The FBI had emailed the renderings of Hashim to all the Holiday Inns in the surrounding areas. The one on the border of the city responded in the affirmative. But when the agents arrived there, the manager told them the man in the drawings had been taken to George Washington University Hospital.

At the hospital, the agents questioned patients and staff to see if any of them might give information on the couple that had been there and left.

When they showed the photos to the nurse who’d engaged with Hashim, she pointed to the clean-shaven version, and gave them a description of the woman with him.

31

31

They hadn’t met each other. Dominique had reached out to Catherine in the aftermath of what happened in the warehouse, but never got a response. It was hard for Catherine to take acknowledgment for a gift she believed she’d never worked for, or even wanted. Truth was, she got shit for being able to see what she did, and kept it close to her chest unless there was an urgent need. There was now. And she reached out to Dominique.

Catherine stood in the living room of Dominique’s modest apartment in Northwest Washington near Logan Circle. It wasn’t far from where Dominique worked at The Washington Post.

She and Catherine had known about each other through Adrien Kurt. Their connection was cemented by Catherine’s guiding the CIA to the warehouse. But this was the first time they’d been face-to-face.

“Where is he now?” Dominique asked, stunned at what Catherine had told her. “Where is he, Catherine?”

Dominique tried to remain calm, but her mind raced with what this could mean.

“He’s not here to harm either you or Julian.”

“Why is he here?”

“You’ll understand when you see him.”

“You’re asking me to trust you with my life.”

“I’ve already trusted mine to him. Be at this location tonight,” she said, handing Dominique a paper with an address. “You and Julian.”

“I don’t understand what’s going on.”

“You will.”

Dominique looked at the address.

“Virginia Beach?”

“I have a cottage there. You’ll be safe. Please trust me. There’s something remarkable going on beyond what we’re able to comprehend.”

Even in her panic, Dominique knew that was true.

32

32

In the all-white farmhouse country kitchen in Catherine’s Virginia Beach cottage, Julian glared at Hashim, who was weak and leaned against the kitchen counter.

Catherine handed him a damp washcloth to wipe the fever-sweat from his forehead.

Dominique watched from the doorway, trusting what she’d said to Julian to get him here, would be the catalyst for him to grip what was happening.

Julian pulled out his revolver and pointed it at Hashim.

Dominique put herself between the two men.

“Are you fucking crazy!” Julian said.

Dominique didn’t budge.

Neither did Julian. He was a fighter and would fight until his walls were forced to crumble.