Tough Justice: Countdown Box Set

by Carla Cassidy

  “He shouldn’t have put those notes in the BrainWave system if he didn’t want others to access them.”

  “Well, you showed Clarke, didn’t you? We found his body. Found note you made him sign. Did you make him beg for his life?”

  Halpert’s eyes narrowed into slits. “Beckett Clarke’s death is not the point.”

  So Halpert didn’t like talking about that. Didn’t like taking responsibility. “Beckett Clarke’s murder you mean.” Lara spat out the word. “And you brought him up so why is he not the point? Was killing him with your own hands a little too messy for you? A little too personal? Do you prefer the distance of a bombing instead?”

  “I let Clarke live for years!” Halpert’s voice became higher. More whining. Lara knew she was getting to him. “I knew he had said all those humiliating things about me, but I still didn’t do anything.”

  “Then what triggered all this?” Lara flinched at her choice of words. Trigger probably wasn’t a good one to say to someone holding a detonator. “What did they do?”

  Halpert closed his eyes for a split second and took a breath, obviously getting himself back under control. “Ten months ago BrainWave hit a rough patch. Hadn’t been able to do anything brilliant in the last few months and were starting to lose their relevance. The kiss of death for a company like theirs. You’re either at the forefront or you don’t matter a bit. That’s how it works in the cyber world.”

  Halpert smiled. “I was laughing. Literally. Laughing at the fact that they were going to go under. For a split second I even considered reapplying there. Surely this time they wouldn’t dare turn me down, despite what Beckett Clarke had written in his initial notes about me.”

  Halpert shifted and glared at her. “That’s why I went a little deeper into their system that day. To see what projects and ideas they were considering and what they were working on. So when I did interview I would be as relevant as possible to them.”

  He shook his head. “Low and behold, I found out they’d made a discovery that was about to alter their entire future and put them back on the top. They had ‘developed’—” he used air quotes with his fingers “—software they’d soon be releasing. Software that would change the world.”

  It all clicked for Lara.

  “Your tracking software,” she said softly, but still took the opportunity to inch herself closer. Now that she understood the full scope of Halpert’s rage and sense of betrayal she had no doubt he’d be releasing that detonator soon.

  And whatever it was would be shattering.

  “They thought it was hidden deep enough in their system, but everything was right there for me to find since I knew where to look. I’d told Clarke about my tracking software. When BrainWave ran into tough times, they dipped into a pool of ideas they’d gotten from people who weren’t hired. Ideas they’d stolen. And conveniently, my software was already developed. All they had to do was find it.

  “My ideas. My brilliance,” Halpert spit out. “They were going to take it all and give me none of the credit for it.”

  “We’ll stop them, Halpert. Your software, brilliant as it is, was deemed too dangerous once. It will be considered that again when BrainWave tries to push it through.”

  Halpert shook his head. “They have connections I didn’t have. A savvy set of lawyers. You met Terra Mapson. She would’ve gotten it pushed through and they would’ve gotten all the credit. William Walsh and your beloved Victoria? They should not have stopped the software from going through to begin with. Then it all could’ve been used for good. Everyone would already know my name for the good I’d done the world.”

  He was losing it, it was easy to see. “Halpert, we can stop them. I can stop them.”

  “Don’t worry, you won’t have to. I’m going to stop them. I’ve had ten months to plan this.” He brought the detonator into his lap, holding it with both hands now.

  “Is the bomb here, in the park?” Another inch. She was just over five yards from him now.

  He shook his head. “No. It would be beautiful to go out in one of my explosions. And I have to admit, I am curious as to how it feels to be at one just as it detonates. But I gave up that possibility to be with you, Lara. Suicide by cop.”

  “Nobody here wants to kill you, Mitchell. You don’t have to die today.”

  Although she could admit that if he didn’t have that detonator in his hands, SWAT would’ve already moved in and taken him out. Maybe wouldn’t have killed him, but Halpert definitely wouldn’t be just lounging on a bench.

  SWAT was closing in, but still keeping a safe distance. Nick was leading the team and knew what he was doing.

  Halpert smiled. “I had ten months to plan. Do you know what I can do in ten months when I set my mind to it?”

  Lara could only imagine what Halpert could do with ten months if he focused all his brilliance on one thing. One very bad thing.

  “You should be getting the call soon.” Halpert just smiled, settling back.

  “What call?” she asked at the exact moment she felt her phone buzz in her pocket. She reached down to get it, Halpert nodding expectantly.

  “Go ahead, go ahead.”

  “Nick?”

  “Lara, we just got word from Christina. Kai Aoki and Paul Prentice both snuck out from the protective detail.”

  Shit. “Do we know why?”

  “Because they received these pictures.”

  Lara brought her phone up so she could see the pictures Nick had sent. Pictures of Kai’s son and what looked to be Paul Prentice’s mother.

  Both in separate locations. Both gagged and tied to a chair. Both with a bomb sitting on their laps.

  “Do we know where Kai and Paul are?”

  “No. Protective detail didn’t think they would try to slip them.”

  “Shit. You need to check Trevor Dunbar, too. I’m sure he’s also been targeted. Part of Halpert’s master plan.” She looked right at Halpert so she was sure he would hear her. “Nick, just keep your men back here at the park. Give Halpert and me plenty of space.”

  “You know I’m not going to do that. We’re going to have to rush him at some point.”

  “Yes, I know.” Her eyes never left Halpert’s, so he wouldn’t think anything of her last statement. She disconnected the call.

  “What have you done, Halpert?”

  “Just galvanized people into action.”

  “With a child? An old lady? How does this fit into your beloved code?”

  “They’re tools, Lara. To get what I need. You know what it is to use people or whatever is at your disposal to get the job done.” He cocked his head sideways at her. “That’s why I like you so much. We are cut from the same cloth.”

  Lara didn’t even justify that with a remark. More than ever she needed to keep their conversation on task. She wasn’t sure how to get Halpert to tell her where the child and mother were.

  But Halpert wasn’t interested in that anyway. He was ready to tell her his master plan. “When you have ten months and a brain like mine, you can do just about anything you want to. Even get an explosive device inside one of the world’s most prominent landmarks.”

  Lara thought about that for a long moment. World’s most prominent landmark? The city held quite a few. But the world’s most prominent?

  The Statue of Liberty.

  Lara glared at Halpert. He was bluffing. He had to be. Security for entering the Statue of Liberty was triple that of the most stringent airport.

  “There’s no way you got an explosive device inside the Statue of Liberty. I’ve personally seen the security. Everyone goes through one set of security when they get on the ferry and another more stringent set if they have tickets to the pedestal or crown. There is no way you got an explosive device in there. No way.” She emphasized the words as she said them
again.

  And used them to cheat forward just another half a step. She was now almost within driving distance of where he sat. Halpert was so proud of himself and his plan that he hadn’t noticed Lara’s slow progress toward him.

  “Well, that’s where my ten months and my brilliant mind come into play. I was able to disguise pieces and bring them in a bit at a time over the months and assemble them inside.”

  Lara shook her head. “But not explosive elements. They have every type of security there: X-ray, explosives trace-detection portals, metal detectors. Nothing gets through.”

  “That’s where an expanded knowledge of chemicals and what can be substituted as explosive elements helps. Not to mention my ability to make anything look like a working part of a cell phone or camera. Nobody wants to rob a tourist of their ability to take pictures.” Halpert wagged a finger.

  “Doesn’t matter. That’s been extensively researched by Homeland Security. There is no way in hell you got those elements through.”

  Halpert grinned. The sight turned her stomach. “You’ve met my mother, haven’t you, Lara?”

  “Yes.”

  “She’s a pretty simple woman. Works in the janitorial field.”

  “At a hospital, not the Statue of Liberty.”

  “All I needed to do was get her on cleaning detail twice. Two separate times to bring in two different chemicals.”

  And suddenly Lara could see how he manipulated it. “Chemicals that didn’t look suspicious coming from the cleaning crew.”

  “Especially people on a crew that, according to the computer record, had been servicing our lady liberty for over ten years.”

  Lara needed to get this information to Nick. She took out her phone.

  “I’m going to have to ask you to put your phone away, Lara. At this point, to be honest, I don’t think you could stop my plans. But I was wrong before. Was wrong with Benjamin Johnson. You got to him before the bomb went off. I don’t want to underestimate you again.”

  Lara looked down at her phone and saw the text Nick had sent her.

  You were right Trevor Dunbar is under duress also. His wife has been kidnapped.

  She didn’t dare respond, instead slid the phone back into the pockets of her pants, then held her hands out in front of her.

  “Prentice, Aoki and Dunbar are walking in the last three necessary elements. The electronics they bring will act as the trigger. Nothing that will cause alarm when they go through security individually. But when they are in the vicinity of the other elements I assembled last week...”

  He trailed off, but Lara had no doubt what the rest of the plan involved.

  Bringing down the Statue of Liberty and the many tourists inside.

  Lara shook her head. “No matter what, you’re not going to get to walk out of this park a free man, Halpert.”

  “I don’t expect to walk out of this park at all.”

  “Don’t do this. This is a line you don’t want to cross. You can still do the right thing.”

  “Like you did, Lara? You rushed so fast to get info about your mom, I actually thought you might be willing to let me detonate a bomb in the school to get it.”

  Lara grimaced. “I wouldn’t have, but I shouldn’t have even let you put me in that position in the first place. But this is different. This is too far.”

  “No. This is what is necessary, Lara. Everyone should’ve remembered my name for what I created. Now they will remember my name for what I destroyed.”

  He was talking about himself in the past tense again. That wasn’t good.

  She wanted to pull her GLOCK out. Train it at his chest, but it wouldn’t do any good. She would need her hands when she made her dive. “I can’t let you do it, Halpert.”

  Halpert patted the laptop beside him on the bench. “The most ironic part of all this is that I’m using my tracking software—the very one that started us down this path to destiny—to see when they arrive at Lady Liberty. Once they’re there, I’ll switch this detonator. Instead of it causing the bombs attached to their loved ones to go off, it will switch to the explosive device in the statue.”

  Halpert looked up over Lara’s shoulder. “Agent Delano’s SWAT team guy up there with the sniper rifle does know that if I die, two seconds after I let go of this trigger the bombs will detonate, right?”

  Lara’s brow furrowed. Nick wouldn’t have SWAT up on the building on the opposite side of the park. It wasn’t the best tactical location. It was too far and it put the sniper in Halpert’s line of sight.

  And would put Lara in danger.

  That man on the building wasn’t Nick’s. And if he wasn’t Nick’s then he didn’t know what was at stake here. Halpert was glancing at his computer, grinning. His tracking software had probably just told him that his targets had arrived at the Statue of Liberty. Time had run out.

  She was diving for Halpert when she heard the shot ring out.

  And all hell broke loose around her.

  Chapter Six

  Nick jerked the binoculars away from his face then slammed them back up against his eyes again as a hole appeared in Mitchell Halpert’s forehead and the back of his skull totally blew out.

  Right as Lara dove for him.

  Nick was thirty yards away from the bench and there wasn’t a damn thing he could do to help her.

  “What the fuck just happened?” Nick roared into the earpiece he wore that let him communicate with the SWAT team. “Who made that shot?”

  “It wasn’t us,” the SWAT team leader, Isaac Stemke, called out. “Definitely negative. We had no one on the roof where that shot came from.”

  Nick looked through the binoculars again at Lara and what was left of Halpert. She was lying half on top of the dead man, both her hands covering the one of his holding the detonator.

  “Did she get to him in time?” Nick asked SWAT.

  “Sir, Agent Grant secured the detonation device before Halpert was shot.”

  Nick gave a slight sigh. Thank God. At least there wasn’t some bomb detonating somewhere.

  Knowing Lara was safe, the detonator secure in her possession, Nick took off running. He was the closest Bureau agent to the building where the shot came from. They needed to catch that guy before he could make an exit in the pandemonium.

  “I’m in pursuit of the shooter,” he said as he sprinted across the back end of the park. “Ty, Jennifer, everyone make sure Lara’s okay. SWAT, with me.”

  “Roger that, boss,” Ty responded.

  “He shot from the east building. The yellow brick one,” Stemke reported. “I’m on my way with two team members. We’re closer.”

  “Go! Go!” Nick rushed in the ugly yellow bricked building and bounded up the stairs just behind the SWAT members.

  They were on the third floor of the six-story building when shots fired down at them. The perp had realized his exit at the bottom of the building was cut off.

  Nick pressed his back flat against the wall as the shots rang down. He heard a muttered curse from one of the SWAT members on the floor above him before they returned fire. Nick made his way up the staircase to the team as they laid down suppression fire.

  One of the members had been hit by one of the shooter’s ricocheting bullets. It had left a painful burn across his cheek, just under the protective goggles the man wore.

  “You okay?” Nick asked the man when the other two SWAT members eased up on their return fire.

  The guy nodded. “Yeah. A burn, that’s all. I’m good to go.”

  No return fire came from above.

  “Perp has probably gone back up to the roof,” Stemke said. “He knows he’s got no way out this way. The rest of my team has already cut power to the elevator.”

  They began their run up the rest of the stairs.
>
  “Your fiancée isn’t going to like that cheek burn in your wedding pictures, Lofland,” the other team member said as they ran.

  “Yeah, thanks, Tahirovic. That’s nothing compared to what her mother is going to say,” Lofland muttered between steps.

  “You’re alive. That’s what matters. Now let’s catch this guy.” The team leader gave his order as they continued to run, none of them breaking their stride.

  Nick was one step behind them the whole way.

  They arrived at the door to the roof and the SWAT team stopped to communicate via hand signals before moving through. All of them knew the perp might be on the other side of the door waiting to take out the first people through.

  On Stemke’s mark, they moved through, Lofland and Tahirovic both dropping to a knee to stay out of possible line of fire. Stemke and Nick entered a moment later both of them with weapons raised pointing in different directions, ready to take out the suspect if he was waiting to attack.

  But the man wasn’t waiting near the door at all. Nick caught him out of the corner of his eye on the far south side of the building.

  “Dammit, he’s jumping to the next roof.” Nick watched as a tall, thin man dressed all in black leaped from the yellow brick building to the one beside it. Nick’s breath caught as he watched to see if the man would make it.

  He did.

  “Oh, shit,” Tahirovic muttered. “That’s a good eight or nine feet.”

  The longest jump even the most fit person could make was around ten. Unless you were a ninja or Jason Bourne, the average person wasn’t going to make more than that.

  The SWAT team with forty pounds of gear had even less chance.

  Stemke obviously knew that too. “Lofland, back down the stairs and get to that next building to cut him off. Tahirovic, you take the third building in case Evel Knievel here decides to jump again.”

  The men were heading back down the stairs a few seconds later. Stemke was already calling in for backup and to cut the power for the second and third buildings.