Cross Down

A retiree recognizes Bree, who went into hiding at a friend’s home in a quiet, gated neighborhood. The woman who recognized Bree tells a friend, who tells her friends over lunch. A waiter named Hector Ramirez hears the story and calls a person who pays him for any information about Bree, Alex, or Sampson. Two hours later, a van drives by the house and the operative inside discusses taking a seven-year-old girl.

Sampson gets within range of the United States, and his phone reactivates. He reads a message from Bree about the general whom Sampson saw arguing with Deacon in Afghanistan two years prior. It is retired General Gerrold Mason, Deacon’s former husband and the VP of Global Security Services. Sampson feels betrayed by Deacon.

Bree works from the safe house. One night, Jannie enters Bree’s workspace and says she spotted a van outside. She knows it’s a fake and notes that the protective detail is absent.

Sampson goes to Alex Cross’s home office to find out what Cross meant by, “it’s not random” (305). He finds papers in the trash that he believes answer the question.

Bree regrets not fortifying the safe house with her company’s bodyguards. She and Jannie cannot get a cell signal to call for help. They tell Willow and Nana Mama to hide upstairs in the bathtubs, but Nana Mama gets a kitchen knife, references a hard youth spent during Jim Crow, and stays by Bree’s side as she prepares to defend the home.

Sampson leaves Cross’s home office with the evidence and Deacon appears, who points a gun at him outside the house and tells him to get into her car.

Maynard’s men approach the house. Inside, Willow leaves her hiding place. Outside, the leader’s phone chimes. He gets a message from Bree saying they have laser sight on them. The man is shocked because his phone was off, but it was remotely activated. Bree watches them retreat, feeling good about her maneuvering until Jannie announces that Willow is gone.

Sampson gets in the car under pressure from Deacon, and he asks why she abandoned him in Tajikistan. She says she didn’t know if he’d survive and couldn’t wait. She announces that they are going to see a traitor.

Bree can’t find Willow. They call 911, but Bree knows it’s pointless. Nana Mama runs outside with a knife and Bree follows. They find Willow hiding high up in a tree.

Maynard meets with Willis, an old female Army Ranger turned CIA director of operations. They picture the UPS, FedEx, and Amazon trucks all converging in DC today as they talk about the end of the republic.

Sampson asks where the circuit board is, and Deacon says she destroyed it.

Jannie goes up the tree and brings Willow down. Willow explains that Sampson told her to go high if trouble ever struck. So, she climbed as high as she could.

Sampson asks Deacon why she destroyed the evidence. She says she knows her husband’s company, Global Security Services, is behind the bombing of the village in Afghanistan, and she didn’t want anyone to find the circuit board on her, but she memorized the serial number and it checked out.

General Grissom looks at a photo on his desk. His son Nathan died in Afghanistan in an IED explosion, and his wife died by suicide one year later. He hears loud voices outside his office and pulls out his service weapon.

Sampson reveals what Alex Cross found to Deacon, which is that each of the initial attacks happened near a military or government base, all of which come under the umbrella of Homeland Security, and Director Landsdale.

Captain Jennifer Webster of the secret service knows they are understaffed and underfunded. A fellow officer says the worst thing to happen to the Secret Service was it transitioning under Homeland Security.

Captain Hillary Cardinal of the Defense Intelligence Agency bursts into General Grissom’s office. She says that she and her cousins, who work in different agencies under Homeland, each only had part of the puzzle. They pooled their resources and developed a phishing program to nab foreign intelligence. Through their analysis, they determined that Homeland Security funded the attacks while keeping all of the various agencies under their umbrella in the dark.

Two of Maynard’s men, Sylvester and Casey, drive a Mack truck towards DC. Highway patrol pulls them over. They quickly kill the officer and continue toward the White House.

In August 1957, an exercise to extract the president from the White House by helicopter proved ineffective. Thus, Operation Wrangler was devised. It would work out a means of removing the president by car using a coded system transmitted to drivers by a pass issued only by Homeland Security.

Sampson and Deacon park in front of Global Security Services. Deacon secures a pass up to her husband’s office. Sampson thinks that it is places like this that house the real criminals, not the streets he patrolled as a rookie.

Sampson and Deacon barge into Mason’s office and demand answers. He continues to type on his laptop until Sampson forces him to stop.

The Boss tells Maynard via phone call to proceed. He imagines oblivious government workers sitting near pre-planted C4 for the imminent attack. An email from Mason says Deacon and Sampson are in his office and orders him to come and sort it out. Maynard and three others leave.

Deacon tells Mason they know GSS bombed Mir Kas. Mason denies everything and Deacon and Sampson leave, knowing he’s lying.

Outside Mason’s office, Deacon and Sampson discuss how to break him. Sampson asks Deacon what is in Mason’s “Room 101,” referencing the torture room that preys on a person’s worst fears in the novel 1984. She whispers something that surprises Deacon, but he agrees to try it. They go back in and lock the door.

In Grissom’s office, Captain Cardinal explains that her cousins are not going to their supervisors because bureaucracy will take too long, and they now know Homeland is compromised. She’s there alone, certain this is the fastest way to stop the attack. Grissom congratulates her on her excellent work, then shoots her in the head.

Outside GSS, Maynard sees Deacon and Sampson leave the building with a laptop and he pulls out his M4.

Sampson and Deacon leave Mason’s office and discuss how they held him out the window until he talked, his fear of heights eventually breaking him. Outside, they see Maynard’s car come to a stop and react.

Grissom sits at his desk in front of Captain Cardinal’s body. Colonel Kendricks, his assistant, comes in and offers to get rid of the body. She puts the weapon in the dead captain’s hands and then asks if Grissom needs any additional calls made. He announces that once he leaves he never intends to return to the Pentagon.

Sampson and Deacon return fire at Maynard’s men while they get into Deacon’s car.

Maynard keeps firing armor-piercing rounds at Deacon’s car. The car rolls to a stop and Sampson’s bloody arm extends through the window limply as he tries, and fails, to shoot.

Sampson tells Deacon to get down, but she kneels on the seat and returns fire. Maynard shoots and hits Deacon in the head. Sampson sees her blood and what looks like bone fragments on the windshield. He turns on the backup camera and waits for Maynard to approach.

Maynard advances on Sampson, but suddenly the car screeches toward him, hits him, and he flies through the air.

Sampson backs over Maynard’s body several times until he’s sure Maynard is dead, and then he exits the lot. He cannot rouse Deacon.

With Maynard dead, Maria Tucker, a former Marine, is in charge of the operation from a hotel overlooking the White House. She is a disgruntled former military employee, and the other people on her team all have personal grievances with the government. “They are part of an assembly of the betrayed and overlooked” (369), she thinks. She knows Maynard and his men are dead, and that she is in charge.

Mahoney enters his home to find Sampson and Deacon, who is gravely wounded but alive. Mahoney offers to call a discreet FBI medic, but Sampson says no. He needs to show Mahoney what’s on the laptop first.

Mahoney watches a video of General Grissom explaining that the government has responded with failure to the attacks, that the nation is barely holding together, and that now it is time for martial law to restore order.

Sampson watches Mahoney absorb the Grissom video. The General claims he has taken control of the nation and will consult with President Kent as needed.

Sampson explains that documents on Mason’s laptop confirm that General Grissom ordered Mason to bomb Mir Kas to keep their opium business a secret. It was Mason’s civilian contracting company GSS, using proprietary drone weaponry, which leveled the village of Mir Kas. The drug sales funded a secret Homeland Security account. “Grissom wanted chaos, death, destruction, and, ultimately, national mistrust, clearing the way for him to take control” (375). Sampson then asks Mahoney what they can do to stop Grissom.

General Grissom explains to Captain Kendrick that the American people only trust the military, having lost faith in all else. She leaves, revived by his pep talk.

Sampson continues to share intel with Mahoney, including plans to monitor and control the media, detention centers for celebrities and influencers, and lists of citizens to be arrested, including Sampson, Mahoney, and Alex Cross.

Sylvester and Casey, Maynard’s operatives, continue their drive towards the White House, though they are now running behind schedule.

A US Army colonel calls the DC Metro police chief and initiates Operation Wrangler to extract the president from the White House by car. The police chief starts the process and then tells his wife to get out of town with the kids.

Mahoney wants to go to the head of the FBI, but Sampson points out that that officer is not on Grissom’s list of people to detain. Instead, Sampson suggests they call the mayor, a trusted friend of Mahoney’s who is on Grissom’s list, meaning she isn’t affiliated with the traitors.

Grissom leaves the Pentagon, thinking about how he has worked to find loyal subjects inside the massive building. Colonel Kendricks assures him the way will be cleared for them.

Mahoney gets ready to leave his home but is met by two DC Metro Police officers.

Sylvester and Casey continue toward the White House, still behind schedule. Suddenly, DC Metro Police appear around them, clearing the way and making it possible for them to arrive on time.

At Mahoney’s doorway, the two DC Metro cops explain that they found Sampson’s shot-up car and followed the blood trail. They pull out a taser and threaten Mahoney, claiming the car was used in a lethal attack on an office building.

Grissom is escorted towards the White House in his caravan and explains his philosophical outlook to Colonel Kendricks, quoting Jefferson and recalling a political race from his childhood in which the victor’s campaign consultant explained that rallying hate groups was the key to consolidating power. Kendricks says the president was on a phone call with the DC mayor when the power was cut to his bunker.

Sampson sneaks around the house and surprises the DC Metro cops attempting to arrest Mahoney. He subdues and handcuffs the police officers, and he leaves with Mahoney with 23 minutes until the attack.

Sylvester and Casey slow ahead of their rendezvous point and present their forged passes at a police barricade. They are waved through, as the soldiers claim they are following orders.

Grissom nears the checkpoint with his pass ready. He quotes Alexander Dumas in The Count of Monte Cristo: “The difference between treason and patriotism is only a matter of dates” (400).

Sampson texts Bree to stay off the streets and to raise Willow if he dies today. They get out at the police checkpoint, but it’s a racist officer who hates Sampson. Sensing this, Mahoney offers to throw Sampson under the bus and the officer lets him through.

In the White House subbasement, Eliza Demos, of the President’s Secret Service detail, calmly kills her boss, who was desperately trying to find a way out of the White House for the president through an old tunnel system.

Sylvester and Casey come across a traffic accident and a woman pleading for help. Sylvester backs up the Mack truck and then rams the vehicles out of the way, killing those trapped inside the cars. He is determined to stay on schedule.

Mahoney and Sampson approach the White House, block the intersection with their car and abandoned food trucks, then put on bullet-proof vests. Sampson plans to stop Grissom before he reaches the White House to prevent him from playing his video to the nation and enacting his military coup.

Mahoney tells Sampson they are outmanned and outgunned as Grissom’s caravan arrives. They say farewell to one another.

In the back of his car, Grissom is informed that an FBI agent and a DC Metro police detective are blocking the caravan’s path. He says he’ll take care of it.

Sampson refuses Grissom’s men, all Pentagon Police officers, who demand they move their makeshift roadblock. Sampson informs them they have no jurisdiction and that he, as a DC police officer, and Mahoney, as FBI, do. The officers hesitate, and General Grissom, Colonel Kendricks, and four armed military officers appear behind the Pentagon Police officers.

General Grissom demands Sampson and Mahoney move. Sampson accuses him of treason, and Colonel Kendricks jumps to defend him. Grissom announces that they will find another way to the White House.

Mahoney tells Grissom he can’t leave and begins to list the legal codes under which Grissom will be arrested, including seditious conspiracy and treason. Grissom’s protective detail moves back, and Mahoney steps forward with handcuffs. Grissom says his team will shoot in five seconds, but Mahoney advances while reading Grissom his Miranda rights. When Grissom gets to one second left on his clock before the scheduled storming on the White House, two Humvees appear behind Sampson.

Grissom is confused about the appearance of two military vehicles. Colonel Toussant appears from one of the vehicles and salutes General Grissom. Grissom demands he move Sampson and Mahoney’s roadblock. Colonel Toussant says his order comes from above Grissom and reminds the general that the DC National Guard is the only military apparatus that reports directly to the president. Further, he explains that the mayor, acting on behalf of the president, has ordered them to protect the White House. Suddenly, Colonel Kendricks pulls out her weapon.

Sylvester and Casey arrive at their rendezvous, but their contacts are not there. Two National Guardsmen demand they move, but Casey believes that as “weekend soldiers” they won’t shoot (426). A few seconds later they are both lying in pools of their own blood.

Sampson walks towards Colonel Kendricks, unarmed, attempting to negotiate for her to put down the weapon. Instead, she asks if the general will be arrested and tried. When Sampson nods, she shoots General Grissom in the temple. As soon as she shoots, an anonymous National Guardsman kills her.

Maria Tucker, in command after Maynard’s death, hears the planted C4 explosions, and the rifles firing as snipers take out the remaining Secret Service agents around the White House. After that, however, the tow truck meant to remove the fences does not appear. The FedEx, Amazon, and UPS trucks full of insurrectionists never arrive. She knows the coup has failed and orders her team to wipe the drives and burn everything else. When they are done, she kills the other traitors and thinks to herself that next time it’ll work out.

Sampson and the entire Cross family push Alex Cross out of George Washington Hospital in a wheelchair to wait for their ride. Sampson explains that President Kent is rolling up the insurrectionists and domestic terrorists and that Grissom will be buried with full honors for saving the White House. Sampson says he’ll return to the hospital to visit Deacon later, who is still in a coma but stabilized. Cross invites Sampson to the house in the morning to figure out why Colonel Kendricks was killed so quickly, and by whom. Then, surprising everyone, Alex Cross gets out of the wheelchair and walks to the waiting car.