by Dani Pettrey
Declan did so, then turned to Luke. “How’d you know Bedan was about to do that?”
“I just had a very bad feeling.”
Declan rubbed his head. “I can’t believe we lost another man and our biggest lead.”
And Ebeid’s whereabouts. Or so he thought. After hazmat entered the room and determined Bedan had released sarin gas via an ingenious, albeit disturbing, deployment device on his glasses, they quarantined the room. But when they replayed the video footage, Luke saw Bedan scrawl something on the steno pad they’d given him at the start.
He leaned in, narrowing his eyes on the image. “Stop,” he told the tech. “Zoom in on that pad.”
“It looks like he wrote . . . Niue.”
He couldn’t believe he was thinking this, but . . . Thank you, Bedan. He’d given them Ebeid’s intended destination.
He looked to Declan.
“I know,” Declan said. “Go. I’ll find the truck.”
Luke nodded and clasped Declan’s shoulder before racing down the hall, ignoring the searing pain in his leg.
“Head to BWI. I’ll have a jet waiting,” Declan hollered to him.
“If you talk to Kate before I can call her, tell her I’ll be back—and that I love her,” he hollered as he headed for BWI—and Niue of all places.
38
Declan met Tanner as she exited interrogation room three. “Any luck?”
“Not with that one.” She looked past him. “Where’s Luke?”
“He went after Ebeid.”
She frowned. “But one of the trucks got away. We have to assume . . .”
He squeezed her hand. “He knows we can handle it.”
“Does Kate know he left?”
“Not yet.” That was one conversation he wasn’t looking forward to. “Shall we head into interrogation room four?” That room held the guard of the third truck. So far, all the men, according to Tanner, were holding out, believing they were serving a higher purpose, and they were willing to face the death penalty for terrorist actions against the United States, but maybe, just maybe, Declan prayed, they’d get some answers out of the last man.
Lord, we’re walking in here as a last hope. We need to know where that truck is headed, and we need to stop it fast. Please help us. We’re desperate for your help.
They entered the room and introduced themselves.
“And you are?” Declan asked.
They were still running facial recognition and fingerprints through the system, as none of the men had any identification on them.
The man simply stared back at them.
Tanner asked him again in Malay, and his eyes fluttered.
“You speak Malay?” the man asked.
“Yes, and you speak English.”
He nodded.
“I’m Tanner.”
“Abdul.”
“Abdul,” she began, “can you—”
A knock sounded on the door.
“Excuse me.” Declan stood, answered, and took the file from the clerk.
“Abdul Megat,” Declan said, reading the report they now had on the young man seated across from them. Twenty years old, according to his driver’s license. Why had it taken the system so long to find him? He scanned the list of aliases. That’s why.
“You’re from New Jersey?”
“I’m from Malaysia, but I’ve lived in New Jersey—”
“Since you were four,” Declan said in shock.
Abdul nodded.
“So you’ve lived pretty much your whole life in our country. A country of which you are an official citizen, and you still plan to aid in the launch of potentially the worst terrorist attack we’ve incurred?”
Abdul shifted.
Declan narrowed his gaze, really studying the man, his body language, his movements. He was different from the rest.
Clearing his throat, he leaned forward. “Abdul, I’m going to go out on a limb here and say you joined up because”—Declan read the list of the other men’s names in the file before him—“your older brother, Amin, talked you into it.”
He straightened. “Amin doesn’t talk me into anything. I am my own man.”
“Then be your own man. Don’t go to death row because you refuse to do what you know in your conscience is right to do.”
“My loyalty is to my homeland.”
“This is your homeland.” Declan pounded the table with his fist, shaking the surface, the coffee in his cup sloshing. Sorry, he mouthed to Tanner as her coffee sloshed on her white blouse.
She winked back.
Man, he loved her.
He shifted his focus back to Abdul. “I can see you’re torn. Do as you said. Be your own man and tell us where that truck is headed, and I’ll see you are spared the death penalty.”
Abdul swallowed.
“Let us help you,” Tanner said.
Abdul shifted, his knees bouncing against the underside of the table. “If I tell you, you guarantee I won’t face the death penalty?”
“You have my word,” Declan said.
“Can you put it in writing?” Abdul asked, sweat beading on his brow.
“Absolutely.”
Declan rushed through the process as quickly as time would allow before Abdul lost his nerve, but Tanner remained with him the entire time, talking with him, soothing him as Declan watched on the video feed.
He returned and handed Abdul the signed paperwork.
Abdul’s dark eyes scanned it, his knees still bouncing, his brow dotted with sweat. He swallowed.
“I held up my end of the deal. You hold up yours.” Declan’s chest tightened. “Where is that truck headed?”
“Atlanta.”
Declan swallowed hard. “Atlanta?”
Abdul nodded. “We were to meet up with fellow brothers-in-arms. Bedan has a friend there. Someone who works somewhere high up. He was going to help us.”
Bedan’s “in” at the CDC.
“When was deployment set for?”
Abdul’s gaze darted about the room as he inhaled, shook out his hands, and then said, “On the anniversary of Ebeid’s son’s death.”
As they suspected. “Matthew?”
Abdul nodded.
“Two days from now?”
Abdul nodded again.
“So all of this is an act of revenge?”
“Yes,” Abdul said.
“If you’ll excuse me again, I’ll be back.”
Tanner nodded as Declan exited the room.
Once the door was solidly shut behind him, he bolted down the hall. They needed to intercept that truck before it reached Atlanta.
Or should they find it, follow it, and wait to see who rendezvoused with it? If Bedan had a “friend” at the CDC, they needed to know who it was. Plans shifted in his mind as he rushed for his boss’s office.
39
Luke hurried across the tarmac on the far side of BWI to the jet that Declan had waiting. Once inside, he called Kate.
“How’s it going? Did you get anything out of Bedan?” she asked. He’d called her on the way into the FBI office to update her.
“Yes. Ebeid’s destination.”
“Destination? You mean there’s only one deployment spot?”
“No.” Luke covered his ear to better hear her as the plane engine roared to life.
“What is that?” she asked.
“You still working on the hacker case at the warehouse?”
“Yes. What’s the noise on your end?”
The plane began taxiing down the runway. “I don’t have much time to talk. I’m on a plane, headed to intercept Ebeid.”
“What?”
“He’s on the run. I have to find him before he disappears for good.”
“What about the attack?”
“Declan’s on it.”
“You’re leaving again?”
Again. That hurt. “Yes, but just until I catch Ebeid.”
“The last time you left to catch him, you were gone for more than
seven years.”
“That’s not going to happen again. Trust me.”
The plane started its ascent.
“I’m going to lose you in a minute.” He prayed it was only over the phone and not permanently, not when he’d just gotten her back. But this was something he had to do. He couldn’t let Ebeid get away. “I love you. I’ll be back. . . .”
Silence.
“Kate . . . Katie?” The call was gone, but he prayed she wasn’t.
Kate excused herself from the warehouse for a moment. Stepping outside, she rounded the corner of the metal frame building, making sure no one was watching before bursting into tears. She understood Luke’s need to stop Ebeid. Really, she did.
But last time he’d left, he’d been gone a lifetime.
Sobs wracked her body.
What if he didn’t come back?
Declan and Tanner hurried down the ramp to B terminal at BWI, heading for their flight to Atlanta.
The boarding call for their flight was announced over the speakers.
Declan’s phone rang. “It’s Kate. You go ahead. I’ll be right there.”
“All right.” She pressed a kiss to his cheek.
“Hey, Kate,” he answered. “Tell me you’ve got some good news.”
“I’ve got great news. I found the truck en route to Atlanta. Are you sure you don’t want to intercept now?”
“I’m positive. Have them monitored without letting them know they are being followed. I’ve already talked with the Atlanta Bureau chief. He’s got a team ready for us. We’ll wait until the truck arrives at its rendezvous spot and nab Bedan’s CDC mole.”
“It makes me nervous.”
“I know, but we can’t risk losing the mole. Can you imagine the havoc he could wreak from inside the CDC? As long as we don’t lose the truck, we’re good.”
“I’ll see to it.”
“Last boarding call for Flight 28 to Atlanta,” the attendant announced over the intercom.
“Gotta go.”
“Be safe.”
“We’re going after a truck full of weaponized anthrax and plutonium dust. What could go wrong?”
“Not the time for humor.”
“It sounded like you could use a little.”
“I’m fine.”
“He’ll come back, Kate.”
“You don’t know that.”
“I do.”
“I wish I had half your confidence. Now go catch your flight.”
Luke knew what frustration felt like. It was geography competing with time in a chase where he was behind.
He was headed toward New Zealand, then over to the non-extradition island of Niue, if necessary. With the Bureau’s help, Luke had tracked Ebeid’s chartered jet to JFK, where Ebeid had boarded Flight 1124 to Guangzhou, China. China wasn’t cooperating with flight information, but the airline flying the route from Guangzhou International into Auckland, New Zealand, had one of Ebeid’s aliases listed on a first-class ticket. So Ebeid was staying with that planned final destination of Niue. Getting ahead of him was the problem.
Luke pulled strings to get on a flight to Auckland, to see if he could cut him off there. If not, he was heading to Niue, where he’d have to figure something out.
What he wasn’t going to do was let Ebeid get away again.
40
Ebeid stepped off the private plane that had just landed in Niue, looking tired, disheveled, and like a man who had been flying halfway around the world. He had changed his appearance at JFK enough that if Luke hadn’t seen the security video footage, he might not have recognized him.
The man took a moment to stretch and look around. It was dark outside. Silent. Trees swaying in the warm breeze. There were just their two private planes currently on the tarmac. Ebeid squinted at the sight of Luke’s plane, but Luke remained hidden.
Ebeid straightened his shirt collar, rolled his sleeves up to his elbows, and flung his white jacket over his shoulder before striding confidently forward. He believed he’d gotten cleanly away. And he nearly would have if it weren’t for Luke’s amazing pilot, who’d flown him from Auckland to Niue in record time to get him there moments before Ebeid landed.
With a steadying inhale and a prayer, Luke took immense pleasure in stepping out of the shadows and into Ebeid’s path, gun aimed at the man’s heart.
Ebeid’s face paled in the tarmac lights, even paler than the makeup had made him. “You have no jurisdiction here. It’s a non-extradition country,” he said smugly.
“You’re right, but I’m going to get you on that plane back to Auckland,” Luke said, pointing at the small plane that had made the three-and-a-half-hour trip in just over three hours thanks to the wickedly skilled pilot, Hauger.
“You’ll have to kill me first,” Ebeid spat.
“Not a problem.” Luke kept his gun aimed at Ebeid’s heart. “Your choice. Get on my plane or die now.”
Ebeid looked back at his pilot, who upon seeing Luke armed, quickly retreated onto his plane and closed the entry door. Ebeid looked to Luke’s pilot, but he only waved. Luke was tipping Hauger big time. Luke had spent the three hours, or a good portion of it, explaining Ebeid’s depravity and intent for evil. But thanks to a quick call to Declan while switching planes in Auckland, he’d learned Declan, Tanner, and their Atlanta team had stopped the threat. Not only did they have the driver in custody and the anthrax seized, but they were interrogating Bedan’s accomplice from the CDC, a scientist by the name of Barak Notauli. An interrogation that Luke bet would last a long while.
“I’m losing my patience,” Luke said, having given Ebeid more than a second’s reflection. “What’s it going to be?”
Defiance washed over Ebeid’s face. In a flash, a gun appeared in his hand.
Luke fired, shooting Ebeid in the heart.
Ebeid stumbled back, firing, the bullet hitting Luke in his collarbone.
Staggering backward in blistering pain, Luke fired again, shooting Ebeid in the head.
Ebeid dropped to the ground, his body going limp, the gun slipping to the dirt runway.
It was over. Ebeid was gone.
Relief washed over Luke in a way that he hadn’t experienced in over seven years, not since the day he’d let Malcolm recruit him into the Agency.
It was finally over.
His head swam and his vision blurred as Hauger rushed toward him.
“You okay, ma—”
41
Parker knelt along the shoreline where Jenna had been found. Sweet Jenna. Moonlight illuminated the waves crashing offshore, the sand cool beneath his knees.
He laid down the bouquet of yellow hibiscus, Jenna’s favorite, that he’d managed to get imported from the Big Island of Hawaii. It’d been their dream to visit Hawaii. They’d even considered honeymooning there.
He sniffed back the sobs threatening to wrack his body. So many dreams, so much future ahead of them—all gone in the blink of an eye.
When Avery had been shot in front of him at CCI, the intense horror of losing another woman he desperately loved had nearly destroyed him. But it was in that instant that he knew he loved Avery differently than he’d loved Jenna. Not less, or more, but different. What he and Avery shared was deeper—partially because of all they’d been through and partially because they were older. Jenna was and always would be his first love. She would always hold a special place in his heart, and Avery—wonderful woman that she was—respected and honored that. She loved him for it rather than in spite of it.
“You would have liked her, Jen,” he said, his voice cracking. “I’m so glad you can finally rest in peace. We got him. Griffin got the monster who took you away.”
Warm tears slipped down his cold cheeks, the late fall air dipping to near freezing.
“I know you’re in a better place. I know you’re whole and happy and at peace, but I still miss you, Mo grá.” He hadn’t said the Irish phrase for my love out loud since Jenna’s death, but in his final good-bye, he thought it only fi
tting. Her killer was behind bars, and it was time to move forward fully with Avery, though doing so would never minimize what he and his grá had shared. Jenna had been his love and his treasure. And now she could rest in peace.
Parker stood and turned, shocked to find Griff leaning against his car alongside the road.
“Didn’t want to disturb you,” Griffin said, pushing off the car and striding toward him with his own bouquet of flowers. So he was saying good-bye too.
Parker stopped a few feet from him, unsure what to say. It seemed wrong to belittle the moment with speech.
“Thank you for loving my sister so much,” Griffin said.
Parker swallowed, hard, then nodded, praying more tears didn’t fall—not in front of Griff. “I’ll leave you to your good-bye.”
“It’s only good-bye for now.”
Parker nodded. “Until heaven.”
Griffin smiled softly—the love only a sibling could have welling in his eyes. “Until heaven.” He stepped past Parker, then paused and turned. “See you and Avery at CCI?”
“We’ll be there.”
“About time you put a ring on her finger, isn’t it?”
Parker inhaled. Griffin understood his love for Jenna was his past, but Avery was his future. “I couldn’t agree more.”
“See you in a few.”
Parker nodded.
The gang sat down with their Chinese takeout boxes around the coffee table in Kate’s office. It’d been an incredibly busy week, but it still hadn’t been distraction enough to keep Kate’s thoughts off Luke.
Where was he?
Had he left her again?
Would it be another seven years?
Fear trickled inside.
She tried to shake it off by distracting her thoughts, thinking back over all that had happened in the last week. Declan and Tanner’s work in Atlanta. Griffin and Finley finding Jenna’s killer. Finding and recovering Stacey Marsden’s body, the first victim, so she could finally be laid to rest by her family.
Hood would be going away for the rest of his life. According to Griffin, in an attempt to avoid the death penalty, he’d already admitted to all eleven murders.
Griffin was thrilled about being able to give a sliver of peace to their families—the knowledge that their daughter’s killer was finally behind bars. It’d been a long time coming, but he had a new measure of peace, and so did Parker. She could read it on them both.