“I’m sorry, Jarv. It’s all over,” said Donnelly sadly.
“What is all over?”
“Your secret op. With the FBI’s help we set this trap for you. I’d long suspected that something was going on I wasn’t aware of. I’m sorry it turned out to be you.”
“But—” began Burns.
“Sacrifices, Jarvis. We talked about this before. The national security of this country comes before all.”
Burns and Donnelly shared a pronounced stare.
“You will of course have the full support of the DNI if it turns out we were wrong,” added Donnelly.
“I see. Thank you, sir. I’m sure everything will be worked out.”
Donnelly turned to Lanier. “I think we can handle it from here, Steve. The FBI isn’t cleared for this. But I appreciate the assist. I’ll have my people—”
Beth approached Burns. “Were you really going to do it, Jarv?’
“Do what?’
“Fall on the sword for Sam?”
“What?” said Donnelly sharply.
She turned to him. “Sacrifices? The full support of the DNI? We’ll take over now? We’ll never see Jarv again. You’ll just move him to Jordan or Iraq to continue doing what he’s doing.”
“Which is of course what you ordered him to do,” added Lanier.
“I have no idea what you people are talking about,” said Donnelly furiously.
“If I were you,” Lanier said to Donnelly, “I’d save any comments for your defense.” He motioned to his men. They moved forward and cuffed Donnelly, Burns, and his tech.
“How dare you!” said Donnelly angrily.
Lanier sat down in a leather chair across from Beth’s desk. “Chief, would you like to do the honors?” he said. “I’m a little sick to my stomach, personally.”
Beth leaned against the edge of her desk. “Jarvis, do you know when you told me that you were aware of the death of Diane Tolliver, the fire alarm pull, and the rest?”
“What of it?” said Burns with a wary expression.
“When I seemed amazed that you knew this, you remarked that if you couldn’t keep track of things going on in your own city how could you be expected to know what was going on in the rest of the world.”
“I’m afraid I’m not seeing your—”
“I took you at your word, Jarvis. I accepted that if anything big were going on in D.C., you and Sam would know about it. And if you two weren’t doing anything to stop it, it occurred to me that that might be because you were behind it. I also tracked Hope and Reiger to the Pentagon one night. I knew they had no military connection, but I was aware that DNI had a satellite office there. And when we learned of the connection between Diane Tolliver and Jamie Meldon, and the fact that she’d been killed on Friday instead of Monday, I knew there was something more here than an old vet raping and killing. We had no proof of anything, so I went to Steve and we hatched a plan to see if we could get that evidence.”
“A plan?”
Beth pointed to the screen. “This plan.”
Donnelly said, “My God, Beth, I have no idea what you’re talking about. But am I to believe that you sacrificed your sister to see if some nonsensical idea was valid or not?”
Lanier said, “Mace is fine. We sent in HRT. We were able to track them when Mace slipped a bug on one of the bandits before they scanned her. The chopper took her and Kingman to the nearest hospital.”
Burns glanced nervously at the screen. “Well, apparently the report we received was erroneous. I am very glad that she’s all right.”
Beth said coldly, “The hell you are, Jarv. You and Sam did your best to kill her. This whole thing tonight was an elaborate charade by you. The camera feed was bogus. You didn’t have any choppers out there. No stealth units. All smoke and mirrors.”
“You are utterly mistaken,” said Burns.
“Don’t say anything else, Jarvis,” cautioned Donnelly. “We’ll get this all straightened out.”
“The hell you will,” exclaimed Beth.
“You have nothing!” retorted Donnelly. “No proof. And once I speak to the president, heads will roll.”
“Oh, the proof’s not a problem,” she said. “The evidence is overwhelming.”
Lanier said, “HRT has several of your goons that you imported to do your dirty work.”
“You’ll accept the word of ‘goons’ over ours?” Donnelly said. “Do you realize how ridiculous that will look in court? I strongly suggest that you save yourself the embarrassment, release us immediately, and we’ll just drop it here and now.”
She said, “What really bugged me was the fact that you disrespected me.”