“Who could do something like this?” Jack asked.

  “Me.” Brandon laughed. “With enough time, I could’ve done this. Maybe a couple other guys I know, but the list is short.”

  “Any of them on a first name basis with the Vice President?” Bear asked.

  “These guys don’t really like doing what the government tells them to, if you know what I mean.”

  Jack sat up straighter. “It doesn’t matter who did it. We need to know when. You said there are records of everything that happened on the account?”

  “Yep, one second.” Brandon whistled a couple notes that came through the phone high-pitched and shrill. “Looks like Hughes came home at 7:03 p.m. Nothing else is recorded until 10:17 p.m., when he set the night protocols. It’s been, what, an hour since then? There’s no indication when the system went dark.”

  “If the guard or anyone else had been alerted to the breech,” Sadie said, “the cops would be all over this area.”

  Bear looked out the back window, as if he could see all the way into Hughes’ bedroom window. “This is our chance. We’re not going to get another one.”

  “We have no idea if or when the security system will come back online,” Sadie argued. “We’ll be going in blind against a timer we can’t see.”

  “Brandon, can you keep an eye on police channels? Let us know if anyone gets dispatched to Hughes’ address?” Bear asked.

  “Sure can.”

  Bear looked first at Sadie and then at Jack. “All we’ll need is a two-minute head start. No one will know we’re there.”

  “Good enough for me,” Jack said.

  Sadie threw up her hands. “We have no idea what we’re walking into there.”

  “We know we only have to deal with one guard, a downed security system, and a sixty-year-old man and his wife.”

  “That sixty-year-old man is the Director of National Intelligence. And if he’s not dead already, then whoever shut down his security system could still be in there with him.”

  Bear grinned. “Then let’s go thank them for a job well done.”

  34

  Bear waited around the corner and out of sight while Jack and Sadie made their way down the sidewalk and toward the brownstone. Bear had wanted to be the first one through the door but relented when Jack pointed out how conspicuous he was.

  “Conspicuous, my ass,” Bear said, leaning up against the cold brick of an apartment building.

  But Jack wasn’t wrong.

  Instead, Jack and Sadie were arm in arm as they stumbled down the block, doing their best impersonation of a couple of D.C. natives who may have let off a little too much steam after work. They were laughing and shouting, not at all trying to blend in.

  Sometimes the best disguises were the most obvious.

  Bear couldn’t make out the words, but he could tell when they had finally reached the outside of the brownstone. It had a low gate they could’ve easily hopped, but not before the guard had pulled his weapon on them.

  The plan was simple. Sadie and Jack would say hello to the guard, who would tell them to move on. When they refused, the guard would choose to step forward instead of drawing his weapons on a couple of civilians. Once he was in range, then Jack would—

  Two short whistles indicated Jack had been successful in knocking out the guard.

  Bear pushed off the building, tucked his hands deep into the pocket of his winter coat, and headed toward the brownstone. He kept his eyes peeled for any movement that indicated they were being watched.

  When he reached Jack and Sadie, the two of them had already pulled the guard inside.

  “Door was unlocked,” Sadie said. “You two clear the first and second floor. I’ll keep an eye on the front door.”

  “What about the basement?” Bear asked.

  “I’ll hold it,” she said. “Once we know the living areas are clear, we’ll make that our next priority.”

  “Copy that,” Jack said. “I’ll take the first floor.”

  “I’ll take the second,” Bear said.

  And just like that, the three of them parted ways. Bear climbed the stairs to the second floor while keeping his back to the wall. He watched the landing above him, but there was no movement. The whole house was dead silent.

  It was bigger than Waller’s home, but he had cleared that one on his own. He was glad to have Jack and Sadie with him this time. It wasn’t just about safety. They kept him grounded. They kept him smart. Three heads were always better than one.

  When Bear hit the landing, he pulled up a mental image of the house’s blueprints. There were a handful of rooms up here, as well as a couple of bathrooms. He methodically cleared them all, checking the closets and under the bed. He saved the master bedroom for last.

  Satisfied that every other room was empty, Bear moved to the last door in the hallway. He half-expected it to be locked, but when he twisted the handle and pushed it open, it swung silently on the hinges.

  And immediately he knew something was wrong.

  Mrs. Hughes was lying in bed with the covers pulled up to her chest. She easily could’ve been sleeping, if her eyes hadn’t been open and her mouth hadn’t been slack. Bear didn’t see any blood, but that didn’t mean there wasn’t any.

  Before he checked the body, Bear cleared the bathroom, the closet, and under the bed. Everything seemed to be in place. It was all spotless. Organized. Ordinary.

  Bear peeled back the covers to check the rest of Mrs. Hughes’ body. There was no blood. No sign of a struggle he could discern. If he had to guess, the assailant had snuck into the room and put a pillow over her face while she slept. Hughes hadn’t been in the room, or the crime scene would’ve been messier.

  Bear flipped the covers back over the body and headed downstairs, meeting Jack at the base of the steps.

  “All clear,” Jack said as Sadie joined them.

  “Got a body upstairs,” Bear said. “The wife. Probably suffocated in her sleep. No blood. No evidence.”

  “And Hughes?” Sadie asked.

  “Nowhere to be found.”

  The three of them turned simultaneously to the basement.

  Jack checked his phone. “Brandon says it’s still clear, but I’m starting to feel the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. Let’s make this quick.”

  Bear didn’t need to be told twice. He walked over to the basement door and waited for Jack and Sadie to line up behind him. He held up three fingers and counted down to one before he pulled it open and began to descend the stairs, quietly but quickly. He felt the others on his heels.

  Unlike the rest of the house, the basement seemed alive. The lights were on, and Bear heard the subtle buzz of a computer whirring somewhere across the room. He immediately spotted a figure in a chair in front of a desk, and while he kept his gun trained on him, the other two cleared the rest of the area.

  When they returned with the all-clear, Bear moved closer to the man in the chair. But it didn’t matter. It had been apparent since the descent down the stairs that Hughes was dead. A single bullet wound had entered the left side of his head and exited the right, staining the wall with brain and blood.

  Sadie followed the trajectory of the bullet. “Looks like the shooter stood right behind him and shot him.”

  “Point blank.” Bear looked at the rest of the man’s body. He was in his pajamas, but nothing looked out of place. “I’m guessing the killer came in and went directly to his room, killing his wife. When he didn’t find Hughes there, he headed down here. Found him on the computer.”

  “He must’ve been surprised,” Jack said. “He wasn’t expecting anyone since he had already set the alarms for the night.”

  “But whoever it was must’ve gotten the jump on him,” Bear continued. “He didn’t have a weapon. There’s no sign of a struggle. He must’ve gotten what he wanted and killed him with a silencer, otherwise the guard outside would’ve heard the shot.”

  Sadie walked back over to them. “So, what did the killer want?”

  Bear took in the scene before him. He knew they had limited time, but this was their only chance to get some answers. They had to take advantage of it. Bear pointed to the cell phone lying on the desk. “Sadie, you grab his cell. See if there’s anything useful in there. I’ll get the computer. Jack, get on the phone with Brandon. See if he’s figured out who could’ve done this.”

  Sadie and Jack followed Bear’s lead. Everyone was aware of the pressure of time. They did not want to be here when the authorities showed up. Once they were dispatched, it would only take a few minutes for this entire sector of the neighborhood to be locked down. They had to be long-gone before then.

  Bear didn’t move Hughes’ body as he reached over to work on the computer. Gloves would’ve been ideal, but they hadn’t had time to pick up extra supplies. They’d have to wipe down the phone and the computer before they left.

  Hughes had two monitors set up on a desk that was void of any decoration. He didn’t even have a picture of his wife and kids down here. This was a workstation that was not meant to be mixed up with any personal memorabilia.

  Bear could tell just by looking at the tower sitting on the ground that the computer was powerful. Hughes would have the best of the best, and it’d normally be locked down tighter than Fort Knox. Luckily, Hughes had been working when he was killed, which means Bear had access to just about everything in Hughes’ system.

  The left monitor only had one window open. It was an inbox filled with messages from a single person. Like any good spy or criminal, Hughes and whoever he had been corresponding with didn’t use their real names. Hughes’ moniker was Whitefish. His pen pal was named Cobra.

  Bear skimmed the emails, but it was like walking into the middle of a conversation. You got a general sense of what was going on, but without knowing context, most of it went right over his head. It seemed Hughes and Cobra had been having a bit of a disagreement. While Hughes wanted to slow down their plan, Cobra wanted to stick to their original timetable, even though London hadn’t gone according to plan and Jack was still in the wind.

  Sadie walked over to Bear and set the phone back on the desk after wiping it clean with her shirt. “I’ve got nothing.”

  Bear looked up from the computer. “Really?”

  “It’s probably the phone he takes to work every day, so it was pretty clean. Probably didn’t want to risk someone getting their hands on it.”

  “Makes sense.” Bear turned back to the monitor with the emails. “He probably did most of his communication here, where he had the most control over who got into his house, who got into his basement, and who had access to his computer.”

  “Find anything interesting?”

  “Oh yeah.” Bear gestured at the screen. “But I’m not sure what any of it means. Hughes’ codename with his partner was Whitefish. Whoever he was working with was named—”

  “Cobra.” Sadie’s face had gone pale.

  “You recognize the names?”

  “Yes.” Sadie leaned toward the computer. “I spent the past several months tracking a plot to attack several tankers in the Persian Gulf. We didn’t have much, but we managed to piece together two codenames: Whitefish and Cobra.”

  35

  Jack joined them around the computer. He was still on the phone with Brandon. “We’ve got to go. Brandon says they just dispatched a fleet of patrol cars to this address. Anonymous tip.”

  Bear grabbed the phone from Jack. “If you can get remote access to a computer system, can you download a series of emails without leaving a trace?”

  “I can download a lot more than that.” There was a hint of excitement in Brandon’s voice.

  “Tell me how.”

  Brandon walked Bear through the steps. It only took a couple clicks and a few keystrokes, and Brandon was in the system. “In a couple hours, we’ll have everything we ever wanted to know about Director Mason Hughes.”

  Bear couldn’t help the grin that spread across his face. “Good shit.”

  “Bear.” Sadie’s voice was sober. She was pointing to the other monitor—the one Bear hadn’t had a chance to look at yet. There was a map with a blinking red dot in the center. “Hughes was tracking someone.”

  Bear leaned closer. “Do we know who it is?”

  Sadie shook her head. “Could be Cara.”

  Bear didn’t want to get his hopes up. “Could be Cobra.”

  “Either way,” Jack said, “if Hughes was interested in tracking whoever this is, we should be, too.”

  Bear held the phone closer to his mouth. “Brandon?”

  “On it.”

  Bear knew Brandon enjoyed this—it was as close to the action as he ever got—but he also knew they were getting close to tapping out on favors from their own personal computer genius. They’d have to repay it in kind sooner rather than later.

  But that was a problem for a different day.

  “You guys need to get moving,” Brandon said. “You’ve got two minutes. If you go out the back and circle around, you should be fine.”

  “We’ll have to switch cars soon,” Jack said.

  “Let’s jump that hurdle when we get there.” Sadie was already heading up the stairs. “First, we need to get out of this house.”

  Bear didn’t argue, though part of him wanted to stay and study the map more. If the tracking device was Cara, this might be their only chance to track her down. But he had to trust in Brandon. His computer skills were unmatched, and he’d be able to get the location within a matter of minutes.

  Right now they had other priorities.

  Bear hung up with Brandon and wiped down the keyboard and mouse with his shirt. He followed Sadie up the stairs and out the back door. He looked back only once, to make sure the guard was still tied to the bannister where they had left him. He was conscious now, but Jack had taken a towel from the kitchen and covered the man’s eyes. He might be able to identify Jack or Sadie, but with the security system down and the fact that it had been dark out, Bear liked their chances.

  Bear matched Sadie’s strides as they crept through Hughes’ backyard and down the block. “Tell me more about Whitefish and Cobra.”

  “About two days after I came to your apartment, I got an anonymous email from someone who said London was part of something bigger. We get tips all the time, but this one came to me directly. They knew about London. They knew about Korea. Something told me it was either a setup or the truth.”

  “What made you decide which was which?”

  Sadie tucked a piece of hair behind her ear and chuckled. “I’m not sure. I decided to go out on a limb, I guess. I was planning on keeping my head down, so I sat on it for a while. They emailed again. This time it was only two words.”

  “Whitefish and Cobra,” Bear said.

  Jack was ahead of them, his head on a swivel, but Bear could tell he was listening in.

  “So, I did some digging. Kept it off the radar. Didn’t tell anyone about it. Didn’t come up with anything.”

  “They emailed again?”

  “Yeah. This time, they pointed to the Persian Gulf. I didn’t find anything labeled Whitefish and Cobra, but I did find some intelligence regarding a possible attack. I figured I didn’t have to bring up the codenames. I just needed to relay the information. There was enough there to require a deeper look.”

  “Why do I feel like there’s a but coming along?”

  “But,” Sadie said, a humorless smile on her face, “my boss ignored it. Said someone would look into it and then shoved it at the bottom of the pile.”

  “He was burying it.”

  “She was burying it, yes. So, I stuck my neck out. Gave it to her boss. He decided it was worth looking into. We’ve been gathering evidence ever since.”

  Jack dropped back a step or two. “What did you find?”

  “Lots of buzz about the tankers in the Persian Gulf. There’s a plan to light them all up.”

  “Seems in line with Hughes’ master plan,” Bear said. “That’ll do a lot of damage to the oil industry and it’ll definitely have an effect on Saudi Arabia and other countries in the area.”

  “First London,” Jack said. “Then Germany. Now the Gulf. This was Hughes’ next hit. After this, he’d either need to go bigger or start going public, blaming it on some sort of terrorist organization. He knew we were onto him, so he needed to start getting the people on his side. If he could start a war, it’d be much easier to use the chaos as a cover for anything else he had planned.”

  “But Hughes wanted to slow the whole thing down. He wanted to lay low. The emails made it sound like he wanted to go quiet for a while.”

  “Cold feet?” Sadie asked.

  “No, he still wanted to go through with the plan. He just wanted to delay it. Cobra didn’t.”

  Sirens drew closer. They each picked up the pace. The van was within sight now. They just had to get in and drive away without being noticed by the cops. Hopefully the urgency of the anonymous tip would mean they wouldn’t pay attention to a single van sitting alongside the road several blocks away.

  “And we’re assuming Cobra is the Vice President?” Sadie asked.

  “He’s clearly a part of this plan,” Bear said. “But how much, I’m not sure yet.”

  “If he is,” Jack said, “then he’s clearly tying up loose ends. Waller, Mateo, and Hughes are all dead. They were all close enough to the plan that they’d be able to pin it on him. If he and Hughes were worried about getting caught, Adams might be cutting his losses and going for a Hail Mary.”

  “And Cara Bishop is just another loose end,” Bear said.

  The other two didn’t say anything. They were all thinking the same thing. The chance that she was still alive was pretty slim. It would take a miracle to find her in time.

  Or maybe just a computer genius.

  Bear reached the van first and did a preliminary look along the underside of the vehicle. He didn’t spot any devices, either tracking or explosive. When he opened the side door, Sadie jumped in and Jack circled around to the driver’s seat.