‘She may feel betrayed by Flint, may have decided she wants to live after all. But that doesn’t necessarily mean she’ll want him dead,’ Jenna added, a sinking feeling settling over her that she knew what the general’s course of action would be.
The general waved off both their words. ‘I wouldn’t expect her to. All we have to do is tell her the bomb squad has found a way to defuse the bomb attached to her without causing the explosives attached to Flint and his family to detonate. We neutralize the threat, arrest our UNSUB, and we put this one to bed.’
‘You mean we lie to her,’ Saleda said sharply.
‘You mean we kill an innocent woman, her unborn child, and her one-year-old?’ Jenna spat.
‘And how do you think that’ll go over in the press?’ Saleda said. ‘“General decides to play a high-stakes variation of Russian Roulette, ends in murder of toddler and her expecting mother.”’
‘I think it’ll be more something like how hundreds at the Jefferson Memorial were heroically saved, and with his plan thwarted, the deranged mastermind of the plot went into a rage, killing his wife and daughter before taking his own life. People don’t care about the truth.’ General Ted laughed. ‘Most of the time, the public doesn’t need the truth … and it doesn’t want it.’
‘I doubt Ashlee would agree …’ Jenna’s voice trailed as she turned toward the bench where Ashlee had been seated. The bomb techs were several yards away leaned over a large pamphlet unfolded about twelve times until it was flat on the grass, pointing at different sections, deep in discussion.
Jenna turned all the way around, just in case she hadn’t gotten far, but there was no sight of her in any direction after a full 360.
‘She’s gone!’ Saleda shouted next to her. She turned to the bomb techs. ‘The bomb? How long left on the timer?’
The two looked at each other, eyes wide with fear. Then one coughed. ‘Five minutes, ma’am.’
Jenna didn’t reply. She started toward the Jefferson Memorial building, where all the protestors stood outside it, championing Ashlee’s cause. She yelled over her shoulder but kept moving.
‘That’s what I meant about how knowing her background was critical to making the right move. And you’ve made it all right. Ashlee’s brother died in Iraq in a war over WMDs that didn’t exist. And if any part of her wondered if the same misinformation, the same backdoor dealing that sent her brother to his death was still going on in the government’s leaders now, well … she might not have needed the truth, sir, but by God, you just gave it to her.’ Without waiting for the general’s reply, she broke into a run.
Forty-seven
With only minutes to position herself to take out the maximum number of victims – and thus ensure that after this, plus hearing more attacks were promised, the president would have no choice but to sign the order for martial law – Ashlee would head to where the bulk of the protestors were camped out. The crowd was so thick in all directions, as long as Ashlee stationed herself anywhere in or around the building or the courtyard, her mission would be a success for Black Shadow. Hell, it already was.
Jenna paused for a moment to look around, think. Get her bearings. Every direction she turned, her eyes were met with policemen in full riot gear, faceless masks wielding machine guns made for the sole purpose of war. Everything Black Shadow had wanted – worked for – was in front of Ashlee now. The government was revealing itself as an enemy. Yesterday, people had watched on TV as the Department of Homeland Security shot at innocent bystanders in a mall because of bad intel they had gotten, and today, helicopters overhead were recording segments for their nightly news that would show that these people we had trusted to serve and protect us had now been turned on us to treat us as enemies.
Where are you, Ashlee?
Jenna started meandering through the crowd again, her head whipping back and forth, trying to latch on to something that would give her an idea and fast. She’d go somewhere significant. All of the choices Black Shadow made – their nicknames, the way they passed messages … when presented with a place like this, so steeped in history, Ashlee would go somewhere meaningful for the moment.
Jenna considered the quote inscribed on one of the walls that had given away this location in the first place. The one about Jefferson’s belief in the educated. But the light yellow of something feeling off had flashed in, and it felt all wrong. What else had Grey told her was inscribed on the other walls?
The orchid of elitism flashed in as a memory bounded to the forefront of her memory. The southwest wall!
Jenna ran up the steps, pushed through throngs of people with signs and bullhorns, and was rewarded with the chance to squeeze, wind, and shove her way through yet another mob inside the doors. If only she could reach the southwest wall, though, Ashlee would be there. She just knew it. It wasn’t because it was one of the most famous, adorned with the iconic passage from the Declaration of Independence beginning, ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident …’ Ashlee would be there because of what wasn’t on the wall. The inscription eliminates the right of revolution passage, which allows for the right and even the duty of the people of a nation to overthrow a government that is against their interests and well-being. Who’d have thought all those hours of Grey’s rambling would pay off?
Suddenly, Jenna stopped cold. Sure enough, there she was. Ashlee, ten feet in front of her, back to her, looking up at the very wall that had brought Jenna straight to her.
Jesus. She had to get Ashlee out of here. Get that bomb either diffused or … somehow make sure that if it went off, it didn’t do it where it would take hundreds of people with it.
Jenna veered to the side, hoping she could come from the angle least likely to be noticed by Ashlee until she was within distance to grab her, cuff her. What she’d do with her after that wasn’t even on the table yet. One thing at a damned time.
As Jenna crept toward Ashlee, the woman’s stillness, her focus on the memorial wall was almost eerie. Just about six more feet …
Ashlee’s head turned, eyes flashing. The woman took off out of the nearest doorway, bolting down the steps, shoving people out of her way.
Jenna took the stairs two at a time, giving chase but without drawing her weapon. So many cops on duty here today for the protests. God. Jenna had to get to her first. If those cops saw Ashlee, identified her as a threat, and took a shot, that bomb could go off.
As Ashlee dashed across the courtyard, nearing some barricades set up around some of the police car parking set up especially to deal with the protest. If Ashlee hopped those barriers, Jenna might lose her. Too many places to duck or hide. Jenna put on a burst of speed, her lungs searing as she willed her feet to move faster. She waved people out of her way, saying, ‘Please, move, move! Police business!’ But it did little to stir the sardines into a frenzy, and the groups of people seemed to get slower as though she were some interesting live show.
Ashlee now straddled one of the cement barricades, almost over. How much time could possibly be left on that bomb’s timer? Even though Ashlee was running away, she was still far too close. So many would be hurt or killed. And as she ran, Jenna was all too aware she might be one of them. At this point, running toward Ashlee was as much to save others as it was her only chance to save herself. She likely didn’t have time to get out of the range of the explosion, so stopping it was the only shot.
I’ll never make it to her in time.
As Ashlee went to swing her remaining leg over the barrier into the makeshift parking area, instead of simply hopping down on the other side, something caught her foot on the way over. She stumbled, then, when she thought she’d recovered and tried to take one more step, she yelped, tripping and thudding to the ground.
Jenna scaled the barricade and eased down to the other side, eyes peeled for whatever had tripped Ashlee up. Ah. Traffic cone. Get you every time.
Jenna rushed to Ashlee, pinned her before she could roll over. Please don’t let my knee be on the damned bomb. Pleas
e.
She yanked Ashlee’s arms behind her back, slapped them in cuffs. ‘Ashlee Haynie, you’re under arrest. You have the right to remain silent,’ Jenna said, diligently giving the woman all of her Miranda rights. Seemed silly, knowing that underneath that coat, a clock was down to only minutes or seconds before the weapon strapped to her blew them both up, but she did it because she hadn’t figured out what to do next. This was habit, and reciting the rote lines helped her stay cool. Think. There’s gotta be a way.
‘I heard what he said,’ Ashlee spat as Jenna gave her a push to roll her over. ‘He’d kill an innocent child. Said people didn’t care about the truth. Said just tell ’em what they want to hear.’
‘On your feet,’ Jenna said, heaving Ashlee up under her elbows. She needed a look at the timer. Maybe she had time to get a bomb squad or SWAT …
‘But these people out here care about the truth, and they’re going to be part of it! Beo might’ve tricked me into getting involved, preyed on my weaknesses, but even so, he was right! What I was fighting for – what happened to my brother—’
Jenna barely listened as she ripped open Ashlee’s coat, unzipped the fleece underneath it. What she saw made her heart beat double time – fifty-nine seconds.
Oh, shit.
No time to think. She glanced around her at the cop cars. Something. Somewhere. Anywhere safe …
Then, she saw it. She tried a couple of the cop cars until she found one whose door wasn’t entirely shut. She pried it open, then turned and scooped Ashlee up like a baby in her arms as the woman was in mid-sentence, ‘The government wanted to silence JP, too— What the hell are you—’
The hard drop into the passenger’s seat knocked Ashlee’s arm on a box in the middle, jammed her leg into the dash and cut her off.
A cop yelled to Jenna, running toward her. ‘What the hell are you doing? That’s my cruiser!’
‘FBI,’ Jenna yelled, ‘No time to explain. She’s got a bomb, set to go off in seconds. Your keys!’
The cop looked dumbfounded a moment, and Jenna could tell for a split-second the cop-side of him tried to assess the situation, handle it more logically. Use protocol.
In the next instant, though, he threw her his keys, which she caught in one hand.
Yeah, I’d rather let someone else deal with this, too, buddy.
Jenna jumped into the car, turned the key in the ignition. Tires screeched as she backed out of the spot, shifted gears, and gunned the engine in what was as close to one solid maneuver as humanly possible. The cruiser picked up speed, and the glowing bomb timer cemented in Jenna’s memory was all she could think of. What number it must be down to now? Twenty, maybe. Fifteen?
She tried to force it out of her thoughts and, instead, focused on what was in front of her, the end goal rushing toward her as much as she to it. Get there. We have to get there.
It’s the only way.
Now, Ashlee was screaming, both out of fear from the speed they were gaining, rushing down an access road far too fast to swerve or miss anything that didn’t see them coming first and stop for them, as well as out of indignation that her vengeance for her brother – her revenge against General Ted for being everything she’d fought against – was being ripped from her control.
‘Are you crazy? What are you doing? JP died fighting for this! I should get to finish it!’ she screamed.
‘Me? Crazy?’ Jenna said, flooring the gas pedal, a death grip on the wheel. ‘Of the two of us, I’d say I might be the slightly more logical one.’
Logic’s driving now. The only way.
‘You do realize that in thirteen seconds, you’re going to die, too, right? You could’ve gone, let me finish the mission,’ Ashlee said, head bowed.
Poor thing. She hasn’t realized it yet.
Wouldn’t be long. Jenna’s heart thundered as they neared it. She unclipped her safety belt, and, with a spare pair of cuffs from the cruiser’s front seat, she grabbed Ashlee’s wrist closest to her, clamped one bracelet on Ashlee, the other to the steel grate of the safety partition. Ashlee stared into her eyes, stunned, but Jenna broke the stare to take the sharp veer that led to the bridge.
This is the only way.
Ashlee whimpered, then cried out, her fate finally in her sights. Jenna closed her eyes and yanked the driver’s side door handle, throwing her shoulder into the door as hard as she could. She tucked hard, rolled as her body pounded to the cement, Ashlee’s awful wail echoing in her ears.
Jenna’s body slammed the concrete rail of the bridge, and she stopped rolling. Just in time to hear the crack of the Type III construction barricade advising the closed road, the slight crush of the cruiser hood as it slapped it away like nothing. Then, a second of silence before a splash cracked the river below, the impact so hard it almost sounded as though the car had landed on something solid.
But Jenna knew better. She’d driven so fast and in the direction she had so the car would go straight in, nose down rather than land flat and sink slowly.
I’m sorry, Ashlee. For your brother. For Mitch.
A deep, pressured pop that sounded like cannon fire echoed in the afternoon air, and a few moments later, a light mist rained down on Jenna’s bare arms. She closed her eyes and pictured the photograph of baby Nell she’d seen at Flint Lewis’s house that day, the sweet, chubby, cheeks that reminded her so much of Ayana’s.
Sirens blared, their whoops and howls getting louder, the horns of emergency vehicles chastising drivers in holding them up. She pushed herself off her side, sat up on the bridge, and took a few breaths before using her arms to press up to test her feet. She was shaky but not hurt beyond a bit of painful road rash. That she could tell, anyway.
She would stand and wait for the first responders – for Saleda. Give a statement. But she wanted them to see her up. Alert. Of course they’d want her to go to the hospital to get checked out anyway, but this way, they wouldn’t argue as much when she declined. What no one but Saleda or Dodd would know was that she’d obviously be going there, anyway.
She had to see Yancy. Kiss him. And even if he couldn’t hear her or understand, she needed to tell him that despite everything that had happened, they were going to be OK, because they had to be. Only no more of this moonlighting as MacGyver business on his end. If she needed to quit the BAU, buy an expensive gaming keyboard, and sit at it around the clock until she’d mastered both Land of Valor and the art of professional dachshund insulting to keep them in the same playing field and happy, then he’d just have to hurry up and get out of that hospital bed, because he was going to need to come to Best Buy with her and give some advice.
Her phone buzzed as fire trucks and sheriff’s cars were beginning to arrive, pulling in to park sideways across the bridge to block off the scene. She fished into her pocket. Dodd’s name shined on the screen.
‘Heard you had some excitement out your way,’ he said evenly.
She smiled, despite herself. And even though it wasn’t true yet, her gut knew it was. ‘Heard you didn’t,’ she said. ‘At least, I hope. Is Grey all right? Ruthie? Nell?’
‘They’re all fine,’ Dodd said. He confirmed that as soon as Ashlee’s bomb detonated, the timer and lights on the one attached to the Lewises disengaged. ‘Your word wizard went wandering after a butterfly at some point, though. The patrol she was with said he took her to the outskirts of the action and thought she was sitting tight in the car. Next thing he knew he turned around and she was gone.’
‘That’s a shame. I would have liked to thank her.’
‘Well, good luck trying. Something tells me she’ll want some alone time to practice bird calls for a while after all this interaction with the real world.’
Jenna smirked. ‘Probably.’
‘You OK?’ Dodd asked – outright asking if she was physically hurt, but they both knew he was asking about the emotional toll, too.
‘Ah,’ Jenna said, glancing in the direction of the end of the bridge where divers were already jumping i
nto the water. ‘I, uh, I did what I had to do. You said the Lewises are OK. Then I guess I’m OK,’ she said, pushing Ashlee Haynie’s terrified face from her mind and replacing it with chubby-cheeked Nell.
‘Well, they’re OK as they can be, I guess,’ Dodd said. ‘Like you.’ He paused, then added, ‘Except for Flint, maybe. Second the bomb disengaged, he was in cuffs and on his way to the Pentagon. I daresay his next adventures won’t be nearly as amusing for him.’
‘Poor Ruthie,’ Jenna said, that sickening feeling washing over her of understanding all too well how you could never quite get over finding out someone you loved wasn’t even real.
‘She’s shaken, but she’s strong,’ Dodd said. ‘Both her and that kiddo will turn out all right, Jenna. And this had to happen for them to. Remember that, when you think about what you had to do. And don’t worry. I already passed along a little message from you to Nell. I hope you don’t mind.’
‘Huh?’ Jenna said, waving to Saleda as she stepped out of a black SUV down the hill and came running toward the bridge.
‘Just told her that, between us, having a bad parent – you know, a really malignant, heinous parent—’
‘Dodd, I doubt Nell knows either of those words yet,’ Jenna cut in.
‘—can actually be an extraordinary thing. Sure, she’ll hate the gawking and the whispers. But sharing blood with an evil dragon doesn’t necessarily make her an evil dragon, too. I told her that if I had my guess, I’d say it makes her just the opposite.’
Claudia’s face swirled in Jenna’s mind, her taunting note saying that she’d ruin them with what she knew about Yancy. ‘Unfortunately, I can only vanquish a dragon when I can see her coming. Have a bead on how she plans, recognize her moves, anticipate her habits. Claudia is … not just fighting a dragon. It’s playing chess with one, only this game’s objective is getting to the battlefield, it’s checkmate achieved by getting there at a time through moves your opponent must never see,’ Jenna said slowly.
Flash Point Page 30
