Page 99 of The Presidents Shadow

ONCE I’M OFF the phone with Townsend, everyone on my team looks at me expectantly. They all know the question:

What’s next?

I turn and face the roomful of family and friends who will help me hatch big ideas, help me create peace and joy for the future.

But at this moment they need to help me formulate a plan.

Now that Maddy is safely back home, we need to decide what to do with the information that Ambrose is somewhere in Africa—and how we can possibly disarm a man who controls a machine with the power to destroy the entire planet.

“Here is the oldest advice in business,” I tell the group. “When in doubt, when all looks lost, when solutions are scarce, when morale is low, when the enemy is strong, there is just one thing to do… have a meeting.”

Then I add, “So, let us gather here again in fifteen minutes, and somehow, someway, we will build a plan.”

The small crowd quickly disperses, all of them thankful for the break.

Maddy has her own plans. She tells me, “I’ve got to take Belinda back to her place. She needs the comfort of her own bed, but she’s too scared to go home alone.”

“I understand,” I say. “Do what you have to do.”

Ten minutes later Belinda and Maddy are standing in front of Belinda’s recently replaced apartment door—or at least, what’s left of it. It’s been ripped off its hinges, shards of wood still hanging in the doorframe.

As soon as they walk inside, Maddy and Belinda are overwhelmed by the condition of the filthy room. They cover the bottom half of their faces, speaking through splayed fingers to avoid the smell.

“God,” says Belinda. “I thought it couldn’t be worse than it was when I lived here.”

As if to prove Belinda’s point, three very fat rats scurry across the floor, scattering trash as they go.

Belinda yelps and jumps onto the coffee table, which collapses under her weight, dumping her onto the floor.

The rats race toward the girl, curious, but Maddy jumps in front of her friend, waving her arms and yelling.

The vermin dash away, disappearing into the ripped side of the couch.

Maddy points out that the ceiling above is stained with big brown blotches.

“I don’t even want to think what that might be,” she says.

“No, you don’t,” Belinda agrees. “I think that’s where my neighbor’s bathroom is.”

Maddy moves into the kitchen and flips on the light. Immediately, thousands of cockroaches scramble for cover. There are so many that it seems as if the entire floor is moving.

“You can’t stay here,” says Maddy. “This isn’t sanitary, to say the least. You don’t even have a door, Belinda. Anyone can walk in and out of here.”

“Gosh,” Belinda says. “Who’d have thought there’d ever be a break-in in a classy building like this?”

“At the very least we’ll need to get you a new door,” Maddy says, eyeing the empty frame. “And definitely a new lock, plus a dead bolt.”

“Yeah, sure, that way no one can come in and steal the rats and the roaches,” says Belinda.

Maddy smiles as she taps quickly at her phone, trying to find an emergency contractor. Then she suggests that they both do their best to clean up the place.

“Maybe we should just put everything in the middle of the room and set it all on fire,” says Belinda.

“Then I’ll have to defend you against an arson count,” Maddy says. “And at this point, I’ve missed so much work I don’t even know if I have a job anymore.”

They begin by clearing the mattress of moldy sandwich crusts, old cigarette butts, and empty plastic bags that still hold traces of what Maddy suspects is cocaine.

When the mattress is finally cleared, Belinda pulls off the filthy sheets.

“The time has come to wash these rags,” Belinda says.

“The time has come to replace these rags,” Maddy says. Then she adds, “I’ll go out and buy some new ones for you. Think of it as a birthday gift.”

“My birthday isn’t until February,” Belinda says. “And I don’t take charity.”

“February?” Maddy asks, pulling out her phone to mark her calendar. “What day?”

“The fourteenth,” Belinda says, touched that Maddy is adding it to her calendar.

“Not a birthday present, then,” Maddy says. “But how about I be your early Valentine?”

“Ha,” Belinda says, her eyes suddenly going dreamy. “Somebody beat you to it.”

Maddy goes still, a suspicion that had taken hold in Dubai resurfacing. “Is it Abdul?”

Their handsome protector had been a miracle for sure, but Maddy had noticed right away that he paid a little too much attention to the overly young Belinda. To Maddy he had always been polite, but to her companion he was friendly—even affectionate.

His behavior had been a red flag for Maddy, but she’d kept it to herself, knowing they had much bigger problems at the time, and no way to survive in Dubai without Abdul’s help. Even so, she’d been sure to keep Belinda by her side at all times to make sure that Abdul never got her alone.

Now she looks at her friend with concern. It’s time to have a hard conversation.

“Belinda,” she says quietly. “I know that you liked Abdul. I know that it was all very romantic, how he swooped in and saved us. But—”

“But he’s too old for me?” Belinda finishes Maddy’s sentence.

“Well, yes,” Maddy says. “That’s one thing.”

“He’s twenty-one,” Belinda argues. “I’m fifteen. It’s only six years. If he were thirty and I were twenty-four, you wouldn’t say a damn thing about it!”

“Except you’re not twenty-four,” Maddy bites back. “And I bet once you are, he won’t be interested anymore.”

“That’s a horrible thing to say,” Belinda says, crossing her arms. “Is it so hard to believe that he likes me for me?”

“No,” Maddy says carefully. “After all, I like you for you. You’re a wonderful person, Belinda. You’re caring and smart, you’re tough, and you’ve got the determination of a pit bull.”

Belinda’s face softens at the compliments.

“But you are still a minor,” Maddy says sternly. “And Abdul has no business being around you.”

“He’s a wonderful person, too!” Belinda insists. “He’s caring and—”

“Okay, listen,” Maddy says sharply. “I’m going to tell you who Abdul actually is, and it’s not who you think.”

“What?” Belinda asks, her eyes narrowing.

Maddy sighs. Her suspicions about Abdul had kept her on alert at all times, and unable to sleep, even though she and Belinda had a pile of expensive rugs as their bed.

“I saw Abdul in his father’s office one night when I got up to use the bathroom,” Maddy explains. “It was way after hours and the shop was closed up.”

“He works hard,” Belinda says. “He has to—”

“He had a second phone,” Maddy goes on. “One we didn’t know about. And here’s the other thing—Lamont only received our first message. None of the others got through to him.”

“What?” Belinda asks. “What are you talking about?”

“Think about it,” Maddy continues. “Abdul miraculously crossed paths with us in the massive city of Dubai. He offered to let us use his phone in order to gain our trust, but when I saw that the keyboard was Arabic, I couldn’t send the message—just as he planned.

I gave him Lamont’s number, and he had to send that first message, because I was watching him. But I never knew what he typed.”

“But he did sent it,” Belinda says.

“He did, but it was vague, at best,” Maddy says.

“All it said was that I was in a large city. It was Burbank’s ability to trace the signal that made it possible for Lamont to narrow it down to Dubai so quickly.

My grandma Jessica’s grasp of Arabic helped, though it would have taken longer for them to find us with only Abdul’s message. ”

“But he sent the other messages in English! You watched him!” Belinda insists.

“And none of those messages went through,” Maddy says.

“It was a dummy phone that looked exactly like his real one. Whenever I tried to use it to dial Lamont’s phone, the signal was lost. I chalked it up to trying to make an international call, but after I spotted Abdul’s second phone, I figured out what really happened.

“Once Lamont was spotted in the city, Abdul knew he didn’t have much time—we’d be found eventually. So he plotted to have the waitress drop that note in the restaurant. That way he could look like our hero and not a villain.”

Belinda sags, her head hanging as tears brim. “I can’t trust anybody,” she says.

“That’s not true,” Maddy says, coming to her side. “You can trust me.”