66
COROLLA, NORTH CAROLINA
Annie woke up to pounding on her bedroom door.
Rolling over, she saw the alarm clock read only 6:14 a.m.
“What is it?” she asked, fumbling for her glasses. “What’s the matter?”
“We need to go,” Marcus said through the door. “Don’t worry about packing. We don’t have time for that. Just put on—”
Annie opened the door, wearing her pajamas, her hair a tangled mess. She was stunned to find Marcus showered, shaved, and wearing a freshly pressed suit and tie. “What in the world is going on, Marcus?”
“I’ll tell you on the way. Right now, I need you to take a superfast shower and put on the best thing you’ve got with you.”
“I don’t have anything with me, just what we bought on the way. And where’d you get the suit?”
“The duffel bag I grabbed in Richmond. Forget it. It doesn’t matter. Just meet me in the car in ten minutes.”
“Why?”
“Because we’re wheels up in thirty.”
“Where are we going?”
“The Oval Office.”
Eight minutes later, Annie climbed into the passenger seat. Marcus handed her a travel mug of coffee and a toasted English muffin. Then he hit the accelerator. Ten minutes after that they were parking at the Pine Island Airport in Corolla, where Annie was stunned to see Jenny Morris waiting for them.
“What is she doing here?” Annie asked.
Marcus took a deep breath and signaled Jenny that they would be there in a moment. Jenny pointed to her watch, then backed off and went into the tiny airport, used exclusively for private aviation.
“I couldn’t sleep, so I went for a run,” Marcus began. “When I stopped for a bottle of water at the gas station—you know, the one on the corner—the front page of the USA Today stopped me cold. Abu Nakba is alive.”
“What?”
“He released a video on Friday saying that Kairos has the three kidnapped aid workers. He’s demanding the White House pay him $150 million by noon today or he’s going to kill them all. I used a pay phone to check my voice mail. As you might imagine, it’s full. And not just from my mom but from Pete and Jenny desperately trying to track us down. Apparently Hernandez is summoning me to the Oval Office.”
“To arrest you?”
“They don’t know. All Hernandez said was that it’s a ‘matter of urgent national security.’”
“And you believe him?”
“Honestly, I don’t know what to believe. But when I got back to the house, I booted up your computer, created a new Gmail account, and sent Pete an encrypted email saying I’d gotten his nineteen messages but wasn’t anywhere near Washington. He wrote back immediately, asking where I was and could he send a plane to get me. I asked why. He said it’s a madhouse up there. He doesn’t have the full picture. But yes, he thinks I should come immediately and hear Hernandez out. What’s more, he said if they were going to arrest anyone, Jenny would already be in custody.”
“So you told him yes.”
“I did—but I also insisted that you had to come with me.”
“And then you told him where my family’s beach house is.”
“No,” Marcus assured her. “I said you and I had gone south for a few days, but it wouldn’t be hard to head north again. He asked where the nearest private airport was. I told him we could definitely be in Corolla in two hours. He said fine, he’d make all the arrangements, and Jenny would meet us.”
Annie shook her head. “Never a dull moment with you, Ryker. Not even one.”