was okay to drive. “Like I said, Mac, it just stings a little, and I’ll have a major bruise on my ass by morning. But Franklin’s a good doc.”
“He’s patched me up more than once,” McGarvey said, his thoughts back to Katy and Liz and Todd. He’d never be able to think of All Saints without seeing the look of devastation on his daughter’s face when he and Katy had shown up the morning after Todd had been shot to death. It was an image that, along with the one of the limo, bearing Katy and Liz exploding, would stay with him for the rest of his life.
They took the Key Bridge across the river and headed east, where they picked up U.S. 1 that led south, eventually to Fort Hill Road and the town of Fort Hunt.
“Where do you think this is heading?” Pete asked.
“I’m not sure, but it started in Mexico City a little over a year ago, and then Pyongyang was a part of it somehow,” McGarvey told her. He briefly went over his actions in both operations. “The only connection other than the Friday Club is China.”
“Okay, so whatever they’re up to involves the Chinese. And they’re not done, which is why you have to be eliminated at all costs. So it’s big. But what?”
“That’s what I want to ask him and Whittaker tonight.”
Pete shot him a double take. “The DCI?”
“His name was on Remington’s flash drive,” McGarvey said and he gave her some of the other names.
“Jesus,” she said softly. “You’re on the hit list of a bunch of important people.”
“Yeah. And by tagging along with me tonight you just painted a big target on your back.”
“Then we’d best do it right,” she said.
“I’m back to Foster’s house,” Louise said in McGarvey’s ear. “Nothing’s changed.”
“How about the chopper pilot?”
She came back a few seconds later. “He’s a chain smoker.”
“Stick with it.”
“Will do.”
McGarvey telephoned Dick Adkins’s home phone. The former DCI answered after three rings. “Yes.”
“Do you still have your encrypted phone?”
It took a moment for him to reply, and when he did he sounded cautious. “Yes.”
“Turn it on, I’ll call you in five minutes.”
Adkins broke the connection.
“Who did you just call?” Pete asked.
“Adkins.”
Pete shook her head. “All this should be taking my breath away, but I read most of your jacket and I was warned.” She concentrated on her driving for a bit. “Whittaker’s on the list, but there’s no chance of him being in his office tonight, and Dick’s passes might still be valid.”
“You’d make a good field agent,” McGarvey said, but Pete shook her head.
“Louise was right. You guys are nuts. It’s just that I’m not quite that crazy.”
McGarvey called Adkins at the encrypted number.
“I didn’t expect you to call me.”
“You stuck out your neck for me with the president, so I figured I owed you one,” McGarvey said.
“Don’t do me any favors,” Adkins replied. “I don’t suppose you’d be willing to tell me where you are, or what part you played in a shooting this evening on embassy row. D.C. Metro is apparently having a fit.”
“I took out one of the shooters who killed Remington, and right now I’m headed to Robert Foster’s estate down around Mount Vernon. I need your help.”
“I thought you might say something like that,” Adkins said. “But first do you mind telling me what the hell is going on?”
“I found a bridge between Mexico City and Pyongyang.”
“Yeah, China.”
“Foster’s Friday Club financed both operations through Howard McCann.”
“That’s too far-fetched,” Adkins objected.
“Something else is in the works, and whatever it is will be big,” McGarvey said.
“We’ve already gone over this, Mac. All of it was on the disk we found in Todd’s car. Utter nonsense.”
“It was a fake. But I have a flash drive we got from Remington with a list of card-carrying members of the Friday Club. McCann had help inside the Company. Someone who had complete access to my files, someone who could track my movements.”
Adkins was very quiet.
“David’s a member,” McGarvey said. “From the looks of it he was in from the beginning. Eight years ago.”
Adkins was silent for a long time, and when he came back was subdued. “Who else?”
“Foster’s got guys just about everywhere, DoD, State, the Bureau, and even the White House. All of them were in on Mexico City and Pyongyang.”
“Maybe Todd’s disk wasn’t so far-fetched after all if what you’re telling me is true,” Adkins said. “What do you want me to do?”
“Do you still have your building passes?”
“I haven’t turned