fast-walking down the Cross Hall toward the State Dining Room, which adjoined the Family Dining Room, one of the agents with them received a message through his earwig.
“They found Van Beuren,” he said.
“Where?” the Secret Service director asked immediately.
“A storage room in the West Wing.”
They changed direction and quickly reached the West Wing. There they were directed to the room where Van Beuren had been found.
The door was thrown open by the lead agent. Inside they saw Van Beuren. He was on the floor, unconscious and trussed up. A patch of shiny blood was mixed in with his hair.
One of the agents knelt down next to him and felt for a pulse. “He’s alive, but somebody hit him hard.”
Blue Man said, “I don’t understand this. Why knock out and tie up your assassin?”
Robie was the first to spot it. “His gun is missing.”
All eyes went to the man’s holster. The nine-millimeter that should have been there wasn’t.
Robie said, “He wasn’t the assassin. They just needed his weapon. That way they didn’t have to try and sneak one past security. He just walked in with it. Part of the plan.”
And then Robie remembered the last part of the overheard conversation from the plane hangar in Morocco.
Access to weapons.
Not a westerner.
Decades in the making.
Willing to die.
He said, “The shooter has his gun. They have to be in with the president and the crown prince.”
The director paled. “You mean part of his staff? Or one of the guests?”
Robie didn’t answer. He was already sprinting down the hall.
CHAPTER
93
THE FAMILY DINING ROOM was one of the most intimately scaled rooms on the main level of the White House. It was bracketed on one side by the chief usher’s office and could also be accessed through the much larger and adjacent State Dining Room. The president and vice president would often have one-on-one lunches there. It was not as elaborately decorated as the far larger East Room or the ornately furnished Green, Blue, and Red Rooms.
Yet if Robie and company failed tonight, it would be the room known forever as where a U.S. president had lost his life.
The group marshaled outside the door to the State Dining Room.
The director said, “We’re going to alert agents inside the room that the shooter is probably in there. They’ve already formed a hard wall around the president and are awaiting my order to get him out of the room.”
Blue Man said, “If they do that or start searching people the assassin will fire. In such close quarters and despite the wall around the president, the bullet might hit its target.”
“We can’t just wait and see if the person acts or not,” countered the director. “Protocol says to move and to move fast. I should have already given the order.”
Robie said, “How many people in that room total?”
“About fifty,” said one of the agents.
“This could turn into a bloodbath,” said Blue Man.
The director said curtly, “No one wants that. But my focus is only on the president. We plan to take him out through the chief usher’s office and from there to the Entrance Hall.”
Another agent said, “And the longer we wait, the less chance we have of getting him out of there safely.”
Blue Man said, “What if there’s more than one shooter? You could be leading him directly into an ambush.”
Robie said, “The shooter must be someone who works here.”
“That’s impossible,” said the director.
“The person was involved in a conspiracy with someone we know worked here. That’s indisputable. That could not be an outsider. And many of the people in that room with the president and the crown prince are staffers, correct?”
The director gave a start. “It could be one of the prince’s staffers. It was a major mistake to put them in the same room together. Shit!”
Robie shook his head. “Van Beuren was found in the West Wing. Did one of the prince’s staffers have access to the West Wing tonight? Because Van Beuren’s head injury was recent.”
The director looked at one of his men. “Do you have the answer to that?”
“None of the prince’s staffers were anywhere near the West Wing this evening.”
“Son of a bitch!” exclaimed the director.
Robie said, “People have been paid off up and down the line on this one, sir. The person behind this has lots of money. No one is off-limits. For all we know he might have bought off a Secret Service agent in there.”
“I can’t believe that,” said the director. “No agent has ever been a traitor.”