Book 1 of the H&K Series : Path of Knowledge

Chapter 20

"Director, your family has been taken by Wright. Your family's detail leader's body was found on the side of the street not far from the Mitchell home. The driver was a plant as was the driver for the Mitchell woman. Luckily, the Mitchell woman had a gun. Shamus is bringing in the driver as we speak. He dropped the Mitchell family off at an undisclosed location," a task force member said as she met Bob. Marquis and their driver walked up to the task force headquarters entrance.

"Have you heard from any of the other vehicles?" Bob asked as they passed into the building.

"No, they are still dark, but GPS has them heading in our direction," the woman told Bob. "The secretary of Homeland Security is waiting for you in the tac room."

Bob strolled through the building for his telecommunication meeting with the secretary of Homeland Security in the tac room. Bob's mind was on the safety of his family but more on his job. If Bob did his job right, he knew they would be recovered safely. Bob punched in the security code and retinal scan to access the tac room. Bob walked into the center of the tac room as one of the technicians activated the wall-sized monitor on the far wall.

"Bob, what the hell is going on?" the secretary of Homeland Security asked from the monitor, larger than life.

"Sir, there seems to be a concerted centralized attacked being launched against the task force and our families," Bob told the secretary.

"I was just told that your family and a family connection to you were taken captive. Is this true?" the secretary asked.

"I just found out myself, sir. Where did you get the information?" Bob shot back.

"Are you questioning me, mister? I will let you know that I can relieve you of your command!" the secretary warned.

"Mr. Secretary, I was merely asking where your information came from since those of us on the ground found out less than half an hour ago," Bob replied, keeping the anger and accusation out of his tone.

"I take offense to your accusation, mister," the secretary stated.

"Mr. Secretary, there is no point in accusing or assuming anything. The task force will continue to do our job until we have those responsible or disbanded."

"Well, find out what's going on and get back to me," the secretary said before signaling the connection to be terminated.

"What the hell was that all about?" Marquis asked.

"You found that odd as well?" Bob asked as he turned to leave the tac room.

"Odd? Damn insane. If I were a suspicious person, I would think he had the information before anything went down," Marquis said.

"Pull in everyone. Put together a handful of those you trust and check the background of everyone, and I mean everyone. Look for even the least suspicious thing and expand upon it. Make it quick too. We are losing people left and right." Bob was pacing along the hallway outside the tac room.

"What about your family?"

"They will be safe only after we get to the leaders and money behind this whole business, then we may end it all."

*****

Hank led Shamus, Grant, Michael Jr., Cyndi, and Karen with baby Julia down the stairs to the basement as Jerome stood to watch in the living room. At the bottom of the stairs, Hank turned right and walked along the wall that encased the stairwell. At the end of the wall and under the top landing of the stairs, Hank slid out a filing cabinet that had been placed under the landing. Below where the filing cabinet had been, a steel door was recessed in the floor. Hank pushed a button hidden in the rafters over the door. The door slowly rose to reveal a metal stairwell leading even farther down. Twenty feet below the basement floor, Hank had had a safe room built. Four feet of concrete reinforced steel separated the basement and the safe room. The safe room was a fallout shelter with an air filtration system, water filtration, sewage removal, stored food, and bottled water. There was enough room in the twenty-by-twenty-five-foot safe room for four people to live for an extended amount of time. The steel outer door was from a bank vault door that had a high rating against fire and blasts. The titanium skin was a quarter-inch thick. The room was pneumatically sealed with a counter air pressure device. Once the outer door opened, an inner door appeared. Hank inputted the code. The door slid back.