Second Chances: A PAVAD Duet (30 page)

Ed was coughing himself by
the time they made it to the exit. They’d made it out relatively
easily, but how many of his people hadn’t?

He needed that
answer.

Marianna was still
coughing, but much less frequently than before. The fresh air
outside would help with that. Ed continued to hold on to her as he
visually searched the parking lot looking for his assistant. Len
would have a running count of each team’s present and accounted
for. And for those who were not. He could depend on that. The woman
could do
his
job
probably more efficiently than
he
could at times.

Dan was over there, Dr.
Brewster in his arms, by an ambulance. Ed watched for a quick
moment as his friend lifted the small blonde woman onto a stretcher
in the back of the ambulance, and hopped up in the vehicle. But
where was Dan’s daughter? The rest of Marianna’s people?

He tightened his hand
around Marianna’s, then pulled her to his side. “I have to go. Find
out if we’ve lost anyone.”

She nodded, then coughed
again. “I need to find my own people.”

“
Don’t leave this area.
Stay where someone can see or help you if needed.”

“
You think this was aimed
at me?”

“
I think it was aimed at
your department. We’ll talk more once this is over…” He grabbed the
closest agent by the arm. J.T. Tompkins, from Malachi Brockman’s
team. “Tompkins, you stay with her, do you understand? Assume there
is a threat. Don’t let her out of your sight until I tell you
to.”

“
Yes, sir.”

Marianna found most of her
people waiting at their assigned evacuation area, but several were
missing. Ally. Kelly. Sam. Payton. Were they dead? Hurt? Oh,
God.

Marianna found Richison—one
of the two supervisors other than Ally who worked under her.
“Elliot? Your team?”

“
Fine. All fine. No sign of
Allison’s team. Sam Gareth is on her way to the ER from smoke
inhalation.” He stood tall and calm, though worry was on his face.
“What do you need me to do?”

“
Start with the sub
department supervisors and team leaders. Check for anyone
missing.”

“
We’ll do. Dr. Bellows is
running a triage; she might have information about our
people.”

Marianna nodded. “I’ll head
over there now.”

Richison patted her
shoulder. “What in the hell happened here today?”

“
I wish I knew.”

Evacuation protocol
demanded that heads of departments status check their teams, then
meet with other heads for updates and further instructions.
Marianna headed to the triage area first, struggling to hold
herself together.

Dr. Bellows was snapping
out orders to the three members of her staff. Marianna saw more
than a dozen lab personnel waiting for assistance for what appeared
to be minor injuries.

No other department had
anyone injured, so the explosions must have been localized to her
department. Who would do this? Who would have such a grudge against
her people that they would do such a thing?

“
Dr. Glendower! Dr.
Glendower!” An urgent voice brought her back to her surroundings.
Dr. Bellows stood in front of her, concern on her face.

“
How many people are
hurt?”

“
Fourteen minor. We’ve sent
seven to local ERs.”

“
Fatalities?”

Dr. Bellows hesitated.
“None yet, though a few are critical. But not everyone is accounted
for. We’re still missing several.”

“
Who?”

“
I’m not sure. Ed or Len
have that information. But…Dr. Glen—Marianna. All injuries were
from forensics.”

Marianna understood what it
meant, and she could see that Dr. Bellows and J.T. knew it too. The
someone after her and her people wouldn’t stop. He’d shown that
today.

She and the boys couldn’t
stay with Ed forever, and this had proven that she wasn’t even safe
at work.

What was she going to
do?

His people. Injured, while
on his watch. How many? Kelly Reynolds, Allison Brewster were both
carried away in ambulances, as well as several others. Julia was
treating still more. And one lab tech, barely twenty-two years old,
hadn’t survived the ride to the closest ER.

Ed would never forget or
forgive that. He turned to the woman on his left. “Len, every
department head and supervisor, meet me on the first floor of the
parking garage. Five minutes. We need to know who is still missing.
Also get the media team mobilized. Send out word that faulty wiring
resulted in a lab accident. No word about an attack until or if it
is cleared with me. Call all teams on stand-down. Confirm locations
and statuses. And get me next of kin for—”

“
That’s already done,
Ed.”

“
And Len?
See that
no one
even whispers the word terrorism about this.” They didn’t need
that type of panic on top of what had happened.

“
Understood.”

Five minutes later Ed had a
list of missing to give to the fire responders. Payton Asher, Eric
Gareth, Don Duncan, Miles Jarett, Terri King, Susie Jones, Paige
Daviess and Alessandra Brockman. Paige and Alessandra had been on
their way to Questionable Documents five minutes before the
explosions wracked the lab. Everyone else was lab
personnel.

He knew that if possible,
those eight people would have evacuated the building by this point.
It had been at least twenty minutes since the fire alarms had first
sound.

Were they already
dead?

How severe and significant
were the explosions? Where had they taken place?

He needed details;
something more than just a list of missing.

The fire chief was at his
side, barking orders to his own people. Ed barely heard him, his
mind on the eight people still missing.

“
Briggs, Coluter, Ephram!
We have trapped survivors! Fire is contained! Let’s
move!”

Ed was on the man’s
heels.

The fire responders found
three people in the fire analysis lab. They had minor injuries, but
their path out had been blocked. The sprinkler had suppressed most
of the fire and smoke where they were trapped. No primary
explosions had occurred in their area.

That still left five people
missing.

He was with the fire chief
when two more bodies were found. They were both male, unconscious,
but alive. The rescue crews carried Miles and Eric out of the DNA
lab on stretchers. They’d been close to a primary
detonation.

“
Three women missing.”
Payton, Marianna’s quiet young friend; Paige, with her quirky ways
and extremely soft heart; and Alessandra, a remarkably beautiful
young woman with a way of making every one smile. Where were
they?

Ed knew the odds of finding
them alive were rapidly shrinking.

“
Pull out! All rescue
personnel pull out now!”

“
What?” What had he
missed?

“
Sir, Director Ed, some of
my men have found signs of a particularly volatile chemical that
we’re not certain of its properties. We need to evacuate in case of
a secondary explosion.”

“
But I still have three
people missing.”

“
And
we’ll find them,
after
we take precautions to protect
my
people. I’m sure you
understand.”

She’d been there when Eric
and Miles were carried out.

Then Ed and the fire chief
had walked out.

Marianna ran to Ed’s side.
“Payton?”

He wrapped a trembling hand
around her arm. “We don’t know. Alessandra and Paige are also
missing. They were on their way to QD right before.”

“
Do her brothers know?
Sebastian’s team?”

“
I don’t know. Tell me what
happened, Marianna.”

“
I was opening a package
from Indianapolis. I thought it was from my old supervisor. I was
walking toward QD, as I thought it was a consult we were expecting.
I saw smoke coming from QD, then the sprinklers kicked on. I
dropped the package and ran toward Payton’s lab. Then I was knocked
to the ground. I got back up, but my path was blocked to QD. I
turned around, then you were there.”

“
Gather your people. I want
to reconstruct what everyone was doing. We had a total of six
nearly simultaneous explosions. I want to know how.”

Marianna knew what he was
wanting. Maybe they’d find something to help. Working was always
better than standing around waiting to hear…

Five minutes later she had
her team around her, organizing things the way she did best. No one
asked about Payton; they knew the chances of finding her safe were
very low at this point. It upped their determination to find out
what had happened.

Smoke could be so damned
deadly.

Someone had rendered a
crude diagram of the lab on a sheet of paper. Marianna was marking
where everyone was, and where the detonations occurred. Four of the
six were in
her
end of the lab. Two were in Ally’s office area and Cody’s
garage. The dead boy had been found filing papers in there, less
than two feet from the detonation site. Eric and Miles had been
trapped between two detonations, with smoke centered in their area.
Marianna had also been trapped between two, but she’d been lucky to
be in a hallway, close to the back access hall. There had been more
airflow there. Had there not, it would have been bad for her. She
tried not to think about that.

Ed was staring over her
shoulder, and she took a modicum of comfort from his presence. He
was very much in charge, yet his caring and empathy was clear for
everyone to see. Especially her.

She pointed to the area
furthest from where they were currently. “Here’s where Payton would
have been.”

“
Within ten feet of these
two detonations.”

“
Yes.”

Agent Len interrupted, the
fire chief at her side. “Sir, they’re going back in
now.”

“
Concentrate here.”
Marianna pointed to QD.

The fire chief
nodded.

Len continued, “And Agent
Sparks has video feed up on her laptop, ready for you whenever
you’re ready—”

Before Len could finish a
loud roar went up over the crowd, then cheering and clapping from
the group nearest the front of the parking lot.

Marianna’s breath
caught.

Marianna and Ed took off at
a run toward the front of the crowd.

Two figures were limping
from the building, assisted by firemen. A third fireman walked
behind them.

Carrying Payton.

Was she dead? Payton lifted
her head off the fireman’s shoulder and looked straight at
Marianna. Injured, but alive.

Thank God, they were all
three safe.

By the time the smoke and
fire crews had cleared out, Ed was more than exhausted. But he
carried on, along with Len and his top people. Marianna, too, was
dividing her time between her duties as head of the lab and calling
the hospital for updates on everyone’s conditions. She was calm,
steady, and reassuring to everyone who needed it.

He needed it, that was for
certain.

He’d sent Len and Royal to
the home of the technician’s next-of-kin. His twenty-year-old
girlfriend and their eight-month-old son. They deserved answers,
and he was going to get those answers. But it wouldn’t change
anything for that young family.

And he had an entire field
office to get back to business. The fire chief had closed off the
bottom two floors—the lab and the basement beneath, but had cleared
to top four of the eight floors for use.

Ed had been surprised at
how quickly they’d been allowed back in.

Apparently the detonations
had consisted of a mix of localized explosives and what amounted to
very complex colored smoke bombs. The dark green smoke was designed
to frighten and confuse everyone in the vicinity; the explosives
were used to injure those
directly
in contact with the device. Targeted, skilled, and
familiar enough with how their lab worked to orchestrate the
attack.

Someone who worked for the
Bureau; either from
his
division or from Indianapolis. When he factored in
the personal attacks on those women who’d transferred from
Indianapolis, it deepened his suspicions. But who would have a
strong enough grudge against them to orchestrate an attack on an
FBI building? Whomever it had been, they were smart enough to know
how to get six packages of explosives into his building without
them being detected by his security. That took some serious
know-how, both of explosives
and
of the FBI’s security measures.