Chapter 36

CHAPTER 36

T he nearly spartan condition of Zoe's apartment didn't surprise Quintus. From the get go, she hadn't carried much baggage. The cupboards had cans of soup, some non-gmo popcorn, salt, pepper and several kinds of crackers. The freezer on the other hand was stuffed with pre-cooked delivery meals and several boxes of microwaveable mac and cheese.

Out of habit he took every box out to and inspected for slits to be sure she hadn't stored cash or alternate IDs and passports inside one.

Nothing.

He walked through the house looking for her laptop or something that she might hide information in. The bathroom cupboards only had all the things women would normally keep in them. No secret hiding place for what he was looking for. And worse, no laptop.

Had she had it with her in her car? He hadn't seen it when he sent the car down the mountain. Damn . He should have had his people look for it, too.

He cursed again. It didn't matter. The imbeciles he'd sent down there hadn't found her or the phone. Even the dark ops team hadn't made it out of the mountains. Again, he wondered who the hell was helping the bitch.

Seething and wanting to demolish everything in the place, but refraining, he stalked back towards the front door. He stopped in the middle of the great room and scanned it in a clockwise fashion to see if he'd missed anything.

A black and white forties or fifties-era picture of five men and a woman in front of a fishing boat hung above the mantle. Beside it was a color picture of Zoe and a young man in navy whites. He leaned closer. The resemblance was there. A brother she'd kept hidden from him?

Taking down the picture, he turned it over to see if she'd hidden anything behind it.

Nothing.

He did the same with the older picture. Four remnants of tape clung to the back on this one, in the shape of an envelope. Someone else had been here before him. Whoever was helping her? Someone from Areneum? The NSA?

Question was, what had been taped here? And importantly, did it have anything to do with him or his operation tomorrow?

?

"The president is going to be at this summit?" Zoe asked, feeling as stunned as the others all looked.

Luke huffed out a sigh. "Top of the list."

"Which means we have to decide what to do about POTUS and all the Secret Service people that comes with her." Jake turned to Castello. "That's going to be on you."

"Yeah." Castello pulled out his phone. "I know someone on her service detail."

"Wait," Zoe said, sitting up straighter. "If we warn them, they'll cancel the President's appearance and that could tip off Markus. We won't have a chance to catch him."

"We can't knowingly endanger the President, Zoe," Katie said.

"I know," she said, trying not to let her panic show. "But can we make it look like she's still attending the summit?"

"It's not like Markus is going to be anywhere near this summit," Matt said with a questioning look.

She hated to burst his bubble. "Yes, he will."

"Why do you say that?"

"It's what he does. He always watches. On the perimeter. If he planned a sniper killing of a target, he's close enough to be sure it went off without a hitch. If it's a non-accidental accident, like a car crash, he's nearby. You can bet if they've planned an assassination of the president, he's going to be on the perimeter watching."

Everyone exchanged worried looks.

"You think he'll be alone?" Connor asked.

She considered his question. "Something this big? He'll want to be sure no one escapes. So, I'd guess he'll have some kind of armed personnel on the perimeter to be sure."

"Wouldn't the Secret Service have checked the venue for bombs already?" Ben asked.

"Yes. It's part of their pre-event scenario," Castello answered, then turned to Katie. "Would there be any kind of explosive that dogs wouldn't sniff out?"

Katie stared off into space for a few moments. "Since we suspect they gained entrance as gas line technicians, they wouldn't need explosives. They could wire some electronic devices into the main gas supply with a detonator. Weaken one of the gas lines, detonate the device remotely, and boom. Everything explodes."

"Damn," Matt said, and all the others agreed.

Katie nodded. "The beauty of that plan is there's no explosive to say it wasn't an accidental gas leak explosion."

"Which they already set the scenario for by reporting a gas leak in the area," Connor said.

Zoe looked over her shoulder at him. "He always thinks two steps ahead. And he has an exit plan if things go sideways." She turned back to the others. "If we don't stop him now?—"

"He'll just come back again, more deadly," Jake finished.

With nothing left to say to plead her case, Zoe just nodded.

Clicking as Luke typed on the laptop filled the tense silence in the great room as everyone considered the enormity of the problem they now faced.

Matt opened a bag of chips.

"Really?" Dave asked.

His younger brother shrugged. "I think better when I'm munching on something."

"That's why the fridge at headquarters is stocked with crunchy vegetables like carrot sticks," Katie said, picking a chip out of her husband's bag.

A phone binged.

Castello picked it up. "My contact at Secret Service can meet me in an hour. What are we going to tell them?"

Jake's phone binged, too. "And my FBI contact wants to meet, too. Let's get them both together and tell this story once," he said as he typed into his phone. Finished, he leaned back in his chair and steepled his hands over his abdomen. "What we've learned is there's a cadre of conspirators planning to take out all the people attending the energy summit tomorrow, which starts at…" He shot a questioning look to Luke.

"Ten, according to the agenda."

"How does he know that?" Connor leaned in to quietly ask Zoe.

"He's a hacker. Nothing he and Abby can't find online, even super-secret meeting agendas and guest lists," she whispered back.

"You're sitting right next to me, Zo." Luke cast her a scathing look.

She smiled back at him. "I know. I didn't want to disturb your brain cells from firing."

"Okay," Jake said, stopping the banter between the cousins. "The meeting is scheduled at ten. Zoe says our guy is going to be close by with back up to prevent any witnesses from escaping."

"If that happens, it'll blow their cover story of a gas leak for this coup," Ben said.

"True," Jake said. "But we're going to plan for that scenario. If we're wrong, and it's just this Markus guy, we're okay. If we're right, we're going to need all the guns we can get to corral this thing. The objective is first, to neutralize the threat and prevent any of the attendees, in particular the President, from being injured. Second, capture all the bogies on site, especially Markus. And third to contain any news from getting out."

"Why?" Connor asked.

"Because, Markus might be there tomorrow, but you can damn well bet all the other conspirators are going to distance themselves until they learn if their plan worked," Zoe explained. "We want to arrest them, too.

"Got it."

"Castello and I'll meet with out contacts and fill them in on what's going on. Luke, you pull up the map of the area around the summit venue, marking all escape routes." Jake turned to Katie. "That bomb or whatever it is will be your specialty. Can you make a list of what kind of equipment you think you'll need to find and defuse this device?"

She nodded and pulled her iPad over to do a search. "I'll also need a schematics of the electricals and heating for this house, Luke."

"Next on my list."

Jake turned to her husband. "Matt?—"

"I'm my wife's partner. We'll figure this out."

Jake didn't argue. "There was no doubt about that, but go ahead and try to contact someone in the Maryland Highway Patrol. Dave, you're on getting with the Capital police. We'll want two perimeters if possible."

Zoe's phone buzzed. She picked it up to see why it alarmed.

"Zoe, you need to make a list of everything you know about Markus' tactics, so we'll be prepared. And if he escapes where we can find him before he completely disappears."

"I can tell you where he is right now," she said, looking up from her phone.

Everyone froze to stare at her.

"Where?" Connor asked.

"Standing in the middle of my living room."