” Bill spoke up, “when Red Cell Seven starts doing the same things terrorists are doing, that’s a problem for me. It’s that simple.”
“Shane has dedicated half his life to RCS,” Troy said again. “He was the leader of the Falcons; he was my leader. He knew Dorn had told Carlson it was over for RCS.”
“You know more than you’ve told me…don’t you, son?”
Troy shrugged.
“Why won’t you tell me everything?”
“Why won’t you?”
“Who says I won’t?”
They both knew how absurd the answer to that question was, so Troy didn’t even bother acknowledging the response. Bill couldn’t tell everyone everything — not even his son.
“All I really know, Dad, is that Maddux would do anything to protect this country. And on some basic level, I have to respect that conviction.”
“How can you say that? I mean, what about that LNG tanker?”
“That’s exactly what I mean, Dad. He’d do anything to make this country strong.”
“If that ship had made Norfolk, Virgina, half a million people would have died.”
“But Maddux was convinced Capitol Hill had forgotten how bad 9/11 was. He figured they needed a wakeup call. You know as well as I do he didn’t want to kill half a million Americans. He was sacrificing some for the greater good of the whole.” Troy glanced out the window. Night had fallen on Washington. He pointed at the TV screen as his eyes moved away from the window. “Apparently he was right. We were vulnerable. And now we’re paying for it.”
“Killing half a million innocent civilians isn’t the way to send a wakeup call,” Bill shot back. “Even with what happened today at those malls. Jesus, son, you should—”
“I know, Dad,” Troy interrupted angrily. “And I did something about it. That’s how I got myself thrown off the Arctic Fire in the middle of the Bering Sea. Remember? I figured out what was going on with Maddux, and I tried to stop him. Just like Charlie Banks did. And I ended up in thirty-seven-degree water who knows how far from land without a life preserver. Just like Charlie did. The only reason I’m here is that one of the crew took pity on me. And Jack came to save me.”
Bill nodded solemnly. “Right.”
“That’s why he’s dead.”
“I know. I’m sorry, son.”
“So maybe I have to share some of the guilt for that, too,” Troy said, sending Bill an accusatory glare.
Bill glanced away after a few moments.
“All I’m saying,” Troy continued, “is that in a very small way, I understand where Shane’s coming from. Especially now that I know how many attacks RCS has stopped over the last decade.”
“We didn’t stop what happened today at the malls,” Bill muttered dejectedly.
“No,” Troy agreed quietly, “we didn’t.”
“And I can’t endorse Maddux’s vigilante brand of justice, either. Roger told me about that little sideshow.”
“He only took out people who deserved it,” Troy argued. “He eliminated the scum who’d worked the system and dodged prison on a technicality. Murderers, rapists, pedophiles — and only ones he was absolutely sure were guilty. I don’t have a problem with that.”
“But how do you know that’s all he did? How do you know he didn’t take out a few people who didn’t deserve it along the way? People he had a personal beef with.”
“I don’t know, Dad, and I don’t care. Look, if you were so hopped up about what Maddux was doing on the side, and Carlson had told you about it, why didn’t you stop it?”
“Who says I didn’t try?”
Troy gazed at his father, wondering — about a lot of things. “I still don’t understand why President Dorn changed his mind about Red Cell Seven. I don’t get why he wanted to destroy it a few weeks ago and now he wants to keep it. Why all of a sudden he wants to make it a cornerstone of the U.S. intelligence program.” Troy hesitated. “And I especially don’t understand the one-eighty when it was one of the senior guys inside RCS who tried to assassinate him.”
“I can think of a couple of reasons.”
“Okay. Spin that out for me.”
“Over the last few weeks, he did find out how valuable the cell has been. He read those files I gave him, and he probably had his people do some more digging.” Bill nodded toward the Oval Office. “He probably knew about at least some of those attacks we stopped before we went in there today. And maybe he figured that if a senior guy inside it is willing to assassinate him to keep it going, maybe it is that valuable.”
“Maybe,” Troy said, still unconvinced. “What else?”
“Simple. He doesn’t want to get shot again.”
“So he’s trying to convince a rogue element he’s on their side?”
“Keep your allies close…and your enemies closer.”
“Yeah, yeah, but Shane’s smart enough never to trust Dorn no matter what he said or did.”
“Maybe we should be so smart. Maybe President Dorn is being more careful about getting rid of it this time. Maybe that’s what this is really all about.”
Troy raised an eyebrow and nodded. “See, now you’re on Maddux’s side.”
“I’m on the country’s side, son. That’s all. If that means I have to deal with shades of gray, so be it.”
“Why do you think President Dorn asked you where the two originals of Executive Order One-E were?”
“He was curious.”
“Come on, Dad.”
“It’s like he said. He knows Red Cell Seven is vulnerable without the original documentation President Nixon signed.”
“Or he wants to get his hands on the documents so he can destroy them. That’s why you mentioned impeachment possibilities. You wanted to scare him.”
Bill didn’t respond.
“Do you know where the documents are, Dad?”
Bill shook his head.
“So, how many defections did you hear about?” Troy asked after a few moments. His father would never tell him where the original Orders were, even if he did know.
“How many what?”
“Do I really have to—”
“Five,” Bill cut in. “I heard five RCS agents defected with Maddux.
“There were three from the Falcons, including Ryan O’Hara,” Bill continued, “as well as two from other divisions. You?”
“I heard—” Troy interrupted himself as the news anchor began speaking quickly in an animated tone. “Look at this,” he said, gesturing at the screen on the wall. “The guys under the bridge are shooting at the chopper.”
“Here we go,” Bill mumbled grimly. “This is it. I just hope the cops on the front line are ready for anything.”
“What do you mean?”
“These people are crazy, and they’re well-equipped,” Bill answered. “They aren’t like the normal idiots who shoot up places. Most local law-enforcement units around this country are completely unprepared for this kind of capability…and commitment.”
CHAPTER 10
“All right, all right!” the leader shouted at the other two men, who were still shooting into the air. The helicopter was moving off quickly. The eye in the sky had gotten the message. “Hold your fire.”
“What do we do now?” one of the men yelled, panic-stricken. “We can’t stay here forever.”
“We’ll be fine.” The leader smiled confidently. He nodded over their shoulders. “You see, help is coming already.”
The two men turned in unison to look, as if their chins were connected, completely convinced of the sincerity of their leader’s gesture. However, it was nothing more than an old playground trick.