Imminent Threat by Jeff Gunhus

Author:Jeff Gunhus [Gunhus, Jeff]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Kensington Books
Published: 2020-09-24T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 33

Jim Hawthorn put down the phone and reached a hand to his desk to steady himself. He’d faced all manner of threats in his career, including the existential nuclear threats of the Cold War.

It’d been a while since he’d felt the immediacy of a threat this size.

Or felt like his adversary had the ability to pull it off regardless of his efforts to stop him.

Even having divined Scarvan’s intentions, assuming Scott’s conclusion was right, the whole thing was starting to remind Hawthorn of watching a talented street magician. One who explains his trick, even urging his audience to watch closely, and then still pulling it off right in front of their noses.

Only the trick Scarvan had planned wasn’t to entertain.

It was to bring chaos to the world.

Hawthorn picked up his secure phone and punched in a number from memory.

“’Mornin’, Jim, what can I do you for?” came the answer on the second ring. As chief of staff, Nancy McKeen was never away from her phone. Her Alabama drawl made Hawthorn feel like she’d perhaps taken the call on her front porch back home, maybe whiling away time on a rocking chair, just hoping someone would stop by to visit for a spell. He knew in reality she was hunkered down in her office only feet away from the Oval Office. McKeen was a brilliant DC operator. Most importantly, she was someone President Patterson listened to.

“Nancy, I’m coming over. I need time immediately.”

“If I ask, I suppose, once again, you’re not going to tell me what’s going on over the phone,” she said.

“Is Mitch Dreslan over there?” Hawthorn asked.

“Goddammit, Jim. If––”

“It’s no more immediate than it was twelve hours ago,” Jim said. “We have every reason to believe that Jacobslav Scarvan is not in the United States. Not yet.”

A long pause, then a heavy sigh. “Shit, anyone else I’d threaten to stripe their hide for not telling me what’s going on right goddamn now, but I don’t suppose that’s going to work here.”

“I don’t suppose it is,” he said. “My people are working on a few things first. I want to give everyone a clear picture when I go over it.”

“All right, I’ll clear the deck. Make up some excuse for messin’ up the official calendar. Again.”

“And get Dreslan. He needs to hear this.”

Hawthorn hung up the phone and checked his watch. Greece was seven hours ahead of DC. Scott would gain an hour flying to Prague. He just hoped he arrived on time to help Mara face Scarvan.

If Scarvan even showed up.

It was a fortunate coincidence that Kolonov showed his head when he did, giving Scarvan a chance to settle that one more score from the boat.

Hawthorn believed in coincidence, just not the kind that favored him. He’d seen it go the other way too many times. An operative on a mission running into a long-lost schoolmate in a foreign country. A phone intercept plucked at random for review to throw a wrench in the works of a covert job.

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