Detective Danny Cavanaugh 01 - The Brink

group and moved in close to Kennedy’s Eternal Flame. A woman clutching her young daughter’s hand stood to his left. They were both bowing their heads. To his right, some asshole was chatting away on his cell phone. Jack wanted to rip the phone right from the guy’s ear. How dare he be so disrespectful! Seeing that guy only reaffirmed Jack’s intentions last night.
    The only thing that will change this country is revolution.
    The asshole moved, and Jack saw Danny. He was dressed in a black trench coat. Sydney’s body tensed as she gazed upon him.
    It was smart to choose this location , Jack thought. It was a very public yet hauntingly private place. Jack gazed across the endless formation of white headstones and up toward Arlington House. He looked for Stefan Taber, who should have been in place by now.
    Danny, who stood off the concrete pathway next to a headstone adorned with fresh roses, motioned Jack toward him. Jack kept Sydney close underneath his umbrella. They stepped over the knee-high black chain that separated the gravesites from the path. Jack could feel Sydney’s heartbeat accelerate. He had to admit his own heart was racing as well.
    “Hello, Danny,” Jack said with a sympathetic tone. Once again, he glanced up at Arlington House. Just beside it, Jack caught Stefan Taber’s camouflaged hand wave to him from a thick grove of cypress trees. Jack didn’t need to act like Danny’s savior in front of Sydney any longer. He gripped her as hard as he could, and she glared at him, wincing in pain.
    “Don’t say a word,” he whispered to the both of them. “There are guns trained on both of you. Try anything and, well, let’s just say it would be appropriate we’re in a cemetery.”

Chapter 104
    “You get that costume from the CIA?” Danny asked the president. He intentionally kept his eyes off of Sydney as she took a small step back from both men.
    The president smirked. “I’m glad you like it.” He stepped to his right. Danny was well aware that the president was probably telling the truth. There had to be at least one person watching them. He was also aware of the cemetery’s topography, and the abundance of memorials surrounding them allowed for an endless list of locations that a trained sniper could use as cover. Danny would only know where he was when the president stopped moving and made some kind of signal. Then he would only have milliseconds to react.
    “I also liked the speech. No one was supposed to hear it, were they?” The president didn’t reply. “You’re the one behind all of this; you and your old Oxford buddy King Edward. He supplied the dirty bombs, and you supplied the fake eighth article. Those two things were enough to get Fantroy on a plane so you could kill him.” Danny stopped to examine the president’s reaction. He remained as motionless as the headstones around him. “Why was Fantroy so important? Was he the roadblock to your creation of some perfect society?” Danny finally stared at Sydney. “One that was inspired by the teachings of Professor Colin Tanner?”
    The president still didn’t say a word. Instead, he shifted further to the right.
    “There are guns trained on both of you.”
    Danny once again reeled back to Sydney’s confession at the White House pool. “Stefan Taber told me he’s working for the president.” The Secret Service would have never gone along with this stunt. If anyone was really out there, Danny had to believe it was Taber and only Taber.
    “The eighth article was never in the Library of Congress, was it?” Danny continued. “Your thief had Seward’s journal with him the whole time. He only made it look like he took it off the shelf in the Rare Book Room. You knew the documents would stand up to simple examinations performed by a professor, a writer, and even an expert from the National Archives. But you also knew that any in-depth scientific testing would prove them to be fakes. That’s the real reason why you controlled access to them.” Danny was rolling now. He felt like he was back in an interrogation room trying to break a witless perp. “You also made sure the gas mixture at L’Enfant Plaza wouldn’t harm anyone, because those hard working stiffs weren’t the people you were trying to kill.” The President smirked, but again said nothing. Danny pressed on. “Sucks your men didn’t clip me under L’Enfant, though. They were almost home after rigging the columns under the House of Representatives