Second Strike

CHAPTER 41

^{BETHANY BEACH, DELAWARE,}

^{AUGUST 16, 8:12 A.M. EDT}

The soft breeze off the ocean was largely ineffective against the stifling August heat. Nonetheless, the patrician found the balcony comfortable enough to work from.

Garin was an irritant. No, that wasn’t quite right, thought the patrician. Garin clearly was much more than that. He was, after all, responsible for thwarting the EMP attack. He needed to be eliminated quickly.

The patrician was very pleased with the progression of all phases of the operation, but Garin persisted in complicating matters, getting uncomfortably close to the functional levers of the plan. The man was more than a soldier taking orders. Indeed, he was taking no orders now. He was initiating action, independent of the US government, which remained oblivious to what was about to happen.

It remained highly unlikely that Garin could disrupt the plan. There were too many layers and contingencies. As significant as the EMP plot had been, it was but the opening stage of a series of feints, decoys, and misdirections, each of which had the capacity to accomplish the ultimate aim.

As expected, having halted a black swan—an unprecedented event—had lulled the West into a sense of security, of disaster averted. Not Garin. He behaved as if black swans were an everyday occurrence.

He had to go.

The patrician lit a Winston and drew long and deep from it before expelling its blue smoke in a long trail. With his other hand he pressed a key on his phone and waited.

“Yes.” Bor answered flatly.

“Your friend has been waving his arms frantically, trying to get us to notice him. He’s been on the Beltway, at Reagan National, and in several places in between. It’s rude that we haven’t responded.”

“We just need a location.”

“We’re monitoring in real time. We have eyes on. I’m forwarding the information now.”

The patrician terminated the call and pressed a series of keys. The irritant, the danger, would soon be no more.