THE 13: STAND BOOK TWO (31 page)

Artie’s eyes went wide and he swallowed hard. “I–I’m sorry. I didn’t mean anything.”

“It’s all right. But that’s why we’re here. We need your help to catch the person who put her in the hospital.”

“Sure, man. Anything I can do. What do you need?”

Keene looked at Boz. “I don’t know if I ever told you or not, but Artie here is the one who led us to that warehouse in Chicago.”

Boz raised an eyebrow.

“Yeah,” Keene said. “Artie’s got a knack for gadgets and widgets.” He turned to Artie. “So I need something to help with surveillance.”

Artie looked confused. “You work for the CIA, man. You guys got the best toys money can buy. What do you need me for?”

“I need you because radio frequencies won’t work where I’m going to be. I need line-of-sight, remote, wireless Internet and cell signal–operated relays.”

Artie rolled his eyes and blew out a long breath. “You’re not asking for much, are you?”

“C’mon, Artie. I know you’ve got something.”

“Man, if the feds found out I had this stuff, you know how much trouble I could get into? I mean, Internet and cell signal is down all over the country. In case you haven’t noticed.”

“Artie, we
are
the feds. Do you know how much trouble you’re going to be in if you
don’t
give me what I need?”

“Okay, okay. Calm down. Let me see what I can do.”

Artie disappeared for a few minutes and came back waggling a small box over his head, with four antenna rods under his arm.

“What’s that?” Keene asked.

“This is what you’re looking for.”

“Explain.”

Artie took a seat beside Keene and placed the box on the table. He powered it on. “This is one of my little inventions. It creates a network of its own. It’s good for about a thousand-yard radius. Cell signal and wireless Internet.”

“What do you mean, its own network?” Boz asked.

“You set this box up where you want your network. Then you can program phones, laptops, relays, remote detonators—whatever you want to accept this signal. After that, anything inside the range of these antennae operates on its network.”

“And there’s no dead zones or dropouts?”

“Nope. It’s completely contained. As long as what you’re trying to control is inside the perimeter of these antennae, you’re golden.”

Keene smiled and slapped Artie on the back. “See, Artie? I knew you could help me out. Now, show me how to program all this stuff.”

They spent another thirty minutes learning how to set up the network. When they were done, they showed themselves out and headed for Virginia.

Secretary of the Navy Sykes was waiting on the porch of his home when Keene pulled into the drive. Sykes lived in an upscale neighborhood with few houses in one of the nicer suburbs of DC. The houses were big, and the neighbors were at least a hundred feet apart, giving the property owners some privacy while still having the benefits of living in a community. Sykes’s house was one of the last houses in the neighborhood and sat at the end of a road, backed up to three acres of woods.

Keene got out of the SUV and walked up on the covered porch. He stuck his hand out to greet him. “Mr. Secretary.”

Sykes took his hand. “Good to see you, Jon. How are you?”

“I’m good, sir. Thanks for seeing us.”

Sykes gestured for them to go inside and raised his eyebrows. “Well, I’m not sure how good an idea this is, but…I guess whatever it takes.”

“Don’t worry, Mr. Secretary. Nothing’s going to happen to you. I promise.”

“Yeah? How’s that?”

Keene began to unpack the bag Artie had put together for him. “Because you’re not even going to be here.” He looked up to see Sykes narrowing his eyes at him.

“And where exactly am I going to be?”

“Don’t care, sir. Just not here.”

Keene explained what he was thinking to Sykes. They needed to give the appearance of Sykes being home, while he was actually somewhere else—and safe. Boz would stay at Sykes’s house instead. The two men were roughly the same size, build, and age. From a distance, with the right disguise, Boz could easily pass for Sykes. And Sokolov—when she showed up—would only be able to see from the outside. As long as they kept the sheers on the curtains drawn, she’d only be able to see shadows. She’d have to get inside to figure out she’d been set up. And Keene had no intention of ever letting her get that far.

“How do you know she’ll come here?” Sykes asked.

“Because as long as she thinks you’re holed up inside, she won’t have a choice. Pemberton needs you dead. It’s the only way he can get Irving back in charge of the military.”

Sykes recounted his meeting the other day with Irving to Keene and Boz. “I thought it was kind of strange, his just popping in like that. Irving’s not one for just random visits and conversation.”

“Yeah, that just confirms it for me,” Keene said. “She’ll be here.”

“Where am I going? And how do you propose to get me out of here unnoticed?”

“You’ll need to leave tonight. We’ll take you out and I’ll bring Boz back. I doubt she’s already here. Quinn said she’s coming. Not here. So I’m hoping we still have some time. Boz and I are going to go outside and set up this gear. When we get back, you need to be ready to leave.”

A
lex sat at a table in the fast-food chicken place and waited for Pemberton to show up. Farid was seated at a table a few feet away. He wasn’t supposed to do anything other than just sit there and watch. But if for some reason Alex needed to leave, he was to follow close behind.

Pemberton showed up a few minutes later. He went through the line and got a sandwich and then came and sat with her.

“Figured it’d look better if I was actually eating,” he said.

“So what’s going on?” she asked.

Pemberton looked around to make sure that no one was paying them any attention. “I would really rather we go someplace else.”

“I’m comfortable here, thank you.”

He leaned in so he could whisper. “Change of plans. Did you see the president’s speech?”

“Highlights. After the fact. I was sort of out of pocket.” She casually pulled her sleeve down over her shoulder to show him the bandage. “Those agents your friend told you about showed up while I was there.”

“But you took care of it?”

“I did.”

“Good.” He took another bite. “The governor was spectacular. I’ve always known the boy could command an audience. But that was incredible. At this rate, Walker will be forced to nominate him for the vice presidency before tomorrow.”

“So how does that change anything?”

“It doesn’t, in the grand scheme of things. I still want you to do what I asked. I just want to rearrange the timetable. Walker needs to pay for his neglect of this country. But after Joe’s speech, I met with Irving. He and I figure we need to rearrange our priorities. Walker will
have
to nominate Joe. The American people are already demanding it. And most of Congress are, too. If he doesn’t, the whole country’s going to riot.”

Alex thought about that for a moment. It was a well-thought-out plan. She couldn’t really find any holes in it. Except one. “I don’t know much about President Walker. But if he’s anything like his predecessor, he is stubborn. Throw Jennings into the mix and he’s dangerous. I wouldn’t just assume that just because the American people are clamoring for Joe, Walker is going to give in, or that Jennings is going to let him.”

“Walker’s gonna fight this thing, no doubt. But eventually he’s going to have to give in. It’s just the way things work. He can’t hole himself up in there like a dictator. He serves at the will of the people. Eventually, he’ll have to go. But I want to speed that timeline up. And that’s why I want you to change focus.”

“Really? To whom?”

“Secretary of the navy, Sykes.”

She thought about that. “Okay. I can do that. But what about Jennings?”

“Jennings might have sway over Walker, but trust me, there’s no love lost between him and Irving. If Sykes goes away, the entire military would be in shambles. All Irving will have to do is show up and those men will follow him. It won’t matter what Jennings says or does.”

She still thought Jennings was a bigger problem. But Pemberton was paying the tab. Besides, she didn’t care what happened to this country anyway. She wasn’t planning on being here for much longer. Soon as this gambit was over, she and Farid were going to her house in the south of Italy for a while. “Okay…you’re the boss.”

“Good. When can you leave?”

“I’m going to need a couple days to recover from my visit with the judge. I can be there by end of the week.”

“Good,” Pemberton said. “And then with Irving stepping back in, Walker will have so much pressure on him to put Joe in place he won’t know what to do.”

“And if he still won’t?”

“Then you can shift your focus back.”

P
resident Walker sat in his office, completely at a loss for where to go and what to do. For the last several days, the country had been up in arms over his speech and Joe Nolan’s appearance. It was as if the entire country had been blinded from reality. Every channel he turned on, he saw another reporter standing outside a pub or coffee shop, interviewing citizens. And every time, it was the same thing.

“President Walker is a spineless coward…he absolutely should nominate Nolan for vice president…and then resign.” Or, “How do we know this whole Prophet thing isn’t just some concoction of the administration to cover up the fact that they didn’t do their job and got duped by the Chinese?” And his favorite so far, “You know what? Maybe God did bring judgment on this country. But what’s done is done. Doesn’t Walker think it’s time to get over our punishment and take our country back?”

No matter the scenario, it seemed the whole of America had turned its back on him. Sure, there were the occasional folks who took up for him in the interviews. They were the ones who got it. They understood. They were willing to accept that God had dealt America this hand and they were to humble themselves and just move on. But they were few and far between. And even though there might be more of them than the TV people were showing, the majority of the country was firmly in Nolan’s camp.

He needed some advice. For everything he’d faced since taking over as president, he had always had a sense of what to do. How to proceed. But this was different. He felt like he was completely at a loss. And he could only think of one person who might be able to point him in the right direction.

He got up and opened the door to the office and called to the Secret Service agent standing guard a few feet away. “Please tell Agent Carnes that we’ll be leaving in a few minutes.” The agent nodded and left to find his boss.

Forty minutes later, Walker entered Calvin Grant’s room. Grant was sitting up in bed, with his wife Tess beside him. He walked to the bed and shook his friend’s hand. “Calvin, how are you today?”

Grant nodded and said, “Doing well, Gray. The doctors have all said that they think I’m okay to leave tomorrow.”

“They’ve run all their tests?”

“They’ve prodded and poked me more than a herd of cattle.”

Walker laughed. Grant had always had a true Southern wit about him.

Grant continued, “But that’s not why you’re here. Is it?”

Walker pulled up a chair and sat down beside the bed. “Tess, can Calvin and I have a minute?”

“Sure,” she said politely. Then to Grant, “Honey, I’m going to go get a snack and some coffee. Would you like anything?”

“Some coffee would be good. Gray, you want anything?”

“Coffee, please.”

Tess leaned over and kissed her husband’s forehead and said she’d be back in a little while. Walker thanked her again and waited for her to leave. “Have you seen the news?”

Grant shook his head. “Yes, and it disgusts me. I’ve never liked Joe Nolan. The man’s a conniving, manipulative politician.”

“And an atheist.”

Grant pointed back at him. “And an atheist! What he needs is for God to hit him upside the head with the Gospel!”

“Amen. I couldn’t agree more.” Walker sighed. “But unfortunately for us, I don’t think that’s happening anytime soon. The Prophet said as much.”

Grant sat up in his bed. “The Prophet? So he’s been in touch?”

“He’s been communicating through Jon Keene.”

Grant nodded again. “This country owes Mr. Keene a huge debt of gratitude.”

Walker agreed. “Yes, it does.”

“So why are you here, Gray?”

Walker thought about it for a second. “I honestly don’t know. I’m just at a loss. I have no idea what to say, what to do. Nolan is on every television station that’s up and running. Every five minutes, there’s another audio snippet or video clip of some new accusation he’s bringing against me. It’s like he’s on the campaign trail.”

“He is.”

“I mean—what?”

“I said, he
is
on the campaign trail. Look at him. He’s setting up speeches up and down the coast. He’s making appearances like he already is the president. In the last few days, he’s been in front of every news camera and radio station he can get to listen to him. And they’re listening to him, man! You want to combat this, you’ve got to get out in front of it.”