Deadlock (Ryan Lock 2) (28 page)

The route from the airport or the helipad that was being used might normally be a worry, but Lock reckoned that the presidential limousine removed much of that risk. Nicknamed ‘The Beast’ by the Secret Service, it was an up-armored Cadillac with run-flat tires and, if rumors were to be believed, its own air supply. A new one was usually rolled out for every inauguration, and the latest incarnation was said to weigh in at close to eight tonnes.

All this meant that the main threat would lie between The Beast and entry to the cathedral. Given that the authorities would have taken every sniper position for themselves, that left a rush from the crowd. Or, if Reaper and his accomplices stayed true to form, a full-on armed assault.

Lock looked around again, then crossed the street, trying to get a sense of the place from Reaper’s perspective. Where would he make his move from? What would be his best entry point?

Standing there, he noticed a freshly laid patch of asphalt. A truck with crash barriers loaded on to the back rolled over it. Once it had passed, Lock recrossed the street to take a better look.

Absence of the normal. Presence of the abnormal.

In and of itself there was nothing abnormal about a patch of road having been repaired. Lock didn’t know much about road repair either. But a couple of things did stand out to him. The first was that the road surface around the newly laid area was immaculate. No cracks. No damage. Lock guessed that it could have been a pothole, but why would the city go to all the trouble of resurfacing the whole area?

He looked back at the cathedral. The repaired area was directly parallel to the entrance. Exactly where the disembarkation point would be for the President.

Lock kicked away at where the new surface met the kerb with his boot. He kept kicking until he had chipped away the top layer of asphalt. Underneath that layer the filler looked fresh as well. He knelt down, pulled out his Gerber knife and dug into it, as far as the blade of the knife would go.

Nothing. He bit down on his lip. Ty, Coburn – hell, even Carrie – would tell him he was being paranoid. Of course the disembarkation point would have been freshly repaired. Just like the steps would be freshly swept. It was said that the Queen of England must think the world smells of fresh paint because everywhere she goes there’s some poor bastard twelve feet in front of her with a pot of paint. The same probably went for the President.

Lock re sheathed his knife and stood up, feeling the warmth of the sun on his back. Across the street, people strolled through Huntington Park, enjoying the weather.

He’d get Carrie to swing them an invite. Just in case.

63

Tuesday morning, eleven a.m. Snipers dotted the rooftops. A San Francisco Police Department helicopter buzzed low over Grace Cathedral. On the ground there were plenty of uniforms. The streets immediately surrounding the cathedral were closed to all but official traffic.

At a perimeter barrier formed by half a dozen sawhorses, Lock showed his invitation along with identification, and was checked off a list. He stepped through and waited for Ty to go through the same rigmarole. Carrie had come through, as Lock knew she would, securing them seats inside the cathedral.

‘Where do you think we’ll be sitting, huh?’ Ty asked, excited at the prospect of seeing the first African-American President in the flesh.

Lock shrugged, his mind on Reaper and the threat he posed. ‘How should I know?’

Ty stopped walking, forcing Lock to look back. ‘Will you just chill the hell out? Look around. No one’s going to be making any moves against the President with all this security. And even if they do, they got America’s Top Bodyguard in attendance.’ Ty smirked. ‘So where do you think we’re sitting?’

‘I’m sure you’ll be front and centre, right in between the President and the First Lady.’

‘Sweet. So, when’s this thing supposed to start?’

‘You make it sound like a concert.’

Ty craned his neck to check out the queue of guests in front of them. Here and there, Lock recognized a senator or some other major political figure. There were even a couple of high-profile actors and media types, presumably drawn in by the presence of the President. As people chatted excitedly, Lock wondered how many of them had ever even met Junius Holmes. The vibe was definitely not that of a funeral. Instead, the whole thing came off like the funeral was the hottest ticket in town. Lock reflected that it made for one huge upside: a rampaging gang of white supremacists making for the President was definitely going to stand out.

Leaving the crowds already gathering behind the barriers on the streets outside, Lock and Ty slowly headed up the steps of the cathedral. At the entrance, the funeral-goers were being searched. There was an airport-style metal detector and a separate X-ray machine for bags. By the way they were fumbling with belts and shoes, Lock guessed that most of this crowd flew private jets.

A sinewy brunette who was accompanying a Republican senator was in hushed conversation with a female Secret Service agent as Lock stepped up to take his turn. The machine had gone off and she was being asked to remove anything metal that she had on her person. ‘I have a piercing which can’t be removed,’ she was saying, her New York accent loud and pronounced. ‘Not here anyway.’

Ty was already through the detector and standing on the other side. ‘Come on, man,’ he said to Lock while peering towards the altar. ‘I can see a couple of good seats down the front.’

Yup, like we’re going to be allowed to sit there, thought Lock, knowing that most of the pews in that part of the cathedral would be reserved for the President and his entourage.

The detector beeped as Lock stepped through.

‘Sir, could you remove your belt?’ asked one of the agents.

Lock stepped back and, hitching up his lightweight jacket, saw that he still had his Gerber hanging from it. Stupid. He’d remembered to leave his 226 back at the hotel, but the Gerber he’d forgotten about. It was a new knife too. A gift from Carrie. An LMF II Infantry Knife with a 4.8-inch blade. Not easily missed.

Ty was still hopping up and down on the other side, watching as the New Yorker with the secret piercing and her septuagenarian date walked past him in the direction of the two seats he’d scoped out.

Lock made no attempt to hide the knife. One of the security people by the scanner had already seen it. ‘Sorry, forgot I had it on me. Can I leave it with you?’

Two agents were heading towards him now at speed. No big deal, thought Lock.

‘Sir, can you step over here?’ said one of them, ushering Lock off to one side.

The other agent picked up the knife, still in its sheath, from the plastic tray. Lock could see in his eyes that this was going to take a lot of explaining. Rather than dive in and offer up a
mea culpa
, he waited to take a cue from the two agents. He glanced around, hoping to spot Coburn or one of the other local guys, but there was no one he recognized apart from Ty, and he had given up waiting and was hustling to take a seat.

‘You usually bring a knife to a funeral?’ one of the agents asked as he palmed the Gerber off to his colleague.

Lock suppressed the urge to fire back with a wisecrack. Or to tell them that he had in fact, at one funeral, snapped the wrist of a suspect in a child abduction. ‘I had it on my belt, forgot it was there. Confiscate it if you like. Or give it back to me later?’

The agent who had been handed the knife had disappeared with it behind the scanner. He was running a swab over the blade.

The agent who was with Lock said nothing. Lock joined him in staying silent.

‘Could I see some identification, sir?’ the agent said at last.

Slowly, Lock dug his wallet from his pants pocket and flipped it open.

If the agent recognized the name, he showed no hint. Instead, he took the wallet and headed over to join his colleague by the scanner.

‘Stay right there,’ he said.

Lock checked his watch, feeling self-conscious as guests streamed past and the place began to fill up.

Then the two agents were back, their demeanor different. There was a tightness to their features, even more pronounced than before, and they’d been joined by a couple of San Francisco Police Department uniforms, one of whom had his hand on his gun. His partner was unclipping her cuffs.

Lock turned towards her, squaring his shoulders as she approached.

‘Sir,’ she said, ‘can you explain why the knife you’re carrying just tested positive for explosives?’

64

They called it living in the bubble. You couldn’t really understand it until you had experienced it. Even something as simple as going for a walk had to be cleared with the Secret Service.

Together, he and the First Lady had tried to keep things as normal as possible, especially for the kids. But no matter how hard you tried, the fact remained, when you were President, life was no longer normal.

The motorcade was whipping through the outskirts of San Francisco on the way from the airport to Grace Cathedral. He leaned towards the window, caught sight of the Golden Gate Bridge.

‘Hey, girls,’ he said to his two daughters, pointing it out.

They unbuckled their seat belts. His wife rolled her eyes.

‘Let them take a look, honey,’ he said with a smile.

Then he turned to the agent sitting next to him. ‘Can I put the window down so they can take a look?’

‘I’d really prefer if you didn’t, sir,’ the agent said.

The President let it go. He could overrule the guy, but he tried his best not to. The Secret Service people were there to protect him and his family, to lay down their own lives if they had to. Under those circumstances it didn’t seem fair to make their job any more difficult.

‘Sorry, girls.’

They sank back into their seats, and his youngest daughter stuck out her tongue at the agent.

‘Ashley!’ his wife scolded.

‘I’m sorry,’ Ashley singsonged.

The agent managed a smile. ‘That’s OK. We’re a big bunch of spoilsports, right?’

‘Worse than Dad,’ said Ashley.

‘And that’s saying something, right?’ the President joked.

It was tough on the kids, though. He tried to keep to a minimum the number of official engagements they went to, but sometimes it was the only opportunity he had to see them.

He turned to the agent. ‘How long until we get there?’

‘About twelve minutes, sir.’

‘You know,’ said the President, addressing his two daughters, ‘if you’re real good, maybe there’ll be a surprise later.’

‘Ghirardelli?’ they both asked, wide-eyed.

The Ghirardelli soda fountain on North Point Street near Fisherman’s Wharf was a San Francisco institution, famous for its chocolate and ice-cream sundaes. You could gain twenty pounds just looking at one of them.

‘Depends if you’re good.’ He nudged the agent. ‘I might even get you one too, Mike.’

‘Not sure my wife would thank you, sir,’ said the agent.

The President winked. ‘Then don’t tell her.’

The First Lady rolled her eyes again but kept a smile on her face. It was part of their married shtick. He’d misbehave, she’d scold him.

‘So, what d’you say, kids? Sundaes?’

The two little girls bounced up and down on their seats with anticipation as The Beast rolled inexorably ahead, freeway rolling under its run-flats, two motorcycle outriders sweeping the First Family towards the cathedral.

65

The Secret Service had hustled Lock and Ty out on to the back steps of the cathedral, away from the assembled dignitaries. Over the crush, Lock spotted Coburn walking towards the cathedral. His head was down. He looked troubled.

Lock shouted out to him, but Coburn didn’t react.

‘Ask that guy,’ said Lock, pointing towards Coburn, as a burly Secret Service agent stepped in front of him. ‘He’s ATF. He can vouch for me.’

The Secret Service agents gathered round them didn’t move.

‘OK, I’ll ask him,’ said Lock, stepping around them.

‘The hell you will,’ said the burly agent. ‘You still haven’t explained how you came to have explosives residue on a deadly weapon you were carrying in here.’

Coburn was heading up the steps towards them. ‘Coburn!’ Lock shouted. ‘Coburn!’ He turned to one of the agents. ‘Just ask him, would you?’

Coburn pulled out his ATF badge and showed it to someone standing halfway down the stairs. The agent checked it and let him pass.

He was just feet away from Lock and Ty now.

‘Hey,’ said the burly agent, ‘you know these guys?’

Coburn stopped, looked straight at Lock and Ty, and smiled. ‘Never seen them before in my life,’ he said, then ducked past the group and into the body of the cathedral.

Lock and Ty exchanged a look of disbelief.

‘Hey, Coburn!’ Lock shouted. He went to push past the agent, which only signaled to the cops to move in to cuff him.

‘Get this guy the hell out of here before POTUS gets here.’

‘OK, OK,’ Lock said, giving up.

‘Him too,’ said the Secret Service agent, nodding at Ty.

‘What the hell did I do?’ Ty protested.

The second Secret Service agent hitched his thumbs into his belt. ‘We need you both out of here. If everything checks out, you’ll be released later in the day.’

‘Place your hands behind your back,’ said one of the cops to Lock.

‘Fine,’ Lock said, doing exactly as he was told.

‘You have any needles, any other sharp objects in your pocket?’ a female cop asked.

‘No.’

She came up with a comb in the right front pocket of his jeans and his wallet, which she left where they were. Once they were satisfied that they posed no threat, Lock and Ty were perp-walked down the steps of the cathedral.

Ty twisted his head round. ‘Hey, take it easy, I got a bad shoulder.’

His plea was met with a growled ‘And if you don’t keep moving it’s gonna get a lot worse.’

The crowd gathered at the crash barriers jeered as Lock walked down the stairs and across the sidewalk, propelled towards a patrol car parked directly across the street next to the park. He watched as Ty was given the same treatment, the only difference being that Ty wasn’t going quietly. He couldn’t make out the words but he guessed they weren’t pretty.