CHAPTER 118
GREGORY EVANS FELT HIS HEART BEATEN STRONGLY, spreading the adrenaline of urgency, thanks to the anxiety he was feeling regarding the many facts to unravel. Work and life were no longer words with different meanings for him; he could no longer tell where one ended and the other began. In recent years, the high points of his life were the most important cases he had taken on. There were no extramarital affairs, only trips, adventures in unknown places or even scares that life had given him, nothing more, nothing less than the daily life of a man dedicated to fighting crime. And now he found himself facing the most important and perhaps most difficult case he would ever face in his career.
What scared him was that the dimension of reality could be as big as it was in his always so imaginative mind. He realized that he was getting closer and closer to connecting the dots, but he still lacked important information to continue moving forward.
After all, who were Dwayne Cohan and Joseph Hawkes?
He texted:
— Martin! They're the key to moving forward with this!
— We have to find out who they are!
— Any idea where to start?
— And what does it matter if they're ghosts…? — Greg said musing to himself…
— Just to make a list of the unresolved problems: so far we have the attack, the Muslim suspect, this White House case and the terrorist who threatened the President. If we can connect all of this, we'll have the cherry on the cake. — Greg said this as he gave a snap and stretched out in the race behind the President.
— By the way, Greg, who's sending you this information? — Floyd asked.
— That's a question I've given up trying to figure out — he answered dryly.
— Are you telling me you're receiving extremely important information from someone you have no idea who it is?
— Yes…
— That's crazy! Someone could be using you as a pawn, Greg! They could lead you into a trap! How can you trust whether it's true or not?
Gregory Evans looked at him with disapproving eyes.
— Look at all these facts we are putting together and tell me a single truth that you have in your hands.
Floyd was thoughtful, not knowing where he was going with that.
— The truth is that the best information I have received so far came from some stranger. — Gregory Evans punched his left fist into his right hand, in a sudden burst of anger — I don't know who he is, but I also don't know who these two names are, who the terrorist is...
Floyd looked at him sideways after hearing the last quote.
What Gregory Evans was saying was true, although it was a completely risky bias of thought.
— I received other information that I wouldn't have found anywhere else before, so I trust it in a way...
As he said this, Greg remembered the video he had received by email. Suddenly, he finally connected the first dots of that immense web of confusing data.
The video!
The answer was there!
Floyd knew that face...
— Another insight?
— Agents! There are two agents! It has to be!
— I don't understand you, how can you be so sure? — Floyd asked, confused.
— There is a video in which Fadiq Al Faruj appears. Soon after, these two men appear and also enter the same place.
— What video?
— I received a video before it was sent to Washington.
— I'm going to ignore that information.
— Minutes later, the two men leave without the box they were carrying and what is in their hands is clearly the Iranian's notebook. It's the notebook they say they found in his house! Do you understand?
— I can't believe it! — Floyd exclaimed, astonished, his eyes fixed on the computer screen. — There's no way this is true!
— The same person who sent me the message with the two names had sent this video before. That's why, even without knowing who he is, at this moment he's the person I trust most in this whole story...
— But...
— The video is from minutes before the attack took place...
— So, there was an exchange there, whether the boy knew about it or not.
— It seems to have been... If this is the notebook in their hands, then does that mean the package they brought is the bomb?
— Everything suggests that it was.
— So there was someone else working with the boy besides a Muslim terrorist cell...
— Or Fadiq didn't even know what he was carrying in his backpack!
— I can't believe it... — Floyd said, stunned by all of this. — Are you suggesting that the boy was a victim?
— I saw his reaction before the bomb exploded, he was scared when he opened the backpack. When I received this video, I realized the truth, Fadiq wasn't the terrorist. The bomb was planted, the notebook was stolen, the newspapers' version is false! This boy was someone's scapegoat! Someone very big is behind this...
— So his father was right...
— That's what it looks like...
— Why didn't you show me this before?
— I couldn't afford to leak this information to the wrong people, so I decided not to reveal it to anyone. Nothing personal, my friend, but as events unfolded and
so much new information coming to light, I'm afraid I won't be able to solve all the questions alone...
Gregory Evans started thinking again.
At one point, Floyd asked Greg:
— And who would be the organization behind this? I mean, if they are agents, what is the agency?
— That's what I'm trying to figure out...
— What were they like?
— Stereotypes...
— Stereotypes... two tall, white, strong men in suits... who could they be? CIA? NSA?
— Or FBI... — Gregory Evans grumbled discouragedly. — Well, they could be anything... The worst part is that there is no list of names from the agencies so we can investigate if they are among them...
— And searching for names like that in monitored database systems could reveal to the espionage that we are after them. — said Floyd when he realized the reality of the situation.
When he realized this, he immediately stopped running and said:
— This would be very dangerous... — agreed Gregory Evans.
— And now, Greg, what are we going to do?
— I don't know, but we had to get out of there before they caught us... Actually, I have an idea of where to start!
He sent a new message to Martin, it was the last thing he did before chaos broke out again in that dead end they were in.