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There was a knock at the door and Henry scooped up his phone, turning the white noise off, and straightened to his lookout position silently.
Taylor cleared her throat. “Yes,” she answered.
The door opened a crack and Charlie poked his head in. He was pale. “Uh… Taylor,” he said.
“Charlie, what’s wrong?” Taylor asked with concern, rising from her desk.
“I have some gentlemen here—”
The door was pushed open by someone from behind and Charlie fell forward grabbing the doorjamb to keep from falling.
Suddenly the room was a flurry of activity. Henry drew his gun as five other men entered the room, drawing their own guns and pointing them at Henry.
“CIA, put down your weapon,” one of the men shouted.
“Show me your badge,” Henry shouted back.
“Weapon down first,” the officer in front demanded of Henry. Taylor looked at him. His voice sounded so familiar.
“How about if you all put down the goddamn weapons and then we can have some introductions!” Derrick demanded, forcing Taylor behind him to shield her as he spoke.
There was a five-second standoff before the officer used a hand to pull forward his badge on a cord that was around his neck.
“Put the gun down, Lowsley,” he said.
Henry lowered his weapon and dropped it on the floor and the officers lowered their weapons.
“What the hell is going on?” Taylor demanded.
Charlie rushed forward to Taylor. “They have paperwork,” he said, winded. The older man was in an absolute panic.
“We have a warrant and are here to arrest one Henry Lowsley,” the officer informed Taylor.
“What the hell for?!” Taylor demanded, her voice rising in pitch and volume.
“We need to question Mr. Lowsley for suspected terrorist attempts against this country and his home country of Ireland. In addition, we understand that he has been working with one war criminal, Jeffrey Benson.”
The room started to spin around Taylor. She shook her head, trying to regain herself. “Charlie, go call our attorneys,” she demanded of him, as he looked equally baffled just standing in the corner. With a task at hand, Charlie straightened up and went on his way.
“This is ridiculous,” Henry said to the officers, but allowed them to take him into custody. “I think that warrant is missing some pages you guys need to find,” he said, his brogue getting so thick in his anger it was difficult to understand him.
“Shut up,” one of the agents said to him, pushing his head down as he added an additional set of cuffs to allow Henry’s arms to be linked behind him. Every time the man spoke Taylor felt like it was a voice she recognized, like she had heard it before. But she had no time to evaluate this fleeting thought.
A walkie-talkie went off in the apparent main officer’s hand, “The other members of the security team are in custody.”
“What others?” Derrick demanded.
“All of Lowsley’s security officers for his company are accomplices to this mess,” the agent told them.
They were taking away her entire security force, Taylor finally realized. She was completely vulnerable, totally exposed.
“Ya warrant can notdecreethis be done,” Henry announced loudly.
“Shut it,” the agent said tensely giving Henry a small shove.
“Yeah, yourdecreeis missing pages, I would really check on that,” he said. “I’m not sure you should do anything until you find those missing pages,” he rattled off, sending a side eye to Taylor.
And then they tased him and Henry went down like a ton of bricks.