Birch looked at Tate and Humphrey. It was ten o’clock. The phones began to ring off the hook. It had happened.

“Mr. President,” Jessica said quietly from the door to the Oval Office. “Director Kirby is on the phone for you.”

Birch picked up the phone with dread. Was his team safe? Did they stop the explosion? “Yes?”

“There was an explosion at the New York Stock Exchange.”

“Damage?”

“I don’t know yet. I’m on my way up there, and the New York office is calling me in a couple minutes when they arrive on site. We got the call through 9-1-1. There were reports of two Secret Service agents on site. Would you know anything about that?” Kirby asked.

“I do. They’re my men. Secure the area. I’m on my way to the site.”

Director Kirby paused for a moment. “Are you sure about that?”

“Only terrorism would cause an explosion at such a location. I’m determined to show them the US won’t back down. We’ll meet there, and I want all the intelligence you have on this.”

“Yes, sir.”

Birch hung up and looked over at Humphrey. “Did you get hold of them?”

Humphrey shook his head as Tate covered her gasp with her hand. Tate looked down at her phone. “Governor Orson Benning is calling in the New York National Guard and has just declared martial law. He’s sending private security to all major targets including water and electric.”

“Get my helicopter and get Orson on the phone,” Birch yelled as Humphrey called in Marine One.

“It’s ringing,” Jessica called out as Birch grabbed his secure line.

“This is President Stratton, get me Orson now,” he demanded of Orson’s secretary in a stone-cold voice as Tate rose.

“I have to get to the press room. Any comments?”

Birch shook his head. “Tell people to remain calm, and I’ll address the country as soon as I know something concrete.”

“Let me know the second you hear from our team.” Tate tried to be strong. She was strong. She’d proven it. But the thought of her friends dying was crushing.

---

“Someone answer the fucking phone,” Alex cursed as he paced the hotel room. He was trying to contact his friends while Roxie was talking to Fire Dragon and Dark Surfer.

“There were reported explosions in each location, but nothing yet on where those explosions took place,” Roxie called out as Alex hung up on Lizzy’s voicemail.

“I was in the process of shutting down the market when the president of the exchange froze all trading.” Alex angrily hung up when he heard Dalton’s voicemail pick up. He dialed Valeria and closed his eyes. The news was reporting the explosion, but nothing was known at this time. “I can’t stand this. Let’s go.”

“Go where?” Roxie asked as she looked up from her laptop.

“To the exchange. I can’t sit here wondering if my friends are all dead.”

Roxie typed something quickly into her laptop and closed it. “Let’s go. They’ll email me when they hear anything.”

“It’s not secure.”

Roxie shrugged as she reached out for his hand. “I know someone who will recue me if I get arrested. Let’s go see about your friends.” Even though she said it reassuringly, there was worry in her voice. The same worry he felt as they hurried to the street and took off running.

---

“Are you two hurt?” Lizzy asked as she limped toward where Grant was helping Valeria from the ground. The back of Grant’s vest was torn to shreds from debris and bullets, and he was covered in dust and glass.

“I’m banged up, but Grant took the brunt of it,” Valeria yelled a little louder than she needed. “But, Jason. He took the bomb and shoved it in a planter. There was no time—”

She didn’t need to finish. They all turned to look at where the large rectangular cement planter had once been. There was nothing but a hole in the ground now. The windows from the exchange were blown out, the stone was covered in black powder, and a fire burned the American flags hanging from the exchange.

Fire trucks, police, and agents were flooding the scene. “We have to find him,” Grant said, looking to Dalton.

“They’ll try to kick us out,” Lizzy told them as they limped, cursed, and hobbled their way toward the center of the explosion.

“You can talk them out of it,” Valeria said with confidence.

“I won’t leave a man behind.” Dalton tightened his jaw as he and Grant pushed past the flood of nearby police rushing toward the scene.

Valeria and Lizzy shared a worried look as they followed. There was smoke, people crying, screams as people looked for friends or family, and the wails of sirens. But Lizzy didn’t hear it. Instead, she felt as if the world stopped moving when Dalton and Grant stopped running and dropped to their knees next to the entrance of the exchange.

No. No, please, not Jason. Lizzy stopped behind Dalton and Grant. Valeria reached out and took her hand. As one, they stepped forward.

Jason was lying on the sidewalk against the building. Blood streamed from his neck where a large sharp piece of concrete was embedded. That wasn’t his only injury. Blood flowed from his stomach and leg. Grant and Dalton worked in quiet unison to stop the bleeding, but even though Lizzy wasn’t a trained paramedic like Grant and Dalton, she knew the result. Jason wasn’t going to make it.

Valeria squeezed her hand and dropped it. She moved to wedge herself between the wall and Jason’s head and placed her hand on his shoulder. Lizzy hurried to join her and reached for his hand. His face was black from the fire, and he had debris and glass lodged all up and down his body.

“You saved us by putting the bomb in the planter,” Valeria told him as she stroked his cheek.

“Hang on, Wolski. That’s an order,” Dalton commanded as he ripped his belt from his jeans and applied a tourniquet to Jason’s thigh where blood was flowing out.

“I’m sorry,” Jason whispered softly. “It’s an order I can’t follow. It’s an order I don’t want to follow.”

“No, Jason,” Dalton said harshly. Emotion was choking his voice and he refused to look at Lizzy. He kept his eyes on the wounds as he and Grant worked quickly to stop as much bleeding as possible.

Lizzy squeezed Jason’s hand as tears fell silently down her cheeks. “Love each other,” Jason whispered, even more faintly this time.

“No!” Dalton yelled. “It’s an order, dammit!”

“It’s okay, Dalton. I’ve been trapped in a cage of misery since Michelle. Don’t you see? I’m free now. I get to be with my love once again.” Jason’s lips curved up into a soft smile as his eyes focused heavenward.

Lizzy couldn’t hold it together anymore when Dalton and Grant began CPR. She raised Jason’s scraped hand to her lips and pressed her lips against the back of his hand. “Thank you, Jason. Be at peace.”

Valeria wrapped an arm around Lizzy as EMTs and police surrounded them. Dalton and Grant refused to give in to their grief until Lizzy and Valeria pulled them off. Dalton’s eyes were red as anger and grief warred within.

“It’s over,” Lizzy said softly, rubbing her hand over his cheek and down to his chest. She held him then as the body bag was closed over Jason’s body.

“It’s not over until I kill them all.”

“I’m good with that,” Valeria agreed. “But right now we need a plan. And we need to get our teammate home.”

Seconds later, they were surrounded by FBI. Their fingers were laced behind their head as they were searched and weapons were seized. Nobody said a thing when they were questioned and handcuffed.

---

Birch hung up the phone with the British prime minister and let out a breath. They’d been stopped. No exchange had been brought down. It had been close, but they’d survived. Trading had been frozen and would remain frozen while this threat was dealt with. But catastrophic damage had been avoided.

Governor Orson Benning, on the other hand, was trouble.

“What’s the word?” Humphrey asked from his spot on Marine One.

“The exchanges are safe. All assailants were killed. Bombs were either detonated through a remote or by the timer. There was damage to the outside of the buildings and cars, several civilian injuries, and a couple deaths of police officers. The threat has been neutralized. For now.”

“There’s a reason you couldn’t get through to Orson. He just happened to be in New York City today. He’s heading down there with the guards to make a statement at the bombing site. He’s saying you’re weak on terrorism, and he’s not going to let his city burn while you do nothing. Martial law has been enacted. A curfew is set. No large public gatherings are being allowed. And he’s ordered the reopening of the stock exchange as a show of strength.”

“Son of a bitch.” Birch slammed his hand on the leather couch. “Get me Alex and Senator Epps.”

---

“Stop!” Grant growled when an EMT went to remove Jason’s body. “He’s our man, and we’re not leaving him.”

“Look, right now I’m thinking you might be one of people responsible for this,” the agent said. “So, I give zero shits about what you want right now. Not until you start answering questions. The officer over there identified you two as the ones pretending to be Secret Service moments before the explosion. Until you tell me who you are working for, you’re coming with us.”

“Get Director Kirby on the line,” Lizzy said as they watched Jason’s body being lifted onto a stretcher.

The agent snorted. “You want me to just ring up the director?”

“Yes. And you tell him you have FBI Agent Elizabeth James in custody and that she’s requesting she be released immediately. Then see what he says.”

“You’re FBI?” the agent said skeptically as the other men around them chuckled as if this were a joke.

“I was. Kirby wants me back. Call him.”

“She’s legit,” a female agent said, holding her phone over for the agent questioning them to see.

“Hey, boss!” the agent called out to a man directing other agents and talking to the police. “This woman is a former agent and says she wants us to call Director Kirby. She’s with the two men pretending to be secret service.”

The boss put a phone to his ear as he walked toward them. He was in his late fifties, and Lizzy knew he had been running the New York office for the past eight years. He was a tough as nails agent, but a reasonable person. He wore the standard-issue dark suit with an American flag on the lapel. His dark brown hair had gray around the temples, but otherwise you would have pegged him to be a decade younger than he was.

“Yes, sir.” He lowered his phone and looked right at her. “I’m Special Agent in Charge Cromwell. What’s your name?”

“Elizabeth James.”

He repeated it into the phone and then nodded. “And you guys are my two Secret Service agents?”

Dalton and Grant nodded.

“And who are you?” Cromwell asked, pinning Valeria with a stare.

“She’s with me,” Lizzy said in her best agent voice.

“FBI?”

“DEA,” Valeria answered with the same no-nonsense agent voice.

“Yes, sir. I’ll hold them here.”

“I want to go with my fallen partner,” Dalton requested with a nod to where Jason’s body was being loaded into an ambulance.

Cromwell spoke into the phone with Kirby and then hung up. “You may go with your partner. I don’t know who you are, but the president has ordered your release. The rest of you stay here. I have questions for you, and Director Kirby will be arriving shortly.”

Dalton turned to Grant, and with a single hard look, Dalton conveyed his instructions to him. “Be careful,” Dalton whispered to Lizzy before kissing her quickly on the cheek.

“We’ll see you back in DC,” she told him, sounding more confident than she felt. Right now she wasn’t sure exactly what was going to happen.

“What were you doing here?” Agent Cromwell asked.

“I’ll only talk to Kirby,” Lizzy told him as her team all stepped back and took a seat on the sidewalk in unison.

Cromwell stared down at him until his phone rang. “Cromwell,” he answered and then suddenly stood up straighter. “Mr. President.” Cromwell’s eyes shot to them sitting on the sidewalk as he nodded. “I’m sorry, did you say National Guard? What the fu—? Sorry, sir.”

Lizzy, Valeria, and Grant looked at each other. National Guard? Cromwell continued to nod. “I want to make sure I understand my orders. You want me to stop the governor from visiting the bombing site and withhold all information about the investigation from him?”

“That’s interesting,” Lizzy whispered as Val and Grant nodded their agreement.

“Yes, Ms. James is here. One moment.” Cromwell walked over to her and handed her the phone. “The president wants to speak to you.”

Lizzy stood up and took the phone into her hand. She put it to her ear. “This is Elizabeth,” she said as she walked down the street far enough so that Cromwell wouldn’t be able to hear her conversation.

“I got hold of Alex. He’s minutes away. He has information with him that connects Governor Benning to Mollia Domini. I want this information to get to Cromwell, but he can’t know where it came from. I want to see Orson in handcuffs in front of the camera crew he’s bringing along.”

“What’s going on, Birch?” Lizzy asked, dropping her voice.

“Orson is on his way there with the New York National Guard. He’s declared martial law as well as declaring me a terrorist sympathizer and demanding the immediate reopening of the exchange. Alex found illegal payments from Manuel Hernandez, along with emails outlining a conspiracy to have me overthrown through a military coup. CBL Services Group and Brandon Locke play into his plan as CBL will be taking over security in place of the feds.”

“Well, you won’t have to worry about Locke. He’s dead.” Lizzy paused. “And so is Jason.”

Birch was quiet for a long moment. “How?”

“He shot Locke so he couldn’t detonate the bomb, and then with seconds remaining on the timer, he took the bomb and stuffed it into a large cement planter. It helped minimize the damage. Because of his actions the people running from the exchange’s side doors were saved and the building itself was saved. There’s damage, but it’s superficial. Dalton is with his body.”

“I’ll make sure I put in an order for Jason and Dalton to clear the medical examiner’s office ASAP and arrive home with full military honors,” Birch sighed.

“He told us he was finally free to be with Michelle again.” Lizzy turned her back to the FBI and wiped the tears forming in her eyes.

“They will both be honored. I swear to it.” Birch paused again and took a deep breath. “I’ve also gotten a phone call from Sebastian and a message from Bertie Geofferies asking when the stock exchange will reopen. The president of the exchange was smart enough to defer to me for the time being, but those two are putting immense pressure on him to reopen as soon as the building is cleared.”

Lizzy pushed the hurt and pain of loss back down inside of her and focused on the now. “I know why. Their artificial intelligence software must be ready. The best time to test it is when the market is headed toward a big movement. And it’s going to most likely plummet if it’s reopened too soon.”

“The question is, did they know about the attack?” Birch asked, finally addressing the possibility that his best friend could be the head of Mollia Domini.

“I don’t know, but I have a plan.”

“The operation is in your hands. Take them down by any means necessary. Now.”

Lizzy took a deep breath. “Consider it done.”