Abrahem watched the Coast Guard sailor’s body slump to the deck at his feet, which was now slick with blood still pumping from the deep wounds in the mariner’s neck. Beside him, he heard the younger of the tug’s two crewmen turn aside and vomit over the rail into the water.
‘There is not much time,’ Abrahem said as he turned to the older man. ‘The Coast Guard will be here within minutes once they realize they cannot contact their comrades. We must make shore and disappear.’
The tug’s captain glanced at the patrol boat and the bodies of the other two crewmen slumped against the controls. Abrahem had killed them silently, like some horrific beast of the night, and then moved back aboard the tug to finish off their captain. Now he stood in the harsh light, naked and smeared with thick blood, the blade dripping in his grasp.
‘Move, now!’ Abrahem snapped.
The captain and his crewman stumbled over themselves as they hurried to carry out his order, and Abrahem strolled to the stern and dried himself.
America will know now for certain that I have arrived, he realized.
And he smiled in the darkness.
XXXIV
Hannah Ford walked off the Boeing 747–400 in a daze, her thoughts fuzzy as she followed the crowds by unthinking reflex through the terminal. Vaughn walked alongside her as they fought their way past the lengthy queues already forming heavy barriers between themselves and the terminal exits. A US Marshall led the way, having been on the same flight and informed of the importance of their mission.
The United red — eye out of Hong Kong had taken eighteen hours, stopping off briefly at New York, during which time Hannah had made a call to the Bureau and informed Director LeMay of what she knew. Since then there had been no contact and her cell phone was silent as she checked it for messages or missed calls.
‘Nothing,’ she informed Vaughn as they reached the security areas and passport control. It took only a couple of minutes for their identity badges to see them through the security check points, the Marshall turning back into the terminal.
‘He’s already here,’ Vaughn said as they walked out of the airport and into the morning sunshine. ‘Must be, and they’ve got their hands full searching for him.’
Hannah tried to push her lethargy away. Despite the length of the flight she had been unable to sleep, driven to distraction by the helplessness of being trapped aboard an aircraft and unable to act on her instincts and pursue the men that she knew were coming here to do harm to her country. Her eyes itched and occasional spells of dizziness swayed her as she tried to remember where they had left the pool car.
‘It’s over here,’ Vaughn said as he spotted their vehicle.
Hannah followed him across the lot and saw the blue Lincoln parked where they had left it. She yanked up the trunk and tossed in their small travel bags before she made her way to the passenger’s side.
‘You not driving?’ Vaughn asked in surprise.
‘I’ve got a call to make,’ she replied as she climbed in.
The interior of the car was warm as Vaughn drove and the sunshine beaming through the windshield lulled her into a warm lullaby of sleep. Hannah closed her eyes and sat in silence, letting the motion of the vehicle turning through the parking lot and the whisper of the engine draw her ever deeper into sleep.
The shrill warble of her cell phone snapped her back into life and she stared vacantly down at it. A number she did not recognize awaited her, the screen glowing bright blue as she answered.
‘Ford.’
‘LeMay.’
‘Sir, we need to talk.’
‘You’ve been cut out,’ LeMay replied. ‘We all have.’
‘Cut out of what?’ Hannah asked as she set the cell to speaker phone.
‘The investigation,’ LeMay snapped back, anger clear in his tones. ‘The President has handed the entire investigation over to the Defense Intelligence Agency. We’re out of the loop.’
Hannah’s addled brain struggled to focus.
‘How can the FBI be out of the loop on something like this?!’
‘I can only assume that Warner and Lopez are spreading disinformation about what’s happening. Warner has personal history with the president, who appears to be taking his advice at face value. I don’t know what he’s said as I wasn’t invited to a meeting they had at the White House yesterday afternoon.’
Hannah reeled mentally as she tried to think of something useful to say.
‘We’re sure that Abrahem Nassir is either in the country already or arriving shortly,’ she said.
‘He’s in the country all right,’ LeMay replied. ‘Homeland just reported the murder of three Coast Guard officers out near Cape May, Delaware. Their patrol boat went incognito in the early hours and their bodies were later found aboard. They’d had their throats cut.’
‘Does Homeland have a trail?’
‘They’ve identified the boat they think must have picked up Abrahem Nassir to bring him into the country, and another larger vessel that sailed up from South America yesterday for Maine. It looks like Nassir jumped ship a couple of times. His accomplices stole the boat that brought him in, but they’re in the wind and so is Nassir. Homeland’s working on it as we speak.’
‘Damn it,’ Hannah snapped as she slammed a hand down on her thigh in futility. ‘He’s got to be heading for a major target. He’s come this far, he’s not going to settle for bombing a convenience store. He’ll hit the Capitol or the White House or something.’
‘The White House is on full alert, but the President also has an open — air address this evening on the South Lawn as part of a Trans Pacific Trade agreement ceremony celebrating a new deal with China.’
Hannah’s mind stopped working for a moment as she reflected on this new piece of information. She could feel her brain ticking over but it was almost as though she could not quite control the train of her thoughts.
‘Who will be there?’ she asked impulsively.
‘Most of the administration, at least three former Presidents and First Ladies and Senators from fifteen states, along with the President of the People’s Republic of China.’
‘That’s a lot of big wheels in one place,’ Vaughn observed as he drove. ‘He might try to hit them all at once.’
Hannah shook her head to clear it as she replied.
‘He can’t have travelled with any kind of incendiary device, so he’ll have to make contact with somebody here. He has a network, finance, people supporting him and helping him on his way. If we can pin them down it might lead us to Abrahem before he can strike.’
‘I already have teams on it,’ LeMay said. ‘We’ll be arresting known Islamist sympathizers and already have half a dozen in custody. We’re hoping that we can break Nassir’s chain of support sufficiently that he cannot carry out his attack, but it’s a long shot.’
‘Too long,’ Hannah agreed. ‘We can’t take the chance that he’ll not have something already prepared, something or somebody here ready to go. This whole thing is about revenge on the United States, and given the way that he’s travelled he must have planned this for months, perhaps even years.’
‘Everything must have been laid out in advance,’ Vaughn said, ‘he must have flown from Africa to South America to get here so fast. That means huge financial power behind him. The money trail’s our best bet.’
‘Agreed,’ LeMay replied. ‘Right now we’re looking into the financials of several companies, including the one that hired a private jet out of Kenya for The Dominican Republic yesterday and is likely the route that Nassir took. I’ll pass on the address of the company to you both.’