Free Epilogue II: A Bonus Chapter to Hidden Order by Brad Thor

C APE C OD
    M ASSACHUSETTS
    T hey had been in the water for less than five minutes when they saw two SUVs racing up the beach with their light bars flashing.
    Someone must be drowning, Harvath thought. Looking at Lara, he wondered if she was thinking the same thing too. Then he saw the expression on her face and realized the wave of painful memories that must have been crashing against the rocks of her mind right now.
    Why today? Why did this have to be happening now?
    They both looked up and down the beach, but couldn’t see signs of anyone in distress. Everything looked fine. Then, the emergency vehicles slowed and came to a stop right in front of them.
    Harvath had no idea what was going on, but it was obviously serious, and he led the way out of the water and back onto the beach.
    The windows of the lead police vehicle were down and the officer shouted, “Are you Scot Harvath?”
    He nodded and, handing Marco back to Lara, approached the SUV. “What’s going on?”
    “Someone pretty important has been trying to track you down. I have orders to transport you to Camp Edwards. Apparently, there’s an aircraft waiting for you there.”
    He’d not only turned his cell phone off for the day, he’d pulled the battery out and left it in Lara’s beach bag. That explained why no one had been able to reach him, as well as how the police had been able to find him. The battery itself acted like a GPS transmitter. All someone with the right technology had to do was know that it was his battery and they’d be able to zero in on his location. There was only one person who had access to both of those things and that was the Old Man. Something was definitely up.
    Harvath looked over his shoulder at Lara and Marco. This was not how he wanted their day to end.
    “Don’t worry about your family,” the officer said, “We’ll make sure they get back to where you’re staying.”
    Harvath was about to say something about them not being his family, but stopped himself. He liked the sound of what the man had said and liked even more that they looked like a family.
    “Give me a minute.”
    The officer looked at his watch. “I was told to get you there as quickly as possible.”
    “I understand,” he replied, as he walked over to where Lara was standing, Marco on her hip. “Something’s come up.”
    “I kinda got that impression. Anything you can share?”
    “I have no idea. That officer is supposed to take me to Camp Edwards. The one behind him is supposed to make sure you and Marco get back to the hotel.”
    “Edwards isn’t far from here. It’s part of the Massachusetts Military Reservation. All sorts of things happen out of there.”
    “Are you two going to be okay? I suppose he can fit the bikes in the back of his SUV.”
    “We’ll be fine,” she replied.
    “I’m guessing he doesn’t have a car seat, though.”
    “Go. We’ll be fine.”
    “Are you sure?”
    “I’m sure,” she said, putting her hand around the back of his neck and pulling him in for a long kiss. “Call me as soon as you can.”
    “Will do,” he replied, tousling Marco’s hair and giving the little guy a kiss on the cheek.
    “And be safe,” she added, as he jogged over to their blanket and gathered up his belongings.
    “I’m always safe.”
    Lara doubted that and laughed as she shook her head.
    Picking up all of his things, Harvath gave them each one more kiss and then hopped into the lead SUV. “I’ll call you as soon as I can.”
    As the vehicle sped off down the sand, he reassembled his phone. Instantly, it started blowing up with voicemails and texts—all from the Old Man.
    He dialed his number and Carlton answered on the first ring.
    “We just got word from Argentina. He’s awake.”
    Phil Durkin had lost a lot of blood and had suffered a bullet wound to the back of the head, which had put him in a coma, but he had survived. Had Harvath and his team not shown up in Tierra del Fuego when they had, William Jacobson might have