Page 36 of Hawk on the Hunt

“Oh, good!” she said cheerfully. “I’ll leave right away. Thank you so much! I appreciate it.”

She disconnected the call, shoved her cell phone into her handbag, grabbed her jacket, and rose. “They said he can take me if I get over there right away.”

“Good,” Clara said with a smile. “We’ll see you later.” She tilted her head in the direction of the senator’s office door, which was closed. “I’ll let him know. And call or text if you think you won’t make it back in today.”

“Of course, Clara, thanks.”

Zara rushed out the door and pulled it shut behind her. She slipped into her jacket, arranged her staff badge so it was easily visible, and walked to the elevators. Earlier she’d already arranged for visitor passes for Dylan and Tiger, using the fake names they had provided her with. Dylan had assured her that the fake IDs that went with the names were foolproof thanks to Fox’s IT skills and the high-quality printer at the mansion. She’d looked at the IDs herself the previous night, and had been surprised at how real they looked, watermarks and all.

Nevertheless, she was nervous as she waited in the foyer just a few yards away from the metal detector and the security desk when she finally saw Dylan and Tiger go through security. When the security guard checked their IDs against the register of visitors, Zara approached.

“Oh, there they are,” she said cheerfully. She waved her staff badge at the security guard and addressed Dylan and Tiger, “Gentlemen, the senator is already expecting you.”

The guard nodded. “I was about to call your office. You saved me a phone call.”

She acknowledged his words with a smile. “Thanks.”

Zara turned on her heel and motioned Dylan and Tiger to follow her. Instead of turning to the elevators, she turned in the other direction toward the Senate’s own mini-subway system, which connected all three Senate buildings with the Capitol. There would be no more security checks from here on out. However, that didn’t mean they didn’t have to be careful.

As they reached the escalators that led down to the monorail track, Zara looked at Dylan. “We’re not taking the rail.”

“Why not?” he asked just as quietly.

“Because it gives people a chance to look at us for too long,” she said. “It’s better if we walk down the tunnel.”

Dylan opened his mouth to say something, but Tiger spoke first. “And that’s not suspicious?”

She shook her head. “Many of the staffers and even the senators walk to get a little exercise when they’re not in a hurry. Nobody will take any notice of us.”

“Us?” Dylan finally asked. “You’re not coming with us. It’s too dangerous.”

“You can’t go without me.”

Dylan took her arm. “That wasn’t the deal. We agreed that you’d get us inside. But there was no discussion of you coming with us.”

“You don’t have a choice. Visitors can only move around within the Capitol complex if they’re accompanied by a representative or a staff member.”

He narrowed his eyes. “You knew that. Yet you let me believe this entire time that Tiger and I would go in alone?”

Zara started walking along the tunnel, and Dylan and Tiger kept pace with her. “Of course I did. Otherwise, you would have never agreed to let me help you get in. If the Speaker is really behind this, then the only way to get to him is with my help. I know where his office is located, and the best way to get there without being seen by too many people.”

Dylan grunted, and she could hear his frustration in his tone. But there was no way in hell she would let him go into the Capitol without her. If he and Tiger got stopped by security personnel realizing that they were unaccompanied, they would be detained.

“She’s got a point,” Tiger said in a low voice.

“Of course she’s got a point,” Dylan said with a sideways glance at her. “That’s what makes it so infuriating.”

Zara shrugged. “Get used to it. You really think that after what you told me over the last two days, I’d let you take any more risks than you are already taking?”

“I’m the one who’s trained to take risks, not you.”

“Yeah, well, I’ve gotten a crash course. Live with it!”

He grunted again, but didn’t protest any further. As they walked the approximately quarter-mile long tunnel, they encountered only a handful of people coming from the Capitol. Nobody took any notice of them. Two trains drove past them in the time it took them to reach the foyer that opened up to the escalators that led to the first floor of the Senate side of the Capitol building.

One of the subway trains that had just passed them, had stopped there, and senators and staff members alighted. They were instantly surrounded by a throng of reporters sticking recording devices in their faces, peppering them with probing questions. The journalists took no notice of her and her companions, which made it easy to pass by them and get onto the escalators without delay. They reached the main floor of the Capitol building within a few short moments. It was unusually busy here, and she wondered whether the news that Marine One had been disabled had already made the rounds.

“We’re on the Senate side of the Capitol building now,” Zara explained with a look at Dylan and Tiger.”