Finding the Edge

by Debra Webb

  “Give me five minutes. Let me make some calls.”

  Rather than debate him, Eva sank into the nearest chair. She wanted to believe that this was some sort of misunderstanding. Maybe a friend who’d heard about the explosion at the church had gotten her wires crossed. Maybe the cameraman misunderstood what Lena said when she cancelled the interview. Even as she turned over all the possibilities, every instinct warned that it wasn’t a mistake. Lena had been lured back here by that monster Miguel Robles and now she was in trouble. A new surge of fear and pain extinguished the outrage. Her sister could die...she could be dead already.

  Todd ended his call and slid the phone back into his pocket. “I’ve got the agency verifying that Lena boarded a plane headed for Chicago. It’ll take a bit of time, but we’ll know one way or the other soon enough. Until then, let’s keep in mind that Lena is a very savvy investigative journalist. She wouldn’t be fooled easily.”

  Eva dredged up her fleeing courage. She agreed with his statement; it was a valid point, to a degree. “If that’s true, then why hasn’t she answered my calls or called me back?”

  “Her cell battery may need to be charged. She might be on her way to the agency offices as we speak.” He crouched in front of her and searched her eyes a moment, his so certain of his words. “Lena is a fighter. If Robles lured her into a trap, he’s in for a hell of a surprise.”

  Eva managed a faint smile. She would love nothing better than to cling to that scenario, but deep in her heart she knew there was only one explanation for why they hadn’t heard from Lena. Every ounce of warmth leeched out of her body. “She hasn’t called me because she can’t call me. And you’re right, she is a fighter, but there are some battles even the strongest person can’t win. I’m not going to pretend the situation isn’t exactly what it is.”

  He dropped his head for a moment before meeting her eyes once more. “Until we know for certain she’s with Robles, we should stay calm and hope for the best.”

  Eva wanted to laugh at the suggestion but she couldn’t form the sound.

  Her cell rang.

  Eva stared at the device clenched in her right hand. Lena’s face and name flashed on the screen. Her heart thumped hard against her ribs. “Lena.”

  “Eva.”

  Lena’s voice sounded raw and edged with uncertainty. Eva went numb. “Where are you?”

  “They want me to tell you where I am so you can come to me.”

  The undeniable nuance of fear in her sister’s voice stole Eva’s breath.

  “Put it on Speaker,” Todd whispered.

  Her hand trembling, Eva touched the speaker image on the screen with one icy finger and said, “I can come right now. Just tell me where.”

  “He told me to tell you that you can’t tell anyone, Eva, and no matter what else happens,” she said, her words stilted as if she were taking great care with each one, “don’t come!” Lena shouted the final two words.

  More shouting and scuffling echoed from the speaker. Eva’s heart flailed in her chest. “Lena!”

  Todd reached for the phone but Eva twisted away from him. “Lena!”

  “Your sister is not a very smart woman,” a male voice said.

  Eva instantly recognized the voice. Miguel Robles. Had to be. This was the same voice that had taunted her about the Chavez woman’s shooting. “Tell me where she is. I’ll come right now.”

  “I will send you instructions at six thirty this evening,” Robles said. “Keep your phone close. If you deviate from my precise instructions, your sister will die.”

  “I can come now!”

  The connection severed.

  Eva pushed to her feet, brushed past Todd and stood in the center of the room. She had to think. She turned all the way around. Where was her charger? She needed to make sure her phone battery stayed fully charged. The bastard told her to keep her phone close.

  Todd was on his cell, his voice low and quiet. Eva ignored him. It didn’t matter to whom he was speaking or what he thought she should do; she was doing exactly what Robles told her to do. She would not risk Lena’s life under any circumstance. Whatever Robles asked her to do, she would do it. Defeat and certainty settled deep into her bones.

  This moment had been coming all week. Fighting it any longer was futile.

  “Michaels has a friend at NSA.”

  Eva dragged her thoughts from the haze of worry and struggled to focus on the man staring at her with such immense concern. “How will that help us?” A numbness had taken over. She felt as though she were under water. She could see and hear but it was all distorted and so far away. The moment felt surreal...as if it were happening to someone else and Eva was only watching.

  “NSA can track any cell phone. They can determine in minutes what it takes others days to figure out. That call from Lena’s phone will give us what we need. We find the phone and we’ll find her. The way I see it, we have a little better than five hours to find her before Robles makes a move.”

  “I will not take any chances with my sister’s life.” Eva lifted her chin in defiance of whatever he might have in mind. “I hired you. I can fire you. Unless we do this my way.”

  “I agree completely.” He reached for Eva’s free hand. “But for the next five hours I need you to trust me. I’ve carried out a lot of high-risk rescues. I know what I’m doing.”

  Eva searched for calm. He had been in Special Forces and the Colby Agency was the best in the business of private investigations and security. “What’s your plan?”

  He visibly relaxed. “First we find the location the call was made from. Robles was careful. He kept the call short. He feels confident we won’t be able to trace him. And he’s right, we can’t. But there are people who can.”

  Eva had heard about the NSA’s ability to track the cell phones of suspected terrorists but that was the extent of her knowledge on the subject. “How can we be certain the location is accurate?”

  “Lena uses a smartphone. At this very minute her phone is attempting to locate cell towers and Wi-Fi hot spots. NSA can narrow her location down to a city block or less within the hour. We will find her and then we’ll get her out—safe.”

  For a moment Eva wanted to argue with him. This was her sister—the only family she had in this world. Eva would do anything to make sure she stayed safe just as Lena would do anything for her. She’d told Eva not to come. Her sister would without hesitation willingly die for her.

  But this wasn’t about Lena. This was about Eva and if anyone else was going to die today, it would be her.

  West 47th Street, 5:40 p.m.

  ROBLES CHOSE THE home field advantage. The Back of the Yards neighborhood was one of Chicago’s most notorious where more residents than not felt the city had abandoned them, leaving gangs to take over. Century-old houses and aging apartment buildings butted up to derelict warehouses and industrial buildings that once infused life into the economy that was now dying. The handful of determined business owners hanging on to their small shops and slivers of new development and refurbishment continued to provide a glimmer of hope for change, but little actually changed.

  Robles wasn’t the only one at home along the most dangerous streets of the Windy City. Todd had done some time here. From age fifteen to sixteen he’d lived with a foster family on the fringes of this neglected, gang-infested territory. The mom-and-pop shops had been his favorite haunts, the rail tracks and the boxcars his playground.

  The commercial equipment rental company that Robles and his men had taken over for the evening’s event extended a full city block. Compressors, backhoes and excavators lined the parking lot behind the security fence. Warehouses and the main office formed a boundary on three sides, leaving only the front with its ten-foot-high fence to afford a visual onto the property. Directly across the street was the rail yard, and behind the rental compound was a street lined with trees and more
of those early twentieth-century bungalows built by immigrants and stockyard workers.

  Way too many people lived around the target to go in without backup from Chicago PD. Eva hadn’t taken the news well. He’d had a hell of a time talking her out of walking away from his protection. Her concerns about involving the police were understandable but hardly reasonable. Ultimately, they’d reached a standoff and he’d called Marsh. Eva had told Todd in no uncertain terms how she felt about his decision.

  If this operation went to hell and her sister was hurt or worse, it was on him.

  “We have eyes all around the property,” Sergeant Carter assured them now. “We’ve quietly evacuated residents for two blocks in either direction.”

  “We’re making sure none of the evacuees uses a cell phone until this is over in an effort to ensure no one alerts Robles’s people,” Marsh added. “We’re keeping the folks entertained over at St. Joseph’s on Hermitage.”

  Eva shook her head, her doubts about how this would go down clear. “If any of his men spot a cop—”

  “Don’t worry, Ms. Bowman,” Carter said, “we’ve got this. We’ve even got unmarked units monitoring traffic all around our position.”

  To Todd’s surprise Eva didn’t say another word. Instead, she walked around the corner of the double boxcar and stared through the bushes and trees separating the rail yard from the street. If her sister was with her cell phone as they believed, she was likely no more than twenty, twenty-five yards in front of where Eva stood. Todd tried to think of something reassuring to say as he followed that same path.

  “He’s going to call or text me with instructions and they’ll go in.” She shook her head and hugged her arms more tightly around herself. “This plan is too risky. I’m not willing to risk Lena’s life this way.”

  “Do you really believe Robles will let Lena go if you surrender yourself?” They’d been over this same territory twice already and her answer was always the same.

  “It’s a risk I have to take.”

  Todd glanced back toward the huddle of cops. He hadn’t planned to share the other op already in motion with her until they had eyes on Lena. At this point he would do just about anything to give Eva some sense of relief.

  “Marsh and the others don’t know that we have a two-man team working their way inside.” Her shoulders stiffened as he spoke, but she kept her attention straight ahead. “They were already here,” he went on, “and in place before Chicago PD developed their game plan and moved in.”

  For the first time since he told Eva the Colby Agency had coordinated with Chicago PD after Robles’s call, she looked him in the eye. A faint glimmer of hope stirred in hers. “Can they see what’s happening inside?”

  “They have eyes in the main office. So far they haven’t seen Lena but they’ve watched two men going in and out of an inner office. We believe Lena and Robles are in that office. His disciples are scattered all over the property. All heavily armed.”

  “I don’t understand why he would put himself in this position.” Her gaze shifted back across the street. “He must have known there was a chance I would go to the police. How does he expect to escape when all hell breaks loose?” She shook her head. “It feels like a setup. Her phone might very well be here, but Robles and Lena could be anywhere.”

  Todd glanced at Marsh and Carter who had separated from the main huddle and appeared to be in deep conversation. “We’re prepared for that move as well. Michaels is standing by to take us wherever we need to go.”

  His phone vibrated. Todd pulled it from his hip pocket. The name Jim Colby, Victoria’s son and head of field operations at the agency, appeared on the screen. Todd’s gut clenched as he answered the phone. This couldn’t be good news. “What’s happening inside?”

  “Robles’s troops are leaving.”

  As if on cue the large gate across the street slid open and a line of pimped-out automobiles rolled onto the street. Dread congealed in Todd’s gut. “All of them?”

  “Every damned one our scouts can see from their vantage points have picked up their weapons and walked out.”

  “What about the ones you can’t see?” Todd resisted the urge to race across the street and yank one of the bastards out of a car and beat the truth out of him. The whole damned parade moved nice and slow as if they wanted those watching to get a good look at the show.

  “We’re working on getting eyes into that room from a ceiling vent.”

  “Hello.”

  Todd turned at the sound of Eva’s voice. Her eyes were wide with fear as she listened to the caller. Todd checked the time. Robles was early by fifteen minutes.

  “Hold on,” he said to Jim.

  Eva drew the phone from her ear and stared at the screen, her hand shaking.

  “What did he say?”

  “He said further instructions are coming by text and that he’s sending me a photo of Lena.”

  The call to Eva’s cell had drawn Marsh and Carter. They both looked to Todd. “I’m putting you on speaker, Jim.” He set his phone to Speaker and moved closer to Eva to watch for the message from Robles.

  The text appeared on her screen.

  Your sister is waiting across the street from where you are standing. You have five minutes before she dies.

  A photo appeared on the screen.

  Lena was gagged, blindfolded and tied to an office chair with a package strapped around her chest. On the package was a clock counting down the seconds.

  Bomb.

  Chapter Fourteen

  “We need the bomb squad! Now! Do not let her move!”

  Eva heard Todd’s words but her brain refused to assimilate the meaning behind them. She stared at the photo of Lena. Tears had dragged streaks of mascara past the blindfold and down her cheeks to melt into the gag tied around her mouth.

  Bomb.

  A bomb was strapped to her sister’s body.

  Todd, Sergeant Carter and several police officers rushed across the street. Detective Marsh gripped Eva by the arm. “Let’s move back behind the rail cars.”

  Eva stared at him for two or three seconds and then she looked back across the street to the men now disappearing into the center building of the equipment rental company.

  Lena was in there.

  Bomb.

  Eva jerked out of the detective’s grip and ran. She sprinted across the street.

  A horn blared. She lunged forward and the car whipped left, barely avoiding hitting her. Adrenaline fired through her veins. Her heart soared into her throat but she didn’t slow. She had to get to her sister.

  She reached the building the others had gone into before Marsh caught up with her. She wrenched open the door and rushed inside with him shouting for her to stop.

  Can’t stop. Gotta get to Lena!

  Cops stood seemingly frozen all around the room on this side of a long service counter. Behind the counter, a door stood open. All eyes were on that door.

  Sergeant Carter suddenly appeared in the doorway. “Everyone out of the building! Now!”

  While the others hurried to obey the sergeant’s order, Eva sprinted for the counter. She dodged Marsh as he reached for her again. She rounded the end of the counter and reached the door to find Carter blocking her path to the office and to Lena.

  “You need to go with the others,” he ordered.

  “Get out of my way,” she demanded, fear and anger making her shake so hard her teeth nearly chattered.

  For one long moment the man stared at her. Whether he sympathized with her plight or simply didn’t want to waste time arguing, he stepped aside.

  Eva moved around him and into the office. Her heart sank to her feet as she watched a man clad completely in black and whom she didn’t recognize remove the gag from her sister’s mouth. The blindfold was already gone.

  Lena’s fear-filled gaz
e collided with hers. “Get out of here, Eva!” she cried.

  Eva moved forward but the man attending to Lena stopped her with an upraised hand. “Don’t touch her. We don’t know what might trigger the detonator.”

  Todd was on the phone explaining what the bomb looked like, she assumed to someone from the bomb squad.

  She swallowed hard. Help couldn’t possibly make it in time.

  Eva eased as close as she dared to her sister. “I’m so sorry.” Hot tears spilled down her cheeks as she watched the readout on the clock go from 2:00 to 1:59.

  Please don’t let his happen.

  Another man dressed in black burst into the room. “Wire snips!” He handed the tool to Todd. She realized then that the two men in black were probably the two from the Colby Agency who had infiltrated the building.

  Lena smiled up at Eva, her lips trembling with the effort. “I love you, little sister, and I appreciate that you’re sorry but you need to go. If we both die, he wins.”

  Eva dropped to her knees next to Lena and dared to take her hand. “Then let him win.”

  Todd glanced at her for one second before reaching into the mass of colored wires and snipping one.

  1:29

  He moved to another as the voice on the phone instructed, she presumed. “Please leave, Eva,” he murmured as he reached for the tangle of wires again.

  “Sorry.” She drew in a shaky breath. “Can’t do it.” Nothing could make her leave the two people she loved most in the world.

  Todd swore and snipped the second wire.

  1:18...1:17

  “This is not working,” he muttered.

  Eva thought of all the wonderful times she and her sister had shared. Of how much she loved and missed their parents...and she thought of Todd and how she had missed him...how she loved him so much her heart wanted to burst even now—particularly now. He was prepared to give his life for Lena. He was a hero. He’d always been one, she’d just been too hurt to see it.

  In that terrifying moment one truth crystalized for Eva. She should have gone after him. All this time she had been angry and crushed because he’d left and not once had she considered going after him. She had been well aware of how difficult his childhood was. She should have recognized that he might have trouble committing and tracked him down and demanded answers. Pride had kept her from taking that step.