Fuck Max. Beau did understand. His pup actually looked sad.
“Later, boy. Be good for Mrs. Nolan,” Levi said as they left.
Max was in the atrium of the apartment building when Levi and Zaida entered. Several men took note of Levi walking with Zaida. He would have smiled, but he was too focused on making sure there were no threats in the area.
When they got to Zaida’s apartment, there was a tall woman already in there. Selena. Levi recognized her from his visit to their headquarters in Wyoming. She had long dark brown hair, green eyes. She was wearing a pair of slim jeans, hiking boots, an Army-green safari type jacket, and a white T-shirt. She was the lone female who’d made it into the Red Team. No small feat.
He offered her his hand. “Levi Jones,” he said, introducing himself since they hadn’t formally met.
“Selena.” She looked at Zaida. “You must be Ms. Hussan.”
“Zaida’s fine.” The two shook hands.
“Great. Ace and I will be your shadows until this thing is resolved,” Selena said.
“Thank you,” Zaida said. “Really. I can’t thank you enough. But I hate that you’re in danger because of me.”
Selena lifted a slim brow. “Are you planning on harming us?”
“No.”
“Then we aren’t in danger because of you. We’re in danger because of the bad guys hunting you, bad guys who are going down—hard—very soon.” Selena followed that with a happy smile, one that gave Levi a chill. Female fighters always set him on edge, especially beautiful ones like this one. Yeah, he was old school, believing women should be the soft side of humanity, wonderful beings that needed protection and care…even as he knew how effective they were as fighters—decisive, accurate, and deadly.
“Is Ace here?” Levi asked. Just as he spoke, Zaida’s front door opened and closed, admitting a purple-haired woman who was short, skinny, pierced, and feral looking. Her lipstick and eyeshadow matched her hair. Levi grinned at her. Damn. Owen employed a fucking fairy. But if he’d sent her over, she had to be as lethal as Selena.
“You must be Ace,” Levi said. He introduced himself and Zaida. “I think it’s best, Zaida, if you keep to something of your routine. Make sure you take Ace or Selena with you anytime you leave the apartment, just stay in this building.”
“I agree,” Ace said. “Our guy back in ops, Greer, has a handle on the building’s security. He’ll know if anyone else is in and watching us.”
“Good,” Levi said. That made him feel much better.
“And we got the keys to Kelan’s place if we need to bug out,” Selena said.
Ace smiled at Selena. “We need to go check his place out. For security reasons. Besides, he’s had it for how long and he’s never asked us over?”
Selena laughed. “We can take a field trip…when it works for Zaida.”
Zaida sent him a fast, perplexed look. He held his hand out and had her walk him to the door. Working a isolated career as an author, she knew nothing about team dynamics. The girls were probably going to TP Kelan’s place.
“When will you be back?” she asked.
“That’s unclear. I’ll stay here tonight, though,” Levi said.
She nodded, then caught his forearm and leaned up to kiss his cheek. “Be safe.”
He smiled at her. “Don’t you know the good guys always win?”
Zaida nodded. “They do in my world. Can I connect to the internet?”
“Sure.”
“What about my parents?”
“I’m going to see them in a few minutes. Max and I are headed over to grab Abdul. I’ll let them know the plan. You can call them. If you like, tomorrow I can take you to see them. Maybe you could spend the day with them.”
Her expression twinkled. “I feel like I’m in Zaida daycare.”
He pulled her into his arms. “It’s the care of someone who is important, someone the world needs to have alive. Put this out of your mind. You must have looming deadlines to meet.”
“I do.”
“So forget about the chaos and focus on your work.”
She nodded. “Thank you. I don’t know where I’d be, if it weren’t for you.”
He grinned. “You’d be bunking with your mother, thinking of all the ways your life was fucked.”
She laughed. “My mother’s really not that bad. We’re very close.”
He smiled. “Good.” He kissed her forehead. “I’ll call when I’m headed back here.”
“If you got things here,” Ace said to Selena, “I think I’ll go watch things downstairs.”
Selena winced. “Maybe I should go. You kinda stand out.” She waved a hand over her face and hair.
Ace smiled. “No, I don’t. I’m so camouflaged. No one looks at punks. We scare them. Those fucking terrorists especially will not lower themselves to observing me since I’m such an aberration to them.”
“Okay. Bring back lunch,” Selena said.
Zaida hurried to her purse and took out a couple of twenties. “Here. Get whatever.”
Ace pushed her hand away. “Forget it. It’s in our per diem. Owen’ll bill for it.”
“Bill who?” Zaida asked.
Ace shrugged. “Whoever’s running Levi’s op.”
Zaida looked from Ace to Selena and back. “I think it may be the CIA.”
“Could be,” Ace said.
“But they aren’t supposed to operate on U.S. soil,” Zaida said.
“Yeah, and bad guys aren’t supposed to invade a woman’s home or blow up a county fair or be fucking terrorists in the first place.” Ace shrugged. “It is what it is and we do what we do to stop it. Sometimes, the lines get blurred.”
Zaida had never had she seen such fierce women. Their bravery was what she wanted for all the women she worked with. They were tough, resilient, and perfectly capable of never being a victim of a man’s cruelty… Or had she read them wrong? Maybe it was a man’s cruelty that had hardened them into the women they were now.
Ace left. Selena went over to look out the windows, gently pushing aside an edge of the curtains she’d drawn.
“I guess I’ll get to work.” Zaida started for the hallway but stopped. “Selena, will you and Ace be at the fair this weekend?”
“You bet.”
“Good. I want several of my friends to meet you both.”
15
Levi texted Max that he was headed out. He became aware of the Harley Panhead following him a few blocks away from Zaida’s apartment. When they got to the hotel where Zaida’s parents were staying, they parked next to each other.
“What’s the plan?” Max asked as they crossed the parking lot.
“I want to walk the fair site. Then we go to the robotics lab so I can check out the drones Abdul will be renting in his booth.”
Max stopped. “You know the fair site is going to be highly secured. They’ll be checking purses and backpacks, taking dogs through the lines and the booths. They’ll have blockades up to keep cars from plowing into the crowds. Just about the only way that place can be breached is via drone.”
“That’s what I was thinking,” Levi said. “The skinheads in Abdul’s robotics class made a big deal about distancing themselves from the guys running the drone booth, which calls attention to their focus on the drones.”
They continued into the hotel and up to the room where everyone was. The door opened before they knocked. Levi introduced Max.
Rayna hurried over to him. “Why didn’t you bring my daughter?”
“She needed to get some work done. And she wanted to work on her speech,” Levi said.
“But how could you leave her alone?”
“I didn’t. She’s with two armed guards.”
Rayna wasn’t happy about that. “Men she doesn’t know? It was bad enough she was with you unchaperoned.”
Levi grinned. “They’re female fighters. Trust me, she’s safe with them.”
Darim came over and put an arm around Rayna’s shoulders, drawin
g her away. His dark eyes were no warmer than they’d been yesterday. Levi couldn’t blame him. No father wanted his daughter to be the target of crazy terrorists.
“You guys ready to go?” Levi asked Abdul and Jack.
“I’m going with you,” Jamal announced.
“Suit yourself,” Levi said as he turned and headed for the door. In the parking lot, Jamal told Abdul to ride with Jack.
The drive across town from the hotel to the site of the county fair took only fifteen minutes…fifteen minutes filled with Jamal’s barely suppressed rage.
“Got something on your mind, Jamal?” Levi asked.
“You know I do.”
“Spit it out,” Levi said.
“I want you to leave Zaida alone.” The words came through Jamal’s clenched teeth.
“I don’t think that’s any of your business.”
“In my culture, when a man touches an unmarried woman, he’s claiming her.”
“So?”
“You held her hand yesterday.”
Levi sent a quick look over to Jamal. “It is a nice hand to hold.”
Jamal banged his fist on the armrest of the passenger door. “She is not yours to touch.”
“Says who?”
“She’s been promised to me since we were kids.”
“But you’re not kids any longer. If she wanted to be married to you, she would have been…certainly by now, anyway.”
“I am giving you only one warning.”
“Jamal, look, don’t do this. You won’t win. You don’t get to decide Zaida’s future. Only she does. Let her make her choice.”
“You’re just a new toy. She’ll tire of you fast.”
Levi grinned as he remembered his and Zaida’s convo about Jamal being a sucky fucker. “Then she can have me until she’s tired of me. But trust me, that won’t be any time too soon.”
“You and I will never be friends,” Jamal snarled. “I will see to it that her parents will never accept you.”
“Do what you have to do.”
Levi turned off the highway. His convo with Jamal stopped too. He almost felt sorry for Jamal, losing the woman he loved to a man he considered unworthy. Levi parked and Jamal jumped out of the Jeep, slamming the door behind him.
That much frustrated desire could be the fixings of a venomous intent. What if that worm hadn’t been released by Hidaya as everyone thought? What if Jamal had done it? What if Jamal had intended the worm to endanger Zaida so that she’d have no one to turn to but Jamal?
Max rode into the parking lot and stopped next to Levi. Jamal had already gone on to walk with Jack and Abdul. Max took off his helmet and looked from Jamal back to Levi. “S’up?”
Levi told him the crazy new thought he’d had.
Max let out a short grunt as he thought it through. “It’s possible. You got your digital footprint locked down? ‘Cause I can lock it down for you. Jamal has the skills needed to make your life miserable.”
“I’m good. This ain’t my first cyber-rodeo. I’ve learned a thing or two along the way. You know Mike Folsom? The CIA agent who got beheaded in Boulder? We were friends. Cybercrimes were his specialty.”
“I wondered about that,” Max said. “Sorry to hear you lost a friend.”
Levi remembered the day he lost Julia, too. Guess you didn’t take on this line of work without expecting those types of losses. He just wished the hurt dulled over time.
They walked over to join the other three just as two other men came up to the group; Walter Harris, the manager from the event grounds and Steve Wheeler from the county fair organization met them to give them a tour of the area.
There was a large outer perimeter of booths already set up, then several inner rows of booths. At the very center was a big tent set up with tables and chairs—a place for people to bring their food and get a break from the sun and heat. Fort Collins in early August could have record-breaking temperatures. And the dry heat made it hard to realize how dehydrated a person was getting.
Next to the meal tent was another big tent set up as a lecture and demonstration area. That was where Zaida was going to be giving her speech. The event site rep gave them a full rundown of their security plan. It was as thorough as Levi thought it would be.
“Gentlemen,” Steve said to the group, “I’ll be honest—having the FBI take an interest in our security makes me a little nervous. You guys know something I don’t?”
Jack sighed. “There’s always more chatter around events like this. These days, the chance to take out ten or more civilians is tempting to a lot of different groups—domestic and international. We’ve intercepted noise from two such groups, one a disorganized group of white nationalists. The other a sleeper cell of Syrian terrorists.”
Steve looked at his peer, then around at the guys. “Then maybe we should cancel or postpone the fair.”
“Maybe,” Jack said. “That’s got to be your call—or that of the city council, the mayor, and the governor. They’ve all been alerted and are having that convo now. But know that whenever you decide to reschedule, the threat will be back on. It’s better to continue as if nothing is amiss. It’s our job to shut the threat down.”
Levi could see anger building in the mind of the county fair rep. “This is unacceptable. People work hard to put this together. Kids show their farm animals. We have a big livestock auction. Dozens of food and craft demonstrations. A New York Times author is giving a talk. We have tons of booths featuring the work of area artists. We have a rodeo and some big name bands coming in. The cost of cancelling and logistics of postponing are untenable.”
“We aren’t advocating either of those things,” Levi said. “We are going to take care of the threat. Can you show me where the university’s drone rental booth will be? And I’d also like to walk through Zaida Hussan’s booth and lecture area.”
The man stared at him a long moment. “Yes. Follow me.”
They got to Zaida’s booth first. “Here’s a copy of the schematics she submitted for her booth.”
Walter handed Levi a paper with a proposed layout showing where tables and various bits and pieces would be. Levi didn’t like it. The fair had so many moving parts. It would be too easy to make Zaida disappear. Her booth had only the one opening—in the front—but with all the other booths around hers, it would be easy to slice through the canvas and drag her out.
Max came up beside him. “Selena and Ace will be here, too.”
“Good.” But was it good enough?
They went over to see the drone booth that Abdul was going to be manning with some of the other students. The men giving them the tour showed them how the flow would work into and out of the drone booth, as well as the field where renters would be operating the drones. Abdul’s booth wasn’t far from Zaida’s.
He looked at Jack. “We need to add to the list of prohibited items anything that looks like a drone or might be drone parts. I don’t want anyone assembling their own drone inside the fair.”
Walter frowned. “Is there some specific information you have on that threat?”
“No. Just a hunch,” Levi said. “It’s another way to limit potential problems.”
“We can do that,” Walter said, making a note. “I’m happy to add it to the list. However, you should know that there’s no way we can properly monitor the airspace over the fair. Someone could fly their own drone in, and it wouldn’t be easy to spot.”
Levi and Max exchanged glances. “You’ve got ground security locked down, but you also need air security. We need a full complement of SWAT teams deployed in oversight positions around the entire compound. We’ll also need a helicopter doing rotations and satellite oversight in place.”
“We don’t have a budget for that,” Steve said.
“No?” Levi said. “Then I hope you’ve got sufficient liability coverage for your event. What do a few thousand lives value out at these days?”
Steve stepped into Levi’s space. “You said it was your job to neutrali
ze the threat. Do your job.”
“It is, and we will,” Levi said. “Doesn’t mean something else won’t slip through the cracks. Better safe than sorry.”
Jack set a hand on the rep’s shoulder and drew him away from Levi. “Chatter is never specific, Mr. Wheeler, and it’s all we have to act on right now. Sometimes it’s enough for the bad actors if they just scare us into chasing our tails. Sometimes, they have concrete plans. We’ve heard chatter about small airborne drones, and that’s what we’re acting on. You need to find the budget to secure the air around your event. That’s all we’re saying. I’d be happy to talk to your people to make a plan.”
When Jack took over the conversation, Max and Levi left the group to walk the far edge of the grounds, looking out at the surrounding area. There were fields on the north, east, and south sides of the event compound, and a highway and service road on the west. Way out in the northeast and east directions were sprawling neighborhoods.
The whole place was an open target for any air strike.
“Fuck. Me,” Max growled.
“Yeah. That’s pretty much what I was thinking. Let’s wrap this up and go see Abdul’s robotics lab.”
The robotics lab was on campus. Jamal used his ID to open it for them. The place was a large steel warehouse. Worktables lined the outer walls. Mismatched desks and file cabinets took a quarter of the space at one end. More worktables were in the middle. Open, metal bracket bookshelves took up wall space here and there. Tools were neatly stored in rolling tool chests. There was a big open area where different small robotics could be tested.
On the worktables on the center of the room, were three rows of handmade drones. They were small—the biggest was two feet wide, a foot high. They were all made from various parts that could have been sourced from a hardware store or different mechanical toy kits. No two were alike.
“What type of payloads do these drones have?” Levi asked.
“None,” Jamal said. “They have built in cameras. They have different speeds they can go as well as some unique features that were encoded by their developers, like detecting colors or patterns or certain items. All rudimentary stuff. You saw the field today where these drones will be operated. There will be an obstacle course they’ll be put through. Whoever completes the course without error will receive a ticket for a prize.” He gave Levi a hard glare. “None of these can be weaponized.”
Freedom Code Page 16