Over the last few days, J. had been spotted going in and out of the dun-colored tenement on the corner of Turk and Leavenworth, the one with laddered fire escapes on two sides and a lone tree growing out of the pavement beside the building’s front door.
Our instructions were to watch for him. If we saw him, we were to report his activities by radio even as eyes in the skies were on this intersection from an AFB in Nevada or Arizona or Washington, DC.
When a male figure matching the grainy image we had of a bearded man, hat shading his face, five foot nine, left the dun-colored apartment building, we took note.
And when this character crossed to our side of the street and got into a white refrigerator van parked in front of the T.L. Market and Deli, we phoned it in.
Conklin and I have been partners for five years and can almost read each other’s minds. We looked at each other and knew that we couldn’t just watch a suspected terrorist pull out into our streets without doing something about it.
I said, “Following is watching.”
Rich said, “Just a second, Lindsay. Okay?”
His conversation with the deputy was short. Rich gave me the thumbs up and I started up the car. We pulled out two cars lengths behind the white van driven by a presumed high-level terrorist known as J.
Chapter 2
I EDGED our shark-like Chevy along Turk toward Hyde staying just far enough behind J.’s van to stay out of his rear view, while keeping an eye on him, until I lost the van at a stop light on 10th Street. I had to make a split second decision whether or not to run the light.
My decision was “go.”
My hands were sweating on the wheel as I shot through the intersection and was flamed by a cacophony of horn blasts which called attention to us. I didn’t enjoy that at all.
Conklin said, “There he is.”
The white van was hemmed in by other vehicles traveling at something close to the speed limit. I kept it in our sights from a good distance behind the pack. And then, 10th merged into US 101 S toward San Jose.
The highway was a good, wide road, with enough traffic to insure that J. would never pick our Chevy out of the flow.
Conklin worked the radio communications, deftly switching channels between Chief Warren Jacobi and DHS Deputy Director Dean Reardon who was three time zones away. Dispatch kept us updated on the movements of other units in our task force who were now part of a staggered caravan weaving between lanes, taking turns at stepping on the gas then falling back.
We followed J.’s van under the sunny glare on 101 South and after twelve miles, instead of heading down the coast to San Jose and the Central Coast, he took the lane funneling traffic to SFO.
Conklin had Jacobi on the line.
“Chief, he’s heading toward SFO.”
Several voices crackled over the radio, but I kept visual contact with the man in the van that was moving steadily toward San Francisco International Airport.
That van was now the most frightening vehicle imaginable. GAR had sensitized all of us to worst case scenarios and a lot of explosives could be packed into a vehicle of that size. A terrorist wouldn’t have to get on a plane or even walk into an airline terminal. I could easily imagine J. crashing his vehicle through luggage check-in and ramming the plate glass windows before setting off a bomb.
Conklin had signed off with Jacobi and now said to me, “Lindsay, SFO Security has sent fire trucks and construction vehicles out to obstruct traffic on airport access roads in all directions.”
Good.
I stepped on the gas and flipped on the sirens. Behind us, others in our team did the same and I saw flashing lights getting onto the service road from the north.
Passenger cars pulled onto the verge to let us fly by and within seconds, we were passing J.’s van as we entered the International Departure lane.
Signs listing names of airlines appeared overhead. SFO’s parking garage rose up on our right. Off ramps and service roads circled and crossed underneath our roadway which was now an overpass. The outline of the international terminals grew closer and larger just up ahead.
Rich and I were leading a group of cars heading east to the airport when I saw cruisers heading away from the terminal right toward us.
It was a high-speed pincer movement.
J. saw what was happening and had only two choices. Keep going or stop. He wrenched his wheel hard to the right and the van skidded across to the far right lane where there was one last exit to the garage which a hundred yards farther on, had its own exit to S Link Road. The exit was open and unguarded.
I screamed to Conklin, “Hang on.”
I passed the white van on my right, gave the Chevy more gas and turned the wheel hard, blocking the exit. At the last possible moment, as I was bracing for a crash, J. jerked his wheel hard left and pulled around us.
By then the airport roadway was filled with law enforcement cruisers, their lights flashing, sirens blowing.
The van screeched to a halt.
Adrenaline had sent my heart rate into the red zone and sweat sheeted down my body.
My partner and I both asked if the other was okay as cop cars lined up both behind us and ahead of us forming an impenetrable vehicular wall.
A security cop with a megaphone addressed J.
“Get out of the vehicle. Hands up. Get out now, buddy. No one wants to hurt you.”
Would J. go ballistic?
I pictured the van going up in a fiery explosion forty feet from where I sat in an old sedan. I flashed on the image of my little girl when I saw her this morning; wearing yellow, beating her spoon on the table. Would I ever see her again?
Just then, the white van’s passenger door opened and J. jumped out. A voice amplified through a bullhorn boomed, “Don’t move. Hands in the air!”
J. ignored the warning.
He ran across the four lanes and reached the concrete guard rail. He looked out over the edge. He paused.
There was nothing between him and the voluptuous curve of South Link road but forty feet of air.
Shots were fired.
I saw J. jump.
Rich shouted at me, “Get down!”
We both ducked below the dash, linked our fingers over the backs of our necks as an explosion boomed, rocking our car, setting off the car alarm, blinding us with white light.
That sick bastard had detonated his bomb.
Chapter 3
IT WAS our wedding anniversary, also our first date night since Joe and I had separated six months ago. Joe had surprised me, calling me up as I was leaving work, saying “I reserved a window table. Say ‘yes,’ Lindsay. I’m parked right outside.”
I’d given in and now, we were at the Crested Cormorant, the hot new seafood restaurant on Pier Nine with a front row seat on the San Francisco Bay. Candles flickered on tables around us as a pink sunset colored the sky to the horizon, tinting the rippling water as the mist rolled in.
Joe was talking about his youngest brother.
“So, at age forty, Petie finally meets the love of his life at a fire department car wash.” He laughed. “Amanda was power washing his whitewalls, and, somehow, that jump-starts his heart.”
“You think her T-shirt got wet?”
Joe laughed again. I love his laugh.
He said, “Very possibly. We’re invited to their wedding in Cozumel next month. Think about it, okay?”
Looking into my husband’s eyes, I saw how much he wanted to bring us back to our wedding three years ago in a gazebo overlooking Half Moon Bay. We’d vowed in front of dear friends and family to love each other from that day forward.
It had been a promise I knew I could keep.
But I hadn’t been able to see around corners, not then. Now, in this romantic setting, Joe was hoping for magic to strike again. As for me, my innocence was gone.
I wished it weren’t so.
Our waiter set a Dungeness crab platter down in front of me. As I stared at a pair of claws, a metaphor jumped into
my mind. I was on the horns of a dilemma.
Should I reach across the table, squeeze Joe’s hand and tell him to come home? Or was it time for us both to admit that our Humpty Dumpty marriage couldn’t be put back together again?
Joe lifted his wineglass and said “To happy days.”
Just then, there was a sharp sound—as if the world had cracked open, followed by the boom of rolling thunder and a bright flash on the neighboring pier.
I screamed, “Nooooo!”
I grabbed Joe’s arm and stared open-mouthed as I looked across to the water to Pier 15, the site of a science museum called the Exploratorium. It was a massive geometric glass and steel structure designed for human interaction with the past and especially the future. As I stared, the structure was unfolding like a bud bursting into bloom, right in front of my eyes. Metal panels flew toward us, a mushroom cloud formed over Pier Fifteen 15 and an overarching hail of glinting glass shards fell into the Bay.
Joe said, “Jesus. What the hell?” his expression perfectly mirroring the horror I felt. Another bomb.
The Exploratorium was open to the public seven days a week, but to adults only on Thursday nights. This was Thursday, wasn’t it? Yes. People were inside the museum.
Was this a GAR attack? Had to be.
Joe threw down a credit card, stabbed at his phone and called his job. Similarly, I called SFPD dispatch and reported what looked to be a mass casualty incident.
“There’s been an explosion with fire at the Exploratorium, Pier 15. Send all cars. FD. Bomb squad. Ambulances. And find Lieutenant Brady. Tell him I’m on the scene.”
Joe said, “Lindsay, wait here. I’ll be back—”
“You’re kidding.”
“You want to get killed?”
“Do you?”
I followed Joe out of the restaurant onto the walkway that ran the length of the pier. We stood for a long moment at the railing and watched the Exploratorium’s two-story metal-frame structure crumple as the roof caved in.
The sight was devastating and almost impossible to take in, but it was real. The Exploratorium had been blown up.
Joe and I started running.
About the Authors
Author photograph by David Burnett
James Patterson received the Literarian Award for Outstanding Service to the American Literary Community at the 2015 National Book Awards. He holds the Guinness World Record for the most #1 New York Times bestsellers, and his books have sold more than 350 million copies worldwide. A tireless champion of the power of books and reading, Patterson created a new children’s book imprint, JIMMY Patterson, whose mission is simple: “We want every kid who finishes a JIMMY Book to say, ‘PLEASE GIVE ME ANOTHER BOOK.’” He has donated more than one million books to students and soldiers and funds over four hundred Teacher Education Scholarships at twenty-four colleges and universities. He has also donated millions to independent bookstores and school libraries. Patterson invests proceeds from the sales of JIMMY Patterson Books in pro-reading initiatives.
David Ellis is a Justice of the Illinois Appellate Court and the author of nine novels, including Line of Vision, for which he won the Edgar Allan Poe Award, and The Hidden Man, which earned a 2009 L.A. Times Book Prize nomination.
http://www.JamesPatterson.com
http://www.facebook.com/JamesPatterson
Books by James Patterson
Featuring Alex Cross
Cross the Line • Cross Justice • Hope to Die • Cross My Heart • Alex Cross, Run • Merry Christmas, Alex Cross • Kill Alex Cross • Cross Fire • I, Alex Cross • Alex Cross’s Trial (with Richard DiLallo) • Cross Country • Double Cross • Cross (also published as Alex Cross) • Mary, Mary • London Bridges • The Big Bad Wolf • Four Blind Mice • Violets Are Blue • Roses Are Red • Pop Goes the Weasel • Cat & Mouse • Jack & Jill • Kiss the Girls • Along Came a Spider
The Women’s Murder Club
16th Seduction (with Maxine Paetro) • 15th Affair (with Maxine Paetro) • 14th Deadly Sin (with Maxine Paetro) • Unlucky 13 (with Maxine Paetro) • 12th of Never (with Maxine Paetro) • 11th Hour (with Maxine Paetro) • 10th Anniversary (with Maxine Paetro) • The 9th Judgment (with Maxine Paetro) • The 8th Confession (with Maxine Paetro) • 7th Heaven (with Maxine Paetro) • The 6th Target (with Maxine Paetro) • The 5th Horseman (with Maxine Paetro) • 4th of July (with Maxine Paetro) • 3rd Degree (with Andrew Gross) • 2nd Chance (with Andrew Gross) • 1st to Die
Featuring Michael Bennett
Bullseye (with Michael Ledwidge) • Alert (with Michael Ledwidge) • Burn (with Michael Ledwidge) • Gone (with Michael Ledwidge) • I, Michael Bennett (with Michael Ledwidge) • Tick Tock (with Michael Ledwidge) • Worst Case (with Michael Ledwidge) • Run for Your Life (with Michael Ledwidge) • Step on a Crack (with Michael Ledwidge)
The Private Novels
Missing: A Private Novel (with Kathryn Fox) • The Games (with Mark Sullivan) • Private Paris (with Mark Sullivan) • Private Vegas (with Maxine Paetro) • Private India: City on Fire (with Ashwin Sanghi) • Private Down Under (with Michael White) • Private L.A. (with Mark Sullivan) • Private Berlin (with Mark Sullivan) • Private London (with Mark Pearson) • Private Games (with Mark Sullivan) • Private: #1 Suspect (with Maxine Paetro) • Private (with Maxine Paetro)
NYPD Red Novels
NYPD Red 4 (with Marshall Karp) • NYPD Red 3 (with Marshall Karp) • NYPD Red 2 (with Marshall Karp) • NYPD Red (with Marshall Karp)
Summer Novels
Second Honeymoon (with Howard Roughan) • Now You See Her (with Michael Ledwidge) • Swimsuit (with Maxine Paetro) • Sail (with Howard Roughan) • Beach Road (with Peter de Jonge) • Lifeguard (with Andrew Gross) • Honeymoon (with Howard Roughan) • The Beach House (with Peter de Jonge)
Stand-alone Books
Humans, Bow Down (with Emily Raymond, illustrated by Alexander Ovchinnikov) • Never Never (with Candice Fox) • Woman of God (with Maxine Paetro) • The Murder House (with David Ellis) • Truth or Die (with Howard Roughan) • Miracle at Augusta (with Peter de Jonge) • Invisible (with David Ellis) • First Love (with Emily Raymond) • Mistress (with David Ellis) • Zoo (with Michael Ledwidge) • Guilty Wives (with David Ellis) • The Christmas Wedding (with Richard DiLallo) • Kill Me If You Can (with Marshall Karp) • Toys (with Neil McMahon) • Don’t Blink (with Howard Roughan) • The Postcard Killers (with Liza Marklund) • The Murder of King Tut (with Martin Dugard) • Against Medical Advice (with Hal Friedman) • Sundays at Tiffany’s (with Gabrielle Charbonnet) • You’ve Been Warned (with Howard Roughan) • The Quickie (with Michael Ledwidge) • Judge & Jury (with Andrew Gross) • Sam’s Letters to Jennifer • The Lake House • The Jester (with Andrew Gross) • Suzanne’s Diary for Nicholas • Cradle and All • When the Wind Blows • Miracle on the 17th Green (with Peter de Jonge) • Hide & Seek • The Midnight Club • Black Friday (originally published as Black Market) • See How They Run • Season of the Machete • The Thomas Berryman Number
The House Next Door (with Susan DiLallo) • Diary of a Succubus (with Derek Nikitas) • Taking the Titanic (with Scott Slaven) • Night Sniper (with Christopher Charles) • The Shut-in (with Duane Swierczynski) • Stealing Gulfstreams (with Max DiLallo) • Baby Dolls (with Kecia Bal) • The Darkest February (with James O. Born) • The House Husband (with Duane Swierczynski) • The Coldest January (with James O. Born) • Come and Get Us (with Shan Serafin) • Private: The Royals (with Rees Jones) • Black & Blue (with Candice Fox) • The Christmas Mystery (with Richard DiLallo) • Killer Chef (with Jeffrey J. Keyes) • $10,000,000 Marriage Proposal (with Hilary Liftin) • French Kiss (with Richard DiLallo) • Trump vs. Clinton (Edited by James Patterson) • Kill or Be Killed (thriller omnibus) • Hunted (with Andrew Holmes) • 113 Minutes (with Max DiLallo) • Chase (with Michael Ledwidge) • Let’s Play Make-Believe (with James O. Bom) • The Trial (with Maxine Paetro) • Little Black Dress (with Emily Raymond) • Cross Kill • Zoo II (wit
h Max DiLallo)
Sabotage by Jessica Linden • Love Me Tender by Laurie Horowitz • Bedding the Highlander by Sabrina York • The Wedding Florist by TJ Kline • A Wedding in Maine by Jen McLaughlin • Exquisite: The Diamond Trilogy, Book III by Elizabeth Hayley • Hot Winter Nights by Codi Gary • Radiant: The Diamond Trilogy, Book II by Elizabeth Hayley • Bodyguard by Jessica Linden • Dazzling: The Diamond Trilogy, Book I by Elizabeth Hayley • Sacking the Quarterback by Samantha Towle • The Mating Season by Laurie Horowitz • The McCullagh Inn in Maine by Jen McLaughlin • Learning to Ride by Erin Knightley
For Readers of All Ages
Maximum Ride
Maximum Ride Forever • Nevermore: The Final Maximum Ride Adventure • Angel: A Maximum Ride Novel • Fang: A Maximum Ride Novel • Max: A Maximum Ride Novel • The Final Warning: A Maximum Ride Novel • Saving the World and Other Extreme Sports: A Maximum Ride Novel • School’s Out—Forever: A Maximum Ride Novel • The Angel Experiment: A Maximum Ride Novel
Daniel X
Daniel X: Lights Out (with Chris Grabenstein) • Daniel X: Armageddon (with Chris Grabenstein) • Daniel X: Game Over (with Ned Rust) • Daniel X: Demons and Druids (with Adam Sadler) • Daniel X: Watch the Skies (with Ned Rust) • The Dangerous Days of Daniel X (with Michael Ledwidge)
Witch & Wizard
Witch & Wizard: The Lost (with Emily Raymond) • Witch & Wizard: The Kiss (with Jill Dembowski) • Witch & Wizard: The Fire (with Jill Dembowski) • Witch & Wizard: The Gift (with Ned Rust) • Witch & Wizard (with Gabrielle Charbonnet)
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