Arthur answered with a trembling voice.
“Harrison?
Harrison, listen to me, something crazy is happening—”
“Arthur, listen to me very carefully,” Senator Harrison’s voice blasted through the speaker, panicked, raw, and terrified. “Never call this number again. Delete my contact. Burn your phone. I just received a call from the Director of National Intelligence. If I so much as speak your name, I am being stripped of my committee seat and sent to a federal penitentiary. Who the hell did you cross, Arthur?! What did you do?!”
The line went dead.
A suffocating silence descended upon the hallway.
Outside the heavy glass windows of the ICU lobby, the night was shattered by the rhythmic, heavy thumping of helicopter blades.
Searchlights cut through the rain, illuminating the street below.
A fleet of eleven unmarked black armored SUVs pulled onto the hospital driveway, blocking every entrance and exit.
Dozens of men in dark, tactical suits equipped with suppressed sidearms stepped out into the pouring rain, securing the perimeter with military efficiency.
