Page 82 of Nixon’s Promise

My eyes snapped to his and I was surprised to find his feet planted shoulder width apart, arms crossed—which if we weren’t in a room full of men and his tone hadn’t gone glacier, I would’ve noted his biceps looked huge. His face had also turned to granite.

“I told you why.”

“Bullshit,” Nix drew the word out. “You gave me the practiced answer, red tape.”

Alec didn’t answer. He also held Nixon’s stare.

“This is what I think. You’re holding out on us. You know something more than what you’re sharing or you have a theory. Why’d Homeland agree to punt this outside their ranks?”

All of the men were on their feet, hostility so thick in the air I was afraid to move. I didn’t understand what was happening or why Nixon was so mad.

Alec sighed and he looked to his feet. After a moment’s contemplation, he gazed around the room and spoke.

“This doesn’t leave this room.”

“Now you’re just pissing me off,” Nix bit out.

“Everything’s like I said. We the People got on radar when the forum popped for talking about explosives and how to build bombs. They were being taken seriously and DHS moved quickly. It was easy to find Olan Peters in Idaho. We checked him out and it was clear he was clean. Totally off the grid, the man communicates with no one. An analyst went over the intel, we had a meeting, and the group was put on our watch list.”

No one spoke. Nixon and his team simply continued their stare-down. It was uncomfortable and I wondered if anyone would mind if I slipped out of the room. I didn’t need to know any of this.

“You have to understand DHS, FBI—hell, the CIA—all get thousands of threats that filter through every day. We have very little time to weed out what’s credible and what’s bullshit. When I came to you, DHS had deemed the group a hoax when the crypto came back and said the message was bogus. DHS felt if the computer could crack the code, then it was a fake. Another group of crazy preppers trying to fuck with the government. Test the limits. We the People were downgraded to a non-threat.”

“But you didn’t think so,” Weston surmised.

“What do you think?” Alec asked with a raised brow. “Something is off. I know it.”

“Wanna tell us why you think something’s off? And I gotta say, I’m pissed you’re holding shit back. This is not how this works. We cannot do our job and plan a mission to stop a terrorist group from blowing up Philly, if that’s what they’re planning, with half-assed intel. And you damn well fucking know it.” Nixon’s irritation had kicked up a notch.

“I asked you on the case because I respect your judgment. Maybe I’m wrong. But I will tell you one more thing and this is the part that never gets repeated. There’s one person on my team who wanted this shut down. Pushed hard for it. From the beginning he was undermining and dismissive of every piece of information we found. I admit, there isn’t much, but the more he pushed, the more I wanted to know why. Hell, he tried to shove this shit under the rug during the very first weekly briefing. Who does that? Why would someone do that? I didn’t tell you my thoughts because I didn’t want to sway your opinion.”

“What did Philly bomb disposal find?” Chasin changed the subject.

“Got the call on the way here. They swept the marathon route and found plastic explosives in the Betsy Ross House, Quaker Meeting House, and Franklin Court. However, there was no timer or detonation device. Just the Semtex. They were easy to find, but nothing at Carpenter’s Hall.”

“How the fuck is that possible? You can’t walk down the street in Philly without being caught on camera. How in the actual hell did someone get access to our nation’s historical landmarks and not get caught?” The skepticism in Jameson’s voice wasn’t hard to miss.

“How’d you get the contract approved?” Chasin asked.

“We have a mutual friend who has some pull in the DHS chain of command. I approached him explained my misgivings, he agreed.”

“There’s more,” Nixon weirdly told Alec.

“He also had been looking for a way to bring you and them,” Alec jerked his head toward Jameson, Chasin, Weston, and Holden, “into the fold. He wants your team in place and mission ready at a moment’s notice.”

“You gonna tell us who our mutual friend is?” Holden questioned.

“No. He’s requested anonymity. But he sees the wisdom of having a team at his disposal and he specifically asked for the five of you.”

“So all this bullshit was what? A test? See if we could sniff out your shit and how fast?” If I’d thought Nix was angry before I was wrong. Now he was angry.

“You know me better than that, Nix. I don’t need to test you, and seriously if I was, I’d give you something a little harder than this piddly shit.”

“What about the guy on your team who wanted the investigation shut down?” I asked Alec.

“What about him?”

“Well, did you look into him? Check his finances? His phone records? His emails? Anything?”