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“We all set?” Hannah asks.
“No,” he says. “Is Noa Himel still in your house? And if not, do you know where she is?”
Hannah smiles. “Feel free to call 703-482-0623 and ask for the CIA’s general counsel’s office. I’m sure they’d love to be of assistance. In the meantime, I have nothing to say, and nobody’s entering the grounds of my home without a warrant.”
Brooks says, “I can hold you as a material witness.”
Hannah puts a hand on the window frame and gestures the police lieutenant to come closer, which he does.
She lowers her voice, “My dad was a cop for the Capitol Hill Police force, and my mom was a senior clerk for the DC Police. I have the greatest affection and respect for law enforcement, Lieutenant Brooks, but right now you and your officers are keeping me from doing my job. Things are slipping away out there and I need to stop them, and that means, if you and your men don’t step away, right now, I’ll instruct my security officers to drive right through you. And don’t think they won’t.”
The lieutenant works his jaw. She adds, “Now, have I made myself clear?”
He doesn’t say a word. Backs away, barks out a few words, and whirls a hand in the air. The armed police in tactical gear back away.
Hannah rolls up her window, lets out a breath.
The two Suburbans resume their drive.
She says, “For once there was a policeman around when you needed one. Alec, step on it. Not a minute to waste.”
CHAPTER 120
IN HIS PRIVATE office, President Keegan Barrett keeps his focus on the two Army officers from the US Cybercommand who are sitting across from him, who are like cocked weapons, ready to be discharged at his imminent command.
He hasn’t felt this good and focused since November, when the state of Wisconsin’s electoral college votes had gotten him past that magic number of 270. Like that night, he feels like every sense he has is heightened, that he knows America has chosen him to settle accounts with its greatest emerging threat, and the voice inside of him that promised greatness is right once more.
General Peterson says, “Mr. President, with all due respect, this is a major offensive move. Has it been discussed with the National Security Council?”
“Of course it has,” he says, easily lying.
“And have the leaders of both the Senate and House been informed?”
“An hour ago, of course.”
“Secretary of Defense Williams?”
“I talked to him last night, just as he was getting up in Singapore and heading to Japan.”
General Peterson pauses. “And General Wyman?”
“The Joint Chiefs Chairman was briefed about thirty minutes ago. He told me that our conventional forces are ready to respond if there’s a force retaliation from China.”
General Peterson pauses, and Barrett just knows what’s going on within that four-star general’s mind. The general is concerned about what his commander in chief is about to order, but POTUS has assured him that all the necessary notifications, briefings, and decisions have been made.
Peterson is in a position where he has to believe POTUS is acting under proper advice and authority.
He can’t refuse to obey the orders, can’t excuse himself for an hour or so to make the necessary phone calls to see if the president really has made the necessary phone calls.
Peterson just can’t.
He has to trust the president of the United States. This president is under no media pressure from earlier actions or statements, is high up in the polls, and is not a defeated president looking to lash out at his enemies before departing the White House.
Plus Barrett knows this man. When Barrett was secretary of defense, he made sure that General Peterson—who shares his own concerns about the Chinese—was on a fast career track and would end up in charge of Cybercommand at this vital moment.
The vice president is in a coma, the secretary of state and secretary of defense are both overseas, and the last Barrett heard, the speaker of the House is on an aircraft, heading back to California, to drum up support before she’s expelled from House leadership.
He is utterly and completely alone, and in command.
