Any Means Necessary (a Luke Stone Thriller-Book #1)

Chapter Twenty One

10:01 a.m.

The skies between Baltimore and WashingtonDC

The pilots were bad-asses.

The chopper flew low and fast. The landscape buzzed by below them, almost close enough to touch. Luke barely noticed. He shouted into the telephone. He kept losing the call. The hand-off process from one cell tower to the next was iffy at over a hundred miles per hour.

"We need to evacuate the White House," he said. "Trudy! Do you hear me?"

Her voice cut through the static. "Luke, there's a warrant for your arrest. You and Ed. It just came through."

"Why? Because of the doctors? We didn't hurt them."

There was a burst of static. The call dropped.

"Trudy? Trudy! Shit!"

He looked at Ed.

"He told me they were in the Dun-Rite Laundry van," Ed said. "The signs were magnetic decals. They took them off in Baltimore, and changed the license plates. There may be surveillance cameras near where Thomas was found. They might pick up the trail on the van's location that way."

Luke's phone rang. He picked it up.

"Trudy."

"Luke, before you say another thing, let me speak. Eldrick Thomas is dead. He had a massive heart attack. You and Ed are on video surveillance. It's clear in the video that you gave Thomas a shot of some kind."

"Ritalin, to wake him up," Luke said.

"Ed leaned in close just before Thomas died."

"Trudy, Thomas was giving Ed the information. Do you understand? Eldrick Thomas is not the issue right now. The attack is planned for the White House. All the evidence points to a drone attack. They were in the Dun-Rite Laundry van. They changed the markings. We need to find the van and we need to get everyone out of the White House. Now."

Another burst of static came in.

"They're not going to... Luke? Luke?"

"I'm here."

"They're watching Grand Central and the Hoboken PATH station. They closed the Midtown Tunnel. I spoke with Ron Begley. They don't believe it's the White House. They think you killed Eldrick Thomas. The arrest warrant is for murder."

"What? Why would I murder Eldrick Thomas?"

The phone cut out again.

Luke looked at Ed. "We'll get the pilots to radio it in."

Ed shook his head. "No good. Nobody's going to believe us. And if we tell the pilots to radio it in, everybody's going to know where we are. No. We have to go in ourselves. And we have to go in stealth."

Luke went up to the cockpit and poked his head inside.

He knew these two—Rachel and Jacob. They were old friends of his, and they'd flown together for years. Both of them were former U.S. Army 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment. Luke and Ed were used to flying with people like this. The 160th SOAR were the Delta Force of helicopter pilots.

Rachel was as tough as they came. You don't join an elite group of Army special operations pilots as a woman. You brawl your way in. Which was perfect for Rachel—her off-work hobby was cage fighting. Meanwhile, Jacob was as steady as a rock. His calm under fire was legendary, almost surreal. His hobby was mountaintop meditation retreats. The two of them might know Luke was suspended. They might even know there was a warrant for his arrest. But they also knew Luke was Delta, and they weren't the types to ask too many questions.

"How close can you get us to the White House?" Luke said.

"You got a lunch date?" Rachel said.

Luke shrugged. "Come on."

"South Capitol Street heliport," Jacob said. "It's a DC Metro Police pad, closed to all other traffic, but I know them. I can squeeze us in there. They're about three miles from the White House."

"I need an SRT car waiting for us," Luke said. "No driver, just the car. Okay?"

"Got it," Rachel said. She glanced back at him.

"I'll tell you all about it later," he said.

Luke went back to the hold. Ed stood by the open cargo door.

Luke shouted at him. "We got a helipad three miles from the White House, and we'll have a car there that we drive."

Ed nodded. "That sounds right."

The phone rang again. Luke looked at the caller ID. He didn't want to talk about arrest warrants anymore, or about who believed what. This time, when he answered, he barely spoke to her.

"Trudy, put Mark Swann on the phone."