Third Hour

by Lisa Phillips

  “She hasn’t contacted any of us so far. And now we can’t get ahold of Alvarez—even on the number Victoria had for him.”

  Clearly she’d been assuming Talia would reach out. They relied on the NSA analyst probably more than they should. Counted on her considerable technological skills to save the day where their guns and brute force couldn’t.

  “So we still have nothing?”

  “If you didn’t find anything on your end, no.” Her voice had a distinct tone. She didn’t like the fact he put all the responsibility on her to figure this out.

  “Sorry. I just don’t have a good feeling.” He sighed. “And I’m stuck here working for the foreseeable future.”

  “I don’t have a good feeling either. She should’ve found a way to contact us by now. I mean, what is she doing anyway? Talia is better than this. But since she got…you know…it’s like she’s been off her game or something.”

  “Which is completely understandable,” he reminded her. “Considering what happened.”

  “But not helpful right now.”

  “I’ll take that up with the hacker when I get my hands on him.”

  Dakota sighed.

  “Keep me posted.” He had to get back to his station before someone noticed his absence. Protection came first, even when he’d rather be anywhere else than here right now.

  Mason hung up. For the first time, he realized he’d rather not be doing his job. He would much rather be out looking for Talia. He found he cared about her safety more than these thousands of people pouring into the stadium to see a man intent on putting them all at risk. The Secretary of State should never have come. And he definitely shouldn’t have kept the event on the schedule.

  For everyone’s safety, he should have called the whole thing off.

  Mason had the niggling urge to pull the fire alarm and get all these people out of here. But if Yewell—the son—saw mass exodus of the stadium on some surveillance, then he might bump up the timeline and do now what they might’ve been able to stop later.

  They needed time.

  “Dad!” Rayna skirted between two people. She bounded over, all teenage enthusiasm—and wasn’t that an oxymoron—and long legs she hadn’t quite gotten used to yet.

  Trailing behind was her mother, his ex-wife. Stella.

  “You’re here.” He wasn’t sure how he felt about that. Cold moved through him, a slow-moving dread that she was here. In danger. Both of them were. They’d get caught up in what happened today.

  “We’re here!” She hugged him while her mother stayed a couple of steps away, a polite smile for him. “We knew you’d be working, so we came to get a peek at the Secret Service agent in action.”

  Mason couldn’t register her words. They were here. He shook his head. “You need to leave. Now.”

  Chapter 25

  Talia wanted to throw the keyboard on the floor, but none of them could know she was frustrated. The message she’d tried to get out to her team had failed. She’d worked so hard to send it in the background of what she was “supposed” to be doing so that no one noticed. All for nothing.

  The hacker glanced over.

  She didn’t want to talk to him anyway. This was all his fault. And while she supposed forgiveness should be her goal here, there was no way Talia was ready for that. Absolutely no way. She was far too intent on nursing her anger to deal with the aftermath right now. She wouldn’t survive this by going soft. She had to stay strong, the way Dakota had when she’d been abducted. The way Niall had when he’d nearly been experimented on.

  She had to be more like her teammates, and less like herself.

  Allowing peace to come in and calm her wasn’t going to give her that edge she needed right now to stay alive.

  “I’m in.”

  She glanced at the hacker and saw he’d turned to look back behind them, at the gunmen who hovered around. They made her neck itch the way they just stood there and watched. It was unnerving how they could be so still. So quiet. She felt like she was going crazy trying to figure a way out of this.

  A way to call for help.

  To incapacitate a room full of armed men, and not herself in the process. Okay, so there were only four of them, but it might as well have been a hundred for all she could do to physically subdue them. They’d take her down for simply getting out of the chair.

  The gunman strode over. “We’re ready.”

  She saw the twitch in the hacker’s jaw. That wasn’t what he’d accomplished. His body stiffened in disagreement as the armed man approached. “Well, not exactly. I’m in the satellite. I can broadcast the signal from the stadium to wherever I want.”

  “How is that not ready?”

  Talia leaned back in her chair. “We can send the signal out. But we also need the servers on the other end to see the signal and play it over whatever they’re broadcasting. We’re piggy-backing networks all over the world. This is going to take time.”

  “Then I suggest the two of you quit taking breaks and get back to it.” He palmed a handgun. “Otherwise you’re going to have to figure out how to hack while you’re bleeding.”

  Talia turned away from the look in his eyes. She’d seen it before and had no interest in being a party to sentiment like that. Not here. Not now, when Victoria didn’t know where she was because Talia hadn’t been able to get the message sent out.

  She’d failed.

  The only upside was that the team was hopefully busy taking down Yewell. Safeguarding all the people he’d said his father was going to entertain at the stadium. Assuming that was where the attack was going to take place.

  If Yewell hated his father so much for effectively turning him in, then he should just kill his father. One man. Why he needed to involve the thousands at the stadium, she didn’t know. They were there exercising their right to meet in support of a government that would work in their interests. It was what good citizens did. Not to mention why they had federal law enforcement in the first place, to safeguard people and their interests.

  Yewell needed to be found. Before he could hurt anyone.

  “How far are you on your part?”

  She glanced over at the hacker, then back at her computer.

  “We need to work together.”

  “I don’t need to be together with you on anything.” She didn’t have any interest in hearing him. Or talking to him. Why would she?

  That call to forgive touched her mind again. The gentle urging of the Holy Spirit. Maybe He should try a two-by-four instead. Probably more effective at getting her to turn and start walking in the right direction. Otherwise she was going to stick with this path until she was out of danger and had the head space to seek out peace, or forgiveness. It would be much easier to try and forgive him if the hacker was in jail…preferably miles away from her. Where she’d never have to see him. Ever again.

  “Sir!” A man strode in, holding a laptop. He was dressed much like the gunmen, but his tactical vest was unzipped and he wore glasses.

  “What is it?” The gunman evidently merely tolerated the man’s presence on his team.

  Talia watched him stride past her, at which point he shot her a frowny face. She shrugged like, “What?” not willing to allow the opportunity to stand up to someone passing by. Even if the communication was all nonverbal.

  The man stopped behind her. She could hear the rapid puff of his breath as he exhaled. Overexerted from that quick walk in here. He needed to get a gym membership. Or a dog to take on walks.

  “One of them tried to send out a communication. I almost didn’t find it, because whichever one of them did it is really good.”

  That narrowed it down. Talia nearly rolled her eyes, but refrained. They didn’t need to be aware of her opinion of this newcomer. Or the hacker.

  She could feel more than see the hacker’s attention on her from the very corner of her eye. She lifted her chin and kept typing. As though this interruption meant nothing, and she was determined to get on with the job.
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br />   Like she didn’t know full well they were going to kill her as soon as this was done.

  “Which one?” The gunman’s barked question made the muscles at the back of her shoulders tense.

  “I don’t know. I can’t tell the difference between their two computers.” He sighed. “It has to be that way to get the job done.”

  And yet this guy couldn’t do the “job”? Or was he just insurance to make sure they’d done it correctly? Someone on the inside, keeping tabs. No one had said anything about that to her. Though, that subterfuge was likely the point.

  Someone walked toward them, heavy feet encased in thick-soled boots. She tensed with each step.

  “It was me.”

  Talia’s head whipped around to the hacker. What was he…

  “I’m the one who tried to get a signal out.” He looked convincingly guilty, but lifted his chin to face the armed man. “My employer needs to know that this is unacceptable treatment.”

  The gunman lifted his nine mil and shot the hacker in the thigh. The sound was like a firework going off beside her ear.

  Talia squeezed her eyes shut and listened to him scream.

  Those boots moved closer to her. The barrel of a gun pressed against her skirt, just above her knee. “Problem?”

  “No.” She didn’t know what else to say. They were going to have to do this, right? It wasn’t like she had any other choice.

  “The two of you will get this done. Or I’ll be forced to get creative.”

  Bile rose in her throat.

  “Understand?”

  She nodded.

  He moved away. “Is the signal ready?”

  “Yes,” the laptop guy said. “The charges are all in place.”

  Talia bit her lip.

  Help wasn’t coming.

  . . .

  “You can’t be here.”

  Rayna frowned. “But I thought—”

  “I know.” Mason did. He knew exactly why she’d come, she didn’t need to tell him. He touched her shoulders. “I know. And thank you.” It was a combination of support and the opportunity to watch her dad at his “cool” job. He kissed her forehead. “But it’s not safe here.”

  His ex-wife took a step forward. Stella was dressed like she was going to work—slim skirt and blouse, covered by a suit jacket. Those fifteen pounds she should have kept instead of losing, along with the hard edge of her hair cut along her chin, didn’t appeal to him. He much preferred Talia’s curves, though they did dress quite similarly.

  Somehow when Talia did it, it seemed more natural and less like a uniform. Like armor.

  Her eyes looked like she was frowning, but her brow didn’t wrinkle. “What’s going on?”

  Mason motioned off to the side with a dip of his head and tugged on Rayna’s elbow. He led them away, glancing over at the assistant director from DC as he moved. No one had noticed his absence yet.

  Mason spotted a jacket, folded under the table where a Secret Service agent stood. The female agent searched a woman’s purse. The army-green jacket was close to her feet. Just like the one he’d seen on that man who’d come through his line.

  Just like the one abandoned by the wall in the breezeway.

  Entirely too much of a coincidence to not be worth noting. He’d need to tell the assistant director about it.

  “What’s going on, Dad?”

  He stopped when they were far enough off to the side. “It’s not safe for the two of you to be here.”

  Nor was it safe for any of these people. The whole thing should’ve been called off. But the Secretary of State didn’t acquiesce to lowly Secret Service agents. It was only their job to protect him, not convince him that the danger for him to even be in the state was far too high.

  Not worth the risk.

  “You guys should go home. Stay off the streets, as far from here as you can.”

  A man walking past slowed. “Is there something going on?” He looked down, noting Mason’s badge on his belt. “Is there some kind of threat?”

  Mason shook his head. It was at the back of his mind to just yell at the top of his lungs. Tell all these people that the Secretary of State’s son was out for blood. And they could all get caught in the crossfire.

  “I’m talking to my family right now.” Hopefully his tone clearly indicated this man was interrupting them. And that this was none of his business.

  Mason could make some kind of announcement. Or get it broadcasted over the emergency system. Like an Amber alert that went to everyone’s phone—a warning to clear the area.

  But what could he do to warn people that wouldn’t result in mass panic? That was the problem. He didn’t want people getting trampled.

  Yewell could attack his father’s convoy on the freeway, which had been completely shut down for his journey from the airport to the stadium. These people could be safer congregated here than they would be by dispersing and making their way home. Who knew what the answer was? Mason needed to pray for wisdom, something he did while his ex-wife currently utilized her psychotherapist skills to assess his expression and conclude what the problem was.

  She turned to Rayna. “He’s probably right. There are so many people here, it’s going to be a mad crush. And for what? To hear a bunch of bureaucratic jargon that’s supposed to energize us into mindlessly following whatever the government says they want to do next?”

  Rayna spun around to her mother. “Don’t think I don’t know you’re taking his side.”

  “It’s not about—”

  She held up a slender hand, then turned to Mason. “We came. We saw. It’s not like we even bought tickets.” She shot her mother a look. “So now we’re going to go, and you can tell me later why you’re being weird. Deal?”

  Relief rushed through him. “Deal.” He planted a kiss on her forehead. “You’re a smart girl.”

  “You can also tell me later where Talia is.”

  His ex-wife opened her mouth.

  “Later.” She tugged on her mother’s arm while she assessed his gaze with a daughter’s attention to detail. She hadn’t missed a thing. Though she had been pissed at him for not being glad to see her.

  Mason mouthed, Love you.

  Rayna blew him a kiss, and she and her mother turned to walk away.

  “That guy.” The man who’d stopped by them pointed at him now, in a conversation with a huddle of people. “He said we’re in danger being here. He told his family to leave.”

  “Agent Armstrong!” The assistant director called out.

  In the nick of time.

  He jogged over to the lead agent. “Yes, sir?”

  “Return to your assigned post, Agent Armstrong. I’ll be mentioning you in my report.”

  “Sir.” He motioned to the jacket under the desk. “I keep seeing these jackets, left around the area. That’s the third one. Same type and color, discarded.”

  “And this is reason for you to take a break for personal reasons when all other agents are doing their jobs?”

  This wasn’t going well. “Sir, I believe—”

  The assistant director cut him off. “Back to your post, Agent Armstr—” His phone rang. He started to turn away as he answered it. “Assistant Director Carnes.”

  Mason moved back toward his post.

  “Agent Armstrong!”

  He turned back, trying to keep the utter surprise from his face. “Sir?”

  “You’ve been retasked, by order of...” He shifted the phone back to his mouth. “What did you say your name was?” His eyebrows crumpled together. “Thanks.” He hung up. “Director Bramlyn. State Department. She said you’ll know what it’s about.”

  He nodded. “I really think you need to look into these jackets, sir.”

  “Don’t tell me how to do my job.” He motioned with a flick of his fingers. “Now run along to your special assignment.” He said that like it was a dirty word.

  Mason turned away and sent Victoria a text about the jackets as he walked. She could get the di
rector of the Secret Service to put pressure on Carnes to look into the jackets. And why not? It really wasn’t worth ignoring what could be a potential threat just for the sake of throwing his weight around.

  As soon as the text sent, he called Dakota.

  “Special Agent Pierce.”

  “It’s Mason. What’s going on?” He headed for the street and started walking.

  “No, go the other way.”

  “What’s that?”

  She said, “Turn around. Silver compact. No comments, it’s a rental.”

  He did as she’d instructed and saw a silver car pull out of traffic and stop close to him. Mason pulled open the front passenger door and got in, hanging up as he sat down. “What’s going on?” They hadn’t answered his question yet.

  “Alvarez called.” Dakota pulled back out into the slow moving traffic. “He knows where Talia is being held.”

  Mason blew out a deep sigh of relief he had no idea he’d been holding since Talia was taken. “Any movement on Yewell?” Surely if Alvarez had called in about Talia, he’d also informed them about their target, right?

  “He’s working on it. Says he’s close to a takedown.” In the driver’s seat, Dakota glanced at him. “Josh went to assist. Our job is Talia.”

  “Copy that.”

  Chapter 26

  She wasn’t going to be able to keep up this ruse for much longer. Her computer was accessing servers all over the world, stringing them into her sequencer using a virus that was programmed to work extremely slowly. Wouldn’t want to have them all link to it simultaneously and overload it. Or finish before her rescue got here.

  She almost smiled to herself. Almost.

  Talia’s mind insisted on reminding her that it was possible help was not coming. She shoved aside that thought and started to sing in her head. A hymn about being in a battle.

  She pictured standing up. She would pick up the chair she’d been sitting on and swing it around like a professional wrestler—just with more clothes on.