Page 75 of Edge of Honor

The two men shook hands as Sorola asked, “Did you teach her that thing with the penny?”

“What thing?”

“Measuring the treads,” she replied. “Yes, he did.”

“It saved our lives,” the man continued. “That and having the tighter of the two suspensions. I’m sure of it.”

“WhatI’msure of is that we had the best driver. It was Suber that saved us. So, thank you.”

“You’re welcome,” Sorola said, the weight of losing Miller evident in his voice.

Sølvi didn’t want to trouble the man any further, but needed to ask, “Did the PM’s chief of staff go with her too?”

“No. He’s here somewhere. He stayed behind to help. I told him I wouldn’t leave without either of you.”

Thanking him, Sølvi retained the med kit and she and Harvath went off in search of others who needed medical attention.

The dead and wounded seemed to be everywhere. Multiple Secret Service vehicles were still on fire.

The sounds of helicopters, ambulances, and fire trucks only got louder as more first responders arrived on scene.

It was a different kind of chaos, but chaos nonetheless.

Eventually they located Henrik—the Prime Minister’s chief of staff. He was holding a water bottle up to the lips of a member from the Dutch delegation, helping her drink.

When the woman had had enough to drink, he sat the bottle next to her and held her hand for a moment, before stepping away to speak with Sølvi.

He pulled a small pad from his pocket and gave her a rundown of everything he had been able to establish regarding the Norwegian delegation’s status. Seven were dead—four of those being PST agents—and eleven were injured, five of them seriously enough to have been transported out on the presidential helicopter.

The Dutch, according to Henrik, had suffered even greater losses, but other than losing their Prime Minister and their Ambassador to the United States, he couldn’t account for exactly who had been killed in their group.

And, of course, the Secret Service had lost multiple agents, including Miller and the two female agents attached to the Norwegian delegation—Longwell and Del Vecchio.

Sølvi appreciated the man’s levelheadedness, even in the midst of such a horrific attack. She told him, in Norwegian, that he should be as circumspect as possible, but that the Prime Minister would need to brief Oslo, and any video and still footage he covertly captured would be valuable, especially of the vehicles themselves.

Seeing Gaines nearby, Harvath excused himself and went to give him his gun back. The man had set up a makeshift command center and was trying to make sure that anyone who was injured had been triaged and all available evidence was being preserved. In the distance, Harvath could see some of the QRF guys trying to keep people back from a couple of the vehicles that had been struck by RPGs. Undoubtedly, the BATF was already on their way and would be combing through everything, including the woods where the rocket-propelled grenades and sniper rounds had been fired from.

“Thanks for this,” Harvath said, returning the Glock to Gaines and setting the plate carrier down next to him on the ground.

“I didn’t hear any gunshots, so I’ll take that as good news,” the Secret Service man replied.

“Sølvi and one of the PST agents mopped up the woods.”

“That’s what we heard. Took out the sniper and two other attackers.”

Harvath nodded. “This was a really bad day, Russ.”

“Been a bad week. Speaking of which, the shooting at Ambassador Rogers’s house was all over the news this morning, but it didn’t break untilafteryou called me and asked to meet. Did you have something to do with that?”

This wasn’t how Harvath had planned to have this conversation, but it looked like they were about to have it, so he came right out with it. “An eight-man team hit Rogers’s house. They knew his alarm code, how to access his security cameras, and what the weakest point of his safe room was. The only people who knew all of that, besides Rogers, was the Secret Service.”

Gaines was stunned, obvious both from the look on his face and the tenor of his response. “You thinkwehad something to do with it?”

“Monday they sent two guys after him. Then right after you and I chat, eight guys show up.”

“Jesus Christ, Harvath. You thinkIwas behind that?”

“I think somebody figured out that Rogers had gotten himself protection. And they showed up armed to the teeth, complete with information only you guys have.”