Chapter 12

The next afternoon…

"I'm in!"

Rocky turned to Liam whose face was lit up like a kid's on Christmas morning. "As in…"

Sitting on Rocky's couch in what had affectionately become known as Liam's Spot, the other man spun the laptop around for Rocky to see. "As in, I'm finally fucking in."

"Please tell me I just heard you correctly." Raegan hurriedly joined them from the kitchen, where she'd been fixing them all some fresh iced tea.

With three glasses balanced expertly in her hands, she let Rocky take his before setting the other two down onto the coffee table's smooth surface.

"You heard correctly," Liam confirmed. "And now that I am, it shouldn't take long to see what we have to work with."

While his teammate began scrubbing Samer's laptop for anything that might be useful, Rocky and Raegan continued going over everything they knew up to that point.

The house Samer and his men had been using was owned by a retired couple who'd moved to Colorado to be closer to their kids. According to the information Agent Atwell's team had uncovered, they'd rented it to a man named Charles Smith looking for a safer place for his family of four to live.

In reality, Smith was actually Samer. The asshole had created the alias as a way to live here under the radar.

Rocky had to hand it to him. Fake Illinois driver's license. Fake social. The guy even managed to create a false credit history for a man who'd never existed.

"So Samer somehow manages to get into the States, and for whatever reason, he picks Chicago as his target," Raegan began to summarize the facts. "He creates the Charles Smith alias, rents the house down the street. He gets to work putting together a crew of young, impressionable teens who are so desperate to find a way out of their low-income lives, they're willing to let themselves be brainwashed into thinking robbing banks at gunpoint would be a good idea."

Picking things up from there, Rocky continued with, "Eventually, Samer trusts these kids enough to share his plan of using coordinated robberies as a way of spreading law enforcement paper thin. That way, he can plant and detonate a dirty bomb before they could have the chance to stop him."

"Except we know about the plan, and we have irrefutable evidence proving Samer's involvement. We just…" Raegan drew in a deep breath before exhaling in time to finish saying, "We just have to find him, first."

"This might help."

All eyes turned to Liam, who was staring intently at the screen before him.

"I found a hidden chatroom where it looks like he was communicating with one of the men in his crew. The last conversation took place three days ago."

"What's he say?"

"It's all very vague and in code." Liam squinted a bit as his eyes raced to scan the digital conversation. "They're talking about the weather. This other guy asks when he thinks it would be a good day to get together for a picnic. Samer writes back, and says…" The man's spine straightened, and his expression turned serious. "Oh, fuck. The message reads, ‘Three days from now looks like it's going to be a beautiful day'," Liam uttered the typed words verbatim.

Raegan raced to where Rocky's teammate sat. With her stare locked on the small screen, she stood next to Liam and asked, "How many days ago did you say this was?"

"Three." Liam's throat worked as he gave a single, hard swallow. "Which means?—"

"He's going to set off the bomb today," Raegan finished the terrifying thought as her worried eyes turned Rocky's way.

The room fell silent as the three of them tried processing exactly what that meant. Rocky's mind raced to come up with the fastest way to find a direct line to the most ideal setting for a terrorist's attack.

At the same time, he was yanking his phone from his pocket and putting in a call to Christian. They needed the rest of the team here.

Right the fuck now!

Less than fifteen minutes later, the rest of Delta Team was there.

"What's going on in the city today?" Christian asked Liam directly. "Any major events taking place?"

The man's fingers began flying across the keyboard of his own personal computer, which was sitting to the left of Samer's.

"Let's see…there aren't any big-name concerts or celebrity appearances happening. The Cubs play the Cardinals later this evening, but the game's being held in St. Louis, so it's not that." More typing ensued, and when Liam hit return, several small windows popped up on the screen at once.

"What's that?" Cade asked as he squinted at the screen.

"These are all the registered personal events taking place tomorrow," Liam answered as he typed. "It looks like we've got seventeen weddings, twelve milestone birthday party events, two fortieth birthday parties, and one sixty-year anniversary."

Sixty years. Damn. That was an impressive feat to achieve, these days.

Rocky slid a hidden, sideways glance in Raegan's direction. They were probably too old to make it sixty more years. But as odd as it may seem, he could already see her being a part of his life even decades from now.

First, however, they needed to find a way to keep Samer from blowing up the fucking city.

"From what I'm seeing here"—Liam continued—"everything else is small potatoes."

"So there's nothing?" Raegan's tone was full of anxiety and concern.

"Not that I can see. There's not even a…wait a minute."

Hope flourished inside Rocky's gut, shooting him forward in two long, broad strides. "You find something?"

"Maybe."

"What is it?" Raegan leaned in a bit closer for a better look.

"A traffic alert."

"A what?" Brody frowned. "How the hell is a traffic alert helpful?"

Explaining with more detail, Liam quickly shared where his mind was taking him. "More accurately, there's construction that's going to cause a major backup in traffic, which is the reason behind the alert."

With his right shoulder and hip propped against the wall to Rocky's left, Jagger kept his arms crossed casually in front of him and his ankles crossed as he said, "You know, if you wanted to give us non-mind readers a little more to go on, that would be swell."

Rocky caught sight of Raegan's tiny smirk, and though he wished like hell he'd been the one to put it there, he was grateful for Jagger's smartassed remark.

Anything to make that woman smile.

"Sorry." Liam pulled up a map of the city. "Okay, so just hear me out. What if our guy is targeting this?" He pointed to the Dan Ryan Expressway.

"You do realize that highway is about twelve miles long, right?" Raegan stated the very important fact.

"I do, but we're looking for anomalies, here. Something obvious that stands out, and so far, this is all I'm seeing."

"I don't know, Cutler." Christian frowned. "Blowing up a chunk of highway is a stretch. Especially since there are too many unknowns."

"Hunt's right." Brody agreed. "There's no way to know how many cars will be on any given stretch of highway at any point in time. Guy like Samer…he'd want maximum damage. Hitting something random…" The former SEAL shook his head. "That doesn't exactly live up to this guy's well-planned agenda."

"You're absolutely right," Raegan chimed back in. "Samer will want to make a statement. Show the U.S. just how vulnerable we really are, and how much smarter he thinks he is. He'd want a massive audience and, like you said, maximum damage. Something that would have major consequences for the city of Chicago."

"Like what?" Rocky asked, genuinely hoping she had some sort of direction for them to follow.

But the gorgeous blonde was shaking her head. "I have no idea. I just know Samer wouldn't pick a spot along some random stretch of highway."

"How do you know?" Brody asked, his tone that of curiosity rather than snarky heat.

Raegan's golden eyes turned the other man's way. "Because nothing Samer does is random."

Returning her focus to the map of Chicago still up on Liam's screen, she began studying it more closely. Using her index finger to follow the highway in question, she drew an invisible line to various exits near the area included in the traffic alert.

"What are you looking for?" Rocky followed the path she was taking with her finger.

"The businesses around these exits. I thought maybe…" Her voice trailed as she concentrated on what she was doing. "What about a train?"

"A what?" Cade came closer to where everyone was gathered.

"Here." Raegan pointed to a spot on the screen showing the city's railway system. "The CTA Red line tunnels beneath the Expressway here, at the interchange between Twenty-Eighth and Thirtieth."

Following her line of thinking, Liam nodded as he scooted himself closer to the edge of the cushion. "I think I see where you're going with this. You detonate a bomb in this tunnel here"—he pointed to a spot on the map—"it would cause enough damage that half the damn city would be affected."

"At least." Cade nodded in agreement.

"Over three-hundred thousand people take the Expressway on a daily basis," Raegan shared. "You take into account the construction Liam was talking about here"—she pointed to a location near the train tunnel—"and we could be looking at a pretty significant number of casualties."

"Add to that, the people in the tunnel on the train…" Rocky trailed as he followed her way of thinking.

"There are forty to eighty people per car, depending on the time of day," Liam spouted off an additional, relevant statistic.

But as Raegan studied the screen even further, Rocky noticed her confidence in her own theory was beginning to wane.

"It's still not enough." She stood straight and looked away from the computer.

Cade looked at her as if he thought she'd lost her mind. "Effectively halting traffic from both a major highway and train route isn't enough?"

"Not for Samer." She said the words as if they were fact. "A plan like that would screw a huge part of the city, sure. But he enjoys the kill. He'd want maximum damage with maximum casualties." When she looked to Liam's computer again, her entire body grew stiff with what appeared to be a profound realization.

"What?" Rocky had to know. "What is it?"

Her face paled as she turned to him and asked, "What's bigger than a bunch of cars or a train?"

The horrifying understanding struck him all at once. "The airport."

Several low curses filled the air around them before Jagger jumped back in with, "Now, we're talkin'. Someone wants to make a statement…a real statement…you find a way to bring down more than just a part of one city."

"Jesus, you're right." Cade nodded. "O'Hare gets shut down, that won't be a simple detour while a chunk of highway gets rebuilt. That will affect people, as well as multi-million-dollar companies, from all over the world."

"Not to mention those who would die in the explosion." Raegan's voice sounded almost wooden when she spoke again. "Families. Children. So many innocent lives."

Brody dropped his crossed arms and rested his hands on his hips. "I agree. I think O'Hare is our best bet. Only problem is, that airport spans nearly twelve square miles. Even with every cop and federal agent in the city helping out, there's no way we'll be able to cover that kind of distance in time to locate the bomb."

"Not unless we just happen to stumble upon it." Cade nodded.

Liam shot to his feet and headed for the front door. "We can't cover that much space, but I know someone who can."

Rocky frowned. "Where are you going?"

"The office."

"Now?"Several asked the man simultaneously.

"Don't worry. I'll be back in a flash."

He was gone before anyone could try to stop him.

They were all still staring at the closed door seconds later when Jagger broke the confused silence with, "I don't care what y'all say, that guy's gotta be a little off-kilter."

Despite the situation, Rocky felt his mouth curve upward in a grin. "Maybe, but his off-kilter ass has saved yours a time or two."

"Oh, I'm not complaining. Just stating the facts."

"Let's keep going." Christian took command of the room. "We can keep talking things through while we wait for Cutler to get back."

That was exactly what they did. From the start of this thing to where they were now, Rocky, Raegan, and the rest of Delta Team went back through everything for what felt like the millionth time.

And when Liam returned—with a sizeable black plastic case in his hands—he went to the middle of the room and set whatever it was down onto the hardwood floor below.

"What the hell is that?" Cade asked as they all inched closer.

Flicking up the tabs keeping the case secured, he lifted the lid with a smile. "Gentlemen…and lady…meet Betty."

The lid fell open, revealing a very fancy, very expensive-looking drone.

"Betty?" Raegan tilted her head to the side as she studied the high-tech flying machine.

"She's an autonomous airborne radiation monitoring system, or AARM," Liam explained. "But Betty sounds prettier."

Rocky and the others shook their heads while Raegan's lips lifted into a small smile. Seeing her like this…working side-by-side with his team…getting along with his team…it all seemed so normal, somehow.

So right.

"She's designed to deliver meter resolution maps of known radiation sites, including high dose areas," Liam added for their benefit.

"So she finds the source of the radiation for us so we can go in and diffuse it?" Cade summarized.

A small shrug lifted and dropped Liam's shoulders. "Us, the feds…whoever gets there first. But yeah, that's pretty much the idea."

"Does Betty need to be charged, or is she ready to?—"

"Nope." Liam cut off Raegan's question. "I always keep her ready to fly, just in case there's an emergency."

"Pretty sure this qualifies," Cade muttered with a deep snort.

Looking around the room, Raegan appeared to be blanketed with nervous energy. "So what are we waiting for? I mean, shouldn't we be headed to the airport like…right now?"

All at once, the entire group began making preparations to leave.

"I'll call Foster on the way," Christian announced, referring to their Homeland handler. "She can fight it out with the feds and CPD. Rocky, why don't you call Special Agent Atwell and fill her in on the plan?"

"On it!" He was already reaching for the phone in his back pocket.

Raegan led the way to his truck as he and the others filtered their way out of Rocky's home. They raced to their respective vehicles, and within minutes, they were on the highway breaking land-speed records to get to the airport in time to keep that fucking bomb from detonating.

As he drove, Rocky filled Atwell in on what they believed to be Samer's plan. Now she and the rest of the FBI and CPD were having to scramble to send units to all twenty U.S. Bank branches in the city—to hopefully thwart off the massive robbery attempt Elias Connors had told them about—as well as O'Hare International Airport.

Having gotten a massive leg up, Rocky and the others would get there well before the feds or CPD, which meant it would most likely be up to them to locate and diffuse the bomb.

With one hand on the wheel, he reached over with his other and covered Raegan's balled up fist with his. "It's going to be okay, sweetheart."

It had to be okay. Because he'd only just found her. And if they made it out of this thing alive, Rocky was realizing more and more that he wasn't so sure he ever wanted to let her go.