Anne promised Dr. Browne she’d do her best to find out what Dr. Saunders had wanted to discuss with him. The man was so distraught he left the building, heading for his home in Arlington.
“What would Dr. Saunders have wanted to discuss with Dr. Browne?” Anne paced across her office and back.
“She was just leaving her office when I delivered the document to Carpenter,” Jack said. “But she didn’t say anything about meeting with Dr. Browne. If I recall correctly, she was heading to the director for Europe and Russia’s office.”
“I used to work in that office.” Anne ran her finger down a list on her desk, lifted the phone and punched several keys. “I’d like to speak to Dr. Schuster.”
Jack stood in front of her desk, waiting to hear her one-sided conversation.
“Dr. Schuster…”
“Oh, Anne, did you hear about what happened to Millicent?”
Anne nodded. “Yes, I heard. That’s what I’m calling about. I understand she paid you a visit before lunch.”
“Yes, yes, she did,” Schuster said. “I asked her to come by. I had a message from the American ambassador to Russia that I’d hoped she could help me decipher.”
“And what was that message, if you are at liberty to share?” Anne asked, looking up at Jack as she spoke. She met his gaze, holding her breath while she waited for the other man to speak.
“It was a short message the ambassador received from a Russian aid worker. But it didn’t make much sense.”
“Why didn’t the ambassador clarify with the Russian aid worker?” Anne asked.
“He said he got the message via a social media photo. It was in Russian and cryptic. He said he normally didn’t respond to social media, but the photo concerned him.”
“Did you get the photo and the message?”
“We did, but that’s what has us stumped. We had it, then it disappeared out of our emails.”
“But Millie saw it before it disappeared?”
“Yes, she did. Then we heard about her accident. When we looked back at the email, it was gone. As if it never existed.”
“Did you happen to print a copy of it?”
“We did, but Dr. Saunders took it with her. She couldn’t make heads or tails of it, either, and wanted to meet with someone else who was an expert in Russian to see if they could figure it out.”
“Do you remember what the message said?” Anne asked.
“Sure. Millicent translated it to XC-16 Bringer of Death.”
“And can you tell us what the image was of?”
“The Russian aid worker took a photo of himself and a village behind him.” Schuster paused. “It appeared as if there were bodies lying on the ground. The aid worker’s eyes were bloodshot, and he was bleeding from his nose. I’m not sure what it was all about, but he didn’t look well at all.”
Anne shivered. “Did the ambassador know where the photo was taken?”
“He did not.”
“Did the Russian aid worker identify himself?”
“No, he did not. He had a social media name, but it wasn’t a typical name. He might have used it to disguise his identity. Posting the wrong thing on social media can get you in trouble in the US, but it can get you killed in Russia.”
“If you hear anything else from the ambassador, or you think of anything else Dr. Saunders might have said about the message, will you let me know immediately?”
“Sure. You don’t think the message had anything to do with Dr. Saunders’s hit-and-run, do you?” Schuster asked.
“I really don’t know. But it doesn’t hurt to check into this message.” She ended the call and went over the information with Jack. Then she called the office of Chris Carpenter, the homeland security advisor. “Chris, Anne Bellamy here. What hospital did they take Dr. Saunders to? I’d like to send her some flowers.”
He gave her the name of the hospital. “We haven’t heard anything about her condition. I’ve asked the nurse in ICU to notify us of any change.”
“Let me know what you find out. And thanks.” She placed the phone in the cradle, pushed to her feet, looped her purse strap over her shoulder and headed for the door.
Jack fell in step beside Anne as they left her office and walked down the long hallway to the exit. “Let me guess, we’re going to the hospital to see Dr. Saunders, aren’t we?”
She nodded. “I hope she’s okay. If she’s conscious, we need to ask her a few questions.”
“If she’s not?” Jack asked.
“We need to go through her belongings and see if we can find that printout.”
Jack’s lips twisted into a wry grin. “Now you’re getting the hang of investigations.”
“I don’t like sneaking around, but I also don’t like my friends being targeted by assassins.” She stepped out smartly. “We have to determine what’s so important people have to die to keep the secrets.”
At a street corner, Anne raised her hand to hail a cab.
Jack slipped an arm around her waist and pulled her away from the street. “Let me. I don’t want anyone aiming two tons of steel at you.”
“What about you?” she asked.
“I can move a little faster.” He tipped his gaze toward her feet. “I’m not wearing heels.”
Anne liked the playful wink he gave her before he turned to wave down a taxi.
The taxi drove them to the hospital where Millie had been taken.
Once inside, they learned she’d just come out of surgery and was in a room in ICU.
Anne and Jack rode the elevator up to the ICU floor and stopped at the nurses’ station. “We’re looking for Millicent Saunders.”
The nurse glanced at the computer monitor in front of her without looking up. “She just got out of surgery and hasn’t woken yet. Only relatives can visit. Are you relatives of hers?” At that point, she looked up, her eyes narrowing slightly.
Anne opened her mouth, but Jack jumped in before she could say anything.
“Yes, we are. Actually, Anne is Millie’s first cousin, and I’m Anne’s husband. The rest of Millie’s family is in Georgia. They asked us to come check on her. They’re arranging transportation to get here as soon as possible.”
The nurse’s brow lifted, and she smiled. “You’re welcome to sit with her in her room. She won’t wake any time soon. She suffered a concussion as well as internal injuries. They’re keeping her under to give her a chance to heal.” The nurse gave them the room number.
“What did they do with her personal effects?” Anne asked. “We might need to take her clothing home and have them cleaned or bring in fresh items. Did they bring her purse up with her?”
“All of her things are stored in a cubby in her room.” A beep sounded behind the counter. “If you’ll excuse me, I need to check on another patient.” The nurse left her station and hurried to the room with a light blinking over the door.
Jack took Anne’s hand and led her to the room the nurse had indicated.
Millicent Saunders lay comatose in a hospital bed covered in crisp white sheets and a blanket, with wires and tubes running from her arm and chest. The machine beside her bed emitted a steady beeping sound to the rhythm of her heart.
Millie’s face and arms were scraped and bruised. As Anne stared down at her friend, her chest tightened and her fists clenched. “Whoever did this needs to pay.”
“Agreed.” Jack slipped his arm around Anne’s waist, bent and pressed a kiss to the top of her head. Then he stepped away and searched the cubby where personal items were stored. “Here’s her purse. Do you want to go through it?”
“Sorry to be digging into your things, Millie, but we have to find out who’s responsible for what happened to you.” Anne dragged her gaze away from the woman on the bed and joined Jack at the cubby.
After a few minutes of going through Millie’s purse, they couldn’t find anything suspicious or even interesting. Despite the purse having been flung with Millie across a road, it was still neat and organized. “Nothing.”
Jack was searching through her pants pockets and then her trench coat. He pulled out a folded sheet of paper and smoothed it flat. “Bingo.”
Anne looked over his arm at the grainy image of a man with red-rimmed, bloodshot eyes. In the background were bodies lying on the ground.
At the sound of wheels rolling to a stop in the hallway, Jack quickly slipped the printout into his pants pocket and Anne shoved the purse and clothes back into the narrow closet and closed it.
A nurse entered the room and smiled. “Are you relatives of Ms. Saunders?”
Anne’s first instinct was to tell the truth, but she bit down hard on her lip and her cheeks filled with heat.
“Y-yes, ma’am,” Jack answered.
“I’m just checking her vitals and IV. Can I get you two anything? Afraid all I can offer is a cup of ice water. There is a coffee machine in the lounge area down the hall.”
“Thank you,” Jack said. “We have to leave for a few hours, but we hope to be back soon. If she wakes, tell her that her loved ones were here.”
“I probably won’t be here.” The nurse checked the IV drip, updated the chart on her laptop and looked up. “My shift ends in an hour.”
“Will she be okay?” Anne asked.
“I’m not the doctor,” the nurse said. “You’ll have to ask him when he makes his rounds in the morning.” She touched Anne’s arm. “All I can say is that time will tell.”
Anne and Jack left the hospital and flagged a taxi that took them back to the White House. By the time they entered her office, many of the West Wing employees were already on their way out, heading home.
“I need to check my emails and gather a few things, and I’ll be ready to go.”
“Take your time. I’ll get our team moving on locating the guy.” He unfolded the paper and spread it out on his desk. Then he took a photo image of the picture and texted it to Declan.
Anne logged into her computer and checked her email. She might as well have been gone a week, if the number of emails in her box was any indication. She stared at dozens of unread messages, most of them about the traffic accident involving Dr. Saunders, with a reminder to look both ways before crossing busy intersections. Anne quickly deleted those and searched for a message from Chris Carpenter. Though Millicent belonged to his department, he had promised in an email to get back to her with his input for the NSC agenda by the end of the day.
After a thorough search of her inbox, she sighed, finding nothing from Chris. Anne turned to the telephone on her desk, keyed Chris’s number and waited for a response, hoping he was working late and that was why he hadn’t gotten back to her.
His voice mail picked up after five rings.
“Chris, this is Anne Bellamy, I still need your input for the agenda. We finalize in the morning. Have a good evening.” She ended her call, brought up the agenda, checked it against the messages that had come in, made minor changes and saved. Then she logged off the computer, looped her purse over her shoulder and turned to Jack. “I’m ready to leave when you are.”
Once they were outside the building, Anne squared her shoulders. “I need to do something about my apartment. I can’t just leave it like it is.”
“Charlie has a lot of connections. Let’s talk to her when we get back to the estate.”
“We should have called the police and filed a report last night. I was just too shocked to think straight.”
“After being chased and shot at, we couldn’t stick around and wait for someone to pick you off.” He gripped her elbow. “As it is, we’re way too out in the open for my liking.”
“I’m glad we left the office while there’s still daylight.”
“Daylight didn’t help Dr. Saunders. It just made it easier for her attacker to hit her.”
Anne’s gaze darted left then right as they approached a crosswalk that would lead them through a busy intersection. They waited with a dozen other people. When the walking man sign lit up, everyone shuffled forward.
Anne hesitated.
Jack leaned close to her. “Just move quickly and be aware.” With his hand at the small of her back, he hurried her through the intersection to the sidewalk on the other side. “Are you okay with the subway? We can stop at a café and wait for Arnold to collect us.”
“No. The Metro makes more sense. I don’t wish the traffic on anyone.” With Jack at her side, Anne felt more confident they would make it back to the Metro station close to the estate unscathed. As many people as were riding the train heading out of the city, an attacker wouldn’t have a chance to get to them or get away.
At least, that was what Anne hoped.
* * *
JACK STAYED ALERT throughout their walk to the Metro station, his gaze sweeping the crowd surging toward the mass transit. He watched for anyone who might be carrying a gun, a knife or any other kind of weapon. If someone stared too long at Anne, Jack was sure to block their access to her as they passed.
The Metro station posed more of a challenge as people crowded onto the platform and waited for the next train headed in their direction. As the crush move forward, Jack kept Anne in the curve of his arm, using his body as a shield as much as he could. He liked how she fitted perfectly in his arms, not too tall or short, but just right. With her forehead level with his mouth, he could easily have pressed a kiss to her temple.
Thoughts like that would get him killed. Not because Anne would hurt him for taking advantage of their nearness, but because it meant he wasn’t paying close enough attention to his surroundings and the people populating it.
After all that had occurred the night before and what had happened to Dr. Saunders, Jack was surprised they made it into the train with no problems.
For the first several stops they stood, holding on to overhead straps. As people exited the train, they were able to find seats.
Jack pulled his cell phone from his pocket and texted Arnold the approximate time they’d be at the Metro station for him to collect them.
As he sent the message, another came in from an unknown caller.
Saunders was no accident.
Anne leaned over his arm and read the message. “It’s her, isn’t it?”
Jack nodded.
You’re being followed.
Anne drew in a sharp breath.
Jack’s glance shot up and he scanned the train car.
For the most part, the people appeared to be tired commuters on their way home.
The only people who stood out as different were the guy wearing a headset with a hooded sweatshirt pulled up over his head and an old man with a scraggly beard, wearing a Fedora hat and carrying a cane. A woman with shoulder-length blond hair, wearing a classy gray suit, stood by the door, her head down as she thumbed the screen on her cell phone, probably catching up on her texts, email or social media. Another woman sat close to the exit door, her purse clutched beneath her arm, her gaze looking out of the train, her face reflected in the window. The rest of the people on the train wore business suits or business casual clothing and carried briefcases or satchels.
Jack leaned close to Anne and took her hand. “Be ready to move.”
She nodded, her fingers squeezing his gently.
Keeping a close watch on the people in the train car, Jack rose to his feet, bringing Anne with him. He positioned Anne in front of him and they headed toward the car next to them, crossing through the connection.
As the train pulled into the station, Jack waited while everyone who was getting off did. Then, as others climbed aboard, he nudged Anne. “Get off.”
She did and Jack followed right behind her. They walked alongside the train for several yards as if heading for the exit.
The man with the headset and hoodie had exited the train, as well as the old man with the cane and a dozen businessmen and women.
The signal that the train was about to leave the station sounded.
He leaned close to Anne’s ear. “Ready to jump?”
She nodded.
“Go,” he whispered. With his hand tight around hers, he stepped onto the train with Anne. The doors closed immediately behind them.
As the train pulled out of the station, Jack took note of the old man with the cane moving toward the exit. The young guy with the hooded sweatshirt stood next to the train, his narrowed gaze on the windows as they passed out of the station.
Anne held on to a metal pole, staring out the window until they’d left the station. Then she turned her gaze to the people in the car. “Do you think we shook him?” Just then, Jack’s phone buzzed with a text.
Jack and Anne leaned over Jack’s phone to read the text.
Good. You lost your tail.
Jack glanced around the train car and through to the next car.
Some of the same people were still on the train, including the blonde by the door and the woman clutching her purse.
Jack responded to the message.
Headset and hoodie or old man?
He watched the blonde staring at her cell phone. Her fingers didn’t move.
The train pulled into another station and the blonde left the train. The reply came.
Neither. Man in dark suit, black running shoes.
“I didn’t see him,” Anne said, shaking her head.
Are you still with us? Jack typed.
For another long moment, she didn’t answer.
Jack assumed she had been the blonde who’d gotten off the train and she was busy walking home, or to her next stop.
Still with you, but not for long.
Jack and Anne both looked up as the train slowed at their stop. They scanned the few remaining people going on to the next station along the line. But they didn’t have time to study everyone to make a determination.
They had to get off.
Jack slipped an arm around Anne’s waist and guided her off the train and to the exit.
Arnold was there with the car to collect them.
As he sat in the back seat, Jack closed his eyes, trying to recall the faces of the people on the train.
“Could she have been the woman sitting by the door with her purse clutched to her chest?” Anne asked, her thoughts running along the same lines as Jack’s.
“Maybe she was the bearded man with the tweed jacket and thick glasses,” Jack said. “She could have worn a disguise.”
“Hiding in plain sight,” Anne concurred.
“I’m not doing such a good job of protecting you if I can’t figure out who the good guys are, much less the bad ones.” He sighed. “We might have to switch this up and put one of the other members of my team with you.”
Anne curled her arm through his. “I don’t want someone else. I’m just starting to get used to having you around.”
“Yeah, but I can’t risk losing focus. I should have seen the man following us before our anonymous spy pointed him out.”
“How could we have known?” Anne asked. “A man in a black suit is like so many other men in black suits walking the streets of DC.”
They pulled into the Halverson estate and wound through the trees to the sprawling mansion.
Declan met them on the stairs. “Charlie had a function to attend tonight. But you might want to see what we’ve found.”
Jack was tired and would have liked something to eat, but the excitement in Declan’s voice was hard to ignore. “Show us.”
Declan led him through the foyer into the study and down the steps into the basement war room.
The rest of the team and Grace were gathered around Cole and Jonah, staring at the array of monitors. They glanced up when Declan, Jack and Anne entered the room.
“Look what we found on social media from a couple of days ago,” Cole said, his face grim. He tipped his head toward the six monitors.
In one image, a woman wearing a dark headscarf held her lifeless child in her arms, her face contorted in grief.
In another photo, several bodies were laid out side by side on the ground.
At the same time as Jack saw the man in the third image, Anne gasped. “Isn’t that the man in the photo Millicent was carrying?” She pointed to the screen with the picture of a man wearing an aid worker’s shirt, giving a child a shot in the arm. A line of men, women and children waited their turn behind the child.
“It looks like him,” Jack said. He pulled the folded paper from his pocket and held it up to the screen.
Declan nodded. “We did a facial scan of the image you sent and found this man’s photo taken in a small Syrian village a couple days ago. The time stamps on the others are a day or two after the image of him giving shots to the villagers.”
Anne shook her head as she stared at the last three monitors. “Are all of those people dead?” she asked.
Declan nodded. “It appears so. And I don’t see any sign of a bombing.”
“Do you think the aid worker poisoned them?” Jack asked, studying the people in line for the shot. “He appears to be vaccinating them.”
“We have a name for the man—Aleksandr Orlov. He’s a Russian aid worker. We traced him to the village in Syria. We also found a report by the World Health Organization that they quarantined the village until they can determine why every person in the village died.”
“An epidemic?” Anne asked.
“I spoke with a WHO rep late this afternoon,” Declan said. “They don’t know, and they’re not taking any chances.”
“We found something else.” Cole touched a few keys and an article appeared. “We searched for Aleksandr Orlov and found a connection between him and this article about a new cancer vaccine being codeveloped between a Russian pharmaceutical company and one here in the US.”
Cole moved his mouse and highlighted the US company’s name—Waylon Pharmaceuticals.
“And get this,” Jonah said. He clicked on his mouse and a city map overlaid the dead bodies. “Waylon Pharm is here in the metro area.”
“Isn’t it a stretch to think Orlov was testing a cancer vaccination on a Syrian village?” Jack asked.
“Probably,” Declan said. “But if it’s true, that’s a good reason to stop Dr. Saunders from sharing the information with the NCS, which is due to meet in two days—if someone from the drug company wants to influence Russian sanctions, that is.”
“That doesn’t explain why someone was after Anne—Ms. Bellamy,” Jack said. “She didn’t know anything about the deaths in Syria until today. She was attacked yesterday.”
Declan tapped his chin and stared at a far corner. “True. The two incidents seem unconnected. Ms. Bellamy’s getting texts from someone who knows something about Trinity. That in itself is enough to trigger Trinity. They don’t like it when they’re outed. From what Jasmine says, they kill people who leak information. There are no second chances in their organization.”
“Who’s Jasmine?” Anne asked.
Jack nodded toward one of his teammates. “Gus Walsh’s significant other. She’s had some dealings with Trinity.”
Anne frowned. “And lived to tell about it?”
Gus’s lips twisted. “Sort of.”
Anne’s frown deepened. “What do you mean sort of?”
Jack shook his head. “It’s a long story and one that can wait until we figure out what happened to Dr. Saunders, and the reason behind someone going after you.” He turned back to the monitors. “What do the Saunders and Bellamy incidents have to do with each other?”
Declan sighed. “At this point, we don’t know.”
“Why would a Trinity dissident contact Ms. Bellamy?” Cole asked softly, as if to himself.
“Remember, the original message was her reaching out because Trinity was planning an attack that could impact a lot of people,” Jack pointed out.
“Who are they attacking?” Declan asked.
“I assume since the message came to me,” Anne said, “the attack has something to do with the national security advisor, the National Security Council, which includes the president and vice president, or anyone in the White House.”
Gus snorted. “That narrows it down.”
Jack tipped his head. “Now we’re dealing with a hit-and-run of one of the people working with the Department of Homeland Security.”
“Who was, by the way, chasing down something outside her area’s responsibility,” Anne reminded them.
“She was working with the director for Europe & Russia,” Jack said.
Anne’s lips twisted. “And she had scheduled to meet with a subject matter expert on Russia.”
“About an incident that occurred in Syria,” Declan added.
Cole tapped the monitor with Orlov’s image. “An incident involving a Russian aid worker.”
Jonah pointed to the article on the monitor. “And a potential cancer vaccination.”
“And a whole lotta dead people,” Jack finished, his tone flat. “Sounds like a lot of loose dots that may or may not be connected.”
“I say we contact the pharmaceutical company and find out what their part is in the cancer vaccination,” Anne said.
“I’m betting they won’t tell you anything,” Declan said. “Especially if their drug has caused the deaths of an entire village in Syria.”
“Doesn’t hurt to ask,” Anne said. “What have we got to lose?”
“It’ll have to wait until morning.” Jack glanced at his watch. “They won’t be open for business at this hour.” He stepped away from the monitors. “Might as well have dinner and call it a night.”
Cole and Jonah remained seated. “We’ll dig into Waylon Pharmaceuticals and look for more about the XC-16 vaccine.”
With the information they’d just received roiling around in his mind, Jack turned toward the exit to find Charlie descending into the basement war room.
“What did I miss?” she asked.