Phone to his ear, Cal paced the living room at the safe house and listened to Max provide details of another necklace bomb threat not far down the road from the safe house.
Cal’s immediate thoughts went to the list of women Tara hadn’t been able to remember, but their addresses were all located in D. C., not in Virginia where Keeler had activated the latest bomb. “Are you sure this bomb is legit?”
“The woman called it in herself, and the first officers on scene confirmed it was Keeler’s signature device.”
Something was off in this scenario, raising Cal’s concerns. “Don’t you think it’s odd that Keeler left a phone near this woman so she could call for help?”
“Maybe something spooked him, and he didn’t have time to take it.”
“Maybe,” Cal said, letting the thought ruminate. “Or maybe he wanted us to be sure we’d find her before he detonated the bomb.”
“Or maybe he’s changing his whole MO.”
Adrenaline raced through Cal’s veins as thoughts charged through his head.
Relax. Breathe. Calm down.
He didn’t want to make a stupid mistake and further compound the problem. “So where do we stand with the woman now?”
“As of my last update from the scene, the local bomb squad has been dispatched,” Max said. “A Bureau team is on the way, too. As are agents who will scout the area for Keeler, but with the location so far from metro D.C., the locals will arrive first. In the event that you’re able to remove the device, I also have a containment vessel on the way.”
“Good,” Cal mumbled, his mind already on the best approach to safely free this woman. “But you should know, even though I’ve reconstructed one of Keeler’s devices, I can’t in any way guarantee that I can render this bomb safe.”
“You have more knowledge than anyone else, and skill-wise, there’s no one better than you for the job.” He paused for a long moment. “I’m sure I don’t have to say this, but I want you out there ASAP.”
Cal’s brain revved on high octane. “I’ll need a suit.”
“I’ll arrange with the locals to let you use their equipment.”
Max spoke the truth, but Cal couldn’t go racing off. He had to think of Tara. With Keeler setting a bomb not far from the safe house, Cal didn’t want to leave her behind. He was confident that Keeler didn’t know the safe house location, but still, a bomb this close by couldn’t be a coincidence.
Max cleared his throat. “We’re wasting valuable time, here.”
“Fine, I’m on my way,” Cal said, already jogging down the hall to Tara’s room. “I want you to have one of the officers who saw the device call me. I’ll walk him through procedures and have him put the bomb squad commander on the phone, too.”
“The local squad will know how to handle this until you get there.”
“Maybe, but I’m not taking any chances. Nerves cause people to make mistakes, and this woman can’t afford any mistakes.”
Cal hung up, and his brain whirred as he searched for what to tell Tara. Rendering a bomb safe was always a risky proposition. Keeler’s intricate bombs were even more so, and Cal had no idea if he’d be coming back, so he had to make every moment with her count.
He knocked on her bedroom door.
She pulled it open, and her eyes locked on his. “What’s wrong?”
“There’s another necklace bomb, and it hasn’t gone off. If I leave now, I have a chance to save the woman.”
“You have to go, then.” She acquiesced so easily that it momentarily stunned him into silence.
Did she not get that he would be in danger? Did she not care about him as he’d thought?
“Okay.” He tried to keep his confusion from his voice. “Agent Ward will stay here with you.”
“I’ll be fine.” She suddenly threw her arms around his neck and pulled him close. “Be careful, Cal. Please. Please be careful.”
Her frantic, whispered plea touched his heart, and he drew her closer. She pushed back and looked up at him. Pain radiated from her face. She was afraid for his life.
Shoot, he was afraid for his life, too, and if this was the last time they were together, he would make sure it was memorable.
He lowered his head and didn’t wait for her encouragement, but settled his lips on hers. The touch and taste of her sent a shock zipping through his body. He’d known kissing her would be beyond anything he’d ever experienced, but he hadn’t begun to grasp the extent of how she could tangle his emotions into a knot.
Stunned by his response, he lifted his head. He waited for her to comment on the kiss, but she kept her eyes closed. “Take care, Cal. Things may not be as they seem.”
She acted like she had insight into the situation, but that was impossible, and he couldn’t stay here to decipher her mysterious mood when a bomb was waiting to claim another woman’s life.
* * *
Tara opened her window and listened for the sound of Cal’s car revving to life. Cal. Caring, compassionate Cal.
How could she have let him go? Especially after the kiss cemented in her mind how much he meant to her. She’d manipulated him to get him to go, playing on the very thing that drew her to him. His sacrifice for others.
Had she just sent the man who’d broken through all of her fears and defenses and made her want to love again to a callout where he could be hurt, or worse yet, killed?
She touched her lips and remembered his final look holding so many emotions. She’d met his gaze, but then her role as traitor came rushing back, and she’d had to look away. Still, if she had to do it all again, she’d do the same thing. Of all the people in danger, he was the most qualified to handle it. If only she could have warned him.
A car engine roared to life and tires crunched down the driveway.
Good-bye, Cal. Be safe. His life was now in God’s hands.
She closed the window and glanced at the clock. Five minutes had passed. She had to go now.
She ran for the door, stopping at the desk to write, I’m sorry, Cal. So sorry! on a piece of paper. She flipped it over. Hopefully after she was gone, Agent Ward would find it and pass the message on to Cal.
She crept down the hallway to find Agent Ward. He sat in the dining area reading a paperback mystery. His keys were lying on the table. His phone sat next to them.
Perfect. She hurried back to her room and left the door open.
“Agent Ward, hurry,” she called out. “I think something moved outside my window.”
His footsteps pounded down the hallway. Bursting through her door, he snapped off the lights. He charged to her window and checked the security of the lock before peering out into the night. “I don’t see anyone.”
“Can you please go outside and check?” She used her best pleading voice.
“First, let’s get you into the hallway where there aren’t any windows.”
She rushed ahead of him.
“Stay here,” he warned, before taking off toward the front door, drawing his weapon on the way.
She hadn’t even thought about him having a gun. He might see her when she fled, think she was the intruder, and shoot her. It didn’t matter, though. She’d have to risk it.
She waited until the door closed before running into the dining room to grab his phone and keys and slide through the night undetected.
With each step forward, she waited for him to discover her. Waited for him to warn her to stop. Maybe shoot her.
Please don’t let him see me.
She forced her legs to churn faster and made it to his car. She hid on the far side so he couldn’t see her. She unlocked the car door, and the urge to climb into the vehicle was strong, but she couldn’t risk him seeing the light from opening the door, so she crouched in the darkness. She desperately wanted to snap the rubber bands for relief, but she had this ridiculous fear that the sound would echo through the night, so she held the craving at bay and waited.
Footsteps crunched on the gravel path leading to the house. She rose halfway and peeked through the car windows. Agent Ward stepped inside the house, and through the window in the door, she saw him turn back, likely to secure the dead bolt.
When he pivoted and walked away, she jerked open the car door and climbed inside, then gunned the engine. He would hear the car, but by the time he made it back outside, she’d be long gone, and he had no way of following her.
* * *
Cal set his light strobing on his car and floored the gas pedal to race down the highway. His phone rang, and he punched the button to connect via his in-dash program.
“Riggins,” Cal answered, hoping the caller was one of the agents who’d first responded to the scene.
“Deputy Yancey here,” the guy said. “You wanted to talk to me.”
“You’ve seen the bomb. Describe it to me.”
He gave a succinct description of Keeler’s signature bomb.
“We need to keep this woman from panicking,” Cal said.
“No worries there,” he replied. “The bomber told her that he used a motion switch, and if she moves, the bomb will detonate.”
Not a surprise to Cal. “Has the local bomb squad arrived?”
“Negative. Last report has them three minutes out.”
Cal had to assume Keeler built this bomb as he had the others, and he would remotely detonate it. The squad likely carried something to stop radio frequencies or electromagnetic interference. If they did, they could drape it over the woman to prevent any incoming cell signals from reaching the bomb, thus stopping Keeler from detonating it. Worst case, they could use a metal emergency blanket, though it wasn’t foolproof. They would be risking an EOD tech’s life to go into the house and place the covering, but in Cal’s opinion, the risk was worth it to save the woman and other lives in the surrounding area.
Cal had to make sure the local team acted quickly, but he wouldn’t explain this to Yancey and risk the information being changed in a secondhand communication. “I want to talk to the squad commander the moment he arrives. Don’t waste even a second but get him on the phone with me. You got that? Not a second.”
“Affirmative.”
“Okay, set two perimeters. Inside, a minimum of one hundred feet. Outside, another four hundred feet.”
“We’ve already started clearing the area, but there’s an apartment complex nearby and it’s taking time to evacuate the residents. We have additional officers en route and that should help.”
“Keep at it,” Cal said, now worried that this bomb could take out even more people.
“We’re working on it, but you know it takes time, man.”
“We don’t have time!” Cal pressed harder on the gas, as saving this woman, and now the neighborhood, rested solely on his shoulders.
* * *
Tara pulled up behind a white sedan parked in the exact location Oren had said it would be. Did he truly want to see her, or was this a way to subdue her? Was he hiding in the woods and when she got in the car he’d attack? Maybe put a bomb around her neck, too?
She opened the car door and heard the phone ringing from the other car. She had no choice. Only two minutes remained on Oren’s time clock and she had to move. Now!
She bolted from Agent Ward’s car and raced across the road. Her hands trembled and she fumbled with the door handle.
“No, no, no. June is counting on you.” She jerked the door open and saw the lighted cell on the passenger seat.
She dove to answer it. She soon discovered it wasn’t a normal call; he’d called on Skype. Dreading seeing his face on the video app, she tapped the answer button and averted her eyes.
“Hello, Tara.” His smarmy voice sent chills of repulsion over her body. “I thought for a moment you hadn’t obeyed.”
“Cal’s on his way as you requested, so now you can let June go.”
“You didn’t think it would be that easy, did you?”
She had hoped that would be the case, but deep in her heart she’d known that Oren would require something more. “What else do you want from me?”
“Look at me, Tara.”
She swallowed hard and swung her gaze to the phone. Expecting to see his face, she saw her aunt instead.
“June,” Tara cried out.
“Enough of that.” Oren swung the camera to his face.
Tara nearly gasped at the change in his appearance since she’d last seen him at the pump house, but she managed to bite her lip before she displayed her shock. He wore a full but scraggly beard, a white woven cap, and a traditional white Indian shirt. His eyes were glazed and piercing at the same time, and she saw nothing of the boy she’d grown up with. Nothing of her friend. It was time to finally admit that person was long gone and evil faced her instead.
“We have no time to lose,” he said. “First, I want you to take the agent’s phone and yours, too. Smash them on the road. Be sure to aim this phone’s camera at it so I can see you destroy them.”
There was no point in arguing, so she got out of the car and dropped her phone on the ground, then stomped on it with the heel of her shoe. It took a few tries, but it finally cracked and died. She did the same thing with Agent Ward’s phone, severing any hope that Cal could trace her location.
“I want to see a close-up of the cells,” Oren demanded.
She bent low and demonstrated the ineffectiveness of the phones.
“Go back to the car and drive to June’s house. The car has GPS, and I’ve mounted cameras inside and outside the vehicle in case you planned to have someone follow you.”
“I’m all alone,” she said.
“Good, because I’ll know if you aren’t, and I’ll kill June.”
Tara wished Oren hadn’t planned all of this so carefully or she might have been able to come up with a way to outsmart him.
“Oh, and Tara, you have another thirty minutes. I’ll make another video call then, and you best be with June.”
He disconnected, and she wasted no time but hopped into the car and raced down the highway to her aunt’s driveway. The house was dark, and there was no sign of the car belonging to June’s protection detail. Tara wished Cal was there with her, but then, what could he do? He’d told her he couldn’t disarm the bomb yet. Besides, her intuition said Oren still wanted something from her or he could have killed her the moment she arrived at the car he’d left for her.
And what about Cal’s life?
They were just getting to know each other and starting to like and respect each other. And besides that, he was a fine man and didn’t deserve to lose his life because of a choice she’d made.
“But I have to save June,” she mumbled, and parked the car by the front steps.
She got out, barely noticing the cool breeze drifting through the fields bringing the fresh scent of recently mowed grass. She stepped toward the house, her shoes feeling like they were encased in lead. She forced her feet up the stairs and found the door unlocked.
Fearing some sort of trip wire or booby trap, she cracked the door open only a fraction and held her breath. When nothing happened, she pushed the door open another foot and yelled, “June.”
“In the living room.” Her voice came from that direction, but Tara wouldn’t take a chance.
“Did Oren really put a bomb around your neck?”
“Yes.”
“Do you know if he booby-trapped the front door?”
“No. It’s fine.”
Tara shoved the door all the way open and flipped on the entry light, casting a glow into the living room. June sat on a wooden dining chair in the middle of the room, her hands folded on her lap, her eyes blinking at the sudden light.
Tara entered the room and stared at the plastic pipe around June’s neck. “Are you sure this is real? That it’ll explode?”
“I can’t be positive, but when he clicked it into place I heard a whirring sound from inside, so I know it’s not empty piping.”
Tara circled her aunt to evaluate the device. Right—like she had a clue about what she was looking for. That didn’t mean she didn’t desperately want to find a way to save June. Tara couldn’t lose her aunt, the woman who for all practical purposes was her mother. She loved her so much.
Tara dug deep to find even an ounce of bravery before she passed her fear on to June.
“Wouldn’t you be more comfortable on the sofa?” Tara asked.
“There’s a motion switch in the bomb. Moving could set it off, and I can’t risk that.”
Tara was suddenly grateful her aunt had always kept in tip-top physical shape so she had the stamina to remain still for as long as it might take to disarm the bomb.
“Oren left another cell on the dining room table,” June added. “He said he’d call you on that one.”
Tara stepped across the entryway and turned on the old crystal chandelier. The light fractured across faded floral wallpaper, and memories of the many meals she’d eaten in this very room momentarily replaced her anxiety. She glanced at the chair where Oren had often sat, but instead of seeing the boy, she imagined the man in the video. His narrowed eyes, darkness buried in the depths, and her terror came rushing back.
Would she escape from him and eat a meal here again?
Maybe. If she didn’t panic. She carried the phone and a chair into the living room and placed the chair next to June. Tara sat and gently twined her fingers with her aunt’s. “I love you, Aunt June.”
“You can leave the house if you want,” June said. “Take the phone with you and get far enough away. Oren will never know.”
Tara shook her head, as Oren had said he would make a video call again, and even if he didn’t, she wouldn’t leave June alone to face this horrible uncertainty.