by B. B. Hamel
“Is this blood?”
Emory nodded slowly. “Coop’s own blood most likely. I’d guess this was his final act.”
“It looks like a mitten.”
“That’s what we think.”
I shook my head. “I don’t know.”
“Think, Tara. How could that relate to your father?”
I bit my lip. “I’m not sure.”
He stood up and paced across the room. “The man on that business card. What else do you know about him?”
“Nothing,” I said honestly. “Nothing about the guy. Just the company.”
“Tell me everything.”
I leaned back, trying to think. What did I know about them? Dad didn’t talk about his job much, since a lot of his work was highly secretive.
“Dad had been traveling a lot lately, something about a power plant needing to be refurbished,” I said.
Emory paused. “Which plant?”
I shook my head. “I can’t remember. It was a guy’s name, though.”
Emory looked down at his phone and began tapping on it. I stood up and walked over to him, looking over his shoulder. It was a list of nuclear power plants and their locations.
“Donald Cook Power Station,” he read and looked at me. “It’s in Michigan.”
“Yeah. That has to be it,” I said. “Dad was traveling to Michigan a lot.”
“Fuck,” Emory said. “The picture. It’s not a mitten. It’s fucking Michigan.”
I stepped back as it all clicked into place. “They’re attacking that power plant, aren’t they?”
He nodded slowly. “And they’re using your father’s credentials to get in.”
“Oh my god,” I said. “We have to tell someone, Emory.”
“No,” he said forcefully. “I’ll call my commanding officer and we’ll go from there.”
I nodded slowly. “Okay. Okay.”
“Sit down, relax, do whatever. I’ll be back in a few minutes.” He turned and left the room.
I watched him go, the door clicking shut behind him.
We’d figured it out. We’d gotten some help along the way, but we knew what was happening. For the first time since this all started, we knew where they were going and where they’d be.
For the first time since this all began, an end was in sight. For the first time, I believed we might actually make it out alive.
Mason was safe, and Emory was going to save everyone else.
Emory could do it. All I had to do was trust him, and I did.
Chapter 28
Emory
“Sir, I think I know what’s happening.”
Blackfire was silent for a second as I looked out over the balcony at the drab motel parking lot. The events of the last day poured through my mind, and I picked it over, choosing only the necessary moments.
“And what’s that, soldier?” he asked.
“Sir, we found a business card on the person of one of the men who attacked us. Tara recognized the company. Apparently they work with her father, who has business dealings with nuclear power plants.”
“Interesting,” Blackfire said. “We haven’t gotten any intel about any imminent attacks.”
“No, because I think this one is happening fast. They’re using covert American agents to do their dirty work.”
“What other evidence do you have?”
“Cooper is dead,” I said, “and Tara’s parents are gone.”
“Shit,” Blackfire said. “Coop was a good soldier.”
“He was, sir.”
“I’ll take care of his family, and a cleanup crew will be dispatched to the Bright house.”
“But sir, he left a small drawing in his own blood. It looks like a mitten, but we believe it’s of Michigan. There’s a power plant in Michigan that Tara’s father was working with only a few weeks ago.”
“Why didn’t we know this already?”
“I think because we were too busy focusing on the revenge aspect of all this. That may have been Omar’s intention all along, to distract us from his real intentions.”
“Damn,” Blackfire said. “Damn that fucking bastard. That clever fucking bastard.”
“What do you think, sir?”
“We have no other good leads,” he said. “I’ll send some backup, and consider any resources we have at your disposal.”
“Roger that, sir.”
“Emory, you must pursue and destroy these bastards. You can’t let them get away with Coop’s death, much less with an attack on American soil.”
“My thoughts exactly, sir.”
“Good luck, soldier.” He hung up the phone.
I felt Travis appear next to me. “We on for this?” he asked.
“We sure as fuck are,” I said. “I’ve got one more call to make. Then we’re heading to Michigan. Get the car ready.”
“Roger that, cap.”
Travis headed off while I dialed another number. It rang, and finally she picked up.
“Navy Intelligence,” Lucy said.
“Lucy, it’s Emory,” I said quickly. “I need some help.”
“You called the right place. What can I do for you?”
“I need surveillance data for the Donald Cook nuclear power plant and all the surrounding hotels. Any suspicious activity, anything needs to come to me immediately.”
“What are we looking for?”
“Omar Hooth and several American associates. Also keep an eye out for Roger and Celine Bright.”
“Okay, Emory. You got it.”
“Thanks, Lucy. Send all updates to this number.” I hung up the phone.
Tara came out of the room, dressed and frowning slightly. “Is everything okay?” she asked me.
“We’re heading to Michigan,” I said. “Navy is looking into surveillance data, trying to pinpoint your parents.”
“Actually, about that. I found something weird.”
I raised an eyebrow. “What?”
She held up one of my phones. “I borrowed this. Hope you don’t mind.”
“Better than using your own.”
She smiled and tapped something. “Here. Take a look. This is my dad’s bank account.”
I looked over her shoulder. “One transaction from today. Is that a gas station?”
“Yeah, it is. I Googled it, and apparently it’s in Michigan.”
“Fuck,” I said. “This can’t be for real.”
“I think they used his card, Emory.”
I laughed, shaking my head. “Do you have an address?”
“Yeah, I do.”
I grinned hugely and grabbed her, pulling her against me. I hugged her hard. “Great fucking job.”
“Why would they use his card though?”
“Somebody in Omar’s group royally fucked up. I’m guessing one of the less experienced Americans.” I kissed her hard then, letting my joy overflow against her.
She kissed me back and then slowly pulled away. “So you’re impressed then?” she asked.
“Very impressed.”
“Glad I’m here?”
“Very glad.”
“I knew you would be.”
I grabbed her ass, hard, and grinned. “I thought I was going to be happy you were here for other reasons, but this works out just fine.”
She rolled her eyes. “Come on. Let’s get moving. Travis is making lewd gestures at us.”
I looked down and saw Travis making a blowjob face. I flipped him off.
“Let’s go kill some terrorist scumbags.”
“Sounds good to me.”
The sun was dipping in the sky by the time we finally got to the gas station.
It was a little independently owned thing situated a few miles away from the power plant. As soon as I saw it, I was beyond positive that someone from Omar’s group had been there. He probably thought the transaction would be harder to trace since it wasn’t at one of those large chain stations, but boy was he fucking wrong.
There were probably ten, ma
ybe fifteen chain stations in the area. Whoever it was chose the only station we could very, very easily look up and locate.
Tara and I waited in the car while Travis went in and checked it out. A few minutes later, he returned and leaned up against the window. “Nothing,” he said.
“Nothing?”
“Just a gas station, man,” he said. “No Omar. No terrorists hanging around. Pretty normal.”
I frowned. “They were here.”
“What about that?” Tara asked, pointing.
I followed her gaze. There was a motel a bit farther down the street with a large sign advertising vacancies lit up outside it.
“What about it?” I asked.
“Well, if someone used the station, they could have walked here. Maybe they’re staying at that motel.”
I looked at her and then back at Travis. He shrugged. “Honestly, man, we’re going by the seat of our fucking pants right now,” he said. “Any lead is better than no lead.”
“Okay then,” I said. “Get your shit together, because we’re going on stakeout.”
Travis sighed. “I’ll get supplies.”
“What do we need?” Tara asked.
“Junk food, obviously.” He grinned and walked off.
I climbed back in the car to wait for him. Tara put her hand on my leg, and I grinned at her. “You’re a lot more useful than I thought.”
“I could be wrong, though,” she said.
“Yeah, you could be, but it’s the best guess we have right now. The Navy is analyzing all that data, so hopefully we get a hit soon.”
“Hopefully.” She frowned and moved her hand, looking out the window. “My parents are near here. They’re hostages.”
“Yeah, they are, but they’re useful hostages.”
“So?”
“So, it means Omar isn’t going to hurt them, not yet at least.”
“My mom isn’t useful.”
“If Omar kills your mom, your dad might not cooperate. No, they’re still alive. Maybe a little worse for wear, but they’re alive.”
She nodded slowly. “Okay. I have to believe that. Otherwise, I don’t know what any of this is for.”
“Hey,” I said, pulling her against me. “We’re going to beat this. You’ve got two of the best working on it and more men on the way.”
“I’m just afraid we’re too slow.”
“Don’t be.”
Just then, Travis returned. He pulled open the back door and climbed in. “You two crazy kids ready?” he asked.
“Sure are.” I started up the engine and Tara leaned away, looking back out the window.
I pulled out into traffic and headed down toward the motel. I didn’t know what we’d find, but something about this felt right. Everything about the trail was telling me that we were going the right way, that we were heading in the right direction. It was lucky and winding, but it was right.
My gut was screaming at me to keep going, and I was. Tara was by my side; Travis was ready. This was going to end, and I was going to end it.
Chapter 29
Tara
As the sun dipped down through the sky, nothing happened.
The three of us sat in that car and waited. Emory and Travis took turns watching closely while I mostly sat there trying to keep myself from dying of boredom.
I understood why Travis had needed to get supplies. Stakeouts were boring, really, really boring. We were basically just sitting there watching the motel. People were coming and going, but nobody that seemed even slightly suspicious. Lots of truckers, one or two families, but mostly men with women who looked far too young for them.
“Hookers,” Travis said at one point.
“What?” I asked him.
“You were staring at that young blond girl and wondering why you keep seeing older men getting rooms with younger women.”
I laughed and nodded. “Yeah,” I said.
“Hookers,” he said again.
“Don’t ruin the girl,” Emory said, grinning. “She’s not ready for the seedy underside of the world.”
I shook my head, and we all went back to watching. I shouldn’t have been surprised that they were prostitutes, but I was. The motel did look like the place you’d bring a hooker, though. Cheap rooms, crumbling architecture, the kind of place that hasn’t been updated in twenty years. It was probably pretty nice back in the day, and now it likely only existed because of hookers and their clientele.
Soon it was night. Hours passed and absolutely nothing happened. Travis passed out the snacks, and our dinner was basically just junk food and more junk food. I was getting restless and antsy, but I wasn’t going anywhere. I needed to stay. I couldn’t let myself give in to my own weaknesses.
Finally, at around nine at night, Emory’s phone started ringing.
“Yeah?” he answered. He nodded along. “We saw that charge too. Sixty percent sure? Say that room number one more time. Okay, Lucy. Thanks. You were a huge help.” He hung up the phone.
“What did the brains say, cap?” Travis asked.
“We’re in the right place,” he said. “Now we have a decision to make.”
“Spit it out,” I said to him.
He grinned at me. “Well, seems a security camera caught some footage of a few men walking into room fifteen of this motel. One of them tripped the facial recognition software.”
“Omar,” Travis said.
“Sixty percent certainty,” Emory said, frowning. “Not a great match.”
“But it’s a lead,” I said. “We’ve been staring at this motel for hours. What else can we do?”
Emory looked back at Travis, who shrugged. “She’s right. And if they’re planning something, we don’t have time to waste.”
“Shit,” Emory said. “Fuck. Okay.”
“Okay what?”
“Travis, we’re getting inside that room.”
“Hell yeah we are, cap.”
“I’m coming too,” I said.
“No,” Emory said seriously. “You can’t come. You have to stay in the car and leave the engine running. If something happens, you have to be ready to drive.”
I sighed. “Okay. Fine.” I figured there was no point in fighting it. Emory wasn’t going to let me come with them, and besides, if something did happen, I wouldn’t be much help. I’d just get in the way, force Emory to have to watch out for me while fighting the bad guys.
No, I knew I needed to sit this one out as much as I didn’t want to. At least he was giving me a real job to do.
I watched as Travis and Emory got out of the car and popped the trunk. They began strapping on vests and tossing jackets on over top of them. I rolled down the window. “You know people can see you, right?”
Emory smirked. “Nobody knows what we’re doing.”
“You two look crazy.”
“We are crazy.”
“Yeah, but the scary, bad crazy.”
Travis laughed, zipping up his black jacket. “If we didn’t have the SEALs, we probably would be.”
Emory zipped up his jacket. “Come on. Let’s fuck shit up.”
They got back into the car and Emory pulled out into traffic. He did a quick U-turn and then made a right into the motel’s lot. He backed into a spot and then looked at me.
“Stay here no matter what. If you see us running toward you, do whatever I’m saying. If I’m yelling at you to leave, leave. If I say wait, wait for us and then drive. Got it?”
“I got it.”
He got out and I climbed into the driver’s seat.
“Be careful,” I called after him.
“I always am.”
Travis gave me a thumbs up, and then the two men quickly walked across the parking lot.
They melted into the shadows. I could see the room from where I was sitting but not much else. I looked around the parking lot nervously, but it was empty. Cars drove past on the road, but nobody pulled into the lot, and nobody was moving around the other rooms.
The shado
ws loomed deep over the motel. I watched as the door suddenly jolted inward. I couldn’t see them, but I knew they both were inside the room. The door shut behind them.
I realized that I was gripping the steering wheel nervously. I took a deep breath, trying to relax, but I couldn’t. Emory was in danger. He was putting his life on the line barely a hundred feet away from me. I could practically see in my mind Emory getting his body riddled with bullets, falling to the ground covered in blood, and it made me want to throw up with worry.
Nothing happened. I stared, anxiety mounting, but there was nothing. No sound of struggle, no gunshots, no screaming, just an eerie silence hanging over the otherwise desolate parking lot. It was taking every ounce of my willpower not to run out of the car and bang on the door.
Another minute passed. I was twitching with anxiety and worry. I couldn’t lose Emory, not now, not with so much hanging in the balance. It wasn’t the terrorist attack or anything like that, but it was my feelings for him. I realized I was in so much deeper than I had thought, and I was falling deeper every moment. I couldn’t lose him because I felt like I was just getting him.
Then the door opened and Emory was there, spotlighted by the single, weak, yellow outside light. He waved at me, gesturing for me to come.
I killed the engine and stepped out of the car. I trotted over toward him. I could see the tension in his face, the worry.
“What happened?” I asked.
“They aren’t in there,” he said, “but we did find something.”
He turned and walked into the room without another word. I followed him, wondering why he needed me.
The room itself had two double beds, an old television that probably didn’t work anymore, and that was pretty much it. The walls and ceilings were stained yellow from tobacco and the room smelled like someone had thrown up in it recently. It was basically the grossest hotel room I’d ever seen in my life.
Travis was sitting on one of the beds, holding a picture.
“Take a look,” Emory said.
Travis held it out to me, and I took it slowly. I turned it around and my heart leapt in my chest.
It was me.
