happened in Alexandria? You said you got an anonymous tip that Mason was there…?”
“That came through Matt,” Crane confirmed. “He took the call in New York, and I asked the ADIC to call Washington and get us in on the raid. After all, we had been looking for Mason for months, and the tip came through our FO. It was only fair that we should have a part in bringing him down.”
“Could Foster be sure of being there?”
“Of course,” Crane shot back. “He’s my partner, for one thing, and I have… advantages.” Kealey knew she was referring to her relationship with Rachel Ford. “Besides, Matt has connections as well. His father spent twenty years as an agent. He finished as the SAC in Houston, and he still has plenty of friends in the Bureau.”
He looked at Rudaki. “So you’ve been working with Foster.”
“No! I have no idea what you’re-”
“Matt had nothing to do with this!” Crane shouted, cutting off Rudaki’s denial. “And you can’t prove otherwise, so stop accusing him!”
“Save it,” Kealey snarled. He gestured to Rudaki. “What else has this guy been telling you? What’s supposed to happen today?”
She looked at her informant and took a deep breath, as if deciding how much to say. “He said the Iranian government was working with Ruhmann. They’re supposed to hit the UN this afternoon.”
“How?” Kealey addressed the question to Crane, even though Rudaki was right there. He still wasn’t sure of Crane’s role in all of this, but he definitely didn’t trust the Iranian to give up the truth, even at gunpoint.
“He didn’t say,” Crane said. “But it doesn’t matter. We’ve already locked down the whole area. It would have to be a bomb, but even if the Iranians have one, they won’t be able to get it within two blocks of the target. It would never work.”
“The Iranians are not behind this, Sam. It’s Will Vanderveen, and he does have a bomb. A very large one.” Kealey turned back to Rudaki and pointed the gun at his face. “And you know something about it, so start talking.”
“I have no idea what you’re-”
“I’ll ask you once more,” Kealey said, struggling to keep his voice calm. “And then I’m going to shoot you. Do you understand?”
Rudaki looked to Crane, who looked in turn to Kealey. She scowled and said, “You’d better be bluffing, Ryan. If you do this, I will personally make sure you spend the rest of your life in prison.”
“I have the gun, Samantha, and I’m still not convinced of your innocence. You might want to keep that in mind. The only reason I’m not putting these questions to you is because of your position.”
“What are you talking about?”
“I can’t hurt you to get the truth,” he explained. “And I don’t want to, even though you probably deserve it. But I can hurt him, and that’s just what I plan to do unless he starts talking.”
“Bullshit,” she said simply. “You’re bluffing.”
“You can’t let this happen,” Rudaki said, looking at Crane. Some of his bluster was starting to fade. “You’re with the FBI, and this man is threatening me. Do something. ”
“Where’s the fucking bomb?” Kealey shouted.
Rudaki looked at the gun, then at Kealey’s face. “I don’t-”
The shot sounded like an explosion in the small room. Hakim Rudaki screamed in agony, his eyes wide in horror. He clutched at his ruined knee and slid from the bed to the floor, blood pumping between his fingers.
“Jesus Christ!” Crane screamed, dropping her arms. “What the hell are you…?”
Kealey never heard the rest of her question. He was on the ground, his left hand wrapped in Rudaki’s hair, his gun jammed under the other man’s chin. He was screaming the same question over and over, his face an inch from Rudaki’s. “Where’s the bomb? Where is it? Tell me, you piece of shit! Tell me! ”
Kealey was aware of Crane’s hands on his shoulders. She was trying to pull him back, and it briefly occurred to him that if she was in on it, she wouldn’t even be in the room; she would have gone for her gun in the hall. The fact that she hadn’t only reinforced her innocence.
He shrugged her off and kept screaming the question. Finally, through gritted teeth, Rudaki howled a name.
“What? What was that?”
“ Nazeri! I don’t know anything about a bomb! I only know the name, I swear to God…”
“Nazeri? Who is he? Where is he?”
“ I don’t know! ”
“The Iranian government was never behind this, was it?” Rudaki seemed to hesitate, and Kealey shouted the question again.
“No,” Rudaki gasped. His face was covered in sweat, and Kealey could tell he was about to pass out. “Tehran never had a hand in it. The whole thing started in Iraq.”
“With who?” Kealey demanded. “Who in Iraq?”
Rudaki shook his head, his face contorted with pain. “I never dealt with the top people. Just intermediaries.”
“Like Vanderveen, right? You dealt with Vanderveen?”
“Yes. I dealt with Vanderveen and…” He nodded at Crane, who had been watching the exchange with a mixed expression of shock and disbelief. “Her partner.”
It was irrefutable proof; at this point, Rudaki would gain nothing by lying. Kealey shot a glance at Samantha Crane. She was staring at the Iranian informant, her face frozen. “This whole time?” she finally managed to choke out. “I don’t believe it. You’re lying.”
Rudaki shook his head weakly. “It’s the truth. I swear it.”
“You’re lying,” Crane repeated, but the words had lost their conviction. “It can’t be true. It’s not possible. It’s just not…”
Her voice faltered, but instead of collapsing into herself, she suddenly sprinted forward. “ You fuck! ” she screamed. “ You fucking — ”
Kealey was caught off-guard by the sudden outburst, but he managed to restrain her in time, wrapping her up from behind. “We don’t have time for this,” he said in a low, urgent voice. “He’ll get what’s coming to him, and so will Foster.”
He could feel her trembling in his arms; her whole body was shaking with rage. “Come on, calm down, okay? I’m going to let you go. Don’t do anything crazy. Stay calm.”
He released her cautiously. Then he asked for her phone, having left his in the car. As she pulled it out of her pocket and handed it over, he pushed her into the hall, then followed her out. He was careful to keep his body between her and Rudaki, who was still lying on the floor in the bedroom, moaning in agony.
“We have to call the FO,” Crane said. She was still flushed and breathing hard. “They can get a location on Nazeri in less than a minute.”
“In a second,” Kealey said. He was already punching in Naomi’s number. He wanted to give her a heads-up first, and then they would bring the whole world crashing down on this Nazeri character. He let out a long breath, letting some of the tension ebb. It seemed like everything was in hand; the meeting at the UN was still hours away. Soon he would have Nazeri’s location, and when he got there, Kealey had no doubt that he would find Will Vanderveen and the BLU-82. At this point, the only thing he had to worry about was killing Vanderveen before he could set off the bomb.
But then he lifted the phone to his ear, and everything changed.
CHAPTER 51
NEW YORK CITY
“Hello?”
He pulled the phone away from his ear and looked at it, wondering if somehow he’d dialed the wrong number. Bringing it back to his ear, he said, “I’m looking for Naomi Kharmai, but I think I have the wrong-”
“Is this Ryan? Ryan Kealey?”
