He frowned.
“Colonel Anderson?”
Carter glanced.
“Probably fake.”
The call stopped.
Then immediately rang again.
Same name.
Higgins ignored it.
Isaiah said, “You should answer.”
Higgins laughed.
“No.”
“It would help you.”
“Shut up.”
The phone stopped.
Thirty seconds later, another call.
GENERAL STAFF DUTY
Higgins glanced again.
His smile weakened.
Carter looked toward the screen.
“What kind of phone is that?”
Higgins picked it up.
Government-issued hardened device.
No visible commercial branding except small serial markings.
He turned it over.
“What is this?”
Isaiah said nothing.
Higgins looked back.
“Where did you get this?”
Isaiah stared.
Higgins’s voice sharpened.
“Answer.”
“It was issued.”
“By who?”
“United States Department of Defense.”
Carter laughed.
Actually laughed.
“You hear this guy?”
Isaiah returned his gaze to the window.
The phone rang again.
This time:
PENTAGON OPERATIONS CENTER
Nobody laughed.
Higgins stared at the screen.
Carter leaned closer.
The call stopped.
Then a message appeared.
PRIORITY CONTACT REQUIRED. CONFIRM STATUS OF GEN MONTGOMERY IMMEDIATELY.
The car became quiet.
Higgins looked toward the cage.
Isaiah met his eyes.
“Who are you?”
Isaiah answered with the same calm he had used from the beginning.
“Isaiah Montgomery.”
Higgins’s face tightened.
“No.”
Isaiah waited.
“What do you do?”
Isaiah looked toward Carter.
The sergeant had stopped smiling.
Isaiah said:
“I serve in the United States Army.”
Carter turned.
“You’re wearing a Navy shirt.”
Isaiah almost admired the stupidity of the observation.
“Yes.”
“What rank?”
Isaiah looked toward him.
“General.”
Higgins laughed once.
Nervously.
“What kind?”
Isaiah said nothing.
Carter’s eyes moved toward the phone.
Then back.
“What kind of general?”
Isaiah waited.
Higgins pulled toward the curb.
The cruiser stopped.
He turned fully.
“What rank?”
Isaiah answered.
“Four-star.”
Silence.
Not dramatic.
Not immediate understanding.
The mind often rejects information when accepting it would require reinterpreting the previous fifteen minutes.
Carter stared.
“You expect us to believe you’re a four-star general?”
“No.”
Isaiah shifted his wrists against the cuffs.
“I expected you to verify my identity when I first asked.”
The phone rang again.
PENTAGON OPERATIONS CENTER.
Carter reached for it.
Isaiah’s voice changed.
“Do not answer that phone unless you are prepared to identify yourself accurately.”
Carter froze.
That was the first command Isaiah had given.
It sounded different.
Not louder.
Heavier.
The sergeant looked toward Higgins.
Higgins whispered, “Call dispatch.”
Carter lifted the radio.
“Dispatch, Unit 23.”
“Go.”
“We need federal verification on Isaiah Montgomery.”