Page 51 of So Sinister
Faith felt a flash of irritation but didn’t let it impact her reply.“We identified him as the primary suspect and were in the process of locating him when we got this call.”
Grandal sighed.“Right.Okay, well, we’ll do our best to keep him calm.We have an EOD team on standby too, but it looks like he’s got Hartford holding the bomb.”
Faith nodded.“Yeah, that’s his thing.He wants the world to know that it’s the Incompetents’ fault this is happening.Maybe we can use that to build camaraderie.”
“Sure.Hey, look, I’ve got to get back.I have officers asking me for instructions.”
“Of course.Go ahead.Call us if there are any major developments.”
She hung up and looked at Jessica.Her partner was still white-faced.“What do you want to do when we get there?”she asked.
“We need to stop Stevenson.We can’t let that bomb go off.”
Jessica sighed.“I was afraid you’d say that.”
“You don’t have to come with—”
“Faith, I swear to God, if you finish that sentence, you won’t survive to come withme.”Turk barked in alarm, and Jessica said, “Kidding.Mostly.”
Faith smiled at her partner, but her pride in the determined young agent did nothing to calm the tension in her chest.They had to stop Stevenson, but needing to stop him and being capable of stopping him were two very different things.
The fate of this case, the life of a flawed but innocent man, and quite possibly their own lives now hung on the knife-edge of a very disturbed and very angry man’s self-control.
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
The airport was in chaos when they arrived.Passengers were being held inside the parking garages but weren’t allowed out of the airport due to the roads being blocked by police vehicles.Faith couldn’t tell if the passengers were okay with this or frustrated that they couldn’t leave, but she didn’t have time to assess that situation.
Jessica parked their vehicle just outside the police blockade on the southern end of the scene.Turk hopped out and sniffed the air.His nose pointed directly at the TSA checkpoint building, and he started to growl.
“Hold on a second, boy,” Faith said.“Let’s get a handle on the situation before we jump inside.”
An older man with a prodigious gut and curly red-blond hair met them at a command vehicle parked a few yards up the road.He extended a hand and introduced himself.“Captain Grandal.”
“Faith Bold,” Faith replied.“Good to meet you.”
He chuckled.“Yeah, I guess.Shitty circumstances, though.”
“Agreed,” Faith said.“Any updates?”
“Well, he’s getting impatient.He said if we’re lying to him, he’s willing to kill himself.He doesn’t want to, doesn’t deserve it, the Great Incompetent is the one who deserves it, yadda yadda, but he’ll kill both of them if we don’t give him a way out.Says he doesn’t want to kill innocent people either, but he’ll do it if we jerk him around.”
“Are there still people inside?”Jessica asked.
“No, we got everyone out.”
Faith whistled with relief.“Okay, good.That’s good.And no more luck tracing him?”
Grandal lifted two meaty hands and let them fall to his sides.“Nope.He’s in the southern half of Terminal 2.That’s the best I can tell you.”
A voice, older, calm, understanding, came to their ears from the other side of the command vehicle.“The car’s almost here, Mr.Stevenson.I just spoke to the driver, and they’ll be arriving any minute.”
Faith led Jessica and Turk to the negotiator, a kind-faced woman in her fifties wearing a bulletproof vest and the epaulettes of a lieutenant.She looked at the agents and lifted a finger to her lips.Faith gave her a thumbs up and listened to the conversation.
“You said that five minutes ago!”a hoarse male voice replied over the cell phone a uniformed officer held in her hand in front of the negotiator.
“I know, I’m sorry for the delay.You know how traffic is in the Beltway.”
“Fuck traffic!Stop traffic!Do you not care about the innocent people who are going to die?”
