by Robin Mahle
“He can’t determine the IP address,” Duncan began. “He just got back with me and said the VPN showed it came from outside the US. It was what we assumed, but we had to try.”
“Doesn’t matter now. We know where he plans to be,” Surrey added. “We’ll get this guy, and we’ll get him tonight.”
Walsh touched Kate’s arm and nodded for her to follow him into the corridor.
“What’s up?” Kate asked.
“There’s been a lot of things happening outside your purview,” Walsh began. “Scarborough and I, well, and Fisher too, we’ve been hunting down the one who threatened you.”
“Nick filled me in on some of it before I left. I know you’ve been working with him, which comes as no surprise. Did something break loose? Do you know who threatened me?”
“Yes, but there’s a lot to it and given what’s about to happen, I don’t have the time to go into great detail. But you should know that it involves Noah Quinn. What I brought you out here to say was that these people are coming for you, Kate. I thought you should know.”
Quinn’s name brought heat under her collar. “People? Not just Quinn, but people.”
“Yes. This is bigger than we ever thought. But Kate, please, just listen to me for a second. These people have been watching you since you arrived here. The train station bombing? It doesn’t match King’s M.O.”
Her face lost all expression. “No. Don’t you dare tell me someone inside the Bureau planned that. No. Stallard already said…”
“I know what he said. Kate, these people have eyes everywhere. They knew what King used and they copied it. Didn’t it seem odd that it was so random? That no one was killed? They planned it that way.”
“Why?” Her face masked in rage.
“To draw you out. I don’t know if they had something else planned this morning for you, or not, but the whole thing was to bring you out into the open.”
“Jesus.” She placed her hands on her hips and her eyes reddened. “What the hell is going on here? Why are they doing this?”
“I need you to stay close to me tonight. I promised Scarborough that I wouldn’t let anything happen to you…”
“For God’s sake. Are you kidding me? You don’t think I can handle this?”
“This isn’t the time to be stubborn, Kate. Listen to me. This is real. This is dangerous. You are a target and not of Danny King’s. We’ll find him tonight. But you and me? We’re sticking together like glue until this is over.”
28
Under misty dark skies, Kate stared through the windshield at the road ahead. She tried to break free from the relentless thoughts that swirled in her mind. How had this become about her? And more importantly, why? What made Walsh’s revelations all the worse was that Nick knew about them. Fisher knew too, yet she had been left in the dark. Anger boiled in her stomach. All this because of Noah Quinn and his hatred of her. It didn’t make sense. They wouldn’t have staged the train station bombing. That was a step too far even for Quinn.
Now they hunted a serial bomber and had been given the upper hand thanks to the work Eva Duncan had completed. But Kate’s focus was scattered. What had Quinn wanted from her and how did he propose to get it?
“Reid?” Surrey tapped her shoulder from the backseat. “You with us?”
“Huh? Sorry. I’m here,” she replied.
Walsh cast her a sideways glance from the driver’s seat.
“We’re coming up on one of the sites,” Surrey added. “I need you here with us, you understand?”
“I said I was sorry. I’m here. I don’t need you telling me how to do my job.”
“Last thing we need is a squabble between you two,” Walsh said. “We have five other teams heading to the locations. One of us will come up on Danny King and we need to be ready. The kid will be highly unstable, and he’ll be armed with volatile explosives. I don’t know about either one of you, but I’m not going to die today.” He rolled to a stop several feet before the Fort Duquesne Bridge. “This is one of the targets. I see a parking lot over there. Could be a spot where he would make his mark.”
“I think he’ll aim higher.” Surrey pointed toward the public park near the bridge and the water’s edge. “That area over there, near the gazebo and park. The messages discussed a place where there would be structures. We know he plans on using devices with timers. My gut tells me he’ll set it for morning when dog walkers and joggers are out.”
Kate surveyed the area. “He’s out of his element. This wasn’t how things were supposed to go for him. He’s acting out of desperation and not his original purpose.”
“What are you talking about? What about the train station? You thought that could have been a trial run,” Surrey replied.
Walsh and Kate traded glances.
Surrey picked up on the exchange. “Is there something I should know?” He peered at them. “Hey, am I a part of this team or not? Can someone let me in on what the hell is going on here?”
Walsh peered over his shoulder toward the backseat. “We can’t be certain the train station blast was Danny King.”
“Of course it was. Stallard said it was,” Surrey replied.
Walsh sighed before Kate cut in. “Walsh and Fisher think people on our side of the fence planned the explosion and made it look like it was King to throw us off.”
Surrey laughed. “Are you serious? Why the hell would they do that?”
“To get to me.” Kate opened the passenger door and stepped out into the steamy night air. She surveyed the nearby park and waited for Walsh and Surrey to join her. “What the hell are we supposed to do if we find a device? I don’t know about you guys, but I don’t know jack about disarming anything.”
“We’re to call Stallard who will send his people out,” Walsh replied. “Our job is to find King and stop him, hopefully, before he finishes the job.”
“So we wait?” Surrey appeared content to let go the previous discussion, for now.
“We’ll keep in radio contact with the others, listen to whether anyone spots him. It’s hard to say if he’ll be driving the same car.” Walsh peered at them. “We know he’s coming. We just don’t know when.”
Agent Tillis arrived at the second of the six targets King had planned. Alongside two other agents, they waited inside his car in search of where they might spot Danny King.
“How long do we sit here?” Agent Garcia pulled up from the backseat. “I feel like we should be doing more.”
“We just need to stay out of sight in case King shows up here,” Tillis replied. “He’ll turn up at one of the targets.”
“I hope he turns up here.” Agent Lee peered through the windshield. “I have a cousin who lives nearby. The thought that asshole would set off a bomb where people come to work every day pisses me off.”
“We’ll get to him tonight. One of us will,” Tillis replied. He picked up the radio. “Hey, what are the chances he’ll livestream this shit?”
Kate peered into the vehicle at the radio receiver before glancing to Surrey. “He has a point. King has lost all sense of reality at this point. I wouldn’t put it past him to get his message across again.”
“Who do we have to put on that?” Surrey asked. “Can they preempt it?”
Kate reached for the radio and pressed the button. “Tillis, this is Reid. If King broadcasts his activities, I’m not sure he’ll use a former victim’s account to do it and it doesn’t appear that he has his own, but it’s possible he has an account under a different name.”
“What do you suggest then, Reid?” Tillis asked.
“If anything, I think he’ll use a group,” she added. “Can you get your computer forensics lead to find a link between the group on the dark web and one on social media? Probably Facebook, since that’s what he’s used in the past. I have a feeling those people will have something set up to better reach your average Joe. Kingmaker will be a member of that group.”
Tillis pressed the radio receiver again as he sat behind
the wheel of his car. “Got it. I’ll get them onboard and have them keep us posted. What happens if he livestreams? We won’t have the ability to stop it.”
“Assuming we find the group, we’ll use it to determine his exact location and whoever’s stationed there will get eyes on him. Then, we get onto the stream and bring attention to the moderators to shut it down,” Kate replied.
“They won’t act fast enough. The damage will be done,” Tillis added.
Kate shrugged. “Then blood will be on the hands of those responsible for allowing it to be livestreamed.”
Duncan listened to the conversation and turned to Fisher as they waited at the third location. “You didn’t have anything to add to that?”
“There’s nothing more we can do than that, Eva. My hope is that we’ll get to King before he blows up anything, livestreaming or not.”
She cast down her gaze for a moment. “Why did you and Walsh come here?”
“You were hurt. You were in the damn hospital. I wasn’t going to just let my people fight this alone. You needed help.”
“That’s where you and I disagree. I was fine, Cam. You saw me. I let down my guard and someone died. I’ll have to live with that for the rest of my life. But having you here, trying to save me…”
“That’s not what happened, and you know it. Don’t make this just about you, Eva. This is about the team and the team needed extra hands.” He held her gaze. “I don’t know where this is coming from.”
“Cam, this is the first time you let Reid take the reins. And the first time you jumped in to the rescue, just like Scarborough did.” Duncan sighed. “We had this guy. The work I did with BAU-2 helped get us to this point. We didn’t need you here. Not this time.” She looked at him and furrowed her brow. “What?”
Fisher shrugged. “I was worried about you, yes. You can think I’m an asshole because I was worried about the woman I love, but there is another reason we came.”
Her eyes softened. “What is it then?”
“A few months ago, after the Lehmann investigation, Reid was threatened.”
“Threatened? By whom?”
“We didn’t know. Long story short, Walsh and Scarborough have been digging around in search for answers about how Theo Bishop escaped to Mexico. The passport logs that were missing?”
“Yeah,” she replied.
“It turned out that someone inside the Bureau made that happen. They let the Mercy Killer escape. And then when our people started getting too close, Reid was threatened during the Lehmann case.”
“Why her?” Duncan asked.
“Because whoever was behind helping Bishop’s mother, Carol Whitman, discovered something about Richard Lehmann. They discovered he had no part in the deaths his brother accused him of participating in.”
“What? Are you serious?”
“I wish I wasn’t,” Fisher replied. “We’re here because those same people inside the Bureau who threatened Reid, one who we all know well, it looks like they might have been behind the train station attack. I didn’t want to believe any of it. In fact, I owe Scarborough one hell of an apology. Walsh pulled me aside before we left tonight. He told me these guys had evidence that Richard Lehmann didn’t help his brother kill anyone.”
Duncan’s eyes widened and her mouth dropped. “Why the hell am I just now finding out about this?”
“Because we don’t know their intentions. Scarborough thinks the blast was used to draw out Reid. For what, God knows. But they aren’t going to stop unless we drop everything. Give them a pass.”
“You said someone we all know is involved. Who is it, Cam?” Duncan insisted.
He held her gaze with a serious mien. “Noah Quinn.”
Dressed in black, Danny arrived at the first of his six targets. He had to act fast and had taken the time to build each device ahead of time. Input from Dante358 suggested he add additional powder. He would then install the devices near a metal structure to ensure maximum blast radius and a large metal debris field with the potential for severe injury. He didn’t have gasoline as a propellant now, so he relied on the use of filler, metal junk that would be propelled at a fair distance. The timers were the cell phones he’d taken from the store. Everything aligned perfectly.
The Strip District was a popular spot among locals. Street vendors, shops and cafes. And on a Saturday, it would be packed with people. Alongside the Allegheny River, the half-mile area was the perfect target. It was his most ambitious plan to date, but there was little else he could do to take a stand. He didn’t think of the people who would be hurt. He only thought about Mel and how the system had hurt his family.
Danny stepped out of his car and stood beside it, peering out onto the Strip. He walked to the trunk of his car and opened it. Inside lay the devices, nestled in Styrofoam and individual boxes. He didn’t want any accidents if he hit a bump in the road.
He thought he’d be more nervous, but his hands were steady, and his breathing was normal. With the box in his hand, he lay it on the ground and gently closed the lid of the trunk. People still milled about, though not many. He suspected it would pick up as the hour grew later. Two popular bars resided in the area, though they were down closer to the end of the Strip.
It would be best for him to get the device in place quickly and hurry to the next location. Danny was confident the police would be looking for his car and there was no telling how much time he had. If only he’d been a good car thief too.
He walked along the pathway that ran parallel to the river and toward the street vendors’ area. Some of the stands remained in place, covered and uncovered. The perfect spot revealed itself. A food truck. Big enough to scatter a lot of debris with the help of its large gas tank.
With the device in place, Danny walked back to his car, unhurried and careful not to draw attention. When 9am, Saturday morning arrived, the street would be busy. It was the perfect time.
His car was in sight and he pulled the keys from his pocket, fidgeting to find the right one. On arrival, he peered around and finally, stepped inside. Relief washed over him. The first one was in place. And it hadn’t been nearly as hard as he thought.
Agent Ramirez sat behind the wheel of his car. Instinctively, he hunkered low and nudged his partner. “Hey, is that the car?”
His partner, Agent Watford, shot a look in the direction. “Holy shit. Sure as hell looks like a white Ford Focus. And the suspect. I’m calling it in.” He pressed the radio. “Hey, we got a possible sighting of Danny King. Vehicle matches the description. He’s getting inside the vehicle now.”
Tillis was the first to reply. “He’s leaving?”
“Ten-four. He just closed the door of his car. We need the go-ahead,” Watford replied.
“If he’s already in his car, follow him. See where he goes next,” Tillis said. “Stallard, your people should get down there now to sweep the place. Watford, you and Ramirez tail this guy but do not let him see you.”
“Copy that.” Watford turned to his partner. “Let’s see where he goes.”
Ramirez keyed the ignition and waited for the white car to drive by. Without headlights, he headed out toward the street that fronted the river. “Once he gets out farther, I’ll turn on the lights. I need another car between us, so he doesn’t see.”
Watford glanced at him. “Just don’t lose him.”
Kate eyed Surrey as the three had returned to the car to wait. “They can’t lose him. When he starts getting closer to his next location, the guys will be alerted and be ready.”
“They know what they’re doing,” Surrey replied.
“That means he’s already planted at least one device,” Walsh began. “I hope to hell Stallard’s people find it before Danny figures out that he’s being watched. Kid might just decide to blow them up.”
The radio cut in again. “Watford here. We’re still tailing the suspect. He’s heading southeast toward the downtown area.”
“He won’t stop there. It’ll be too busy,” Till
is replied on the radio. “Just keep eyes on him. We’ll be ready wherever he decides to go.”
From inside their car, Kate looked at Walsh. “We’re southeast of their location. He could be headed here.”
“Then we’d better keep our eyes open and our heads down,” Walsh replied.
Stallard’s voice crackled on the radio. “I have a team headed to the Strip District now. They’ll find the device. He won’t make his mark there.”
Several minutes went by. The radio was quiet. Kate’s nerves stood on end. She tried to push back what Walsh had revealed about the train station attack. But she couldn’t see past Noah Quinn. If this was all true, Quinn wouldn’t get away with it. Not if she had anything to say on the matter. Whatever Richard Lehmann was or wasn’t didn’t matter because the man still attacked her. She killed him in self-defense. It had always lingered in her mind that he might not have been involved and that George used him as leverage. And Kate bought it, hook, line, and sinker. She shook away the thought and felt a hand on her shoulder.
“You still doing all right?” Surrey asked.
“Fine,” Kate replied. “I’m just ready for this to be over.” She stared out through her passenger window and spotted headlights approach. “Hang on. That could be him.” She picked up the radio. “Watford, tell me you’re heading down Fifth Street right now. I see headlights.”
“We’re two cars behind King and yes, we’re coming down Fifth now. We’re heading your way Agent Reid. I hope you guys are ready.”
Kate gripped the door handle while her stare penetrated the darkness. Spotty streetlamps illuminated the park and cast an eerie glow through the heavy air. “We don’t know where he’ll stop.”
“I’m ready.” Walsh turned the engine. “We’ll follow him. And when he stops, we wait.”
“For what?” Kate asked. “Levi, we can’t give him an opportunity to grab hold of one of his bombs.”
