by Kate James
“Good. That’s good.”
“Where did it happen?” Logan cut in.
“What’s your location?” Ariana asked Trevor, then listened. “Okay, we’re not far from Gate 16. We’re on our way.”
“No, we’re not,” Logan retorted, having holstered his own phone.
“Trevor, get a hold of Max. Start evacuation of this terminal, and keep me posted.” Disconnecting the line, Ariana stared at Logan. “What are you talking about?”
“It’s simple. We’re lucky no one was hurt. We’re not far from the location and I’ll get the EOD techs there. We’ll investigate. In the meantime, we can’t assume that there’s only one explosive device. I no longer need you for security access as we’re already in the departure area. Get passengers out of this section of the airport.”
“I’ve got that started already.”
“Look,” he said, his voice softer. “I’ll handle this with our team. Like it or not, I don’t want to risk you getting hurt.”
His last comment gave Ariana pause. He was trying to shield her. She was as qualified for her job as he was for his. “This is my airport and arguing will serve no purpose. It’s a waste of time. We’ve activated the airport’s critical incident response plan and, like it or not, I’m incident commander for the airport. There’s no point arguing,” she repeated.
She could see the resistance on his face, but he must have come to the same conclusion that they had no time to spare.
They arrived at Gate 16 in no time. It was obvious where the explosion had occurred. Gray smoke was billowing from the charred furnishings. As they’d already been told, no one had been in close proximity at the time of the detonation, and the explosion appeared to be relatively small. Ariana was immediately thankful that it had occurred in a quiet area of the departure lounge. Consulting the status board, she ascertained that a flight had just left and there wasn’t another one scheduled to arrive at that gate for a couple of hours.
An EOD tech rushed over, while Logan instructed Boomer to check the rest of the area. Boomer’s concentration didn’t seem to be impacted by the noise and confusion around them.
While Logan and Boomer worked the area between Gates 16 and 18, Ariana wandered ahead to the next section of the concourse. She watched the members of her team and other airport personnel undertake an orderly evacuation. People had obviously been shaken by the explosion, but the staff were communicating that it was a minor incident to keep everyone calm. She followed in the wake of the evacuation, scanning the area for anything that might’ve been out of the ordinary, although she knew it was futile.
She was glad she hadn’t dismissed the letter as a ruse. Ariana had been in her job long enough to know that the airport received a considerable number of false threats on a regular basis.
In this case, the threat just hadn’t felt like a prank, and Ariana trusted her instincts. Whoever was behind it had access to her office, making it far more likely that he’d have means of entry to other secure areas, as well. Granted, security in most areas of the terminals was electronic and far more advanced than the rudimentary manual lock on her office door. And she always kept her door locked when she wasn’t in it. Electronic security was harder to breach, but if someone wanted in badly enough, there were ways. No easy feat, but possible.
Ariana checked in with her team to get status updates about the search. For the time being, they believed they were dealing with an individual. Even so, they couldn’t assume that only Terminal 1 was targeted. They had to check the entire airport.
She monitored the evacuation process for Terminal 1, and she kept Calvin and Molly informed.
From the cryptic updates Logan received, Ariana assumed that Sergeant Vasquez and his dog had left Terminal 2 and were heading to Terminal 1.
She caught up to where the passengers were exiting the concourse and paused. She watched Logan as he supervised Boomer. When he glanced at her, she could picture the bright blue gleam of his eyes, although he was too far for her to discern their color. It was only a moment in time, but Ariana felt a spark pass between them, across the nearly empty concourse.
Disconcerted, she broke eye contact and made her way toward the concession area, still seeking anything that might not appear right.
Suddenly, Boomer rushed by her in a blur and she heard her name called from a distance. Swinging around, she saw Logan sprinting toward her. She felt the floor shudder, and an earsplitting sound reverberated around her. Before she could process what was happening, she was flying through the air.
CHAPTER SIX
“ARIANA. ARIANA!” Logan continued calling her name as he cradled her in his arms. They were in the exact position they’d landed when he’d tackled her. He didn’t want to move her, in case she had injuries beyond the obvious. He’d been able to protect her from the worst of the explosion when he’d grabbed her. Fortunately, he’d been wearing his body armor, as his back would probably be a mess if he hadn’t been. A quick scan of the area showed him that three other people had been hurt, but they’d been far enough away that their injuries were unlikely to be serious.
Logan gently tapped Ariana’s face. When her eyes slowly opened, relief flooded through him.
What was she thinking, going off on her own like that, when they’d already established that the threat was real and were in the process of evacuating the public? And she was injured because of it. “Damn it all.”
“Sorry, what...?” she murmured. “What happened?”
“There was another explosion. You were almost on top of it when it detonated. Boomer alerted me to it.”
Ariana pushed up and looked around frantically. “Oh, my God! Where’s your dog? Where’s Boomer?”
“Relax.” It surprised him that her first concern was for Boomer. “Over there.” He pointed to Rossi, who was keeping pace with Boomer, as the dog worked the rest of the area. “He’s okay.” Thankfully. “Boomer was circling the area and was behind a column when the IED detonated. But you...” He bit off the rest of what he was going to say. There was nothing to be gained by browbeating her, although she could’ve been killed or seriously injured, if not for the fact that it appeared to be another small explosion. If there’d been more explosive material... He didn’t want to think about that, especially until they knew her condition.
“Was anyone else injured?”
Logan scanned the spot where the passengers were. “Three people. Nothing significant, from what I can see.”
“Good. That’s good.”
“You should’ve stayed behind us, in the areas we’d cleared,” he said more gently, and rubbed a smudge from her cheek just below where an angry bruise was forming.
He reached out to brush her hair back to examine the bruise and scrapes. She flinched.
“Sorry, did that hurt?” He’d barely touched her. On closer inspection, he saw a jagged scar from her hairline nearly to the top of her ear. “That’s not new.”
Shrinking away from his touch, she swatted at his hand and tugged her long bangs back down to cover the side of her face.
He wanted to ask how she’d gotten the scar but it was obvious she didn’t want to discuss it, nor did he have time. A group of paramedics was running toward them. Giving them a quick overview of what happened, Logan directed them to the three injured passengers and made room for one of them to attend to Ariana.
As he was edging back, he heard Rick Vasquez call to him. Rick must have caught up to them while he was occupied with Ariana.
“We’ve got something here, Jagger.”
Logan glanced over his shoulder to where Rick was with Nitro. Nitro was staring at a chair, a passive indication that he’d found something. When Boomer rushed over to join Nitro, his reaction was the same.
Leaving Ariana with the paramedic, Logan signaled to one of the EOD techs and ran over to
join Rick.
“What have we got?” he asked the technician, glancing around to ensure no one else was in the vicinity, in case it was another bomb.
The tech swept his electronic trace detector over and around the chair. “Not much. Some dust at most.”
“Our subject of interest sat here?” Rick speculated.
“I don’t think so. The dust is under the seat. As I said, not much of it.”
That was a relief. “Rick, I’ll deal with this. Keep checking the rest of the area with Nitro, would you?” He looked around. “Where’s Shannon?”
“I left her in the other terminal to work with Darwin. It’s cleared, but I thought it would be a good exercise for them.”
Logan nodded then dropped down on his hands and knees and peered under the chair. There was an envelope taped to its underside.
“You want to check this again before I pull it off?” he asked and edged to the side to let the EOD tech squat down beside him. He ran the detector across its length. “It’s nothing to worry about. Our subject of interest probably handled the envelope or what’s in it just before or after he’d set the IED over there.” He gestured to where the explosion had occurred.
Logan slid on thin latex gloves and tugged the white letter-size envelope off the bottom of the chair. It wasn’t labeled or sealed. It was similar to the one left in Ariana’s office. He pulled out the sheet of paper, unfolded it and read.
When he heard Ariana groan, he spun around. The paramedic was helping her to her feet, probably to transport her to the hospital.
It seemed Ariana had other ideas, though. She nearly toppled over as she shook off the paramedic’s grasp. Despite his protest, she lurched toward Logan.
“I’m fine,” she grumbled. The paramedic made a grab for her again. “I said I’m fine,” she repeated with more heat.
Logan took in the bruise and scrapes on her right cheekbone, and the blood on the corner of her mouth, probably a result of her having bitten her tongue or the inside of her cheek as she’d landed. One of her sleeves was torn, and it appeared that she might have a broken finger on her left hand.
“You don’t look fine,” he observed with a glance at the paramedic, who responded with a frustrated shake of his head. “You should get your injuries checked out. We can handle it here.”
Ariana gave him an annoyed expression. “I said I’m fine, and I decline medical care,” she added for the benefit of the paramedic, no doubt. “Note it down. It’s on me.”
Logan was surprised to feel the corner of his mouth twitch, but it passed quickly. They weren’t done yet and he didn’t want anyone else getting hurt on his watch. He needed to get back to work.
“At least let the man take care of your finger,” he said. “But read this first.”
Logan held the note out to her and her eyes skimmed over it.
He was glad he’d been standing close, because she nearly collapsed. He and the paramedic steadied her and helped her to a chair.
“Oh, no,” she whispered. “It’s not over.”
“Doesn’t look like it,” Logan responded.
While the paramedic splinted Ariana’s finger, he scanned the words again.
There’s more but not today. The clock—or in this case, the bomb—is ticking!
There was a blue smear on the bottom right corner. It was some kind of powder. Since neither Boomer nor Nitro showed any interest specifically in it, it must not have been explosives dust.
The note might have indicated that there would be no more explosions that day, but they couldn’t trust the subject of interest. Were more IEDs already set, or was the bomber planning to return?
The airport went into lockdown. They weren’t taking any chances. The evacuation was expanded to include the entire airport. A facility the size of San Diego International, with an estimated fifty thousand passengers passing through the airport that day, required significant time to evacuate. They were working as fast as they could.
In the meantime, Logan and his team had to complete the search.
As soon as Ariana’s finger was in a splint and bandages had been applied to the worst of her cuts and abrasions, she was back in action. There was nothing Logan could do to dissuade her. At least now she kept to the areas cleared by the dogs.
As they swept the remainder of the concourse, Logan was more and more convinced that they wouldn’t find any more IEDs. At least not that day. He wasn’t surprised when he was done with his section and he hadn’t found anything of concern. Logan told those present that he’d wait for Rick to finish, and they’d meet them at the airport’s emergency operations center.
He watched Ariana as she walked away with the others. She’d held up despite her injuries.
To see her beautiful face marred, her elegant but capable hand splinted—anger rose up in him. If for no other reason, he wanted to get the person responsible for what he’d done to Ariana.
He saw victims on a regular basis. It was the nature of his job. He’d never grown so callous that it didn’t affect him each and every time. But his emotional reaction to what had happened to Ariana—and what could have happened—was unprecedented in his experience. He didn’t have the time or inclination to analyze it just then.
He rolled his shoulder in an attempt to ease the ache that had settled there. It must have been where he’d hit the ground. He reached back to rub the spot. His hand came away damp.
There was a smear of blood on his palm. Clearly, he hadn’t been unscathed. He wiped his hand against his pant leg and took out his phone to call Rick to see how he and Nitro were progressing. Before he had a chance to do so, he heard his name called from behind him.
He turned to see Rick approaching at a fast jog, Nitro easily keeping pace by his side.
“Find anything?” Logan asked Rick when he caught up to him.
“We searched the entire place. There was no further evidence of explosives, residue or dust. Nor did we detect any failings in security. Her senior manager, Max Golding, told me that Atkins has been using whatever funds she’s been able to scrape together to progressively address weaknesses that had existed for a long time before her arrival. Golding said it hasn’t been easy for her, as she’s been getting a lot of pushback, even from members of her own team. If there haven’t been issues, why spend the money? That sort of thing.”
Logan glanced at Rick as they started walking toward the emergency operations center.
“Wasn’t it a former FBI director who famously said ‘security is enough until it is not enough’?”
Rick chuckled. “Yeah, and isn’t it the truth. Bottom line, Atkins runs a tight ship.”
Logan agreed.
“She’s going to face some heat over the incident occurring in a secure passenger area and the letter being left inside her locked office,” Rick added.
“She probably will, even though we don’t know yet how the subject of interest got in. She’ll come out of it okay. As you said, Ariana runs a tight ship. She’s intelligent. She’s professional...” His voice trailed off as he reflected on her other attributes.
“And she’s a looker,” Rick supplied, in an uncanny echo of Logan’s thought.
“Yeah, she is that, too.”
“She doesn’t like dogs much, does she?” Rick asked as they exited the concourse.
“You’ve noticed that, huh? Actually, I don’t know if it’s not liking them rather than being afraid of them.”
Rick glanced down at Nitro by his side, sleek and dark and fit. “Is it just police dogs, you think?”
Logan pursed his lips. “I can’t answer that. I haven’t seen her with other dogs. She just seems...uneasy.” He paused. “You know when that second IED exploded and she was hurt? The first thing she did when she came to was ask if Boomer was okay.”
“That says so
mething, doesn’t it? Especially if she’s afraid of dogs.” They turned down the corridor leading to the EOC. “I didn’t get the chance to ask how your date with her at Buster’s Beach House Bar was.”
Logan shot a look at his friend and colleague. “It wasn’t a date...exactly.”
Rick smirked. “If you say so. So you’re not interested in her?”
Logan contemplated the muddle of feelings he’d been experiencing since he’d met Ariana, not the least of which being the degree of concern he felt for her. More than that, there was that undeniably strong attraction. “I might be interested, but...”
“But what?”
No matter how close they were, Logan couldn’t explain to Rick the reason he avoided relationships. Rick was waiting for an answer, though, so Logan grasped at the first excuse he could come up with. He let out a short laugh. “You just lucked out, pal, that your fiancée is a veterinarian who loves dogs. You know as well as I do that none of us could contemplate having a relationship with a woman who didn’t like dogs.”
“Yeah. That’s a fact. The dogs are a part of our lives. Some of the guys say even more so than their spouses.” Rick chuckled. “I wouldn’t go as far as that. So are you going to ask her out?”
Logan shook his head. “Weren’t you listening? A woman who doesn’t love dogs is a no-go for me.”
“I was listening! But we weren’t discussing a relationship here. When was the last time you’ve dated a woman with the intention of anything serious developing? If ever? Why should Ariana be any different?”
Rick had a point. Logan had no plan to get involved with a woman other than on a casual basis. It wasn’t in the cards for him. He’d resolved that a long time ago. When he’d taken the oath to serve and to protect.
Logan was well aware of the pressures the job put on a relationship. The realities could be even harder for the partner or spouse of a cop, as he’d seen.
Sending their loved one off to work, not knowing if that would be the day he or she would be injured or killed. He’d seen firsthand how it had affected his mother—the constant worry and fear.