by Mike Ryan
“It’s OK.”
“I’ll shut up. I really shouldn’t have said anything. Completely not my business.”
“There you are,” Turner said, coming over to them. “I was looking for you.”
“Well here we are,” Vicki replied.
“So what are you two chatting it up about?”
“Oh nothing.”
“Just girl talk,” Parker said.
“That’s always the polite way of saying it’s none of your business,” he joked.
“Well, I’m gonna go get ready. I’ll see you kids later,” Vicki told them.
Parker and Turner continued sitting there, not talking, but comfortably sitting in silence, enjoying the nice breeze. Parker thought about just coming out and telling him how she felt so she didn’t keep it bottled in any longer. She’d never done this before though so she wasn’t quite sure how to begin.
“I was thinking about earlier,” she began. “When we were at the beach. It was pretty nice and…”
Just as she was about to reveal her feelings, Cole came rushing over. “Sorry to interrupt you ladies but something’s come up.”
“What?” Parker asked.
“I was reviewing security footage that I was able to tap into and look who popped up,” he told her, handing her a picture.
“Heath.”
“Taken two hours ago at a hotel about twenty minutes from here. Hacked into the hotel’s database and ran into the name Chase Daulton. Checked in this morning and staying in room 312.”
“That’s one of his aliases. We need to go,” Parker said.
“Want me to come?” Turner asked.
“No,” she replied, shaking her head. “Just enjoy your date tonight. Don’t think about it.”
“So what’ll happen if you actually find him there?”
“Hopefully he’ll give up and turn himself in.”
“And if he doesn’t?”
“Then we kill him,” Cole gleefully said.
“OK. Be careful,” Turner said to Parker.
“I will.”
“I’ll be careful too. Case anyone’s interested,” Cole joked.
Parker and Cole went back into their apartments to grab their weapons and emerged a couple minutes later, each carrying a black backpack slung over their shoulder. They got into Cole’s SUV and drove for the hotel.
“Kind of careless of Heath, don’t you think?” Parker asked. “Getting his picture taken like this.”
“Maybe. But that’s how most criminals are caught. Careless mistakes,” Cole replied. “If they didn’t make ‘em, we wouldn’t catch ‘em.”
“I guess so.”
“So how was the beach?”
“It was nice.”
“You look refreshed,” Cole told her. “Sorry I couldn’t give you the entire day.”
“I’m good.”
Cole floored the gas pedal and they got to the hotel in about fifteen minutes. It was a decent sized hotel, not too upscale, but it was well kept and popular among business travelers. They wanted to separate in case Davis was watching. Cole went through the front entrance while Parker came in through a back door that was open. Cole used the elevator to go up to the third floor as Parker used the steps. They met up in the hallway and swiftly moved down to room 312, guns drawn. Cole motioned that he’d kick the door in and go in first. He took a couple steps back and then unleashed a thunderous kick that swung the door open rather easily, breaking the lock. They quickly entered the room, ready to fire their weapons. Upon no gunfire being fired their way, they cleared the room, and then Cole cleared the bedroom, with Parker checking out the bathroom. Davis wasn’t there. Cole closed the door as they started looking around for leads. Parker immediately noticed a white board on the wall with a bunch of pictures on it. Each picture had a line drawn to it from another picture. Cole came over and looked at it as well, noting the pictures were of Parker, Cole, Turner, Nazarov, and three other men they didn’t recognize.
“Let’s see what else is here,” Parker stated.
They started looking around more when they heard a beeping sound. They traced the sound to the kitchen, finally realizing the sound was coming from a drawer. Cole opened the drawer to see a little black box with what appeared to be the seconds counting down. There was about fifteen seconds to go.
“Run!” Cole said.
“Wait, I need to get those pictures.”
“No time. Go!” Cole replied, grabbing Parker and shoving her forward.
Cole made sure Parker was in front of him as they ran out of the room and down the hallway. They didn’t have time to wait for the elevator and started down the stairs. They reached the bottom as the bomb exploded, destroying the room, along with the rooms on both sides of it. Parker put both hands on her head in frustration, catching her breath from running so hard.
“You OK?” Cole asked.
“Yeah. Maybe we should go back and see what’s left.”
“Don’t bother. There’s nothing left. He made sure of that.”
“He’s still one step ahead of us,” Parker said.
“One thing’s for sure, he knew we were there.”
“How do you know?”
“The bomb wasn’t beeping when we got in. Didn’t start for a few minutes. That means it was on a delayed timer or remote. Either way, it wasn’t started until he was sure we were in the room. Which means he was probably watching us.”
“Or he had surveillance set up in the room to see who came in.”
“Possibly.”
“Well what’s across the street where he could’ve been watching?” Parker asked.
“Let’s go find out.”
Chapter 9
Across the street from the hotel was a five story office building that housed several different companies. They talked for a few minutes about how to get into the rooms that were most logically used to set the bomb off.
“So how do you wanna handle this?” Parker asked. “We can’t just go in and say we’re CIA agents. Since we technically don’t operate within U.S. borders we have no legal reason to be here.”
“I got a way.”
Parker and Cole went into the lobby of the building and walked over to the information desk.
“Police,” Cole said, flashing a badge. “We’re investigating the explosion across the street and we’re gonna need access to whatever offices are on the third floor facing the hotel.”
“Oh, OK,” the secretary replied. “There’s a doctor’s office, an architect’s office, and one office that’s empty.”
Parker and Cole looked at each other, knowing exactly which one they needed to see.
“The empty one’s the one we need access to,” Cole told her.
“OK. Let me grab the key for you,” she replied, getting the key and handing it to him. “It’s number 306 at the end of the hall.”
“Thank you.”
They walked up to the third floor and quickly located door number 306. Cole put the key in and unlocked the door, slowly opening it just in case there still happened to be a visitor inside.
“What was the badge you showed, anyway?” Parker wondered.
“Oh. Just a copy of a LAPD badge. Picked it up online. Does wonders for when you wanna get in somewhere,” Cole replied. “You can get badges, uniforms, weapons, anything you want.”
“That’s kind of scary.”
The room was devoid of any furniture, it was completely empty from floor to ceiling. There were a couple of doors off to the side for smaller offices which Cole looked into for a few minutes but were also completely empty. Then they walked over to the window and looked over at the hotel.
“Perfect spot,” Parker stated.
“He was waiting for us.”
“How’d he know we were coming?”
“You said you thought it was kind of sloppy of him,” Cole answered. “Now you know why. He wanted us to find him this way.”
“Still doesn’t make sense though,” she said. “Bombs a
nd explosives are not really Heath’s thing. I mean, he could do it, but it’s not really his style. If he was standing at this window and looking at us, he’d be more apt to use a sniper rifle and pick us off. That’s more his style.”
“Maybe he didn’t think he could get both of us that way.”
“I dunno. Just doesn’t really add up.”
Cole then called Burnett to inform her of the latest developments. She was already aware of the explosion and was working the phones to coordinate efforts with the FBI, who would be taking control of the case. It was a delicate situation since the two groups did not always play nicely together and often times hid information from each other.
“As you probably already know, the FBI will probably be on the scene within a few minutes. They have jurisdiction,” Burnett said.
“We really need info on the bomb though,” Cole told her. “Could get us closer to Davis.”
“Head over to the scene. I’ll make some calls to get you access. The agent in charge is named Jenkins. As you’re aware, the FBI doesn’t always trust us, and vice versa, so once you’re there it’s completely up to you to get the information you need.”
“Great. The FBI is a bunch of…”
“Cole, make nice to get what you need,” she sternly told him. “Better yet. Let Parker do the talking.”
“Yes ma’am.”
“So what’d she say?” Parker asked.
“Wants us to go back over and play nice with the FBI. Guy in charge is named Jenkins. She’s getting us access to the scene. Up to us after that,” Cole answered.
They stayed near the window for a few more minutes, looking over the floor and wall to see if there was any traces of evidence left behind. If there was anything, they couldn’t find it. Once the activity started picking up at the hotel, they headed back over. There was a police barricade set up at the parking lot entrance that stopped them. They identified themselves as CIA and told them they were expected. Once the officer radioed of their presence they were allowed access. Once inside the lobby of the hotel, they were immediately greeted by a couple FBI agents, one of which was Jenkins. Jenkins had been assigned to the bomb unit for over two years. He was a friendly enough guy, and though he had ambitions of moving up, wasn’t the type who wanted to advance at all costs or stab anyone in the back to do it.
“I hear you might have some information for me,” Jenkins stated.
Cole started to say something and then just looked at Parker to take over for him. He had issues with the FBI from previous cases he had worked and couldn’t bring himself to actually work with them.
“What do you know so far?” Parker asked.
“Not much really,” Jenkins said, flailing his hands. “Haven’t actually gotten up there yet. They’re clearing the room first to make sure there’s no secondary devices planted anywhere.”
“First, I know the CIA and FBI don’t always cooperate with each other. I’ve got nothing to do with that. That’s it’s own thing. I wanna make a deal with you, not agency to agency, but from me to you…agent to agent. We’ll tell you everything that’s going on and all that we know if you give us access to everything at your disposal.”
“It’s a deal,” Jenkins replied with a smile, without hesitation. “I have to tell you, you’re a breath of fresh air, considering other CIA agents I’ve dealt with in the past.”
“I’m not surprised.”
“So what’s going on?”
“We’ve been following a rogue CIA agent named Heath Davis. We pulled video footage of him entering a room in this hotel room today. We entered that room, searched it, then heard a beeping sound. When we located that sound, we quickly surmised it was a bomb and ran out of the building. The rest is as you’ll see it.”
“Where was it located?”
“In a kitchen drawer. It was on a timer,” she told him.
“What’d it look like?”
Parker looked to Cole since he was the one who actually saw it. “All I saw was a black box that was counting down,” Cole reluctantly replied.
“Well that’ll save us a lot of time, thanks,” Jenkins said.
“We also believed that since it didn’t start beeping until a few minutes after we were in the room that maybe it was detonated by a remote in another location. Like maybe he was watching us. Do you think that’s possible or likely?” Parker asked.
“Quite possible, yeah.”
“In that case we should also tell you we think whoever detonated this was located in the office building across the street. Room 306 is an unoccupied office right now and looks directly into the hotel room.”
“I’ll get people over there.”
Jenkins immediately radioed for a team to head over to room 306 to start processing it for possible evidence. A minute later he got a call from the team in the hotel room.
“We’re all clear up here.”
“OK. On our way up,” Jenkins replied.
A team of FBI agents along with Parker and Cole then proceeded to room 312 and started processing the scene. Once they got to the room another agent handed Jenkins a black box, with a stick and some wire attached to it.
“There’s the culprit,” the agent said.
“What is it?” Parker asked, looking over his shoulder.
“Dynamite,” Jenkins answered.
“That mean anything to you? I mean, just at first glance.”
“Well, it’s very unusual.”
“Why’s that?”
“Not the most common method for explosives. Mostly because it’s highly unstable. There are better choices, safer choices. TNT for example,” Jenkins explained. “There’s even something called Tovex, which is basically a replacement for dynamite. Just as effective, safer in transporting.”
“So what’s that tell you?” Parker asked.
“Well, either this guy doesn’t realize how unstable dynamite is or he isn’t familiar with the other choices at his disposal…or…”
“Or what?”
“Or he’s very, very good and isn’t bothered by how unstable it is. Does that sound like your guy?” Jenkins asked.
“Bombs have never been his strong point.”
“May not be him then.”
“He’d have to be involved though. This is his room. We saw him come here,” Parker said.
“Could’ve paid someone to do it,” Jenkins replied.
“Would you happen to know anyone who’s good with dynamite who happens to be in the Los Angeles area?”
“I’ll have to check the files. If you want, once I get back to the office I’ll do some checking for you. Check to see if anyone fits the profile.”
“I’d appreciate that,” Parker told him.
“I can probably get back to you tomorrow. Probably will be a long night here.”
“That’d be fine. We really appreciate any help you can give us.”
“Sure thing.”
“If you find anything else that may help us, either here or across the street, I’d be very grateful for any information.”
“You got it.”
They shook hands, Cole quickly doing it like he was afraid to catch germs or something. Parker gave Jenkins her number so he could contact her with anything he found out about possible suspects. Jenkins told them they were welcome to stick around for as long as they liked, and they did for a couple of hours, mostly staying out of the way. They kept Burnett in the loop and watched the FBI team go through the room, compiling evidence. None of which helped them immediately. They eventually left to go back home and try to piece together everything they had, talking about it on the drive.
“I’m beginning to think Heath hired someone for that bomb,” Parker stated. “In all the years I’ve known him, I’ve never seen him handle or even mention dynamite.”
“Could’ve been one more thing he was keeping from you,” Cole replied, getting a cold stare in return. “I’m just saying.”
“No. He hired someone.”
“Probably rig
ht. It doesn’t sound like his forte.”
They got home close to nine o’clock and headed to Cole’s apartment to work for a couple of hours. They also still had to finalize their plans with Nazarov. As they got closer to his apartment, they noticed a couple people on Turner’s porch. It was dark without any lights on and they couldn’t see who it was so they wanted to get a closer look since he was supposed to be out on a date. Once they saw who it was they both stopped dead in their tracks. It was Turner and Marissa, kissing each other intensely. A disappointed Cole looked at his partner out of the corner of his eye, then turned his head to her, looking at her sympathetically. He felt bad for her, knowing how interested she was in him. Parker just stood there, feeling like her heart had just been ripped out of her chest. She knew she told him to date Marissa, but she was mostly saying it to make him realize that he actually wanted Parker instead. After a few seconds, Cole gently grabbed Parker by the elbow to pull her back to his apartment.
“C’mon,” Cole whispered. “We still have work to do. It’ll help get your mind off things anyway.”
“You’re right,” she nodded, the hurt very evident in her voice.
They went into Cole’s apartment and immediately sat down to start going over plans. Cole pulled out a gun and held it up for Parker.
“Sure you don’t wanna shoot him?” he jokingly offered.
Parker shook her head and let out a laugh, out of frustration. “No. I’ll be fine.”
They talked about Nazarov and how they were going to grab him, finally finalizing plans after discussing it for an hour. They basically had two options. Grab him before he went into the club, or once he got in. The second part was the more challenging because unless they were on the list for his table, they weren’t getting close to him. Somehow, they needed to get him before he even went in to the club. Once they agreed on a plan they turned their attention back to Davis and went over files in their database of bombers who preferred using dynamite who might be in the area. They found a few possibles, but when they dug further into it were able to cross the names off the list because they weren’t in the area.
