Read Shadow Agenda: An Action Suspense Thriller Online
Authors: Sam Powers
Shadow Agenda: An Action Suspense Thriller (58 page)
“Then…”
“I’m just the executioner,” Brennan said. He raised the pistol and fired.
July 9, 2016, WASHINGTON, D.C.,
For the first time in her career, Malone put a story to bed knowing part of it was a lie.
When the public read that week’s edition of News Now, they would learn that Mark Fitzgerald had arranged the sniper attacks and the failed nuclear threat, all under the guidance of presidential candidate Sen. John Younger, with the fallout designed to engulf Khalidi – a known Muslim radical – and Republic candidate Addison March. Upon learning his role would come out publicly, Younger had committed suicide via a single gunshot to the head.
Of course, the last part wasn’t true. She’d heard all of Fitzgerald’s interrogation statements, given access as part of her deal with the agency, a deal which would see the deceased Younger rightly take the blame in her exclusive, while Malone ignored the fact that Fitzgerald’s statements had contained not one shred of hard evidence against the late politician.
She sat at her desk reading the edition, just delivered from the printing plant. So much else had been excluded from the piece; there was no mention of Joe Brennan, or Walter Lang, or the agent known as Fawkes. But the story was solid, a labyrinthine tale of crooked companies, smuggling and spies.
“You look happy.” She looked over the top of the magazine. Ken Davis had taken the seat across from her.
“Yeah. Yeah, I guess I am,” she said.
“I know you don’t like cutting deals…”
“But this was different, I know.”
“Look…” He paused for a moment.
“Yeah?”
“I just want to apologize for making this harder on you than it had to be. I should have trusted you more.”
“You were just doing your job.”
He nodded. “Sure. But you were going above and beyond that, Alex. A lot of people… they probably won’t remember the byline tomorrow. But they’ll remember the story, even if they don’t know you helped save a lot of lives.”
She blushed, embarrassed. “I’m not sure what I’m supposed to say to that.”
“Say you’ll be back at work next week. We need you.”
She smiled. “I’ll be back at work next week.”
“Well good,” he said, rising. “But if I were you I’d cool it on hanging out with spies for a while.”
She thought about Joe, about how he’d told her just a night earlier how much he wanted to get home. “I don’t think that will be a problem,” she said. “I think, for now, everything is good.”
Carolyn sat at the kitchen island and sipped on her coffee. Ellen McLean had visited earlier in the evening, driving back home after a get-together that had been nothing short of miserable. They’d told her that her husband had been duped, tricked into serving what he thought was a government paymaster. But it didn’t matter; he’d admitted he knew it was wrong anyway, technically unsanctioned, that he’d done it to avenge his sister.
And so he was still going to jail. The only question was for how long.
It was just after ten; the kids had just gone to bed, and she waited for the phone to ring. Despite everything that had gone down in the few prior days, she still hadn’t heard from Joe. He had to be hurting, tired, not just from what she’d gathered from the news reports, but for what had happened to his best friend. How would he deal with it? And did it mean more time away from them, away from his family, more of his fear that he might expose them to his other life?
The front door lock turned. It opened slowly, a figure stepping into the house quietly, trying not to wake anyone.
“Joe?” she said.
He stepped out of the hallway and into the living room, a suitcase in one hand, a gym bag in the other. He looked tired, thinner. Older.
“Hi,” he said.
“Hi back,” she said. She went to him, put her arms around his neck and he leaned in, kissing his wife gently on the lips.
“I missed you,” he said. “I missed you and the kids so much…”
“I know,” she said. Before the assignment had begun, six months earlier, they’d been fighting, stressed, frustrated and tired of one another. Now, in the dark and quiet of the evening, they stared into each other’s eyes and forgot all about that. They remembered that they lived for each other, for their family.
Brennan smiled and kissed her again. It made it all worth it, he knew, to be with his family; to see those he loved, safe and sound.
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