Silent Waters

Chapter 70

“I don’t care how we do it, but we have to cut our losses,” Hawkins bellowed at Bob Fortier.

“You’re overreacting, Mr. President. This has to be a bluff. Let it ride. We must stay on course.”

“Five phone calls isn’t a bluff, you idiot.” Hawkins held up his spread hand so the other man could count his fingers. “Five of my Cabinet members have called me in the past ten minutes, wondering what the hell is going on. And if I am really tied to the hijacking in some way. The Attorney General hasn’t, yet. But I know what the fuck he’s doing. He’s getting a warrant for my arrest.”

“Mr. President.” Fortier put both hands up in his patronizing style that was really starting to get under Hawkins’s skin. “I think you and everyone else should just relax and get some sleep. There is nothing that can be traced back to you. An investigation like this takes months to conduct. And there are all kinds of legal loopholes. Meanwhile, tomorrow is the election. A lot of people have invested in you, all the way down the ladder to the local level.”

Hawkins barked at him. “You’re not hearing me. I don’t give a fuck about local or party politics.”

“No one — not John Penn or anyone else — can touch you. If this hits the news, we just laugh it off. Call it a slanderous hoax being foisted off on the public by an opponent desperate to win. They can prove anything. You’re going to be reelected, Mr. President, and then you’re—”

“Are you fucking deaf?” Hawkins shouted. “Right now, I don’t care about being reelected. I only care about one thing, and that is keeping my ass out of the fire. Understood?”

Wisely, Fortier didn’t argue.

“We have to turn this thing around tonight, so that we are the good guys,” Hawkins told him. “Blowing up the plane with the hijackers was a positive move. Killing that lunatic, Barnhardt, was another step in the right direction. Now, we have to stop that maniac Kilo before he totally gets out of control.”

“I agree that Nick Harmon can become somewhat overzealous, at times. That’s why he should always be kept on a short leash — the way Captain Barnhardt used him. Specific orders, short duration of time,” Fortier explained.

“Then reel him in. I don’t want him to burn down that whole damn city because of a couple of people who can’t hurt us.”

“I tried to do that. But he’s, well, unavailable.”

“What do you mean, unavailable?” Hawkins roared.

“Our men said Kilo is already inside the police station.”