“Agent, how could you have been so stupid? That man works for a private security company. He has a squad of mercenaries on the island as we speak. Hell, I watched them at my neighbor’s house not two hours ago. Who knows what they’re doing right now? You’d better pray they don’t screw tonight up.”
“You have to believe me,” Anderson whined, even as she spun a white lie. “He never told me what he did.” Nat and his friends were expendable, especially since they were probably dead now, strewn across the road from the IED blast.
The special agent looked at Harrison’s wife with all the confidence she could muster. “You’ve got me dead to rights. But I swear to you, I am all in on this thing and I will do whatever you ask. I just want to get out of here. That’s the truth.”
The Glock remained pointed at Anderson’s chest as the women locked eyes for a good thirty seconds.
“I want to believe you. But you’ll have to prove it. Tonight.” Elise Courville expertly cut the flex-cuffs off Agent Anderson’s wrists and ankles.
As feeling returned to her extremities, Anderson listened in horror as Elise Courville laid out the new plan:US Secret ServiceAgent Rowan Anderson was going to kill the President of the United States.
This lady is insane,Anderson thought. But Courville had her dead to rights.
Anderson needed a new plan, tout suite. She sensed Courville’s confidence starting to falter and easily grabbed the Glock.
Now Rowan Anderson was the one pointing a pistol and presenting a new twist to the plan. On the wrong end of the turnabout, Courville saw no option but to agree. She nodded her head slightly.
Anderson slowly backed away, aiming Courville’s Glock at the center of the door. She nodded to her new partner.
“Hey!” Courville shouted. “I need you. Quickly!”
On demand, two thugs opened the kitchen door. As they stepped through in tandem, they were hit in quick succession with 9mm rounds through their chests.
Before they hit the floor, Anderson put one more in each, then stuck the Glock in the small of her back and turned to Courville.
“Ready?” Showing no emotion, Rowan landed a huge right hook.
The perfect punch, it knocked Courville backward and sent her flailing onto her beautifully upholstered couch. Anderson had to give the woman credit: She lay there holding her face and quietly whimpering, but not once did she cry or scream.
Anderson surveyed the damage to Elise Courville’s face: no breaks, no blood, but a decent bruise was already forming. Given the circumstances, it was believable.
She made a decision. It was time to call in the big guns.
CHAPTER 49
Wilson Estate
Cliff Road, Nantucket
Si Wilson laughed nervously to himself.Some secret agent I am!
After a brief consultation with his father, young Si had walked into the Nantucket darkness, hidden himself by lying flat on the ground behind the boxwoods that surrounded his family’s property, and started following Nat Phillips’s orders to be his “eyes and ears.”
It was exciting to have been given a mission, but knowing that Nat and his team were on high alert fourteen miles away planted a fear of the unknown that made Si start to doubt his courage.
The one rule his father had given him, though, wasQuitting is never an option.Following that mantra, he might get insulted—he might even get his ass kicked—but he would not give up. And that reputation, he learned over time, became an asset and slowly boosted his self-confidence. People assumed that Si hadgrown up pampered, in the lap of luxury—the silver-spoon shit,as he liked to say. Obviously it was true to some extent, but not entirely. Si might never be the toughest guy on the street or the smartest guy in the room, but he would never quit. Ever.
He drew on that strength now.
As his eyes adjusted to the dark Nantucket night, he scanned up and down the road. All was quiet for thirty minutes.
Then came the sharp sound of gunfire and a lone figure burst out of the Courville Estate and ran into the front yard, gesturing with both hands and moving in small, panicked circles.
Si raised himself from the ground and into a low crouch. He started to move toward the house for a closer look.
CHAPTER 50
Atlantic Ocean, Nantucket coast
