“Okay. But if Syd had trouble digging something up, why would we have better luck?” Rodriguez asked.
George shrugged. “Hey, we got the resources of the entire U.S. government at our disposal. It’s worth a shot. Why don’t you call Syd? Maybe she found something out and forgot to tell you.”
“Yeah, maybe.” Jake dialed her number. He’d been meaning to check on her anyway. He knew that getting escorted off the scene must’ve smarted. Syd wasn’t acclimated to being told that her security clearance was insufficient.
She picked up on the third ring. “Hey, I only have a sec. The plane is about to take off.”
“What? Where are you flying?” Jake said. “I thought you went back to the hotel to sleep.”
“Hard to sleep when we’ve got a bombing to thwart,” she said archly.
“Syd…”
“Relax, I won’t get you in trouble. Just tell your girlfriend I headed back to New York in a huff.”
“Is that where you’re going?” Jake asked. “Back to the office?”
“Not exactly.”
Jake shut his eyes. Why was every woman in his life so bullheaded? “Syd, this is nuts. If you figured something out, tell me and I’ll let them know. We could have a swarm of agents on this.”
“Not big on swarms. I work best alone. You of all people should know that, Jake.”
“Shit.” He knew that his chances of swaying her were slim to none. He could rat her out to Leonard and have her tracked on a flight manifest, but he squirmed at the thought. They were partners, even if he was the only one who seemed to get what that meant. And besides, thanks to her former profession, she probably had a drawerful of identities on hand. It was unlikely she was traveling under her real name. Although in retrospect he wondered if he was even privy to that information. After all, what kind of parents named their girl “Sydney”?
He sighed, then said, “All right. I need to know if you dug up anything on Dante Parrish before we got sidetracked.”
There was such a long pause Jake wondered if he’d lost the connection. “Nice one, Jake. Totally forgot about our friend Dante,” she finally said. “Huh. You’re right, if we could track him…”
“We’re pretty sure he was tied to Madison ’s kidnapping, right? So if he’s part of the larger plot-”
“Then he might know where the trucks are headed. It’s a long shot, but maybe. Wish I could help, but my sources came up dry.”
“Maybe we’ll have more luck. And, Syd?”
“Yes?”
“Be careful, okay?”
“You know me, babe.”
“Yeah, that’s the problem,” Jake muttered to the dial tone.
“So we’re trying to track down Dante Parrish?” George asked.
“Yeah. Syd didn’t have any luck, but maybe the long arm of the U.S. government will.” After all, Jake thought, the FBI likely had databases she couldn’t touch. “And while we’re at it, let’s see if we can gain access to prison records. I want the names of any Aryan Brotherhood gang members who did time with Mack Krex and Dante Parrish. Maybe some of them have licenses to drive big rigs.”
“Probably a lot of them do,” George said, cocking his head to the side. “It’s a pretty common job for ex-cons. Bosses don’t care if you killed someone, long as you didn’t do it while driving.”
“Well, it’s worth a shot, right?” Jake pointed out.
Rodriguez shrugged. “Hell, I’ll switch out one mindless search for another. At least this one doesn’t involve tax forms. Doing this made me realize I forgot to file this year.”
“And you call yourself a government employee,” George said.
“Hey, what they’re paying us, we shouldn’t even have to file. That should be a perk of the job, you ask me.”
“Amen to that, brother.”
Jake watched them tap knuckles. “All right. I’ll call the prison since the warden knows me. You two start on Dante. Anything you can find on him would be helpful.”
“Including an address?”
“That, and his exact location on a GPS.” Rodriguez snorted. “Sure. We’re on it.”
Jake watched as they set to work with renewed vigor. It wasn’t much of a lead, in fact it might prove to be more busywork. But at least it was their own busywork. And if they found something, he was not above rubbing Leonard’s face in it.
“No, I understand completely that there’s no official organizer. Still, you must keep track of-” The agitated voice erupted in another stream of accusations, and Kelly winced, holding the phone away from her ear. “I’m afraid you misunderstood me,” she said when he finally trailed off. “We have no interest in interfering with your right to free assembly. We’re just trying to find out if you have a list of participants-”
There was a renewed tirade about McCarthyism and witch hunts. When he invoked Abraham Lincoln, Kelly said, “Thanks for your time, sir,” and hung up.
Leonard glanced at her. “No luck, huh?”
“Same as the rest of them.” Kelly leaned back in her chair. She had spent the past few hours calling parade organizers in cities under the Houston field office’s jurisdiction, asking for the names of everyone who had been issued a permit for a float. Unfortunately, by and large the parades were ad hoc affairs. Sometimes it was even hard to determine if anyone was in charge.
Kelly had to admit, she was happy Jake and the others were in the other trailer. It would have been distracting having him here. She’d had to fight for him to stay, but figured she’d rather have him where she could keep an eye on him. Especially after the way he’d behaved during her Berkshires case. And separating him from Syd, who had an even weaker moral code, was a critical part of her plan. The best way to make sure he didn’t do something reckless was to keep him close by. Ideally, one trailer over. She, Leonard and three other agents were manning the phones in this trailer. Every other field office nationwide was doing the same thing, trying to procure lists of participants in Fourth of July parades.
Unfortunately, they were encountering a number of obstacles. Some parades were issued a single permit that covered the entire event. Other cities authorized individual permits, but were more than happy to include any float that showed up at the staging area. And the organizers rarely knew where the floats were arriving from; they were constructed everywhere from people’s driveways to the streets on the morning of the Fourth. It was a mess.
“They’d probably be a lot more cooperative if we told them why we needed to know,” Kelly pointed out.
“What, and start mass panic?”
“It wouldn’t hurt to tell people to steer clear of the parades tomorrow,” Kelly said.
“We tell people to skip the parades, they’re going to want to know why,” Leonard argued. “You’re basically suggesting we tell every city in the country to cancel Independence Day.”
“Why not, if it saves some lives?”
“Because it won’t make a difference. If the bombers get wind of the fact that we’ve figured out their plan, they could drive into a populated area and detonate this afternoon. Our best chance is not to let them know we’re on to them.”
“I don’t think we’re making much progress,” Kelly said.
“Look, Agent Jones.” Leonard glared at her. “We’ve got agents on the ground tracking down as many floats as they can find, in addition to driving around every major city with radiation detectors. We’ve called in the National Guard and every law enforcement officer available. Tomorrow they’ll be reporting to staging areas at dawn, checking each entry. We’ve spent a long time preparing for something like this. We’ve got it covered.”
Kelly couldn’t help saying, “Like you had Katrina covered?”
Leonard’s voice was edged with irritation. “We’re not FEMA, Jones, and this isn’t the first major bomb plot we’ve encountered since 9/11. We’ve dealt with this scenario before, and prevented it from happening. And remember, you’re free to leave at any point.”
Kelly set her jaw. Leonard had adopted a tone she hated, the old, you don’t know what you’re talking about, useless female voice. It triggered something in her memory. “Where’s Burke right now?”
“He’s still in D.C. But we’ve been told to steer clear of him for now. Legal is sorting through the paper trail
