"Well, just keep looking. I'm sure you'll figure it out. Or ask Alex. She's pretty adept at problem-solving those kinds of things."
“She helped me last night, but we both gave up after a while.”
“You’ll figure it out,” Blunt said. “Keep up the good work.”
Mia settled into her chair and hoped that a night of sleep, no matter how restless it was, could give her a fresh perspective on the mystery and find a quick solution.”
She was in the middle of a sip when Alex came bounding into the room.
“I think I figured it out,” she said, her eyes wide with excitement.
“What are you referring to?”
“That email you received,” Alex said. “I think I know what we were missing. Bring it up for me again.”
Mia pounded out a few keystrokes and then the image appeared on the screen.
“Zoom in for me,” Alex said.
Mia enlarged the photograph, which was nothing more than a little smiling girl toting a stack of books at the library.
“Look on the shelves behind her.”
Mia squinted as she leaned closer to the screen. “What am I missing?”
“The spines. Can you blow them up a little?”
Mia obliged, expanding the photo even more.
“Right there,” Alex said. “Do you see the numbers on the spine?”
“The ones used to catalog them?”
“Yes. See how some of them are highlighted?”
Mia nodded. “What on earth?”
Alex leaned even closer to the monitor and then started jotting down numbers.
“What is it?” Mia asked.
“I think it’s a GPS location.”
“Someone is sending me a message?”
Alex nodded. “It would appear that way.”
As soon as Alex finished, she entered all the digits into a search engine. Seconds later, a link to a map popped up on the screen.
“Would you look at that?” she said. “It’s about two miles from here. Move over.”
Mia yielded her chair as Alex sat down. She opened up a program enabling her to view the city from an NSA satellite. Entering the GPS coordinates in again, the view on the screen shifted to the location.
“This has to be it,” Alex said. “Someone wants you to go there.”
“Interesting.”
Alex turned and looked at Mia. “Be completely frank with me. What kind of relationship did you have with Radcliffe’s stepdaughter? A good one? Strained? Did you want to kill each other?”
“I knew who she was, but I didn’t think she knew who I was,” Mia admitted. “I’d say it was amicable at worst.”
“So, you don’t think she’d have it out for you?”
“Absolutely not,” Mia said. “We’re kind of a tight-knit community.”
“You’re sure there’s no reason she’d want to harm you?”
“None that I can think of.”
Alex leaped to her feet and hustled out of the room. Mia followed her to Blunt’s office.
“What is it?” Blunt asked.
“We figured out where they are?” Alex said.
“Where who is?”
“Evana Bahar and her team.”
“And you’re sure?”
Alex shrugged. “Maybe eighty-five percent positive. I’d never been a hundred percent certain while dealing with her.”
“That’s good enough for me. I’ll get a team over there ASAP. Good work, ladies.”
* * *
BLUNT CALLED one of his contacts at the FBI, alerting him to their discovery. While working with the FBI wasn’t Blunt’s first choice, he had already assigned Hawk to the National Mall where the bulk of the evening’s activities were scheduled to take place. And Titus Black wasn’t available. So, Blunt did the only thing he could do and enlisted the help of the FBI.
An hour after he called to let them know about the possible location of Evana Bahar, he received another call. The special agent in charge of the operation screamed into the phone at Blunt.
“Slow down,” Blunt said. “What happened?”
“The place was booby-trapped. Three of my agents were seriously injured. One of them has been rushed to the hospital and isn’t expected to make it.”
Blunt sighed as he listened to the news.
“You did this to our people,” the agent said.
“I had a tip from a reliable source and—”
“Your source is a joke,” the man said before ending the call.
Blunt interlocked his fingers and placed them behind his head. He looked up and groaned. Evana Bahar had struck again—and he knew that she still had more plans for the day.
CHAPTER 33
6:55 p.m.
HAWK SCANNED THE AREA in front of the Capitol Building as President Young prepared to address the throngs gathered in front of the steps and stretching out across the National Mall. While many media reports continued to warn of a possible attack, the president’s insistence that there was no danger apparently calmed any fears. Celebration attendees came wearing red, white, and blue outfits, some with their faces painted, others with foam Statue of Liberty hats or Uncle Sam masks. Although Hawk found the overly festive mood to be mildly surprising considering the threats, the energy was electric.
“How’s it looking on the ground?” Alex asked over the coms.
"Looks like the Fourth of July around here," he said. When Blunt asked her to coordinate the operation from the Phoenix Foundation headquarters, Hawk was relieved. He loved having Alex with her, but speaking in his earbud was more than close enough given the circumstances.
“The crowd looks big from the images I’m seeing on these closed-circuit feeds,” she said.
“A few minutes ago, I spoke with a ranger from the National Parks system, and he told me that the inauguration crowds rarely swell this large.”
“Incredible,” she said. “See anyone suspicious?”
“Not so far,” he said. “At least, not any more suspicious than usual. You know there are always about a dozen nut jobs walking down a Washington street at any given time.”
She chuckled.
“How are things looking on your end?” he asked.
“So far, so good here too. We’re not hearing any chatter though, which does concern me.”
“Yeah, you’d think they’d at least try to say something to throw us off. In some ways, that terrifies me more than anything.”
“Check in with me if you see anything worth noting,” she said.
“You do the same.”
Titus
