Twenty-Four

 

Parisa had never been to Everly College before, but she was guessing the Raven would be near the language arts building, if her supposition that Neil Langdon was involved was correct. Although, she couldn't stand to think Neil could be a part of any of this. But he was the one who had made up the story about the raven. He was the one who had told it to every student who came through his classroom.

As she ran between buildings, the story ran around in her head.

It was a stormy day when the hawk came down from the sky and went after the baby ravens, tearing their tree nest apart, attacking the mother, and forcing the babies to flee to a nearby ledge along the window of a classroom.

For days, the children pushed twigs and grass onto the ledge, so the baby ravens wouldn't starve. They waited and prayed for the mother to come back, but she never did.

The ravens huddled there in the wind and the rain, enduring storms that never seemed to end. They were trapped, too afraid to move.

But there was one raven who grew impatient, every day flapping his wings just a bit more. He didn't want to leave the others, but he also knew he couldn't stay on the ledge. He had to try to fly.

The clock in the bell tower was ticking off twelve bells for the noon hour when the children inside the classroom saw the raven strut back and forth along the ledge. He looked down, then up. They watched with bated breath.

And then he was gone, soaring into the heavens. At first, he was flapping his wings like a madman, but then he realized he could fly.

The skies opened up. The sun beamed down on the rest of the ravens, and one by one they followed the raven's lead, finding a new day, a new world—peace.

The hawk no longer controlled their destiny. They could be whoever they wanted to be. They had finally found the courage.

Everly didn't have a bell tower, but the tallest building she could see overlooked a large courtyard where students were eating, studying, talking at tables and benches. No one had any idea there was danger lurking.

She wanted to scream at all of them to run—but run where? She could be sending them into danger instead of away from it.

She had to find the Raven first. She ran into the lobby of the tallest building and dashed up seven flights of stairs, finding a door that led on to the roof. She pushed through it, coming to a crashing halt as she saw her former mentor, the man who had saved her life, standing near the edge of the building, wearing what appeared to be a vest filled with explosives.

He whirled around and put up his hand. "Don't come any closer, Parisa."

"What are you doing, Neil?" She stopped about ten feet away from him, shock still running through her that it was really him, that he was the bomber.

"Saving my family."

"What are you talking about?"

"I created a monster, and it is now devouring me. The storm will not lift until I fly."

"You're the Raven," she said. "Kaala Kaua. Isaac said the Raven would fly today." She looked into his tortured gaze. "I knew it was you all the way over here, but I kept telling myself I had to be wrong. I couldn't imagine that you were behind Jasmine's kidnapping, that you're a terrorist. My God, Neil! You're a terrorist?"

"It didn't start out like this."

"You need to take off that vest now."

"I can't. Stay back," he added hastily. "Or you will die, and I don't want that to happen."

"I don't understand, Neil. How did you turn into this?"

"It started about six years ago, when I began to teach at the university. The students would come to my house for study group. Elizabeth would feed them. And I would offer them help. Sometimes I told them stories in different languages to increase their skills. The raven was one of those stories. It inspired them to dream, to want more, to trust in themselves and their ability to change their circumstances. They were so energized, so full of hope. They wanted to make changes in Bezikstan; they wanted to be politically active, they wanted to make their country better. I thought it was good to encourage them. I didn't like what was happening with the government, either. Things got bad after you left. Bezikstan changed. There was more poverty, less opportunity."

"Are you telling me that Brothers of the Earth was founded in your living room?" she asked in astonishment.

"I didn't know what they would become. I tried to steer them back to their true path, but a few years ago, I started losing control. There was an explosion in Bezikstan, a car bomb, and they took credit for it. I told them they had to stop. They told me that Elizabeth and her mother would die if I ever said a word."

"Why didn't you leave? Why didn't you tell someone?"

"Elizabeth's mother was ill. She couldn't travel. I sent Ben here, to New York City. I wanted him far from the group. I thought he was safe. They said out of honor to my bringing them all together, they would leave me alone as long as I stayed quiet, which I did. But then Ben went to study abroad. I had no idea he would run into Sara in Paris, that he would fall in love, and that he would become a part of the horror I had tried to protect him from."

"He didn't know you started the group?"

"He knew nothing. He still doesn't. He's innocent."

"And Sara—how involved is she?"

"Sara doesn't want to be involved, but Isaac is her only living relative. And he is one of the leaders now, one of the most radical."

"Who set up the kidnapping? Who contacted Ben?"

"I believe it was Isaac. He knew of Ben's connection to the Kumars, to the consulate."

"Did you know what Ben was going to do?"

"I didn't even know about him and Sara until the day after the kidnapping. When Jasmine disappeared, Ben confided in me. He said only the diamond was supposed to be stolen, but Isaac got greedy. He wants more control, more money. I went looking for Isaac. Ben said he might be at a café in Queens, but he wasn't there. While I was gone, you found Ben and you turned him in."

"And you wouldn't let Ben talk—even with Jasmine's life on the line. That café could have been raided by the cops days ago. Jasmine could have been rescued earlier."

"Elizabeth's life was also on the line, and Ben's, too. There were no good choices."

"There were a lot of choices better than the ones you made. What is the plan now? Are there others here on the campus—wearing explosive vests? Are there more bombs? More targets? You have to tell me, Neil. Was the diamond stolen to finance a massive bombing here in the city?"

"Not here—Bezikstan. The diamond paid for weapons. The group is on their way back home. Isaac and Sara stayed behind to squeeze more money out of the Larimers."

She was relieved that the action was not going to be here in the city. There was still time to head off an attack in Bezikstan. "If everyone is gone, then why are you doing this here?"

"It's the price I have to pay for Elizabeth's life. If I don't die, she will. The men who put this vest on me said Isaac has her."

"What men?"

"I don't know their names. They showed up at my office an hour ago. They brought me up here to the roof and told me what I had to do."

"Isaac does not have Elizabeth. Isaac is in FBI custody and so is Sara. We found Jasmine. She's alive. It's all over, Neil. You don't have to do this."

Neil turned his head to look over the roof. "The police are here. You called them. The students in the courtyard are being evacuated."

"I told you—it's over. All you have to do is take off the vest. If you turn evidence against the group, you can be put into protective custody. No one will find you."

He turned back to her. "You don't understand, Parisa. I don't control the bomb. It's on a timer. It's going off in…" He checked his watch. "Six minutes."

She swallowed hard. "We'll get a bomb squad up here."

"They won't get here in time. I will stand on the ledge, give the students a chance to see me, and they will run faster. I don't want to hurt anyone. You need to leave. I'm going to jump so that the bomb goes off in the air, and, hopefully, no one else will die."

She couldn't believe what he was saying. "I can't let you die, Neil. You saved my life when I was sixteen."

"If you want to repay me, take care of Elizabeth and Ben. That's what you can do for me." His gaze filled with sadness. "This is all my fault. I liked the adulation, the kids looking up to me. I wanted to be their mentor, their guru. It was my ego that brought me here. And now they are in control."

"Which is why we need you alive to help us stop them."

She pulled out her phone and punched in Damon's number.

"Parisa, where are you?" he yelled. "Jared and I are in the parking lot."

"It's the language arts building, the tallest building on campus, right by the courtyard. I'm on the roof with Neil Langdon. He's wearing a suicide vest. It's remote controlled. It's going off in about five minutes. Where are you?"

"Running in your direction. We should be there in five. The buildings are being evacuated. Get the hell out of there."

"Is there any way we can defuse the bomb?" she asked, already knowing the answer.

"Not in the next five minutes. Get off that roof, Parisa," Damon said, pausing, as he yelled, "Dammit, give me back the phone."

"Parisa," Jared interrupted, obviously having grabbed the phone from Damon. "Don’t let him take you down with him."

"He saved my life, Jared," she said, logic and emotion colliding inside her. "I have to try to save his."

"There's nothing you can do, is there?"

"He says there's not. He wants me to leave."

"Then do it."

"Three minutes," Neil said. "Get out of here, Parisa. We're running out of time."

She heard shouting coming across the phone she still had in her hand, and she knew that both Jared and Damon would be entering the building soon, probably at the same time the bomb was going off. They would try to save her, and they would die trying.

She put the phone next to her ear once more. "You have to stay away, Jared—Damon. I'm coming down now. Don't come into the building. Don't get too close." She looked at Neil, giving him a sorrowful look. "I wish I could help you—the way you helped me."

"I'm sorry I wasn't the hero you thought I was, Parisa. Please, help Ben. He's a good kid. He's not part of any of this. His only mistake was to fall in love with the wrong woman." He looked at his watch. "One minute. Go, Parisa. I don't want your death on my conscience, too."

She hesitated one last second and then turned and ran toward the door. She took one look back and saw Neil get on to the ledge. He looked down at the ground and then up at the sky—just like the raven in his story. He checked his watch one last time.

"No," she screamed.

 

* * *

 

Jared and Damon ran toward the building. They could see a man standing on the ledge of the roof. The police stopped them when they reached the perimeter.

While Damon flashed his badge and stopped to explain who they were, Jared dashed past security and entered the building. The door had barely closed behind him when the bomb went off. He was knocked off his feet, his head bouncing off the wall, as plaster rained down around him.

Stunned, it took him a moment to stumble to his feet. There was a ringing in his ears that was shockingly painful. He scrambled to his feet, terror in his heart.

Where was Parisa? Had she already left the building?

But he hadn't seen her standing by the police, and she wouldn't have gone far.

He raced toward the stairs, leaping two steps at a time as he made his way past some minor damage, hoping that this would be as bad as it got, that the main explosion had occurred outside and far from Parisa.

She had to be all right.

The prayer went around and around in his head as fear rocketed through him.

This wasn't like the last time. Parisa wasn't April. Parisa wasn't…dead.

She had to be alive.

But he'd said those same words before, to no avail.

Finally, he burst through the door leading onto the roof. He stopped abruptly, unable to see more than a foot in front of him. There was a thick, dark, burning smoke in the air—the same smoke that had surrounded April, the same kind of smoke that had swirled around the World Trade Center when his mother had died. He could not lose another person he cared about like this.

"Parisa," he shouted, coughing as he inhaled too much dust. "Where are you?"

"I'm here."

Her voice rang through his heart. And then she appeared in the swirling dust.

"I'm here, Jared."

He threw his arms around her, holding her as close as he could, burying his face in her hair, needing to really feel that she was alive.

"I'm okay." She pulled back, looking up at him with her heart in her eyes. "But Neil's dead."

He nodded, his gaze sweeping her face, searching for any sign of injury, but thankfully she appeared to just be a little scratched up. "I figured."

"He jumped off the roof. There was no way to stop the explosion. Hopefully, his action caused the least amount of damage."

"I'm just glad he didn't take you with him." He framed her face and gave her a hard, grateful kiss. "You should have left as soon as you saw him."

"I was trying to think of a way to save him, the way he saved me. I couldn't come up with anything."

His heart tore at the guilt in her eyes. Parisa could be fearless and ruthless, but she also had the biggest heart of anyone he knew.

"I know I shouldn't care, but I do," she said.

He gave her another tight hug. "It's okay to care."

"It's not. Neil started the Brothers of the Earth. He said it was just going to be a peaceful, political activist group with idealistic students in it. But it took on a life of its own. When he tried to stop it, they threatened to kill him and his family. He said he couldn't leave Bezikstan because Elizabeth's mother was ill. But he sent Ben away for college, so he wouldn't get swept up in it."

"That makes sense. What happened today?"

"Two men came to Neil's office. They told Neil that Isaac had Elizabeth. Neil believed them. That's why he didn't fight the vest. He was trading his life for hers. I told him Isaac and Sara were in custody, that Elizabeth was all right, but I don't know if that's true. I was trying to give him a reason to live, until I realized it wasn't going to be his choice. The bomb was going to detonate, and we didn't have enough time to defuse it."

"We'll find Elizabeth. He said there was only this bomb, right?"

She nodded. "Everything else is happening in Bezikstan. There's going to be a coup. It's imminent. The diamond financed a lot of weapons."

He blew out a breath. "I'm not saying that's good, but…"

She met his gaze. "I know. It's at least more of a fair fight between the rebels and the government versus innocent lives being taken at random."

"Parisa?" Damon yelled, interrupting their conversation as he came out onto the roof with two other agents.

"I'm all right," she said.

Jared was reluctant to let her go, but he sensed Damon needed reassurance that his good friend was alive.

Parisa and Damon exchanged a heartfelt hug, while the agents made their way across the roof, presumably looking for evidence and clues.

"You scared the hell out of me," Damon told her.

"I'm sorry. Everything was happening so fast, I didn't know what to do. Is anyone else hurt?"

"No. Because of you, the courtyard was evacuated before he took his dive."

"He said he was going to stand there for a minute, let everyone see him, so they could get away."

Damon shook his head in bewilderment. "I have to admit, I never considered Neil was involved in any of this. I just thought he was being a protective father."

"He was. He didn't know that Ben had even met Sara until after Jasmine was kidnapped. Then he realized that the group had used Ben to get into the consulate. The diamond is financing weapons to overthrow the Bezikstan government. That's the big plan. But apparently Isaac got greedy. He decided to take Jasmine as a hostage, so he could get more money, so he could run his own schemes."

"He won't be running anything," Damon said. "Isaac is in surgery now. His condition is critical. Hopefully, he doesn't die before we get more information out of him."

"He better not. That's the main reason I kept him alive," Jared muttered.

"I'm going to pretend I didn't hear that," Damon told Jared.

"I guess you guys have gotten acquainted." Parisa's questioning gaze moved from Damon to him.

"We have," he said. "Damon drove like a maniac to get us here in time."

She smiled. "Any excuse to drive fast, right, Damon?"

Agent Wolfe shrugged. "It was all for you, Parisa. You should have left this building, though. You took a huge risk."

"I know. I wanted to save him. But it was too late. It was too close to noon." She started, her gaze swinging to his. "Jared, you missed your plane."

"This was more important."

"What plane was that?" Damon asked curiously.

"I was supposed to report to Langley on my activities here in the city, but I was a little busy."

"You'll sort it out," Parisa said confidently. "You captured a terrorist and helped save innocent lives. The city is safer because of you."

"I think we all had something to do with that," he replied. "I was only able to find Isaac because you shot him, and he left a blood trail."

"But you were smart enough to follow the food wrappers to the restaurant," she pointed out. "Which got you to the blood trail."

"That's true."

"Hey, what about me?" Damon said dryly.

Parisa sent a warm, thankful smile in Damon's direction. "I can't thank you enough for all your support."

"You were our lifeline," Jared added. "I just hope Parisa will be safe now. We still don't know who ordered the attacks on her, or how her location at the safe house, and again at the men's shelter, was compromised."

"There's going to be a thorough internal investigation," Damon said. "And I know where to start. At any rate, let's go downstairs."

"We're right behind you." Parisa slid her hand into his as Damon headed for the door. "Right?"

"Wherever you're going, I'm going," he said lightly.

An odd gleam entered her eyes. "I wish that were true."

He wished it was, too, but he couldn't guarantee anything past the next five minutes.