{"id":263212,"date":"2026-07-14T14:25:56","date_gmt":"2026-07-14T11:25:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/1kitap1.com\/en\/hostile-intent-michael-walsh\/"},"modified":"2026-07-14T14:25:56","modified_gmt":"2026-07-14T11:25:56","slug":"hostile-intent-michael-walsh","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/1kitap1.com\/en\/hostile-intent-michael-walsh\/","title":{"rendered":"Hostile Intent – Michael Walsh"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Tyler didn\u2019t get the joke or the reference, as his expression showed. \u201cDoghouse Reilly. You know, Bogart? The Big Sleep?\u201d \u201cThe president doesn\u2019t waste his time with movies\u2014\u201d suggested Seelye, throwing Tyler a lifeline. He didn\u2019t take it. \u201cLoved that new Batman movie. Why doesn\u2019t NSA have gadgets and gizmos like that?\u201d \u201cIt\u2019s an honor to meet you, sir,\u201d lied Devlin. \u201cI\u2019m sure the affairs of state must keep you very busy, so we should be brief.\u201d Tyler stood there with his famous smile frozen on his face.<\/p>\n

He thought he\u2019d just been insulted, but he wasn\u2019t sure. \u201cPlease sit down. Drink?\u201d \u201cNo thank you, sir,\u201d replied Devlin, hitting the cushions. He figured that the faster he sat the quicker he could get up and out again, if he played his cards right. Unfortunately, he was holding a busted flush, nine-high. Still, he\u2019d won with worse. \u201cI gather that there\u2019s only one child missing\u2014\u201d Tyler got that look on his face that he saved for all discussions of dead or dying kids.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd feared dead. The blast\u2014\u201d \u201cThe blast didn\u2019t kill her, sir.\u201d You weren\u2019t supposed to interrupt the president, but Devlin didn\u2019t see what he had to lose, and pressed his advantage. \u201cWe tracked all the warm bodies with infrared before the assault, and only one kid was moved into the school proper. If she was there, she\u2019d still be alive.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tyler was knocked off his game, but only just a little. He was, after all, a politician. \u201cCleanup teams scoured the place. No sign of her.\u201d \u201cThen he took her with him. I don\u2019t know why and I don\u2019t want to think about why, but\u2014\u201d \u201cWho\u2019s \u2018he\u2019? The man who tried to get away in the chopper?\u201d<\/p>\n

Nice\u2014 Tyler was smarter than Devlin had expected. \u201cWhich I shot down, yes, sir.\u201d \u201cThen you might have killed her.\u201d \u201cI might have, but I didn\u2019t.\u201d \u201cHow do you know? The helicopter went down, killing the\u2014\u201d \u201cKilling the pilot, yes, sir. Who was expendable.\u201d \u201cSo how did\u2014\u201d \u201cMilverton, sir.\u201d Devlin heard Seelye gasp. Just a brief intake of breath, but as telling as if he\u2019d just socked him in the gut. There\u2014that cat was out of the bag and pissing on the table.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t understand,\u201d said President Tyler, but Seelye was already punching up Milverton on his PDA. \u201cCharles Augustus Milverton, Mr. President,\u201d said Seelye. \u201cNot his real name, of course. \u2018The most dangerous man in London,\u2019 he likes to call himself. Most dangerous man in the world, or one of them, is more like it.\u201d \u201cI don\u2019t care what he calls himself.<\/p>\n

I call him dead,\u201d said President Tyler. \u201cWorking on it, sir,\u201d said Devlin, realizing he\u2019d just been handed a stay of execution, thanks to a little girl. \u201cDo it,\u201d said Tyler. He got up and threw another log on the fire.<\/p>\n

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The morning school bell was clattering in the distance as Hope Gardner sandwiched her Volvo station wagon between Mrs. Moscone\u2019s Escalade and Janey Eagleton\u2019s Prius. She only nicked the Prius\u2019s bumper, or rather the plastic piece of junk that passed for a bumper these days, and the gentle thump went unnoticed by her two children in the backseat of her car.<\/p>\n

She wished she had the guts to ding the Escalade a little, just to make it fair, but the Cadillac belonged to Mrs. Moscone, and nobody wanted Mrs. Moscone mad at them. Her husband was from The Hill in St. Louis, the kind of neighborhood where The Sopranos was considered a documentary. She wondered briefly whether she should leave a note, but that notion flew out of her head as the back door rocketed open.<\/p>\n

\u201cBye, Mom!\u201d shouted Emma, her twelve-year-old. Emma was blond, green-eyed, and filling out with a rapidity that surprised Hope, even though she had gone through the same transformation herself when she was her daughter\u2019s age. One moment a skinny kid, the next\u2026And if she noticed, how much more quickly the boys noticed too. More than anything, Emma wanted to grow up to be Gwyneth Paltrow, win an Oscar, and marry a rock star, more or less in that order.<\/p>\n

Hope didn\u2019t have the heart to tell her that the odds were several million to one against any of those things happening. But childhood was for dreaming; Emma would learn about the harsh realities of life soon enough. Emma was halfway across the schoolyard as Hope turned to Rory. Rory was different. Small for his age, he was skittish, unsure, easily alarmed, especially for a ten-year-old. And right now his nose was running too. \u201cCome on, honey,\u201d said Hope, wiping his face with a clean handkerchief and pulling his zipper up tight.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou don\u2019t want to be late.\u201d The first snarl of winter had come early to southern Illinois, and there was a stiff, chill breeze blowing into Edwardsville from the Mississippi, just a few miles to the west. Edwardsville was an exurb of St. Louis, but the big city across the river might as well be in a different country, not just another state. Edwardsville still had an old-fashioned, midwestern small-town feel to it, and that\u2019s the way folks liked it.<\/p>\n

Nothing ever happened in Edwardsville. Rory snuffled again and wiped his nose on his sleeve; she could never get him to stop doing that. In the distance, they could both hear the school bell ringing, this time longer and louder.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

This is a short excerpt from the opening of “” by Unknown, quoted for review and introduction purposes. All rights belong to the copyright holders.<\/em><\/p>\n

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