Page 68 of Locked Down

Archer had gone back behind the bar and poured himself a drink.“How do you mean?”

“Does he just want Vic out of the way? Then why the bomb? He could accomplish her death much more quickly and quietly than blowing her up. A hit-and-run would do nicely, but instead, he hired a bomb maker to make a bomb modeled after the ones used by one of those fringe groups who don’t recognize the sovereignty of the government. He doesn’t want it nice and quiet. He wants it to make a big bang, literally.”

Ryker took a breath. WhatdidDavis want? What did he really want?“He wants the big splash... If Vic dies on her birthday, supposedly at the hand of some extremist group, it immediately catapults him into the public eye. He gets the sympathy of everyone regardless of which side they’re on. Carrying on with the campaign in the face of such personal tragedy makes him a hero. And he can blame and condemn some whacked-out, conspiracy-peddling outliers, which makes the fringe groups that like him seem far less sinister. It’s a win, win, win for him.”

“So if those were your goals, how would you do it?”Archer asked as he studied Ryker over the rim of his drink.

“I would do it…I would make it a car bomb. I would do it right outside the hotel. I would make it go off just as they pull away from the curb. It will be after midnight and the party will have just started to break up. Enough witnesses would be there to see his devastation in person, there might even be a bit of press still hanging around. The mainstream media and a few of the extremist press groups have been invited.”He knew Vic had protested the size of the invitation list but had been overruled by Marilee. Probably on orders from Davis.Focus, Ryker. Work this problem first. Davis would get what’s coming to him in time.“And I’d do it here because we’re just up from the White House. It would trigger a lockdown at the White House and…son of a bitch,”Ryker mumbled.“Fuck. He’s so fucking smart.”

“What?”Archer growled.

“He’s going to announce he’s running for VP tonight just after midnight when he does the toast to Vic. I’m sure of it. And, if that’s the case, who will already be here when the bomb goes off?”

Archer frowned.“I don’t follow.”

“The Secret Service. There will already be Secret Service agents here at the party because the man who’s going to be appointed VP by formal announcement in the next day or two will already have a security detail provided by the White House. So, what happens when the bomb goes off?”

Archer’s lip curled.“They’ll rush him to the safest place around. The White House.”

Ryker grunted as all the air left his lungs. This was bad. No this was worse than bad. This was catastrophic.“You cannot buy better publicity than this. He gets to be seen as the victim and he’s seen going onto the White House grounds for safety. It will make him look vice presidential without him doing a damn thing. An ingenious way to sway voters. Heandthe President will be a sure thing for re-election.”

He was going to be sick. The scotch rolled around his gut and he swallowed hard to keep it down.“This is so damn bad, Archer.”

For the first time since Ryker had met his boss, Archer Gray had gone pale. The man’s skin was white.

“I should’ve let you kill him,”Archer growled.“If we don’t stop this, Davis will rise to power and then no one will be safe. Not the government, not the Society, not the little old ladies in their beds. Davis will revel in the power and whoever is behind him will not be able to control him, not once he has the money as well as the job.”

“Is it too late to kill him?”Ryker sat down hard on the arm of the couch.“I might be able to come up with some kind of a plan…”

“No. You’re right. The Secret Service will already be here. There’s no way to get to him without getting caught.”Archer threw his glass across the room, hitting the wall. Shards of glass scattered in all directions.

Ryker said nothing. He wanted to do the same thing. He wanted to puke. Mostly he wanted to go downstairs, grab Vic, and run. Run far and run fast. But none of that was going to happen. He took a deep breath.“We need a plan. A way to guarantee the bomb doesn’t go off.”

Color had started to rise in Archer’s cheeks. His eyes had gone deep green. His expression was blank, but his wrath radiated in the room. He was out for blood, no question.

“You have to escort Vic out of here. Right after midnight. Take her out through the kitchens to the alley in the back. I’ll make sure Rush or Flynn has a car waiting. Then take her directly to the airport. Put her on a jet to wherever. I’ll send one of the others with her. I need you here.”

Ryker nodded. He was going to go with Vic but he didn’t need to tell Archer that now. He’d tell him when they were at forty thousand feet.“We need a lawyer.”

Archer cocked an eyebrow.“And why do we need a lawyer?”

“Because we need Vic to change her will. She needs to leave the money to her parents if something happens to her. And then we need to tell Davis. He won’t want to kill her then.”

“It’s a thought, but we can’t get it on record now. If Vic died, her parents would have to contest the current will and show the new one. It would take a while and while they would probably win, it still leaves Davis wiggle room. We’ll do it, but I don’t think Vic changing her will is going to alter his plan. He’s too juiced up on his potential power.”Archer glanced at his phone screen but continued.“Go downstairs and see if you can identify the Secret Service people. We need a plan to make this work. I don’t just want Vic to escape, we need to make sure that bomb doesn’t go off.”

Ryker frowned.“Since when do you care about the general public?”

“I don’t, but I am not giving Davis any kind of a platform to run on. I want to bury him not help get him elected. No bomb, no instant likeability.”

It was a fair point. They needed to scuttle Davis’s plan in a big way.

A thought hit Ryker right in the solar plexus. He cocked his head.“What if we call in a bomb threat?”

Archer lifted one brow.“Go on.”

“If we say there’s a bomb planted in one of the vehicles outside the hotel and it’s set to go off, that will shut down the party. People will have to be escorted out other doors. It will kill the festivities before they really begin. And it buys us time. We can get Vic out of here and out of his reach.”

“Could work.”Archer tapped his thumb on the bar top.“But let’s wait. If we call it now, they could say they’re sweeping and let everyone stay while they do it. Then the party will continue, and Davis will still do the toast. If we wait until around eleven, then Drake can reasonably usher everyone out through other doors. With the party’s abrupt end, Davis won’t get to make his speech.”

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