Cole sat on the floor inside the van, shaking his head. “You’re kidding, right?”
“It’s the perfect cover, isn’t it?” Mustang grinned across at him.
“Did you get it?” Jonah sat on a bench in front of a laptop and an array of three monitors, holding out his hand.
CJ handed Cole the flash drive.
Cole placed it into Jonah’s open palm. “When did we get a communications van?”
Mustang’s grin broadened. “Charlie and Jonah had it in the works. This is its maiden voyage. Check it out.” He pulled a panel across, hiding Jonah and his computers from sight. On the panel were face masks, gloves and plastic jugs of bug spray like those used by exterminators. “There’s another panel near the rear door just like this. Anyone who just happens to look inside would never suspect there was a man and a bank of computer equipment inside.”
Mustang reopened the panel, exposing Jonah at work, plugging the flash drive into a USB port on his laptop.
“I’ll be looking through the data you collected from Carpenter’s work computer while you collect the same information from his home computer.” Jonah didn’t look up as his fingers flew across the keyboard and mouse pad. The monitors flashed data on the screens.
“In the meantime, we need to dress for the part.” Mustang handed them each a white coverall with the exterminator logo patch. “This is how we’re getting into Carpenter’s house. They’re due an annual termite inspection. We’re just going to do it earlier than they expected.”
CJ’s brow furrowed. “What about Mrs. Carpenter or the help?”
“Mrs. Carpenter is scheduled to meet with her hairdresser this afternoon. She should be gone during the time we’re conducting our termite inspection,” Mustang said.
“What if she gets done early?” Cole asked.
“That’s why we have our communications van,” Jonah said. “You, CJ and Mustang will have two-way communications. If we see anyone coming home early, we’ll notify you. Hopefully, in time to get out.”
Cole frowned. “Hopefully?”
“The house should have at least a front and a back door and possibly one in the kitchen,” Arnold said. “You should be able to get out of one of them if I notify you as soon as someone shows up.”
“We should,” Cole said. “At the very least, if Mrs. Carpenter returns early and catches us at it, we can say Mr. Carpenter authorized us to conduct the termite inspection.”
“If it comes to that, I can jam her cell phone signal,” Jonah said, “long enough for you two to get out.”
Mustang slid his legs into a white jumpsuit and pulled it up over his body. “I’ll be on the outside, keeping watch, as well as to make sure we don’t miss anyone sneaking in from other directions.”
“Where are Gus and Jack?”
“Jack’s still in the West Wing with Anne,” Mustang said. “We can’t be certain Trinity has been eradicated from the White House. Gus is following up on a tip from the dark web. A dog trainer in the Virginia countryside thinks there’s a terrorist training camp in the hills near him. We sent Gus out with a drone to check it out.”
CJ’s eyes widened. “I remember being in the hills when I was in training with Trinity.”
“Think you could find it again?” Cole asked.
She shook her head. “Operatives are taken out of the camp blindfolded. Only the trainers know how to get in and get out.”
“What about flying over?” Mustang zipped up his coverall.
CJ’s eyes narrowed. “Maybe. I remember being in the woods, though. Even the buildings were surrounded by trees and hidden beneath the canopy.”
“I look forward to Gus’s report when he gets back,” Cole said.
“Me, too.” CJ glanced at the coverall in her hands. “I’ll need to lose the skirt if I want to get into this,” she said.
“I brought your backpack from the car,” Arnold said from the driver’s seat. “It’s in the corner storage bin.”
“Perfect.” CJ found her backpack, tucked away the glasses and heels, and dug out a pair of gray leggings. Without hesitation, she slipped them up under her skirt. Once she had them on, she unzipped and stepped out of the skirt, folding it neatly before stuffing it into her backpack.
The coveralls went on over her leggings and shirt. She pulled them up over her hips and torso and slid her arms into the sleeves. The coveralls were two sizes too big, but she zipped them anyway and rolled up the sleeves. She shed the wig and rearranged her ponytail before fitting one of the green Bug-B-Gone hats over her head. Once more, she dug in her backpack and unearthed a pair of running shoes.
Cole marveled at how the woman could change her appearance so quickly and completely. No one would think she was the same person who’d stepped into the van wearing the black skirt and white blouse. She looked like a guy. A smallish guy with feminine facial features. “Do you carry everything in your backpack?” he asked.
“Everything I think I might need for a quick change in disguise.” She lifted her chin. “It’s kept me alive for the past year.”
Cole held up his hands. “I’m not judging. I’m impressed.”
“We’ll be there in two minutes,” Arnold called out.
Cole hurriedly dragged his coveralls on over his suit trousers. Removing his jacket and tie, he tugged the coverall sleeves on and zipped the white fabric over his shirt. He pulled on a cap and tugged paper booties over his dress shoes.
Jonah turned to Cole. “The Carpenters have an alarm system on their house. I’ve hacked into the company that services it and disarmed it for now.”
“Good to know. Did you hack into their locks?” Cole gave Jonah a crooked grin. “Lock picking wasn’t one of the skills we learned as Marine Force Recon.”
“I’ve got that,” CJ said.
Mustang shook his head, his lips twisting. “Trinity life lesson?”
CJ nodded. “From a young age.”
“Need any tools?” Jonah asked.
One more time, CJ dug in the backpack and pulled out a thin file. “No. I’ve got it covered.”
“Good,” Arnold said. “Because we’re here.” He pulled to a stop on the side of the road between two large homes. He nodded at one. “Carpenters live in the gray brick house.”
“Guess that’s our cue,” Cole said.
Jonah handed each of them an earbud. “These are your radio headsets. Turn them on and leave them on so you can hear me if I need to warn you of someone coming.”
Mustang, Cole and CJ tested their communications devices one by one. When they were satisfied they could hear and be heard, Mustang closed the panel, hiding Jonah.
Cole opened the van’s side panel and stepped out.
CJ followed and Mustang brought up the rear, carrying a jug of bug spray.
“I’ll go around to the left, you two take the right,” Mustang said. He left them and started around the front of the house, squirting bug spray as he went.
CJ led the way around the other side of the house. The house had a detached garage with a covered walkway between it and the kitchen entrance. CJ stuck her file into the lock on the handle, jiggled it once and had the kitchen door open within seconds.
Cole let out a low whistle. “I’m impressed.”
She shrugged. “Like I said, they taught us the skill at an early age.”
Cole followed her into the house, closing the door behind them, locking it in case someone did enter while they were there and were alerted to the fact the door wasn’t locked.
They made quick work of the ground level. It consisted of a formal dining room, chef’s kitchen, and a formal living room sporting a baby grand piano. In the back of the house was a den with a couple of comfortable sofas and lounge chairs.
CJ met Cole in the hallway near the staircase.
“His office must be upstairs,” Cole said.
“All clear out back,” Mustang said into Cole’s headset.
“All clear in front,” Arnold echoed.
Cole led the way up the stairs where they found three spacious bedrooms, a bathroom in the hall and the master suite at the end. Off the side of the master suite was another room with a desk, file cabinet, computer and a wall full of bookshelves.
“I’ll download,” Cole said.
“I’ll look through his files.” CJ crossed to the file cabinet. It was locked, but she opened it with no problem.
Cole clicked the mouse only to find the computer was password protected. “Any idea what password he might use?”
“Try his birth month and year.” Jonah gave him the numbers.
Cole keyed them in. It didn’t work. “Next?”
“His wife’s birth month and year.” Again, Jonah fed him the numbers.
Cole entered them and he made it past the first hurdle. “Bingo.” He stuck the flash drive into the USB port and started the download. While the computer was copying the files to the portable drive, he searched through Carpenter’s emails, social media and internet cookies.
Many of the links were to news, travel and government sites typically visited by officials. One of the travel sites contained information about Russia. Another link took him to the site for the Russian embassy. In particular, to one of the embassy staff members, Sergei Orlov.
Cole pulled out his cell phone and snapped a photo of the name to remember later. He took another photo of the internet browser history.
With four more minutes to kill while waiting for the download to complete, Cole clicked on one IP address after another. Halfway down the list, he hit on one that brought up an image of the Trinity knot. The same symbol found on a ring John Halverson had in his collection. The same symbol that kept popping up in connection with the Trinity organization.
A gasp sounded from behind him. “That’s the Trinity website.”
He turned to find CJ standing behind him, a file in her hand, her face pale.
“They have a website? I would have thought they’d want to be a lot lower key.”
“They use it to recruit young people to their organization.”
Cole clicked on the link. It took him to a video of teenage boys and girls, wearing camouflage, learning combat techniques and how to fire military-grade weapons, including AR-15s and grenade launchers. “I thought they took children from foster care?”
“They do, but they also recruit teens who rebel against authority or are looking for a place to fit in.”
The video went on to show the young people sitting around a campfire in the woods, laughing and smiling.
CJ snorted. “They had to have used stock videos for that shot. We never sat around a campfire laughing and smiling. If we weren’t training for combat, we were studying languages and other subjects to help us fit in to just about any situation or country.”
“We’ve got company,” Arnold said into their earbuds. “Silver Mercedes just blew into the driveway. Female getting out. I assume it’s Mrs. Carpenter, by her appearance. She was going so fast I didn’t realize she was going to stop until she turned in.”
“Can you two get out?” Mustang asked from his position outside the house.
“We’re upstairs,” Cole whispered. “We’ll hide and wait until she leaves.” He exited the Trinity video and checked the status of the download. They needed two more minutes. He left it running in the background and prayed Mrs. Carpenter didn’t notice the flash drive in the USB port.
“If she doesn’t leave soon, we’ll come up with a diversion to lure her out,” Arnold advised them.
The sound of a door opening downstairs echoed up to the office off the master bedroom.
CJ tipped her head toward a closet at one end of the little office.
Cole followed CJ through the door, closing it behind them almost all of the way, leaving a little gap to let in light and sound. The closet was barely big enough for one person to fit inside, much less two. It contained a stack of file boxes, shoe boxes and one umbrella. CJ had moved to the side as far as she could to allow Cole to get his entire body inside the confined space.
He reached for her hand and held it, squeezing gently. He liked how soft yet strong her fingers were against his.
Footsteps sounded on the staircase and then in the upper hallway, heading in their direction.
Cole peered through the sliver of a gap in the doorway at the woman who entered the bedroom in a hurry, a cell phone to her ear.
“He’s not home,” she was saying. “I know... I had to come back. I forgot to clear the browser history before I left earlier. I know... I know...it was stupid and careless. But I’m here now and deleting it as we speak. He’s been at the office all day. He’ll never see it.” She sat at the desk and clicked on the keyboard, hitting the delete button several times until she was satisfied. “There. All the browsing history has been wiped clean. I’ll be there in twenty minutes.” She smiled. “I’ll be there soon, my love.”
She ended the call, stood and looked down at the computer.
Cole tensed.
Had she noticed the flash drive? Or had she brought up the screen showing how many minutes were left on the download?
Mrs. Carpenter ran her fingers through her hair, closed her eyes and tipped her head back. Then she left the little office and hurried through the bedroom to the bathroom on the other side.
“What’s happening?” CJ whispered against his ear.
“She’s in the bathroom,” Cole answered so softly only CJ could hear.
The sound of the toilet flushing and water running in the sink was followed by Mrs. Carpenter leaving the bathroom and heading into the walk-in closet.
“Mustang?” Cole whispered softly into the headset.
“I read you,” Mustang responded.
“Put a GPS tracker on her car,” Cole said. “Now.”
“Roger,” Mustang responded.
Mrs. Carpenter emerged from the closet wearing a soft gray dress and red high heels. She slipped her arms into a black trench coat and left the bedroom, descending the stairs much slower than she’d climbed them.
A moment later, Cole heard the sound of the kitchen door clicking shut.
“The missus has left the building,” Mustang said into Cole’s headset.
“Did you get the GPS tracker on her car?” Cole asked.
“Roger.”
“Good. We’ll be down as soon as her car leaves the street,” Cole told him, pushing the closet door open. “Be ready to track her.” After checking that he couldn’t see the driveway through the window, he strode to the desk and checked the status of the download. It was complete. He removed the flash drive and slipped it into his pocket. Then Cole pulled CJ into his embrace and dropped a kiss onto her lips. “I’ve wanted to do that all day. And I’d kiss you longer—”
“—but we have to follow that duplicitous Mrs. Carpenter.” CJ took his hand and led him down the stairs and out through the kitchen door.
Mustang was already in the van when CJ and Cole climbed in.
“Follow her,” Cole told Arnold as he handed Jonah the flash drive. He also texted him the two images he’d taken of the IP address to the Trinity recruiting site and of the Carpenters’ browser history. “It’s apparent that one of the Carpenters has a connection to Trinity. Seems it could be Chris Carpenter, Mrs. Carpenter or the man she’d called my love on her cell phone. Or it could be all three.”
“Hopefully, one of them will take us to their leader,” Jonah commented, his back to the others, busily tapping the keys on his laptop.
Cole prayed they would. He was ready to take down Trinity and put an end to their reign of terror. Then he could get back to making love to CJ without worrying someone was waiting in the sidelines to put a bullet through her head.
CJ UNZIPPED THE coveralls and stripped out of them. She sat cross-legged on the floor of the van, staring at the tracking device Mustang held in his hand in the passenger seat, directing Arnold through traffic.
“They aren’t going to get anywhere really fast in this snarl,” Mustang commented, looking at the bumper-to-bumper stream of cars.
“Neither are we,” Cole pointed out, leaning over the back of Mustang’s seat. “Where does she appear to be headed?”
“She’s headed east on Reservoir Road,” Mustang said. “No, wait. She’s turning north on Thirty-Seventh Street.”
Arnold drove the van out of Foxhall Village onto Reservoir Road.
A few moments later, Mustang reported, “Now she’s on Tunlaw Road.”
CJ leaned forward, her brow furrowed. “Isn’t that close to Embassy Row?”
“I found a lot of travel sites in their travel history,” Cole mentioned. “Wanna make a guess as to where?”
“Russia,” Jonah said from behind them. “Someone was searching for flights to Moscow.”
“Do you think Mrs. Carpenter is cheating on her husband with a Russian?” CJ asked.
“She’s stopped in front of the Russian consulate,” Mustang said. “Even if she’s not cheating on her husband, she’s meeting someone close to the consulate.”
“There’s no crime in that,” Cole noted.
“No,” CJ said. “But there is crime in attacking the White House and kidnapping the vice president and a mid-level staffer.”
“True, but just because Mrs. Carpenter is stopping close to the Russian consulate doesn’t mean she’s meeting someone from the consulate, or that she was involved in the attack on the White House,” Cole said.
“But she could be,” CJ insisted, peering out the front window of the van as if she could see as far ahead as the consulate.
“She’s moving again,” Mustang said. “Heading for New Mexico Avenue.”
“We’re not far behind now,” Arnold commented.
When the Carpenter woman stopped in front of the consulate, they’d gained ground and were now less than a couple of blocks behind her.
Her pulse pounding, CJ watched through the window, searching for a silver Mercedes. Ahead, traffic came to a stop at a light. The car in front of them turned onto a side street, leaving two cars between them and the silver Mercedes.
“There she is,” Cole said.
“And she has someone in the car with her,” Mustang noted.
The light turned green and they made a left onto Nebraska Avenue and a left on Arizona.
“I think they’re headed for Chain Bridge,” CJ said.
The light changed to red before they reached Arizona Avenue. The vehicle in front of them stopped. Had they been first to the light, CJ was certain Arnold would have blown through it. Instead the gap between them and Mrs. Carpenter lengthened.
By the time the light changed and they were moving again, the silver Mercedes had crossed Chain Bridge and merged onto George Washington Memorial Parkway heading north.
“Can we move any faster?” CJ asked, leaning over Arnold’s shoulder.
“Only as fast as the people in front of us. We can gain some ground when we hit the parkway,” Roger said.
Once on the major highway, they picked up speed. Roger adeptly zigzagged through the traffic, gaining on the woman in the Mercedes. Once again, they had closed the distance between them. Soon, they could see the silver sedan moving in and out of the fast lane.
Roger kept two cars between theirs and Mrs. Carpenter’s, following her close enough to keep up, but far enough not to alert her to their presence.
A black sedan whipped past, swerving dangerously close to the vehicles in front of them. When it moved up alongside the silver Mercedes, it turned sharply into the side of the smaller vehicle. The Mercedes swerved violently, crossed the lane of traffic to its right and ran off the road, hitting a ditch and rolling several times before coming to a stop upside down.
Traffic slowed and Roger was able to get to the side of the road.
As soon as the van stopped, Cole ripped open the sliding door and they jumped out.
Cole was first to reach the crashed vehicle. CJ was next.
Mustang, Jonah and Roger brought up the rear, his cell pressed to his ear, reporting the accident to the 9-1-1 dispatcher.
Cole dropped to one knee and peered into the vehicle. Lying upside down, the top of the car had caved in several inches. “Doesn’t look good.” He tried to open the door, but the damage kept the door from budging.
CJ squatted beside Cole and looked in through the window.
Mrs. Carpenter lay crumpled against the ceiling. The man who’d been in the passenger seat lay across her, blood soaking his forehead. No airbags had deployed, making their injuries worse.
Neither moved.
“Let me in there,” Arnold said.
Cole and CJ moved aside. Roger placed a tool against the window and the window glass exploded, creating a hole the size of his fist. Using the other end of the tool, he scraped the glass away from the frame.
Cole leaned in and touched two fingers to the base of the neck of the man lying over Mrs. Carpenter. He shook his head. “Not getting a pulse.” He tried to get to Mrs. Carpenter’s throat but couldn’t with the man on top of her. “I can’t get to the woman,” he said.
Cole grabbed the man’s arm and pulled. The dead weight and the angle didn’t make it easy. “Help me get him out.”
An acrid scent stung CJ’s nose. “I smell gasoline.” Smoke rose from the engine. “Need to get them out now!” She reached in, grabbed the man’s other arm, braced her feet on the side of the vehicle and pulled with all her might.
With Cole pulling as well, they inched the man’s body past the steering wheel and toward the window.
When Mustang could get close enough, he gripped the man’s arm and added his weight to the tug-of-war.
The man broke free of whatever was holding him in and slid all the way out. “Check for identification,” Cole called out and turned back to the upside-down vehicle.
CJ reached in, searching for Mrs. Carpenter’s arm. A bloody hand grabbed her wrist.
She stared into the woman’s open eyes through the blood staining her face. She tipped her head back to look into CJ’s gaze. “Help me,” she whispered, her words gurgling.
CJ held on to the woman’s hand and pulled.
Cole reached in and hooked his hands beneath her shoulders and slid her the rest of the way out.
The woman kept a death grip on CJ’s hand as Cole lifted her and carried her away from the vehicle.
Smoke turned to flame as the leaking gasoline caught and burned.
Cole, Mustang, Roger, Jonah and CJ ran up the embankment, putting as much distance as they could between them and the burning Mercedes.
No sooner had they reached the top of the embankment, the fire reached the gasoline in the tank and erupted in a blast that sent them to their knees.
Cole laid Mrs. Carpenter on the ground, covering her body with his as the ash rained down on them.
Sirens wailed in the distance, moving closer. Traffic had slowed and backed up with rubberneckers eager to see what was happening.
The hand on CJ’s wrist slackened and the fingers released her.
CJ stared down into Mrs. Carpenter’s eyes. “What do you know about Trinity?” she asked.
The woman gave a slight shake of her head. “They...did...this.”
“We don’t doubt that. We need to know who their leader is,” CJ said, leaning closer. “Tell us.”
Mrs. Carpenter shook her head. “Never.”
“You’d let him kill you, rather than tell us who it is?” Cole leaned over the woman. “Trinity has to be stopped.”
“Not until it’s done.”
“Until what’s done?” CJ asked, tempted to shake the woman until she got answers.
“Soooonnn.” Lydia Carpenter inhaled a shallow breath. Then all the air left her lungs, as if on a sigh, and she breathed no more.
Cole cursed.
CJ checked the woman for injuries. Other than a gash on her forehead, she appeared to be fine. She hadn’t been wearing her seat belt. Nor had the man who’d been with her. Internal injuries could have taken their toll. CJ couldn’t let it go. She pressed the heel of her palm against the woman’s chest and pumped several times.
Cole felt for a pulse and shook his head.
“She knows something,” CJ said through gritted teeth as she knelt beside the woman and performed CPR, continuing until the EMTs arrived and took over.
They worked on Mrs. Carpenter even as they loaded her into the ambulance and drove away.
CJ wiped the blood from her hands down the sides of her leggings, her heart pinching hard in her chest. “She knew something,” she repeated.
Cole slipped an arm around her middle and pulled her against him. “We’ll follow that lead. Everyone she’s been in contact with. We’ll look at her phone records and check into her passenger’s identity. Surely he had connections to Trinity, as well.”
CJ nodded. She’d seen her share of dead bodies, but this person had been the closest to being able to give her the answers they so desperately needed. So damned close.
“Come on. We need to get back to Charlie’s estate and fire up the main computers.” Cole turned her toward the exterminator van. “We have work to do.”