espresso and felt his eyelids flutter the moment he sucked it down. Caffeine put his brain into another gear, and he walked back to Monte’s cubicle with a spring in his step.
The screen was flashing. The FBI’s search engine had made a match. He sat in Monte’s chair. He was finally going to learn something about the son-of-a-bitch who’d kidnapped his son. He clicked the mouse on the button on the screen. A message appeared.
This is a restricted area. Please enter your password.
He typed Linville’s name backward, and hit ENTER. A page appeared on the screen. It was an FBI MOST WANTED poster. In the center of the poster was the same photo he was carrying around in his pocket. Next to it a SPECIAL ALERT had been posted at 2:00, Eastern Standard Time. That was only twenty minutes ago.
He quickly read the alert and felt a jolt to his nervous system as strong as the double espresso. The FBI had determined that Amin was a terrorist, and planning a major attack somewhere near Las Vegas.
41
Valentine got in his rental, took Sahara to I-15, and headed south toward Bill Higgins’s house. He did seventy most of the way, his eyes peeled on the empty highway. The sickening sensation he’d felt reading the FBI’s poster would not go away.
He needed a comforting voice to talk to, and decided to call Mabel. When she didn’t answer her house line, he tried her cell.
“I’m at St. Joe’s with Yolanda,” his neighbor said.
He nearly swerved off the highway. “She okay?”
“She went into contractions ten minutes ago. The doctor is here, and he’s concerned she’s going into labor too soon. She’s not due for another three weeks.”
Valentine pulled onto the shoulder, threw the rental into park, and shut his eyes. Taking a deep breath, he said, “But she’s okay so far?”
“So far, yes,” Mabel said. “The bad news is, she knows Gerry’s in a lot of trouble. She had a dream that told her so.”
“A dream?”
“I know, it’s goofy, but she’s convinced it’s a premonition.”
Valentine swallowed the rising lump in his throat. “It’s going to be okay,” he said.
“These people Gerry’s associated with are very bad, aren’t they?” his neighbor said.
“Everything’s going to be fine.”
“Oh, Tony, the evidence is right there. Gerry sent Yolanda a box of money, and he bought a gun with his credit card, and—”
“Did you hear what I said?” He realized he was shouting, and lowered his voice. “It’s all going to work out in the end. Please, trust me on this.”
“But, Tony—”
“Please, Mabel. Please.”
“Is that what you want me to tell Yolanda?”
He imagined Yolanda in labor, and the thoughts that were going through her mind. “Yes. That’s exactly what I want you to tell her.”
“Whatever you say,” his neighbor said.
Walking up the path to Bill’s house, he picked up the Sunday
“Must’ve been a slow news day,” he said.
They went to his study. Bill tossed the newspaper into the garbage, then rested his cane against the desk and took a chair. Valentine remained standing, his eyes vacantly staring at his friend’s face.
“So you know what’s going on,” Bill said.
“Yeah. Who told you?”
“The FBI monitors whoever goes into the classified area of their site. They called Steve Linville at FaceScan and asked him why one of his employees was in there. Linville told them it was you.”
“Any sign of my son?”
“Nothing,” Bill said. “Your boy hasn’t communicated with you?”
“He left me a voice message last night,” Valentine said. “He used a code to tell me he was in trouble.”
Bill ran his fingers through his hair. It was a signal that cheaters often used to signal each other there was “heat” and trouble on the horizon. He wondered if Bill recognized the irony in the gesture.
“Why didn’t you tell me last night that the FBI thought this son-of-a-bitch was a terrorist?” he said.
“Because last night, the FBI didn’t know that he was a terrorist,” Bill replied.
“What changed?”
“Sit down, will you? You’re making me nervous.”
Valentine pulled up a chair and sat down. “Feel better?”
“Yes.” Bill’s eyes were watery from lack of sleep, and he rubbed them. “Remember when I told you how the FBI linked two murders in Biloxi to four other gambler suicides?”
“I remember.”
“When the FBI was looking at the information, they saw something else. The cities where the gambler suicides took place were Biloxi, Detroit, New Orleans, Reno, and Atlantic City. These same cities have something else in common.”
“What’s that?”
“In the past two and a half years, caches of high-grade explosives have been found in each one. With the explosives were sophisticated detonators and mercury switches. In each city, the FBI got an anonymous tip that led them to the explosives before they were used. In New Orleans, they found a van with the stuff lining the interior walls.”
Valentine felt another jolt to his nervous system. They were starting to scare the hell out of him. He placed his hand on his chest and felt his ticker. Its beat was slow and steady. His nerves, he decided.
“You okay?”
“I’ll live. When did the FBI link the explosives to the murders?”
“This morning,” Bill said. “There was a shootout yesterday at a gas station outside Henderson. A Mexican died. His partner got pulled over by the highway patrol. A K-Nine dog sniffed vapors in his truck. The partner broke down this morning and admitted selling explosives to a guy matching the suspect’s description.”
“What kind of explosives?”
“Triacetone triperoxide, also called TATP. It’s what that guy Reid had in his basketball shoes when he tried to take down the jet right after 9/11.”
“How much did they sell him?”
“Seventy-five pounds. If it were detonated all together, it would take down an entire city block.”
Valentine closed his eyes, then slowly opened them. “You think he’s planning to hit Las Vegas?”
“That’s the general consensus.”
“I talked to my son last night. I know things about this guy the FBI might not know.”
“Did you tell Fuller?”
“I tried last night. He wouldn’t listen.”
“You want me to call him?”
“Yes.”
He watched Bill dial the phone. He’d wanted to find Gerry before the FBI did, but he knew now that that was no longer the most important thing. The FBI had to find Amin, and they had to do it fast. Even if it meant his son ended up getting hurt.
