CHAPTER 13
Stop Lying To Me
Baltimore
When the judge had authorized Patty Hewes request for a change of venue to Maryland four months earlier, Olivia Pope had been sure it would be the final nail in her coffin- there was no way on earth Reston would allow this trial to be kicked. Now, she was counting whatever lucky stars that Patty had done this- because she was going to be out of state, it would forestall whatever plans her father had for her.
In order to make sure they could nail down every possible angle they could manage on this trial, Patty and David had decided to split their focus. Today, Olivia was going to be testifying before the grand jury about everything that she knew about Cytron. Simultaneously, David would be negotiating with Judiciary and the Attorney General to begin the process that would eventually lead to the removal of the President from office.
Not that it would offer much protection for any of them. Olivia hadn't been back to her apartment or her office ever since her father had delivered his little message to her a week ago. She had told Harrison, Abby and Stephen that they were being watched, and that their best move would be to leave town for awhile, until she could guarantee her safety.
That had taken a lot of persuasion on her part, and she had not helped matters when she told them that Huck was no longer part of her team. She had no intention of telling him who was chasing them, or why, and that made things even harder, because even after everything that had happened, her people still wanted to go down with the ship.
She had then spent the next five days, moving from cheap motel to cheap motel, trying her damnedest to disappear. Olivia knew how futile this would be in the end- her father was the thing in the dark- and she had no experience in doing this at all, but she knew she didn't have a choice. There was a bullet with her name on it.
Up until then, she realized that some tiny part of her had still been hoping that Fitz would ride to her rescue. It went against every rule in Washington, it went completely against every protocol, but then, she knew they had spent two years basically doing just that. She had gone to Patty Hewes and tried to make her see reality. She realized that Patty did see reality, only it wasn't the same version she'd been seeing. She should've known it was a waste of time- Hewes had been receiving death threats from people nearly as dangerous for decades- but she thought that she had to make one last effort to save her life before Command ended it.
Then the President- and that's who she was dealing with, Fitz was gone forever now- had snuffed out her last tiny bit of hope at redemption. Olivia could now, for the first time, see her death in front of her. It might come tomorrow, or in a matter of months, but it was going to come. The only remaining hope she had was whether she died as a pawn, or clean- at least as clean was she could manage.
So she had talked to David Rosen. Two hours later, two men who she had never seen before had arrived at her last hiding place- the lobby of a college dorm, not very far from where she had done her undergrad work. The men had identified themselves as Malcolm Waters and Wesley Krulik, two of Patty Hewes' lead investigators. She would've been more suspicious had her groundwork not identified the former as an associate of Patty's. His reputation was unsavory, but not corrupt.
"How did you find me?" she had asked.
"Patty Hewes always finds the people she looks for," Wes had replied.
So, moving almost as if she were in a dream, she surrendered herself into their custody, barely contesting them as she rode with them on the ten p.m. train to Baltimore. She couldn't have been a fun companion- every time the train rounded a curve, she tensed up- a late night train wreck would be the perfect way to kill her, and a few hundred innocent people would be acceptable collateral damage? That's how real insiders- Doyle, her father, probably even Cyrus- saw it.
But the train arrived at its destination on time. She barely said anything on the way to the 'safehouse' and hadn't muttered a word before she unpacked, and sat down. She'd barely slept in the last week, but she didn't close an eye for the rest of the night
Krulik had been trying to engage Olivia in conversation for the first few hours, but after a while, he had given up. Now, as the morning finally approached, he made one final effort. "Look, I've been following this case almost since it started. So I've got a pretty good idea at how terrified you must be feeling now."
"No, Mr. Krulik, I don't believe you do," she finally said. "Because if you did, you'd have run for the hills the moment you realized that you were sitting on Love Canal."
Krulik actually smiled at this. "I've tangled with some pretty tough customers over the years. But I know you're not the kind of person who impresses easily."
"Pretend that I'm one of them."
"I killed the man who was Arthur Frobisher's top hit man," he said slowly. "And about a year later, I brought Frobisher to justice."
"And Patty Hewes trusts you?"
Krulik laughed a little easier. "I seriously doubt she trusts anybody. I know it took more than saving her life just to get her to hire me."
This was actually an impressive resume. Were she just dealing with Hollis Doyle, she might've actually felt a little safer. "These people are going to kill me," she told him. "Not try. They will succeed, and in doing so they will go through anyone who's stupid enough to stand in their way."
Wes considered this, then he told Malcolm to leave. He waited until the door was closed, then he removed his .45 and handed it to her. "You know how to use one of these?"
"I've never been wild about it, but yes." She waited for him to offer more words of encouragement.
He didn't. "I'm gonna take a walk around the block. That going to be long enough for you to do what you need to do?"
Even after everything that had happened in the last few months, it still took a minute for what Krulik was suggested to register. "I thought you were here to protect me!" Olivia said, not quite believing.
"David Rosen wants you alive. Patty not so much. Especially considering you don't have much of an interest in saving yourself."
"This is not about whether I want to live; of course I do!" she shouted.
"Then why have you been acting like a dead woman walking since we picked you up?" Before she could answer that question, he followed it up with: "You know, all the months that I've been following you and your people, is that all of you have balls of brass. Especially the woman. But the fact is, you've been trying to dodge fights ever since we met you."
"I would hardly call the security of the American government 'a fight!"
"That's good, because you don't seem to have any interest in winning it!" Krulik seemed to realize he'd gone too far, so he lowered his tone. "Look, I don't pretend to have a full understanding of the politics of this god-awful mess that's been brewing for the last few years, but I've learned enough to know a few unassailable truths. Powerful people, whether they be titans of industry, trained killers, or the people who run this country all have one thing in common. They think they are invincible, for whatever reason. And there's something that you've probably learned long before you ever started working in politics."
"Everybody has a weak spot," Olivia admitted. "God knows, I've used it to my advantage more than once." She swallowed. "But people of power have the resources to destroy anyone who approaches them, that's another lesson I've learned. And they have a longer reach."
"Does sort of beg the question, what were you doing helping so many of them." Krulik asked. "Because, unlike most of the people I work for, you clearly didn't have your sense of morality removed at birth."
If Olivia hadn't had spent the last six months having every aspect of her life undone, this would've been a crushing blow. As it was, considering who Krulik worked for, it seemed like the final insult. It also confirmed that she and Patty Hewes, despite her denials, had far more in common than she had with the people she had conspired with. "I guess I thought that I was doing the wrong thing for the right reason," she finally answered.
"Then I guess that's why you're here now." She hadn't noticed he'd taken back his weapon. "It's time for reckoning."
"I'm pretty sure that it's not going to end with my clearing my conscience."
"Don't think this is about anything as maudlin as that. This is about righting a wrong, not about you feeling better afterward." Krulik now seemed a little disgusted with her. "I sure as shit am not going to risk my life for that."
WASHINGTON, D.C.
A little more than twelve hours after his marriage had imploded, Cyrus found out that the President's had, too. It had taken all the energy he'd been able to muster to tell the White House Press Corps that the First Lady and the President were not having an argument, a claim that was not at all bolstered by the fact that the President was no longer talking to his Chief of Staff, either. In fact, the President had posted Marines on either side of the Oval Office and the Residence, with the strict order that they were to keep him and Mellie out.
The President's inner circle had shrunk dramatically since then. All the work that Cyrus had been effectively doing for the President for the past two years was now being done by him- and, it was starting to look like, only him. Congressional aides had been the White House for the last day with orders not to talk to Cyrus at all.
Normally, Cyrus would have felt an aneurysm building up in his head about now, but the last thirty-six hours had given him crystal clarity. The President now knew what he, Mellie, Olivia, and Hollis had done, and rather than be merciful and just fire him, he was now in the process of making him realize just how superfluous he was to the needs of the country.
Besides, the foreboding voice in his head went, it wouldn't look good to fire somebody the same day you killed him. And Cyrus knew that the minute he stepped outside the White House, he was going get hit by a bus. Or someone would put ricin in his coffee. Or he would die at the hands of some gay bashers. He might have been rendered useless, but he knew that Command had visited the Oval, and now he wasn't returning any of Cyrus' calls. He might not want him to kill him inside the White House, but he sure as hell would be willing to do it anywhere else.
As if this wasn't bad enough, the newly appointed minority whip had been making calls to him about the very troubling allegations that Rosen and Hewes were making about the last election. (As always, Congress was the last to find out about upheavals in the White House.). Ten minutes later, a group of Democrats held a press conference it which they all but accused the President of malfeasance. Cyrus was having trouble telling over the TV, but he was pretty sure that some of the newer Congressmen were actually salivating at the possibilities.
Five minutes after that, Command called him- no doubt because he wanted to see the man he'd all but ordered to handle the situation two weeks ago squirm like an ant under a third grader's magnifying glass. "I thought I told you not to call me again," Cyrus mumbled.
"Really, Cyrus, we're well past the point of me giving a shit about what you want. I just wanted to know if you've reconsidered your previous position." Command paused deliberately. "Especially because they have proof."
"I don't care what you have to do. Get the evidence and destroy it."
"And if Rosen interferes?"
Cyrus didn't hesitate. "Like I said, whatever it takes."
"I'm glad to know you approve." Another deliberate pause. "Shame it doesn't matter anymore."
Cyrus went cold. "Then why did you call-"
"To let you know that your out of the chain of command. And to let you know that any future actions will be- how should I put this- handled without any interference from you."
"I thought you didn't take orders from this office."
"The order is coming from above you." Click.
The horror of what was about to unfold emerged. Cyrus hadn't lied to James two days earlier- he had the appetite for the Presidency - but apparently, he didn't have the bloodlust after all. And Fitzgerald Grant apparently did. Which would've been cause for celebration at some point, but was actually far less appealing when the target was going to be him.
Huck had spent the last few days trying to track down Command, who he now knew was Eli Pope. Up until this point all of his efforts had led him to nothing new- the only clear location he knew about was Wonderland, and there was no way in hell they would let him get within a mile of that place.
He'd had less trouble cloning Cyrus Beene's phone- Novack had been more than willing to give his husband's private number to Patty, but for the last few days, it hadn't been particularly helpful either. He wasn't surprised- B613 made it their main goal to never answer to any White House. They gave orders, they didn't take them.
Which is why it had made no sense for them to have a man working for Hollis Doyle. They had hashed out some theories the last few months, none of them particularly encouraging. The one Huck favored was by far the least palatable- B613 had known about the election fraud, and had allowed it to happen.
He was beginning to think they might end up shooting blanks for the third straight day, when Cyrus' phone received a call from a scrambled phone. The call lasted little more than a minute, but because he could understand Beene's side of the conversation, he knew who it was even if he didn't have to hear it.
He needed to descramble this call- it was his only chance at finding Command, and bringing an end to the madness that had plagued his life. And even though the fate of the republic held in the balance, Huck actually considered that a lesser problem. The country would endure no matter who was President. The longer Command remained in power, the more suffering would continue, and, no matter what deal he'd made with Patty, he'd never be truly free.
It turned out to be a critical miscalculation. Because, ten minutes later, when he was less than half done, Huck realized the horrible truth. Command was already carrying out his plan to start eliminating those who threatened him.
There wasn't anything he could do for Patty and Ellen in Baltimore. Hewes' people, while nowhere near the caliber of the ones Command would be throwing at them, were very good at their jobs. The fact that Krulik had managed to uncover his identity spoke volumes for his ability; that he was efficient at killing was clear from his earlier employment. Besides, they'd have to be immensely more trustworthy than anybody they could get from the government. They'd been expecting an attack for weeks; if anything, they were overprepared.
What was more concerning was Rosen's safety. Patty's people were good, but there weren't an infinite number of them. David had been forced to rely on people from the DC police that he trusted. DC police were trained for almost anything, but they'd be no match for a modestly trained Agency man; someone from B613 would run rings around them.
Of course, that was assuming they planned to just kill him. More likely, they'd want to know how much he'd told the Attorney General and what evidence he'd been about to offer. And Huck was living proof as to just how good they were at it.
He speeddialed Rosen, and wasn't at all surprised to find that the signal was being jammed. B613 protocol was to make sure no calls could get in or out. That meant he'd have to hurry.
He floored the accelerator.
THIRTY MINUTES EARLIER
DAVID ROSEN'S RESIDENCE
The fat was well and truly in the fire now. The newly elected Speaker of the House had called David Rosen five minutes ago, telling him that his fellow Congressmen were more than willing to begin the process of impeaching the President. After months of no movement,, things were ironically going almost too fast for him - even now, he'd been willing to give Grant a chance to end this before being publicly lynched.
But knowing what Olivia had given him and Patty yesterday about the one remaining player they had known nothing about, moving rapidly was probably their only move left. They had to act fast before B613 began to expunge his little group from existence. As powerful as Eli Pope might be, he didn't have the power to turn back time.
To do his last little bit of business, he was about to get Novack on the record about what he'd learn on his trip to Ohio. Concurrently, Patty was about to do the same with Olivia.
He knew he should be jumping for joy, but a sense of melancholy pervaded him. There was no elation in bringing down the government, and he was a little unsure that he'd be able to carry the weight for that. He knew Patty could, but he didn't know what that said about her.
His phone rang then. Another majority whip. He sighed. He was going to have to play politician because Patty Hewes wasn't going to.
"All right. Make sure the Speaker is there. He's going to want to hear what I have to say." David was saying over the phone. "Yes, it is as big as he thinks. Bigger, in fact."
Just then, the doorbell rang. "I'll be there in ten minutes." David hung up, and got to the door, but not before he reached to pick up the handgun he'd purchased a month ago.
He looked through the peephole, and didn't see anyone. His suspicions already aroused, he backed away. But then the doorknob turned, and the lock was unlatched.
David raised his weapon, but before he could fire, the door opened, and he was hit with a blast from a taser. "Fucking amateur," Charlie said as he eyed the prone body of the U.S. Attorney.
He shut the door, and locked it. Time to go to work.
David regained consciousness among a shower of ice water. He didn't think he'd been out long, but his captor had taken the opportunity to hogtie him, with his hands over his head. Even given that, his captor had already done a pretty fair job of ransacking the place, which sort of answered the question as to why he was still alive, though it didn't say great things for his future
Trying his damnedest to regain full function- his life depended on it, now- he tried to move his head so he could see the man who attacked him. "I'm going to go out on a limb, and guess that the three agents I had guarding me are dead, now, " he said slowly. "I don't know whether you work for Hollis Doyle or B613, but I'm guessing you came here because the President ordered it."
"You do not have the right to remain silent," his captor said instead.
"You're going to some big act now, about you're being in charge, about saying that whether or not I live or die is in my hands, so I'm going to save you the trouble." David tried to look up, but his captor pushed his head back down.
"Anything to have to say will be used against you."
"Oh, for Christ sake, I've spent the last year searching monsters bigger than you. You really think this Man In Black bullshit is going to scare meeeeeeeeeeee!"
He didn't get to finish that sentence because his captor took out a pair of pliers and yanked on one of his teeth.
"Don't interrupt," his captor said.
David let his captor go a little further with his spiel. He was too busy trying to not start screaming, considering that was probably going to piss this guy off more.
"You are an enemy of the state, which means that you are no longer subject to the rules that govern this country."
"Pretty sure that I'm an American."
"That doesn't buy what it used to. Let me demonstrate." He took his pliers and buried them in his hand. This time David couldn't stop the scream from coming out.
His captor hit him. "If you make any more noise, your neighbors will eventually come running. If they do, I will kill them. Understand?"
"You're just going to kill me anyway. Why should I give a shit what happens to them?" It was only after he said this that, he realized that this was a really dumb thing to say to somebody holding on to sharp objects with the sole intent of using them on him.
"I wouldn't go selling your survival short yet. You do have something that my employer has deemed valuable. Whether or not, you live depends on how soon you are willing to surrender it to me."
David had spent the last few months accepting as a possibility his death. Now that it was literally being dangled in front of him, he began to see how clear certain things were.
"Either your employers an idiot or you are," he muttered before he knew what he was saying. Before he even realized it was out, his attacker took the pliers and stabbed him in the stomach.
"Not thinking very clearly.," his attacker said.
"My name is all over the news cycle. You really think that you have the time to torture me like this? Someone's is going to break any door any minute, and if you're still here, they're just going to shoot you dead."
"You make it sound like either of our lives means something."
"They may not to your employer, but the information I have does. If you torture and/or kill me, and you don't get it, your employ will do to you what you're doing to me. David coughed. "You've demonstrated that you can dish it out, question can you take it?"
"I've been trained for this." His captor reminded him, before showing his gloved hand was now covered with blood. "You haven't. And trust me when I tell you, I'm really good at my job."
David knew he had coughed up blood. Whether it was from the tooth or from his wounds was a matter for concern, but he knew whichever it was, it was not a sign that you were long for this world. "Let me save you time. I don't have it any more."
"I don't believe you."
"That's your choice. But in either case, you still have to find it, and trust me when I tell you, you won't without my help." David wasn't sure where this outward confidence was coming from, especially considering he felt like he was leaking.
His captor considered this as if it were actually an option. Then he shrugged, and stabbed David again. This time, a lot of blood came out. He wasn't sure but he thought he'd hit a vein.
"The wounds I've given you right now are serious, but not fatal. Receive prompt medical attention, and you might survive."
"Like you're going to drive me to my local urgent care clinic," David spat at him
"This is your last chance to save yourself., or I sever your jugular and leave you for the rats."
David gave this the same appearance of consideration. "For months and months, I've been dealing with people bullshitting me, when they weren't telling me this would get me killed. I never thought I'd be dealing with the same shit from my own assassin. So do me one last fucking favor, and stop lying to me!"
The man who was killing David Rosen maintained his poker face. But the fact was he had very strict instructions from Command: extract the information from the target about the item in question, then liquidate the target. Problem was, because of the issue of the time, he'd had to move without taking the usual precautions. He had minutes, not hours to get this done. Command had told them Rosen would break quickly- it was now clear he wouldn't. When did a U.S. Attorney get the balls of a tiger?
Just then, someone started pounding on the door. Great. D.C.'s finest had demonstrated their competence today. He was going to have to get out of here without sanitizing the apartment.. And when Command found out he had failed, his life would be worth less than Rosen's. Still the police would need at least three minutes before they broke the door down. Right now, he was going to have to try a variation on an old exit strategy. He picked Rosen up, and pulled out his .22.
Then the door was bashed open, and the assassin found himself looking into the face of the last man that he'd expected to see today.
Huck had broken every speed limit getting to Rosen's apartment. The minute he found the unmarked car that the attorney had out front, he knew that the men inside were dead.. There were at least five quick and unobtrusive ways into the man's building, but he took the most visible one, making as much of a scene as possible- it would expose him, but it would also expose the man who torturing Rosen.
When he got in the front door, he found that he was only mildly surprised to see who it was doing B613's dirty work.
"Hi Charlie. I guess you didn't get the message last time," he told the man who had instructed him in the way of covert ops.
Not surprisingly, his former mentor recovered quickly. "Neither have you. When did you go into public service?"
"The money's better." It was amazing how civil this discussion was, considering that both men had their guns out.
Huck took in the surroundings. "You're getting sloppy in your old age. There's no way even the dumbest cop thinks that this is just a robbery gone wrong."
"You're concerned about my well being? How... gracious of you. If I were in your shoes, I'd be worried about the cops walking in on this little situation."
"Bad choice of words. Cops find you in this situation, your life will be worth even less than it is right now."
Charlie laughed unpleasantly. "Just look at us. Arguing over an assignment, guns trained on each other. You know, I've missed these little chats."
"I haven't. And you apparently missed the point of the last one. " Huck steadied his weapon. "I won't make the same mistake again."
"Neither will I. You shoot me, and he's dead."
"Not a problem."
"For you, maybe not. For the person you work for- they might just throw you to the wolves for not keeping your oath."
"I don't work for Olivia any more," Huck reminded him. "My current employer would be far more understanding."
"Really? Pretty sure Rosen wouldn't be?" He yanked on David's shoulder. "What about you? You got an opinion on this?"
Rosen spoke for the first time. "Take the shot, Huck."
"How noble. Guy wants to go down with the ship. Thing is, Huck's always had a weak spot. for this business. Always had to be the hero. I'm pretty sure that's still your biggest weakness."
"Pull that trigger, and we'll find out."
The silence that followed stretched out for an eternity, even though it barely lasted ten seconds. Then Charlie reacted. "Tell you what, Huck, I'll meet you halfway."
As if they were in the O.K. Corral, both men moved fast. Huck managed to clip Charlie in the shoulder, but not before Charlie shot David in the stomach.
Though he was clearly hurt, Charlie managed to hold on. "I got him right in the stomach. Way I see it, you've got about five minutes before he bleeds to death. Now you can save him or you can kill me, but you can't do both."
Another seemingly endless pause, though this one lasted less than fifteen seconds. "You'll just kill me," Huck said slowly.
"Maybe. But he might still live. Time to prove who you work for."
Huck could only hold out another five seconds before he ran over to Rosen. While he was doing so, Charlie ran for the back window and jumped through it.
Huck noticed this, but only in that detached way he did when he was on a mission. He was trying to start bandaging and treating wounds even though there was a good chance Rosen was already dead. There was a lot of blood on the ground, and Huck knew there was only so much the body could lose before death was inevitable.
"We don't have time for this," It was clearly taking a lot of effort for Rosen to talk. "What are my chances if I get to a hospital right now?"
Huck was no medic, but he knew a losing battle when he saw one. 'Not great," he admitted.
"They're trying... to clean.. up their mess," David told them. "I'm not... going to... let that happen."
"You're not going to be able to do much," Huck told him.
"I... can make... sure... they don't get away... with it." David took a deep breath. "In my... freezer...under the instant... coffee..."
Huck was about to go, when Rosen used what had to be the last of his strength to grab his arm. "If... they know... he fucked up... they'll just kill him."
"What are you saying?"
"They have... to think... he got... away with... it." Blood was pooling at the base of his mouth. "At.. least... long enough... for us... to snatch... them up."
Huck understood all too well what that meant. He had worked for Olivia Pope, after all.
Huck had done as good a job of making sure that a disturbance would be reported. They might suspect a burglary, but they'd find no evidence that he'd been there. They would, however, find enough of a mess to know that someone had been there
He put the envelope with the microchip in his pocket.
Then he went to the center of the room, and finished zipping David into the body bag he always carried with him.
There are ways to make a dead body disappear off the face of the earth. There are also ways to make sure that it only disappears for awhile. Huck had learned that from B613 (there were, after all, contingencies for everything) and knew exactly what Rosen had made his dying wish for.
He gave a thought to calling Hewes and telling him what happened, but he knew that Command had a lot of friends with the NSA. They would find a way to tap into any of their incoming calls, even if that crew was still switching their phones every five to six days, especially for an operation of this magnitude.
So he did what he had done so well when he worked with them, and faded into the background. Besides, there was an awful big mess for them to clean up back at Rosen's apartment.
This would assure that it was a lot harder to clean up.
12 HOURS LATER
BALTIMORE
"David was scheduled to depose Hollis Doyle this morning, and he hasn't shown up at his office," Ellen told Patty. "He hasn't been meeting with any Congressmen since last night, has he?"
"Not according to the Speaker's office," Patty looked around. "Has Wes reported back in yet?"
Wes had taken the midnight train back to D.C. in order to lock down the last of the witnesses needed and to provide extra security. He hadn't slept in thirty-six hours, but he assured Ellen and Patty that he'd handled similar situations with the NYPD. Ellen had been trying to insist he find some sleep anyway, but this drove a stake through that idea.
"He got in two hours ago," Patty told him.
"Tell him to check with D.C. Police."
"It's too early to report David missing," Ellen reminded her. "And they won't think to investigate a homicide without a body."
"Why would they kill him now? His life was in danger the moment he started his investigation. If they considered him a loose end, they should have done it months ago before he could do anywhere near as much damage."
"You think they're going to come for us next?" Ellen asked.
"We're too high-profile. No, they want to clean up their mess, I know who they're going to start with."
Olivia had almost believed Krulik when he had said he could protect them, and she had managed to hold herself together for the next few hours. Then Abby had called her, and in the midst of her support told her that David's place had been broken into last night, and there was no sign of him. This caused her to snap back to reality. The man she had fallen in love with was collaborating with her father to kill her. Considering all of the enemies she had to have made over the years, it was ironic the people who cared about her the most were going to be the ones to end her life.
Then Patty Hewes came in, and she looked even more vibrant than she had the following morning. Why had she ever thought that her power and prestige would have been enough to destroy her? No matter what hat she was wearing, the woman was a gladiator.
"So they've begun," she said simply.
"If you're going to try and call this off-"
"Quit? I'm going to double down." Patty looked Olivia in the eyes. "This is your mess, Miss Pope. And now, you're going to clean it up."
"Don't you think I would if I could?" Olivia hated the petulance that had entered her voice.
"If you had, David wouldn't have needed my help. But we're past that now." Patty looked at her. "Do you still have the phone?" When Olivia nodded, she told her very simply. "I'm going to be making some calls. When I'm done, you're going to call your friend Cyrus. "
"He's not going to take my calls."
"Right now, he can't afford to ignore you. He knows he's going to be on your father's hit list eventually. The two of you may be the only chance either of you have."
There was a grain of truth in that. Besides, what was she here for, if not to try and stem the bleeding?
THE WHITE HOUSE
"You heard the press conference," Cyrus was saying.
"I didn't have to. DC Homicide came right to my house. Apparently, I'm suspect number one is David's death." A lie, but not one that Cyrus was in a position to do something about. "I told you not to do this."
"If you'd been willing to get your hands dirty months ago, we could've avoided all this!
"Don't tell me about how messy things are. My life has been decimated by this. Now I'm not going to prison. So you tell me, Cyrus, did you give the order to have David killed?"
Cyrus took a deep breath. "Olivia, I swear to you I didn't. have this done."
"The shitty thing is, I'm inclined to believe you. But right now, you and I are on the same list." Olivia thought she knew the answer to the question but decided to ask it anyway. "Please tell me that he's not behind this."
He desperately wanted to truth to be anything but what he's going to tell her. "I think he is," he told her after a long hesitation.
Olivia was a very strong person, but it took almost all the self-control she had left not to start weeping at this. "I need to talk to him," she said slowly.
"He doesn't want to talk anybody, Liv. Not you, not me."
"Everything we've done since we joined the campaign has been to help this man. If there's anybody who can talk him down from this, it's us."
Cyrus so wished that this was true. But considering the size and the cost of the lies that they'd been telling ever since Hollis Doyle had come to them with this, he thought that they were well past the point of being able to handle Fitz. Still, he was looking at his own death sentence to. "I'll try."
Olivia hung up. Then she looked at Ellen Parsons. "The President is planning to have all the people connected with Cytron killed." Somehow she managed to make it through that sentence with her self-control still intact.
"Then we have no choice but to proceed," Parson replied. "Can you stay together for the next step?"
It took Olivia almost an entire minute to answer in the affirmative. "It's not like I have much of a choice in the matter."
"You've made this mess, Miss Pope," Ellen spoke in a tone that was, if anything even colder than Patty's. "Don't tell me you don't have the stomach for the clean-up."
"Christ, Cyrus, how did we get here?" Mellie asked suddenly.
"Please tell me that's a rhetorical question," he told her. "We know goddamn well what happened. We hung together, and that's exactly what's going to happen to us."
Just then, one of the aides walked up to him. "The President wants to see you right now." Then she looked at the First Lady. "Both of you, in fact."
"Fitz, why did you call us here? What do you want us to do?" Mellie sounded more desperate than she had in years, and that was saying something.
"'Us?' There is no us, Mellie. The buck stops here for a reason." Fitz had nothing but disdain. "I'm the only vote that matters. And I'll handle it."
"How?"
"It really doesn't concern you, any more." The President reached into the Wilson desk. "Are we clear?
"None of us had anything to do with David being killed," Olivia reminded him. "Are you saying that you did?"
"Now you know goddamn well I'm not going to answer that question," The President seemed way too calm for Olivia's liking. "If things continue to go wrong at the rate they seem to be, you'll be called into testify against me."
"Sir, I think we all know that we're well past that," Cyrus didn't know why Olivia was in on this conversation, and frankly, he didn't care. There were far more serious matters on the agenda.
"Don't worry, Cyrus. No one party to this conversation will be facing any consequences. That's going to be your punishment. You get to watch as all the horrible things that are about to unfold, take place, powerless to change it."
Olivia didn't know which part of this she hated more- knowing that all these people were about to die or that the President was letting it happen. "So you sold your soul after all," she told them.
"You sold it for me when you stole the election," the President told them calmly. "The bill's just come due, that's all."
She knew what she needed to do, but she couldn't listen to this any more. Olivia terminated the call, and looked at Patty. "Are we done?"
"Not even close," Patty told her. "You're going on the record with your part in all this." When Olivia fixed her with a look, she reminded her about the very specific terms of the immunity agreement that she had signed.
"You really think you have a snowball's chance in hell of stopping any of this?" she demanded of Patty. "When my father wants something done, he makes sure there are no loose ends."
"I think you'll find, Miss Pope, that we still have a trick or two up our sleeves."
"You did a shitty job."
"I didn't really.-"
"I don't want to hear your excuses. You're just going to make it right." Pause. "Finish the job."
"Do they know-"
"Finish. The job. Then disappear. You can do that remember?" The call disconnected.
Charlie had gotten himself patched up, but he was in no condition to do anything beyond reconnaissance. One of the pieces of glass had paralyzed a nerve in his left hand, another had missed his right eye, but he still misted every time he blinked. Not to mention the fact that D.C. police and the feds would be looking for him by now.
But you didn't say 'no' to Command, especially after fucking up your last job. He wondered why his boss hadn't just ordered someone to kill him already, and he knew if he succeeded there was very likely going to be disappeared. Charlie just assumed that there were too many people with their eyes on D.C. for him to run the risks.
So he moved on to the next target: Hollis Doyle. The most important target, and the one with the least protection- bodyguards who made the one's he dealt with before torturing Rosen look like Seal Team Six.
You tell him, we've been doing things his way long enough, and that if he doesn't get back to me in three minutes, I'm going to start calling his bosses. I'm sure the Attorney General would love to hear from me about now. And if not him, maybe his candy-ass boyfriend at the Post would like the story of the century!"
Charlie opened the case had carried with him ever since Afghanistan, and began to remove and put together an M-16 with a sniper scope.
Doyle terminated the call At that exact moment, someone buzzed his apartment. "I don't have time to deal-"
It wasn't quite the last person he'd expected to see, but it was close. "What the fuck are you doing here?"
"Believe me, Hollis, saving your redneck, homophobic ass is the last thing I want to do," James Novack wasn't even sure why he was here.
"You here for another goddamn story? I've said all, I'm going to-"
"David Rosen is dead. The same people who killed him are coming for you."
For whatever it was worth, and it wasn't much, shutting Doyle's mouth gave him the first pleasurable moment he'd had in a week.
"And how the fuck do you expect to save me? Write a nasty article?"
My, this asshole recovered fast. "There may be one good chance to flush the killers out, and I want to see justice served more than I want you dead." James looked at Doyle. "Not much more, but you take what you can get. In exchange, you're going to do something for me."
"And what would that be?" Doyle actually paled a little when James told him. "You don't ask for much, do you?"
"They want blood, Hollis. And yours will do just as well as mine."
Something was up. Doyle had been walking up to a window when the bell had rung. Suddenly, the transmitter that they had on the inside went haywire before coming back on line a minute later.
The scene was compromised. Mission parameters dictated that he get the fuck out of there. Except if he screwed this assignment up, Command would definitely kill him. His only way out of this mess was to complete his mission.
Just then, the radio came back on, and he had eyes again. Doyle was leaving his suite and heading down to the main floor. Protocols were clear- the second that he was visible, Charlie would remove Doyle from the scene.
The seconds stretched out. Doyle was walking out of the hotel.
Three shots were fired in rapid succession. But none of them had come from Charlie's gun. He had no time to process that, because the street was full of screaming, frantic people, all blocking his target. Any minute now, D.C. Metro or FBI would be on the scene.
He grabbed the rifle and began to run. He had one last contingency plan, and even as he dismantled the rifle, he was trying to plan it out, wondering if there was any place left on earth where Command couldn't find him.
He was on the ground floor, when he heard the sound that had become practically music to his ears every since he'd joined B613.
"How did you find me?" he whispered.
"They didn't." Wes Krulik said. "We did."
Bang.
James was waiting with Doyle in one of Patty Hewes' vehicles, when he finally got the all clear from Wes. When Doyle, no fool he, asked for confirmation, Wes took out the camera on his cell, and showed him the picture of the just departed assassin.
Doyle actually blanched a little. "That guy was just a hired gun. You really think that taking him out ends the threat?"
"Someone higher up the food chain is handling him. If I were you, Mr. Doyle, I'd consider this. That guy was a trained killer, which means the people who ended his life must be far worse." James looked at him. "You want to have any chance of making it through the coming days, you damn well better choose who you think is the greater problem."
What do you want us to do, sir?"
"I'll handle it myself," Command told them. He took out his white phone. "Operation Watershed is in effect. "
"We weren't scheduled to begin that for another week."
"Plans have chanced. Baby birds coming home. You have two hours."
He hung up, and ducked into his town car. "Get the President on the line before he does something stupid."
The car was already moving when Command looked to his right. As always, his face gave nothing away.
"I suppose I should've expected you earlier, soldier."
"All due respect, sir, shut your mouth." Huck told the man who had made his life hell for a very long time.
"I have no intention of calling anything off. You know that."
"I became very clear what kind of person you were a long time ago." Huck told them. "And even if you hadn't spent years destroying and rending the lives of good men, you'd still deserve far worse than what I can give you."
"B613 is bigger than one man," Eli Pope seemed incredibly calm considering there was a gun two inches from his forehead. "If you really think you can change anything..."
"Let's stop pretending this is about some greater purpose, and focus on what it's truly about- you and me, and this gun."
"There have been protocols put in place with your training. No matter how much you want to, you can't kill me."
"I'm well aware of that." He removed the barrel from Command's head, and moved it to the windshield separating the backseat from the driver.
For the first time, Command's confident air diminished. "So you're going to kill an innocent man in order to get some kind of vengeance."
"No such animal exists, sir. That part of my training sunk in very clearly." Huck put his left hand on the door handle.
"And if you die, too?"
"I've been dead for awhile, sir. Maybe now, my body will be able to catch up."
He pulled the trigger.
BALTIMORE
"Miss Pope, is it your testimony that this cabal you were a part of, conspired to steal the election in favor of Fitzgerald Grant III?" Patty said quietly.
"I agreed to it just before the election." Olivia testified.
THE WHITE HOUSE
"Mr. Beane, I need you to come with me."
Cyrus looked up from his desk to find that there were far too many Secret Service agents in the room. "What is about?"
"You're under arrest."
Mellie Grant had no intention of going quietly. "Get your hands off of me."
"You want to cause trouble, I have no problem with that."
"Don't treat me like some dime-store whore. I'm the First Lady!"
"Not any more."
Ellen Parsons' cell phone had buzzed twice. She looked down to see a text message sent from an anonymous sender. On it were two simple words.
MISSION ACCOMPLISHED.
EPILOGUE
ONE MONTH LATER
Not even the feeding frenzy over Clinton's impeachment could match the outpouring that emerged over the next few weeks. Apparently, there was a limit to just how partisan the media was prepared to be, and allowing the murder of ten civilians was apparently too much. Though Olivia Pope wonder if anyone would've cared as much if one of them hadn't been a Supreme Court Justice.
Fitzgerald Grant ultimately traded the Presidency for his own clemency. In Patty and Ellen's opinion, he didn't deserve it, but they were willing to go along with David's wishes that the country not have to endure a long public trial. Besides, Mellie Grant, Cyrus Beene and Hollis Doyle were going to prison, though thanks to the deal Doyle had managed to negotiate, his sentence would be significant shorter than the other two.
Under the Constitution, both Grant and Vice President Langston were forced to resign. The Speaker of the House immediately took office, with the understanding that their would be an election in six months to fill the vacancy. The Republicans didn't seem that eager to field anybody for the ticket, and scuttlebutt was that it might be decades before they ever mounted a successful challenge again. But then again, they had thought the same thing when Nixon resigned, and it had only taken six years for them to recover.
Almost lost in all of the shouting was an anonymous story that the head curator of the Smithsonian, Elliot Pope, had been involved in a fatal auto accident the same day Cytrongate had broken worldwide. It was even harder to measure the importance of a similar story of the disappearance or deaths of several known intelligence operatives over the next three weeks. A shadow war was probably being fought over policy, and because of the rumored involvement that American intelligence was at least partially responsible for what had happened, it might be an even bigger blow to America's prestige abroad then the resignation of the President.
None of this, strictly speaking, was Olivia problem any more. She had been granted immunity, and the current administration was more than willing to enforce it. But her life in D.C. was over. Quinn Perkins had gone back to Los Angeles to try and pick up the shell of her old life. Huck had vanished off the face of the earth, though she had Patty's word that he'd not have to deal with retribution. Besides, he could take care of himself. The rest of her people were still in D.C., but all of them, even Harrison, had made it very clear that they were done with her. Abby, in particular, had said that she would never forgive her what had happened to David.
Olivia intended to leave the country, but she had requested one last meeting with Patty Hewes, who once again was being hailed as America's heroine. And why not? Despite the gray area that she had done so much to inhabit, Patty had after all, done the right thing. No matter how much she tried to see otherwise, there was no story that could be told to make her the villain.
They had met at the cemetery where David Rosen had been buried.
"I'm a little surprised you wanted to talk to me," Patty told her. "I figured you'd be halfway to Switzerland by now."
"I don't have anyone else to talk to," Olivia said bluntly. "And that's not the sad part. The sad part is, I was exactly like that a year ago. The most powerful woman in D.C., and I was completely alone.
"If you're expecting sympathy from me..."
"Sympathy from Patty Hewes? You don't even know the word." Olivia looked at her. "Empathy, maybe."
"And why would I feel that?"
"Because, like it or not, we are the same person. Completely devoted to our causes at the expense of everyone else. Friends, family, relationship, we throw them all under the bus in the name of the cause. I did that my whole life, and I got ground into dirt." Olivia struggled to keep her tone level. "I'd say I'm a cautionary tale, but since I was in the habit of ignoring the ones that happened right under my nose, I can hardly expect you to notice the same ones."
"I obeyed the law. You broke it. Don't expect me to cry any tears ." Patty told her.
"I was a fool. A fucking idiot. I admit it wholeheartedly. I know it's too late for me to do anything about it, but run away. So here's my word of warning, for you to dismiss or take heed of." Olivia took a deep breath. "You may think you're invincible, but there are people within our government who wanted you brought done before all this. They will redouble their efforts. Enough to make what you did to me look like a breath of wind. And now that you pulled off a virtually bloodless coup, they'll be goddamn sure to find it. So enjoy your moment in the spotlight. Revel. Because when it's over, they will grind you into the dirt."
Patty considered this. "Why are you warning me?"
She gestured toward David's tombstone. "There's another man you killed for another one of your causes. I want you to know that the man who's resting in that grave is a thousand times the person either of us will ever be. History only remembers the winners, Patty. When I am gone, they will only remember me as the cheating whore who destroyed the Presidency. But I'll be there when they bring you down. And when it happens, I will make sure the world knows what a cancer, what a blight you have been to it. Merciless and unforgiving. Unloved and alone. "
"You're going overseas," Patty mentioned almost casually. "Where exactly are you planning to go that the government can not find you? You'll never have the last word. It may take a year, it may take five, but they will remove you. You may think you'll dance on my grave, but at least I'll have one. You will be an afterthought of a sorry episode in our history. So enjoy your little rant, because you'll never get a chance to do another one."
Patty walked away.
"Was it worth it?" Olivia asked to her back. "All of this destruction, all of this death, all of this misery, was it worth it?"
"You think that living this way is lonely?" Patty said, without looking back. "Failure is lonely. Far more than success is. Trust me"
The truth was, Olivia was right, more than she wanted to admit. But she was Patty Hewes. And no one- especially not someone like her- ever got the last word.