Aim and Fire (27 page)

Tracy turned back to Sharon, who was standing, staring at the body, her face pale with the knowledge of how close she had come to death.

“Sharon?” The nurse looked up at her. “The patients need you now. He doesn’t.”

Sharon nodded and walked down the hall, calling for the patients to evacuate in an orderly fashion. Tracy followed in her wake until they reached the stairway, then Nate took the lead. Rushing past frightened gown-clad patients as they made their way down the steps, helping when they could but always moving toward the bottom level, they were aware their remaining suspect was closer to escape with each passing second.

They reached the main floor just in time to hear screams and gunfire. Nate drew his pistol, eliciting gasps from several patients.

“Department of Homeland Security, please clear the way and stay back!” he shouted. He jerked the door open and swept the outside corridor with his pistol, then glanced back at Tracy. “You ready?”

She nodded, and Nate held the door open and covered 248

the right side while she stepped out and used the door for cover to sweep and clear the left. They crouched to stay under the wire-mesh-covered glass window.

Nate ran toward the main doors, and Tracy rose and followed. Along the way they saw several dozen patients crouched or huddled on the ground, apparently cowed by the fleeing terrorist. “I am a federal agent with the Department of Homeland Security! Everyone get up now and move in an orderly fashion toward the nearest exit! This is not a drill!” Nate’s voice shocked many out of their pa-ralysis, and they started streaming toward the doors. Two paramedics were working on a downed security guard, one pumping up and down on his chest, the other performing mouth-to-mouth. Tracy’s lips tightened as she watched them, knowing that she and Nate were responsible.

A few steps before reaching the double doors, she stopped and stared in shock. In front of her was the Mexican woman she had saved at the farm the day before. She was sitting in a wheelchair, and her small daughter was trying to push her toward the door. She looked around for an orderly or nurse, but they were all helping more critical patients.

“Come on, Tracy, we’re gonna lose him!” Nate hadn’t broken stride.

“Help me, just for a second.” Tracy swept Julia up in her arms while Nate ran back and grabbed the wheelchair’s handles, maneuvering it through the doors and off to one side. “Stay with your mama, little one,” Tracy said as she de-posited her by the chair. She ran after Nate, who was already in the staff parking lot, where he’d parked the Silverado.

As he ran, a dark blue sedan roared straight toward him.

Nate leveled his pistol, but ended up diving out of the way as the car flew past, the driver spraying bullets out of his Aim and Fire

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side window as he tore out of the driveway. The car didn’t stop, but ran straight through a red light, clipping a sub-compact and sending it spinning across the road, where it stopped by slamming into a light post.

“Jesus!” Rising from where she had ducked behind a car, Tracy looked back, checking for injuries. The gunman had been aiming high. Although the front of the building was pockmarked with bullet holes, and two more windows were broken, no one seemed to be hurt.

“Let’s go!” Nate had backed the Silverado out of its place and gunned it right to her. Tracy leaped in, and barely had time to get her seat belt on before he laid rubber out of the parking lot. They both heard the distant whine of sirens as they hit Rim Road, then turned north on Oregon, following the trail of honking horns and stopped cars the terrorist was leaving in his wake.

“Get on the phone to your FBI buddy and see if they can set up a roadblock in the next mile. I’m calling in reinforcements!” Nate snatched the radio mike from its stand as Tracy flipped open her phone.

“Dammit, this shouldn’t be that difficult.” Kate paced back and forth in front of her screen, monitoring the chaos at the hospital, along with the status of the midnight team en route to Texas and their hackers’ attempts to break into the network for Spaceworks, Inc.

While the security of the rocket company network was top-notch, Born2Slyde hadn’t thought it meant anything out of the ordinary at first.

“They’re in a high-tech field, probably lots of corporate espionage,” B2S had typed as she continued her explora-tory foray. “Nothing too spooky here yet.”

“Good, then accessing it shouldn’t be an issue—I want you inside as soon as possible,” Kate said.

“Okay, but I’ll need mainframe access for this if you want it ASAP,” the hacker typed.

“You got it.” Kate opened a screen to the DHS mainframe system in Washington and gave her limited access.

“Just get access to their rocket telemetry systems—nothing else.”

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“Yes, Mom.”

Kate’s screen flashed, signaling an incoming call. The ID said it was Tracy Wentworth. “Finally.” Kate hit her earpiece. “Agent Stephanie Cassell.”

Tracy’s voice was faster than normal, but still in control.

“Stephanie, Nate and I set a trap at the hospital to try and lure one of the terrorists, but they blew up a hospital room, and almost got me with it. We took one out and are chasing—watch that minivan, Nate!—the other north-northwest. We’re trying to set up a roadblock to stop him in the next mile.”

“How close are you to him?” Kate asked.

“About twenty yards behind.”

“Okay, press star-nine-star-five-star-one on your phone.

Do it right now.”

Kate heard the beeps, and on her satellite map of the chase, the pursuing truck was now the centerpoint of a red circle that moved with it, enveloping the fleeing car in the crimson field, along with several others that they passed.

“What did that do?” Tracy asked.

“You’ve just jammed his cell communications, along with everyone else’s in a fifty-yard radius—we don’t want him alerting his bosses that we’re on to him.”

“My phone just did that? But mine still works—”

“Yes. Tell Nate he needs to take this guy out now,” Kate said.

Tracy relayed the message and heard a furious Texas drawl in the background. “What in the hell does she think I’m doing, playing tag with him?”

Kate smiled grimly at the border agent’s tone. “Hardly.

Look, we’ve uncovered a company that we think may be involved in the plot. Spaceworks, Incorporated. Do you think he’s headed back there?”

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“If he’s got half a brain in his head, he won’t lead us back to his HQ—oh, good, we’ve got two cops behind us.

Nate, let them know who we are.”

“Already on it—whoa!”

Kate heard the screech of tires, then the loud bang of plastic and metal impacting. She looked up to see the sedan they had been chasing had stopped in the middle of the lane, and Nate’s truck had almost plowed through it, but just ended up smacking it instead. The police cars swerved to avoid the pile-up, but the sedan was already moving again.

“Tracy? Are you all right?” Kate asked.

“Nate, get down!” she heard in her ear, along with the distinctive sound of a submachine gun firing.

“Goddammit, this ain’t happening again!” Nate shouted. The truck leaped forward, whizzing past other cars, the rise and fall of police sirens accompanying them.

“There’s a clear patch coming up. Hold on, I’m gonna give him a little tap.”

“That might not be such a good—shit!” Tracy screamed.

Kate heard the screech of tires again, followed by a loud thud and the roar of a revving engine. On-screen, she watched as the truck approached to the right rear of the sedan, then swerved, hitting it on the left rear body panel.

The sedan spun wildly, tires screeching as the driver fought for control. Still spinning, he roared down an embank-ment and stopped at the bottom.

“Suspect’s car has stopped. All units, approach with caution, subject is heavily armed and may be carrying explosives on his person.” Nate’s voice carried loud and clear, then Kate heard the sound of a car door opening, and traffic rushing by.

“Department of Homeland Security. Come out with Aim and Fire

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your hands up!” Kate heard his voice, electronically modified as if he were speaking through a bullhorn. In the distance, she heard a faint cry.

“Allahu Akb—!”

The shout was cut off by an explosion that made Kate snatch her earpiece off her head, gasping in shock. As she watched the satellite image, the sedan erupted in a glowing, gold ball of flame forcing everyone to retreat. Kate inserted the earpiece again. “Tracy? Tracy, are you there?”

“Yeah, Stephanie—yeah, I’m here. Jesus, he just blew himself up. Must have been a grenade or a bomb or something, I don’t know. But he’s gone and he took any evidence we might have found with him.”

“Listen, you have to get over to Spaceworks—they’re a rocket company. We think al-Kharzi is planning a low-earth-orbit strike to spread an EMP wave over the eastern United States.”

“Could these guys have come from there?”

“Right now it’s our strongest hunch. Did you manage to get a look at the car’s license plate?”

“There wasn’t time, but the camera in the Silverado probably got it. Nate, we need to get out of here.”

“I’m downloading the address and directions from your location now. Try to coordinate the Border Patrol and any other DHS agents in the area if you can, but go in quietly—

we can’t tip them off, or they might launch early. Brief everyone there on keeping the press out of this for now—

we don’t want to cause a panic.”

“Got it. Nate, let’s roll!”

“Oh, one more thing,” Kate said.

“Yeah.”

“Reverse that code, one-five-nine, to turn off the cell-jamming program.”

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“Thanks, Stephanie, we’ll be in touch once we’re at Spaceworks.”

“We’ll be watching over you,” Kate said.

Before Kate hung up, she heard Nate say, “Hey, that isn’t too far from here, maybe about fifteen minutes southwest.”

I hope that’s quick enough,
she thought, turning her attention to crafting a message that would bring every law-enforcement officer in the area running, and hoping to God that she wouldn’t have to broadcast it.

Nate kept his eyes on the road while Tracy skimmed through the camera data, searching for the license plate.

“Here it is. Call the plate number in,” she said.

He read off the plate number to the DHS office and requested a priority response. A few minutes later it came back as a personal vehicle belonging to Zakariya Malik Jasfari. “Where does this guy work?” Nate asked. He heard keystrokes in the background. “Okay, that’s everything we need. Thanks very much,” he said. He turned to Tracy and said, “Bingo!”

He switched channels while he punched up the address for Spaceworks, Inc. “All units in the area, I need immediate backup at the following address on a code thirteen.

I repeat, this is a code thirteen.” Nate used the common law-enforcement code to refer to a possible disaster situation. “Request hazmat team respond, as well. All units converge at the junction road that leads to the target area.”

He replaced the mike and nodded to Tracy. “At least these guys are in the middle of the desert, and not right in town.

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I’d get on the horn with your feebee buddy and get us a search warrant for the entire premises, if she can.”

Tracy was already dialing. “Shouldn’t be a problem, especially since we only have to mention the
nuke
word.” She connected in a few seconds. “Stephanie? We’re following up on the Spaceworks lead, and our fleeing terrorist apparently worked for them…. Yes, a search warrant—you’re already working on it? Great, fax it to the El Paso DHS

office, and we’ll have someone run it out here…Will be in touch as soon as we’ve secured the area.” She disconnected.

“Okay, we’re almost there.” Nate scanned the barren desert on both sides, looking for the dirt road driveway.

“Come on, where the hell are you?”

“Right there.” Tracy pointed at a narrow road to their right, which barely looked like anything special compared to the rest of the stark landscape.

“Hmm, not even a sign pointing out the road to anyone coming out here. Not a very effective way to advertise your company, is it?”

Tracy looked at the dirt road that climbed a hill and disappeared over the crest. The glow of bright lights could be seen in the distance. She glanced back at Nate. “I hope you don’t want to handle this like the illegals back at the farm.”

“Well, if we’re only a couple of miles away from an organized terrorist cell, perhaps a more measured approach might be in order. We’ll drive parallel to the road close to the top of that rise and see what we can see. Once the cavalry arrives, then we can go in full bore and shut them down.”

Tracy nodded. “Works for me.”

Turning off the headlights, Nate put his night-vision goggles on and drove onto the driveway just long enough Aim and Fire

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to get off the main road, Then he turned into the desert itself, powering up the rise until they were only about twenty yards from the crest. He stopped the truck and checked his pistol. “Close enough. Ready?”

“After what we did earlier, I’m ready for just about anything.” Tracy made sure her pistol was locked and loaded, and slipped out of the truck. Nate waited for her to join him, his shotgun slung over his back, and they began creeping up the rise.

Surely Allah will not let this transgression happen—not
when we are so close.

Sepehr could scarcely believe that the events of the past half hour had even occurred, much less that they had resulted in what he was watching at the moment.

It had all started with Joseph coming back into the sound booth after Sepehr had recorded his triumphant message to the world. Instead of his neat attire and hair from yesterday, the owner of Spaceworks was now haggard and unshaved, dressed in rumpled clothes, with dark circles under his eyes from staying up for over twenty-four hours. “Sepehr, you must see this!”