Senator Elizabeth Pierce entered the lobby, flanked by her Secret Service detail and her campaign staff.
Some of the people in the lobby broke out into applause and cheers.
“You can do it, Liz!” one of them shouted.
“You’re going to win!”
“Take her down, Senator!”
There was laughter and more clapping at that.
Beck barely heard it.
It was too late now. He had no more time to think. No more plans. No more last-minute, buzzer-beating, Hail Mary plays.
Any minute now, the president would arrive as well, and Morrison would trigger the bomb.
Beck was out of time.
Chapter 31
Agent Morrison took his position in the catwalk above the seats and the control booth of the auditorium. The Secret Service had already blocked off access to this section of the building.
It was, after all, the perfect spot for an assassin.
Morrison carried an H&K MP5 machine pistol. With its extendable stock, and set to single-shot fire, he could easily put a bullet into the head of President Sharon Martin. He was less than a hundred feet from her podium on the stage, standing above the seats, and backlit by all the lights.
No one would see him.
He’d wait until the candidates were both on the stage, and then he’d hit the button on his phone that would trigger Beck’s vest.
People would be distracted, looking back at the lobby. That’s when he’d kill the president.
Then he would fire another burst along the floor of the stage. Senator Pierce might get hit, or she might not. At that point, his colleagues—some of them people he’d known for years—would already be pulling both the women offstage and to the ambulances waiting in the back.
They’d also be shooting at him, but he was prepared for that. He would fire randomly into the crowd. He had a description all ready of a man of Middle Eastern descent as the shooter. Everyone would start looking for the suspect.
And no one would seriously believe Morrison had been involved. He was, after all, a Secret Service agent.
He and Howard had already picked out a patsy, a local college student who spent too much time on jihadi websites in between playing video games. They would hide the H&K in his dorm room and send in an anonymous tip to the police.
If the kid got killed while resisting arrest—well, so much the better. Damocles had friends in the FBI and the police department as well.
Morrison had been worried for a while today. First Scott had his attack of conscience, and then it looked like that smartass Beck was going to cause some real problems.
But it all worked out. And he was about to have a multibillion-dollar defense contractor and the future president of the United States deeply in his debt.
Howard’s voice suddenly began speaking through his radio earpiece.
“Morrison. The senator just entered the building. You good?”
Morrison smiled.
“Yeah,” he said. “I’m perfect.”
Chapter 32
In the limo, Susan watched Howard carefully.
The agent pressed a button on his console and spoke into his mike. “Morrison. The senator just entered the building. You good?”
“Yeah,” came the reply. “I’m perfect.”
“All right,” Howard said. “We’re almost there. Just a couple more minutes.”
He looked at a digital clock in the console. The debate was due to start at 9:00 p.m. The clock read 8:56.
Howard pressed another button on the console and switched channels again. Now the feed from the Secret Service’s radios came over the limo’s speakers.
“This is Howard,” he said. “Senator Pierce is in the lobby, on her way to the stage. We’re cutting it a little close. Do we have an ETA on Minerva?”
Minerva. Like most people in DC, Susan knew that President Martin’s Secret Service code-name was Minerva, after the ancient goddess of wisdom—the Washington Post had done a whole feature on it.
Howard was checking to see when she would arrive. Susan realized that he and Morrison and all the other Damocles operatives would all know, down to the second, where to find their target.
“Minerva is two minutes out,” an agent replied over the radio. “Onstage in five.”
“Roger that,” Howard said.
Howard watched the screens carefully, then glanced over at Susan.
“Might want to stick your fingers in your ears, sweetheart,” he said. “We’re about to have a very big bang.”
Chapter 33
Senator Pierce made her way across the crowded lobby, smiling and shaking hands. Beck watched her carefully.
No one paid any attention to him. Their eyes were all on the senator.
Beck didn’t know what to do. He was completely out of ideas.
And he was sweating, and his head was killing him.
Senator Pierce moved forward, her protective detail