Chapter 25

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

"The shoe," Alisa cried out, pointing to the screen. "That's my father's shoe. Jason needs to get in that room. That's where the bomb is."

Kyle gave her a sharp look, then got on the radio, relaying the message to Jason.

She watched on the monitor as Jason backtracked. Savannah also came into view from the other end of the hallway.

The door was locked.

Jason kicked it open and ran into the room with Savannah behind him.

"What's happening now?" she asked in frustration as they disappeared.

Kyle's hands flew across the keyboard as he picked up the feed from the bodycam on Jason's vest.

"VP is here," Jason said at the same time they saw the vice president strapped in a chair.

The older man was panicked, his face red and blotchy, as he cried out for help.

As Savannah ran forward to cut him loose, Jason's camera turned to the man lying on the ground in a suicide vest.

She clapped a hand to her mouth. "That's my dad. Is he dead? Is he dead?" she cried out, knowing Jason couldn't hear her.

She watched him put his fingers on her father's neck.

"He's alive, but he's unconscious," Jason said, then carefully unzipped the vest to reveal the timer on the bomb, which was at ten minutes, twelve seconds. "We need to disarm the device fast. I need a tech now."

Commands barked across the radio. The nearest tech was on the second floor. It would take several minutes for him to get there. That was too long.

"The code," she said suddenly, her father's words ringing through her head. He'd told her the code just in case. "I have the code, Kyle. My father gave it to me."

Kyle gave her a sharp look. "What is it?"

Her breath was coming so fast she was struggling to breathe, but she had to pull herself together. She was their only chance. "It's 061764032296*#&."

"I have the code," Kyle said into his microphone. "It's from Alisa."

"Go," Jason said.

Kyle relayed each number slowly and precisely as Jason's confident, calm fingers hit the keypad on the timer. Each number ratcheted up her fear.

What if she was wrong? What if she had given him the numbers and symbols in the incorrect order? Would the bomb go off early? Or would he have to try new combinations as the time ticked down?

When Jason punched in the ampersand, her breath caught in her throat. They waited for something to happen, but the clock kept ticking.

Eight minutes, fifteen seconds…

"I don't think that worked," Jason said. "Should I try it in a different combination? Alisa? Are you there?"

"She's here," Kyle said, looking at her.

"That was right," she said, staring at the timer on the screen. "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. "

The timer hit eight minutes, and then it dinged.

"It stopped," Jason said with excitement. "It stopped. This one is done."

She felt an enormous wave of relief, but it didn't last long because that wasn't the only bomb.

"Mr. Hunt," Jason said, shaking the man on the ground.

She realized her father was waking up. He blinked his eyes open. "The timer," he said.

"It stopped," Jason told him. "Alisa gave me the code. Where's the other bomb?"

"Parking garage."

At her father's words, everyone in the van froze, realizing their command center, which was on the top floor, open-air part of the garage, was now ground zero.

The word evacuate flew across the radio channels.

"We have to get out," Kyle told her, jumping to his feet.

Jumping out of the van, she saw new chaos and commotion as people started running away from the garage toward the roads leading out of the complex.

She couldn't follow them. She couldn't leave. The bomb was nearby. It was in the backpack she'd seen them take out of the warehouse. There were agents already going car to car, but there weren't enough people in this immediate area, and she knew the bomb wouldn't be in the open air, it would be downstairs, on the lowest level.

She ran toward the stairwell, flying down the cement stairs, her fight-or-flight reflexes colliding in her brain as one voice told her she was crazy she should run to safety, and the other said this was her chance to be as brave as Jason. He had risked his life to save her father, and even if he was further away than she was, if the bomb went off in this garage, it could still kill him and so many more people.

So, she kept going, even as more recent, post-traumatic memories filled her head. The last time she'd gone to the bottom level of a dark parking garage, she had almost been killed. She hadn't thought she'd ever be able to go into a garage again, but now she was racing to the bottom.

As she hit the last step, her gaze swept the area. There were a half-dozen cars, but no one in sight. When she saw a door to a utility area partially open, she headed in that direction, terrified that Novikov or Stephanie might be waiting inside with the backpack ready to blow. But she told herself they wouldn't be that close to the bomb, not with minutes to spare.

She threw the door open and saw the backpack on the ground. She carefully unzipped it, and the timer flashed in her face.

Three minutes, twenty-one seconds…

Telling the code to Kyle to give to Jason had felt dangerous, but this was worse. She had no one to help her, to coach her. She had to do it herself. And she had to make sure she didn't inadvertently set off a toxic bomb that would kill her.

Her hand shook as she pushed the first number, then the second. She heard heavy footsteps and Jason shouting her name.

"Here," she yelled, but she stayed focused on the keypad as she put in the next two numbers, knowing she needed to speed up because the time was ticking down.

Two minutes, sixteen seconds…

"Alisa!" Jason stopped abruptly when he saw what she was doing.

Her fingers froze.

"You can do it," he told her.

"You need to leave now in case it doesn't work."

"You've got this. Keep going."

She didn't have time to argue so she turned back to the keypad, putting in one number after the next and then the three symbols.

One minute, two seconds…

It was too late to run. If it didn't work, they wouldn't make it.

Jason pulled her up and into his arms as they both watched the clock tick down six more seconds. And then it stopped .

Fifty-four seconds.

The lights on the timer went out.

"Oh, God! Did I do it? Did I stop the bomb from going off?" she asked.

"You did it, Alisa." He flipped on his radio. "The last explosive has been located and disarmed on the bottom level of the parking garage. The threat is over. Repeat: The threat is over."

They could hear cheers from inside the garage and across the radio.

Jason gazed into her eyes with admiration and respect. "You are crazy brave, you know that?"

"I knew if I didn't find the bomb, no one else would know the code unless Kyle remembered the numbers I gave him, but he was trying to move the van, and?—"

"You're amazing." He crushed his mouth against hers.

It felt like forever since she'd kissed him, and this kiss was filled with joy, relief, and gratitude. They were alive. It was over. The bombs were not going to explode tonight. Everyone was safe.

But then she had to ask…

"My dad?" she questioned, looking into his blue eyes. "Is he okay?"

"He's on his way to the hospital. He probably has a concussion, but he's fine, Alisa."

"Is he going to be arrested for what he did? He was forced to build the bombs. He was going to try to detonate them before they ever got to the hotel. He gave me the code to disarm them."

"I don't know what's going to happen. I wish I could tell you I did."

"I wish you could, too, but I appreciate the fact that you never lie to me. What about Novikov and Stephanie?"

He shook his head, his expression angry and grim again. "In the wind. No idea where they are."

"So, they get away without consequences—again. "

"Well, you foiled this plan, so that's something. A lot of people are alive tonight because of you."

"And you. And my dad. He gave me the code. He's the reason we were able to stop the attack."

He gave her a smile. "Don't worry. I'll go to bat for your father. I'll do whatever I can." He paused as they heard pounding footsteps and raised voices. They moved out of the utility room as Flynn and Beck came running into the garage.

"The bomb is in there," Jason said, tipping his head to the backpack on the ground.

Flynn shook his head in amazement as he looked at the open backpack. "I can't believe you disarmed both bombs in minutes. I didn't know I was getting a superhero when I hired you."

"Alisa did this one," Jason said, giving her a proud look.

All three of them looked at her with an enormous amount of respect.

She shrugged. "I was the closest one, and I knew the code. I was watching on the monitor when Jason did it in the hotel. I also knew the bomb was in a backpack. My hand was shaking so bad, though, I almost messed up."

"I'm sure you didn't come close to messing up," Beck said. "You're very tough under pressure, Alisa."

"I'm just glad it's over, although I guess it's not really over until you find Novikov and Stephanie."

"We have three of his men in custody," Flynn said. "Novikov's right-hand man, Ilyin is dead, along with two others at the Elliott Tower. We're going to pick up Pieter Moldev as soon as possible. Novikov's group has taken a big hit, and someone will talk. We'll get him."

She wasn't so sure, but she didn't want to dim the hopeful mood.

"I want to get Alisa out of here," Jason said.

"Go," Flynn said. "We'll monitor this device until the HDU team gets here." He paused. "Here they are now."

"Come on," Jason said, taking her hand as they went up the stairs.

When they reached the top-level parking lot, she saw a very different scene than the one she'd left. There was no longer any panic, no screaming, no running in different directions. There were plenty of cops and teams from various agencies roaming around, but now there were clusters of groups conversing without the anxious urgency of just minutes before.

Jason stopped to speak to Savannah, who told him the vice president was shaken but physically okay and was on his way to a secure location. The vice president had confirmed that Agent Stephanie Genaro had taken him out of the party and a man waiting in the stairwell had killed his Secret Service detail.

While they talked about that, Alisa took a minute to compose herself. There was still a lot to do, but it was all good now. She would go to the hospital and check on her dad. Then she would tell her mom that he was alive, that they were both alive. Things could have turned out so differently.

It didn't seem quite real yet, and there was a part of her that still didn't know if she'd ever feel safe until Novikov and Stephanie were caught.

"I can take you to the hospital now," Jason said, returning to her side.

"What about the rest of the team?"

"They'll be working here for a while, and there are plenty of company vehicles to get everyone back to the office and home, but that won't be for a few hours."

He took her hand once again as they walked to the car, and she was more than happy with the connection, the reminder that she hadn't lost him, and he hadn't lost her.

As they got in the car, she said, "I want to be happy, but Novikov and Stephanie are still out there, and who knows what they'll do next?"

"I feel the same way," he admitted. "But we have to take the victories where we get them. No one died tonight. That's what matters. And you got your father back. "

She looked into his warm blue gaze and said, "Thank you for working so hard to save him, Jason. I owe you."

"No, you don't. You spotted the shoe in the hallway. You had the code."

"That was all from my dad. He said he'd try to leave a clue if he couldn't detonate the bomb before they got here."

"Well, you still had the presence of mind to recognize the clue and remember the code. Then you disarmed the second bomb. That's a very good night for—what did you once call yourself—an ordinary woman from a rather boring family?"

She smiled. "Well, I was wrong about the boring family part, that's for sure."

"And wrong about yourself. You are nothing close to ordinary. You saved the day, Alisa. Don't you realize that yet?"

"It hasn’t sunk in." She paused, looking into his eyes. "I was so scared when you were trying to disarm that bomb. I thought I was going to lose you and my dad, and I couldn't stand that thought."

"I had the same feeling in the garage just now. But I knew you could do it. I had faith in you, Alisa."

"I had faith in you."

They kissed again, a longer kiss than before, one filled with even more emotion, and they didn't stop until they both needed to take a breath. "To be continued," Jason said with a smile. "Let's get out of here."

"Happily," she said as she fastened her seatbelt. It felt strange to take that small measure of precaution when she had come to realize just how much danger there was in the world, how a happy Saturday night out at the mall could have been so many people's last night. That's why she needed to live in the moment because nothing else was guaranteed.

But she had also learned that there were hundreds of people who worked hard every day to make sure tomorrow came, and she would never take them for granted again.

As Jason drove away from the hotel, his phone buzzed with a series of texts. He paused at the light and picked up his phone, his gaze widening.

"What is it?" she asked.

He drove through the green light, then pulled over. "I just got a photo," he said. "Two, in fact."

Her jaw dropped when he showed her the photograph of a silver-haired man lying on the floor with blood pouring out of his chest and his head. "Oh, my God! That's Novikov."

"Yes." Jason flipped to the next picture.

"And Stephanie," she breathed, seeing Jason's former partner tied to a chair but very much alive.

His phone dinged again, and she leaned forward to see the text coming in.

Novikov didn't kill your father. She did. He was mine. She's yours.

"Who sent this?" Alisa asked.

"I don't recognize the number. It's probably a burner phone." His heart pounded against his chest at the four short sentences.

Another text came in with an address: Office Suite 2207, 420 Pierce Street.

"Damn," Jason muttered. "Pierce Street is just around the corner.

She followed his gaze to the skyscraper across the street, less than three blocks from the hotel-mall complex, probably just far enough to be safe from the release of toxins and just tall enough to see everything.

Jason threw the car into drive and sped down the street and around the corner. They parked in front of the commercial building that reached high into the sky.

"You should stay here," Jason said.

"No way," she told him. "Not alone in this car. I'm going with you. Novikov is dead, and it doesn't seem like Stephanie can hurt us anymore."

He hesitated, then said, "Okay, but stay close. This could be a trap."

"Trust me, you do not have to tell me that."