“Ma’am, facial recognition confirms the carjacking victims were the suicide bombers.”
Murphy lowered her head, trying to put all the information together. Then she remembered what Dr. Hennigan had said, “Fuck, this is a distraction. Can you get me eyes on the President?”
“No, ma’am. And the Secret Service isn’t responding.”
Murphy didn’t think twice. She bolted from the mobile command trailer and headed toward the greenroom tent.
* * * *
Dr. Hennigan
Richardson had taken her around the stage and propped her up against a trailer in the back.
“Are you okay?” Richardson asked.
“Will be. Denzili?”
Richardson shook her head once.
“Fuck!” Hennigan cried into the night air. She took a quick breath and centered herself. She’d have time to mourn later.
“Phillipa?” Ms. Wilson’s voice said. “Can you hear me?”
“I’m here.”
“I’m afraid I have bad news,” Ms. Wilson said. “It looks like Lizzy has taken the President hostage.”
“On it.”
Hennigan turned and started heading toward the tent.
“Also, from my analysis of the videos, I want you to know that Lizzy somehow accessed our weapons cache at a warehouse outside of Philadelphia.”
“That would explain the excessive weaponry,” she said.
“It also explains how they got past security wearing the vests. They were using an explosive compoundwecreated. It’s experimental, so meager quantities are available.”
“We’ll have to deal with the fallout from that later,” Hennigan said.
“From my calculations of the blast zones, there was only enough material to make four explosive devices. Unless she supplemented it somehow, she’s used what she had.”
“Well, that’s at least one minor miracle,” Hennigan said as she turned the corner.
Agent Murphy stood there, her gun drawn, pointing it at Hennigan.
“Phillipa Hennigan, you’re under arrest,” Murphy said.
Hennigan rolled her eyes, “We really don’t have time for this.” She glanced down at the gun in her hand, which was pointed at Murphy’s stomach. “How about we holster our weapons and focus on saving the President?”
Murphy hesitated.
“Right now, we’re on the same side.” Hennigan glanced around and noticed that Richardson wasn’t within sight.She’s probably waiting to see how this plays out. “As soon as this ends, we can play cat and mouse. Agreed?”
“Let’s do this,” Murphy said. “But Iwillcome after you.”
“I wouldn’t expect anything less,” Hennigan said. She smiled at Murphy, even though she knew the other woman wouldn’t see it in the night.
They made their way through the maze and quickly approached the tent.
