Chapter 9
Wednesday Morning
At about 9:00 a.m., Lee casually
strolled past the entrance to the bookstore at the Lincoln Memorial. He caught
sight of Otto Bauer, making eye contact for a brief instant and moving on. He
waited for Otto's sole customer to come out, then went in and started browsing.
After a few minutes, he took one of the small books on Lincoln's early life and
took it to the counter. With a friendly smile, he said, almost under his
breath, "I'm just a customer. We've never met. Now. . .when I hand you the
money for this book, I'll also hand you a miniaturized two-way radio. If you
see Heller, or any of the others you recognize, just depress the red button to
talk into it. If they come too close, press the button and hold it down, and
we'll pick up the signal."
Otto nodded, saying, "That'll be
$7.50, sir," and accepting Lee's twenty-dollar bill and the small device.
As he counted back the change into Lee's palm, he asked quietly, "You have
more people here?" At Lee's almost imperceptible nod, he smiled, and said,
full voice, "Thank you very much, sir! Have a good day!"
Lee walked out of the bookstore and
scanned the faces of several visitors to the central Memorial chamber as he
pretended to read the engraved quotations on either side of the imposing statue
of Mr. Lincoln. Twenty minutes later, when he turned to exit the Memorial, he
narrowed his eyes as he saw Dieter and Amanda holding hands and walking up the
steps, apparently enjoying each other's company, going by the smiles on their
faces. His fists clenched at his sides involuntarily, but he took a deep breath
and squared his shoulders, quickly assuming a practiced air of indifference as
he passed by them on his way down to the Reflecting Pool.
By 10:00 a.m., the visitors coming for
the Family Values rally had begun to congregate near the Reflecting Pool and at
the base of the steps. In amongst the many family groups were numerous federal
agents, clad for the most part in khaki pants and golf shirts, and fitting in
seamlessly. Several of them carried soft-sided backpacks, presumably for the
purpose of carrying sandwiches and soft drinks for an impromptu lunch later. The
rally was scheduled to kick off at 10:30, with a speech by a well-known
minister. A large lectern stood outside the Memorial chamber, centered in front
of the Abraham Lincoln statue, and technicians were just finishing the sound
check. Lee walked past Francine Desmond without looking at her but saying,
"Anything?"
“No, no transmissions. Otto hasn't
seen them yet," she answered, smiling at Frank Duffy and offering him a
can of soda from her backpack as she continued to talk to Lee. "We've been
watching the front and all the way along the south side, in and out of all the
columns, but so far, nothing."
"Just keep your eyes and ears
open, and watch your backs," Lee said as he meandered through the crowd
toward the right side of the Memorial. When he'd moved far enough around to be
able to see between the columns, the muscle in his jaw began to twitch.
"Giesele," he whispered to himself, then pulled the small
walkie-talkie from inside his jacket. "Amanda? Dieter? You two still
inside?"
"Lee?," Amanda whispered
into the low-tech communicator.
"Yeah, it's me, Amanda," he
responded. "Look, I just saw Giesele going down the steps on the north
side. It looked to me like she'd just laid something down. Take a look over
there, but be careful, okay?"
"Okay, we're on it," she
answered, clicking off and sliding the walkie-talkie into her purse. As
nonchalantly as possible, she and Dieter slipped across behind the speaker and
walked hand-in-hand to the north side of the Memorial. About halfway back,
sitting at the base of one of the marble columns, they spotted it. . .a small
black backpack with a lightning-bolt patch.
Amanda leaned against the column and
shielded Dieter from view as he began a slow, careful inspection of the
backpack. He tugged lightly at the velcro that held the flap in place, then
lifted it open gingerly. He held his hand up to Amanda and asked for the
walkie-talkie. Pressing the button, he called, "Scarecrow?"
"Yeah," Lee replied,
"What've you got?"
"It looks to be a bottle of clear
liquid, with a fuse, connected to a timer."
"How much time?"
"If I'm reading this correctly,
we have about 15 minutes," Dieter answered, folding the flap down and
sealing the velcro closure. As he stood up back-to-back with Amanda he asked,
"Now. . .what do you want us to do?"
"Switch that backpack for the one
Amanda brought, then take that one to the back side of the Memorial, and hand
it off to one of the bomb squad guys. Their truck is back there, marked DC
Plumbing Supply. And be careful!"
Immediately, Lee checked in with
Francine and found that Otto had radioed her about Giesele, and that he'd also
spotted Gunther Heller going out the other side. Francine dispatched several
agents to find the remaining bomb-laden backpacks. They found ten in all, and
the bomb squad had managed to defuse them before the crowd was any the wiser.
Fred Fielder caught the 'iron maiden' as she was trying to hail a cab on 23rd
street. Agents rounded up seven others of the group as they'd tried to mix into
the crowd after leaving their deadly packages.
While all of this was happening, Lee
made a run for the 'Vette, which he'd parked at the back of the circular drive
that encompassed the Memorial. When he passed Amanda, she started to follow
after him. He turned back, pointing a finger at her and ordering, "You stay here! I'm gonna try and catch
up to Heller. I'll meet you back at the Agency!" he called out, then
folded his tall frame into the 'Vette and drove off.
Before she'd had time to protest,
Amanda saw Billy Melrose pulling up in a brown sedan, with Erich Bauer in tow.
"Sir!" she called out, running out to meet him.
Amanda looked to the young man and
then to Billy. At her questioning look, Billy said, "We found Erich, here,
bound to a chair at the motel. He filled us in on what he knew about the plan,
and he's coming in to make a formal statement. Now. . .where's Scarecrow?"
he asked.
"He just took off that way,
sir," Amanda replied, extending her arm and pointing to her left. "He
said he was after Gunther Heller."
Francine came down the steps then, and
filled Billy in on the rest of the suspects and how the agents had apprehended
each of them. "All right then," Billy said, "Lets get back to
the office, and. . ."
Amanda cut in, "But sir. . .what
about Lee?"
"Look, Amanda, he's a trained
agent. He'll call for backup if he needs it—just trust him, all right?"
"But. . ." she started to
say. At Billy's no-nonsense look, she caved in and said, "Okay. I'll see
you back at the Agency."
********
Lee’s eyes narrowed as he caught sight
of Gunther Heller on his motorcycle, about a hundred yards ahead of him on
Independence Avenue. He thumped the steering wheel in frustration at the
unusually heavy mid-morning traffic, as he watched Heller cutting between two
cars and making a sharp left turn. “Come on, come on!” Lee shouted to the
driver in front of him as the slow moving vehicle finally moved out of his
way. He gunned the ‘Vette’s accelerator
and wheeled around the corner, tires squealing, as he raced ahead, switching
lanes to take advantage of every chance to catch up to the runaway terrorist.
He barely missed hitting a tour bus at Constitution Avenue as he sped through
the intersection, finally overtaking Heller and cutting him off in front of
Union Station. Lee gasped as he looked back to see Heller spinning out of
control and falling to the ground. He pulled the ‘Vette over to the curb,
running to kneel beside Gunther’s broken body. He pressed his finger to
Heller's neck and felt for a pulse.
Discovering a weak one at best, he sprinted back to his car and grabbed
the cell phone, quickly punching in the number for Billy Melrose.
Billy had just opened the door to his
office as the phone rang. "Melrose."
"Billy, Scarecrow. I've got
Heller, but he's in pretty bad shape. Call an ambulance and have 'em come to
the corner of Independence Avenue and First Street, okay?"
"Consider it done," Billy
replied. "As soon as they get there, come on in, and we'll tie up all the
loose ends."
"You've got it, Billy," Lee
said before hanging up the phone. A sad expression came over his face as he
looked down at the fallen terrorist. He shook his head, wondering how someone
so young could have built up so much hate.
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