The 13: Fall (35 page)

“News flash, you big dope!” he said to the TV. “It’s already here!”

He clicked the thing off and tossed the remote to the other bed. It was getting into evening, and Boz still hadn’t called him back. Keene checked his watch and decided he was hungry. He left the room and walked across the street to the same small diner where he had eaten breakfast.

The same waitress from the morning was there, though she had a fresh uniform on. He waved her over and gave his order.

The food was good, as far as diner food went. He paid his bill and left a generous tip. He had said, “Good luck with business,” to her as he left, not even knowing what he meant by it. She must’ve taken it as encouragement, though, because she gave him a big smile and said, “Thanks.”

Looking to his right, he noted the town looked like everything had shut down. Lights were off and cars were gone. Even a small town like this, he realized, had seen the immediate effects of the Wall Street mess.

He decided to take a walk since he had nothing better to do. Besides, there was nothing worth seeing on television, and it was a nice night. The south Texas heat wasn’t quite ready to let up for the evening, but at least the humidity had gone down.

Off in the distance, he could see a few small fireworks pop up here and there. Even with the economy tanking like it was and people freaking out, there seemed to still be a few who were at least trying to celebrate.

He’d gone only a few blocks before his phone finally buzzed. It was Boz.

“Where are you? What’s been going on?”

“I’m at Andrews with Megan,” Boz said.

“What? Why?”

“It’s not good. Jennings is headed to the White House right now to talk to Walker.”

Keene stopped and felt his dinner begin churning in his belly. “What’s happened?”

“Megan found some stuff on Marianne’s computer. Seems she’d been setting up a major operation with the Chinese to come here and drill in the Dakotas and Montana.”

“What? That’s impossible. How could she pull that off?”

“That’s exactly what we said. She’s been doing it for the last few months. She’s forged customs documents, secured land. She even manipulated some military contracts to provide special security and quarantine of those areas. She was selling out the country.”

“So what’s happening? What’s Jennings doing?”

“He’s going to show Walker everything. He believes that this is what the Prophet is talking about.”

“Why?” he said confused. “I mean, yeah, that could be considered an aggression. But that’s not what he said, right?”

“Yeah, you’re right. I don’t think that’s what the Prophet is talking about.”

“Then why’s Jennings sold on it?”

“Because the first scheduled date for beginning to move on all of this was for the day after tomorrow.”

“That doesn’t make sense. Treason, yes. Attack on the country … that’s a stretch.”

“I know, but there’s more.”

Keene could already taste the bile rising in his throat. What this woman had done was disgusting. As much as he didn’t want to hear any more, he waited for Boz to continue.

“I told you there was a virus on Marianne’s computer. Megan was trying to copy the files when someone launched it from a remote location. She couldn’t trace it back because she had to shut her computer down, too. It took her most of the afternoon to just quarantine the bug and remove it from her own computer before she could sift through what was left.”

“Yeah, and?”

“Megan was able to see that Marianne made a copy of a couple files the day Grant was shot.”

Keene’s head began to pound. He knew what was coming next.

“She pulled the evac route and procedure for the president,” Boz continued. “We think there’s a good possibility she handed that off to someone.”

“The Russian.” It was a statement, not a question.

“She had the CIA’s file on the Russian on her computer. I think Marianne’s the one who made the call.”

Keene could feel the muscles in his jaw and neck tighten up. “Where is she?” he said in a cold, flat tone.

“She left here on a private charter and landed in Geneva. From there, she hopped two commercial flights to different countries and then disappeared. The last place she popped up was in Mumbai. But I don’t think she would stay there. It took Megan most of the day just to track her that far.”

“So what now? Why are you at Andrews?” he asked, knowing the answer and not liking it one bit.

“Jennings is sending us to find her. We’re leaving for Mumbai in thirty minutes.”

Keene pulled the phone away and hissed through his teeth. He took a deep breath to calm himself and put the phone back to his ear.

“So Jennings is just dismissing the whole idea of an attack tomorrow.”

“No, he isn’t. Listen. The reality of it is this: We’ve tracked the Prophet for two weeks with no luck. Marianne’s tried to have the president assassinated. She tried to sell out the country’s oil supply to our biggest debt holder. Our stock market has disintegrated. And we still don’t have any idea what’s going on. This is out of our control. Jennings wants you to meet with this informant guy tomorrow. Find out what he knows, and if it’s anything worth worrying about, we’ll follow it. But for now, we have to take what God has given us.”

Here we go again
, he thought. “You know what, Boz? This is ridiculous! I should be the one going after Marianne. If she did order the hit on Grant, then Jennings should be sending me, an active agent. Not you and Taylor. She’s a computer geek! What’s she going to do? E-mail her to death?”

“I’m going, too. And don’t forget,” he said, “I’m more than capable of handling Marianne Levy. And I’ve got news for you. Megan Taylor might be a computer geek, but she’s also a federal agent. She can hold her own.”

Keene knew Boz was right, but he didn’t want to admit it. “Doesn’t matter. You two are the ones who think God is doing all of this. Not me, remember? Maybe
God
wants us to stop Marianne Levy. Maybe
God
has been talking about this all along.”

“Maybe,” Boz said.

“Then why are you so bent on trying to make something bigger out of it?”

“Because we don’t know. And until we do, maybe God has
you
there for a reason. If there is going to be an attack, maybe you’re the one God wants there to handle it.”

This was insane! He couldn’t believe he was having this conversation. “You really believe all of this stuff, don’t you?”

The line was quiet for a second. Then Boz said, “You know I do.”

Keene stood there for a moment trying to calm himself. Finally he said, “If God wants me here, in the middle of all of this, then why doesn’t He tell
me
that?”

“That’s a good question,” Boz said with a chuckle. “You could ask Him. But the better question is, would you listen if He answered? I’ll call you when we land in Mumbai.”

The line went dead. Keene forced himself to take a deep breath and exhale slowly. He put the phone back in his pocket and continued walking. When he got to the other side of the town square, he saw a building on the corner. It had a few lights on, and he could see someone walking around inside. He started to go in but dismissed the thought as quickly as it came. He continued walking on. But after a few steps, he stopped. He turned back around and went inside.

The place looked like a grocery store on the outside, but the inside had been completely renovated. The room was dimly lit, and a few candles were strewn around the walls. There were folding chairs covering the floor and a stage at the front with musical instruments covering it. There were signs pointing people where to go with their kids and then other signs pointing people where to go for what the sign called
worship.
The place had a very warm and friendly feel about it. It definitely wasn’t like any church he’d ever been in before. There were no pews or huge highback chairs with purple velvet lining everything. There wasn’t even a huge podium for the preacher to speak from, like most churches he’d seen. Just a cool-looking aluminum truss lectern-type thing.

“Can I help you?”

He turned around to see a guy, probably close to his age. The guy wore a T-shirt and a zip-up hoodie. He had on sneakers and jeans.

“Ah, sorry,” Keene said. “I saw the lights on and just thought …”

“My name’s Scott. I’m one of the pastors here.”

Keene reached out and took the man’s hand. “Jon Keene.”

“Never seen you around here, Jon. You visiting?”

“Something like that. I’m from DC.”

The man jerked a thumb over his shoulder. “Me and some of the other guys here are having a small-group Bible study back in one of the classrooms. Care to join us?”

“Nah. That’s okay,” Keene said. “I need to go.” Then, “I don’t know why; I just thought I’d come inside and look.”

“You have a church back home?”

“Lots of churches in DC,” Keene said.

The guy laughed. “Yeah … That’s not what I meant.”

“No, not really. I used to go. Haven’t for a while.”

The pastor seemed to think about that for a second. “Maybe you should.”

Keene didn’t say anything back. He didn’t want to be rude to the man.

“Why are you here, friend?” The pastor narrowed his eyes.

Keene shrugged his shoulders. He really didn’t have a good reason. Honestly, he didn’t know.

“Okay,” the pastor said. “Well, think about this: There is no such thing as coincidence. There is no such thing as chance. The Bible says God has ordained all things. That nothing happens without His willing it or making it come to pass. So let me answer that for you, if I may.”

Keene shrugged again.

“You’re here because God wants you here. It’s that simple. I can’t pretend to know the details of that, but make no mistake. You’re exactly where you’re supposed to be.”

“That’s funny,” Keene said. “Someone else told me that recently.”

“Sounds like a smart person.”

“Yeah. Maybe.”

The pastor looked at him for a second and folded his arms. “Listen. I need to get back in there. But before I go, I feel like I’m supposed to tell you something. I don’t know what it means or if it’s even what you need to hear. But I’m going to tell you anyway.”

“Yeah, what’s that?”

“You think you know who God is, but you don’t. And the only way to find that out is to spend time with Him.”

He reached down and pulled something out from under one of the chairs. It was a Bible.

“Here. My gift to you. You want to know who God is? Read this.”

He shook Keene’s hand again and turned to leave.

“You can let yourself out whenever you’re ready to go. If you’re still here when I’m done, we can talk some more.”

Keene looked at the Bible. “It’s a pretty thick read, pastor. I’m kind of short on time.”

The guy was halfway down the hall. He called back over his shoulder, “Start with the Gospel of John. New Testament. Great place to start.” He continued walking then stopped and turned around again. “Or who knows,” he said with a chuckle. “Maybe you could pray that God would just send you a prophet to explain it!”

   CHAPTER 58   

W
hen Keene woke up, he realized he had done something he hadn’t done in almost a decade. He’d slept in. The clock read 9:45 a.m. He wanted to be angry with himself for sleeping so late, but he couldn’t. The reality of it was he’d needed it. His shoulder, while healing surprisingly quickly, was still stiff. The events of the past two weeks had left him running on empty. And he’d tossed and turned all night, knowing that today was the deadline. And no one had any clue what, if anything, was coming.

The shower was small and the water was barely more than a drizzle, but at least it was hot. He worked his big frame around inside the cramped space and let the heat loosen the stiffness. He stood there for ten minutes before finally shutting the water off.

When he left the motel, he noticed that there was an unusual amount of activity going on around the square. Down the street, he saw at least three news vans and people gathering around. As he got closer, he noticed that an area had been set up with a small podium and several microphones. A few sheriff’s deputies were gathered around, as well as some other men, dressed in business suits. This didn’t look like anything having to do with the holiday. This had a more ominous tone, he thought.