Page 100 of Cross Down
“Why were you in Alex Cross’s house?”
“Looking for evidence on who’s behind the shootings and bombings,” I say. “Before Alex was shot in front of police headquarters in DC, he told me that he had found something out about the randomness of the attacks.”
“Which was?”
“That they weren’t random,” I say. “He was going to tell me more, but then the shooting happened. And that’s why I was in his office. I found his notes. Now I know what he meant. The first attacks weren’t random. They were planned. And when the planners knew they weren’t going to get caught, they spread out the attacks’ techniques and locations.”
“Go on,” she says.
“The first one,” I say. “Sniper attack in downtown Columbus, Georgia. Six killed, fourteen wounded. Last April.”
“I remember.”
“Columbus is a short drive from Fort Benning. Where the U.S. Army sniper school is located. The second attack was also a sniper, in DC. Fourteen dead, thirty wounded. Within easy driving range of Marine Base Quantico, where the Marines’ sniper school is located.”
“Could just be coincidence,” she says.
I say, “The notes I found in Alex’s office go on. St. Louis, Missouri, and Kansas City, Missouri. Both car bombs in the downtown sections, both caused deaths, horrific injuries, and property damage. Elizabeth, both cities are within easy reach of Fort Leonard in Missouri.”
Deacon keeps quiet.
“That’s where army combat engineers are trained. Among other skills, they learn the ins and outs of all types of explosives.”
We’ve finished crossing the Potomac River, and now we’re in Virginia.
“Are you saying the army’s behind all of this?”
“No,” I say. “The next attack after the ones in Missouri was the dirty bomb that fizzled out.Birmingham, Alabama.”
“That near an army base?”
Traffic is coming to a crawl as we leave I-395 and merge onto Route 1, which will bring us to Crystal City and the answers we’re so desperately seeking.
I say, “No, Elizabeth. It’s near FEMA’s Center for Domestic Preparedness in Anniston, Alabama. It’s part of Homeland Security’s weapons of mass destruction training center. And Alex dug deeper. The sniper and explosives schools…they all have students that come from Homeland Security.”
Chapter
115
At the commandpost for the U.S. Secret Service’s Uniformed Division—which protects the buildings and grounds of the White House—Captain Jennifer Webster is grimly going through the schedule sheets for next week, knowing she’s going to have to ask her overworked officers to put in overtime yet again.
As she looks at the schedule on her computer screen, she remembers that a few years ago, the Secret Service ranked last in job satisfaction among federal law enforcement agencies.
Well,she thinks,it sure as hell hasn’t improved since then.Budget cuts, outdated equipment, poor leadership, and inadequate staffing makethis a miserable place to work, despite the supposed glamour. If anything, the staffing has gotten worse. The GAO is currently conducting an audit of just how understaffed the Uniformed Division is and how much of the surveillance and protective equipment here is in serious need of replacing. Hell, nothing much has changed since she was a rookie officer and a guy had climbed the fence and actually entered the White House before he was brought down.
That time, it was a nut with a knife. Next time, it could be someone with canisters of nerve gas.
There’s a quiet knock on her open door and she looks up and nods. Lieutenant Jimmy Scopes comes in, looking concerned. “What’s up, Jimmy?” she asks, leaning back in her chair and stretching, for, like so many others, she’s working a double today.
“Zone two and zone three alarms are offline again,” he says. “That means we don’t have—”
“Yeah, yeah, Jimmy, I know. We don’t have the defense in depth that’s required around the West Wing.”
“More bad news,” he says. “Protocol is to call in extra staff to beef up coverage, but people are dodging phone calls and texts. You can’t really blame them.”
“No, you can’t,” she says, tired of it all, rubbing the back of her neck. “Okay, shift around as best you can, and let’s just hope that thePostand theTimesdon’t find out about it.”
He offers her a warm smile. “When my uncle was serving in the Secret Service, he said the worst day of his career was when Secret Service was pulled from Treasury and given to Homeland Security. Things were never the same after that.”
