"Safe passage out of the city. There's a helicopter and a pilot waiting on the roof of the building next door. I walk out of here, and once I'm safely airborne, I'll text the disarm codes for both devices."
"And if we say no?" Max challenged.
Qadir gestured toward Kara. "Then she'll die in seventeen minutes. And thirty seconds later, half the Brooklyn Bridge collapses into the East River."
"Where's the bomb on the bridge?" Jason asked.
"The main suspension cable on the Manhattan side. Two-thirds up the tower. It can't be disarmed without the code. Neither can this one. I didn't come just to play," Qadir continued. "I came to win."
Kara was terrified he was going to win, and they were all going to die. "You need to go. All of you," she said. "Get out of here. Go to the bridge. Get as many people away from there as you can."
"I'm not leaving you," Max told her.
"Fourteen minutes," Qadir said.
She couldn't believe what she was about to say, but she had to say it. "Let him go," she said. "Let Qadir go. Not for me. For everyone else. Thousands will die."
"He can't be trusted," Tyler said. "He'll escape, and he won't send the codes."
"Is there another choice?" Jason asked Max.
"No," Max replied through tight lips. "We have to let him go. But we'll do so with insurance."
"What are you talking about?" Qadir asked, sounding surprised for the first time.
"I have a photo, too," Max said, taking out his phone. "Of your wife and child being held by the CIA."
"That's a fake," Qadir said, but she could see the uncertainty in his eyes as he looked at the photo.
"Look at the newspaper in your wife's hands," Max added. "It has today's date on it. Did you really believe you could come into this city without us knowing, without us taking advantage of the fact that you'd left your family far behind?"
She wondered if the photo was real, how the CIA would have gotten to Qadir's family so quickly.
The two enemies exchanged a long, measuring look.
"I will send the codes to that phone," Qadir said, pointing to the one he'd used to take her picture. "As soon as we are away from the area. But I'll need my hands to be free."
He uncuffed him and then turned him over to Jason, who escorted Qadir out of the room.
"Everyone else needs to leave, too," Kara told the others. "Go to the bridge. Save however many people you can just in case Qadir doesn't send the codes in time."
There were murmurs of protest and also words of encouragement, promises she would be okay, but she didn't really believe any of them.
And then she and Max were alone. He came forward, squatting down in front of her. "I'm so sorry, Kara."
"You have nothing to apologize for. I'm the one who let myself get taken. This is on me, not on you. I don't want you to ever think you're responsible," she said fiercely. "Whatever happens to me is not your fault. And now you have to leave. Take that phone and go outside. Don't come back in unless you have the codes."
"I'm not leaving you. I'm staying with you until he sends the codes."
"If he does. Was that photo real, Max?" She searched his face for the truth.
He shook his head. "No. It's a fake. When I knew Qadir was here, I had my contact at the CIA make it up. It was a long shot that I'd ever use it or that he'd buy it. But it was good enough to make him want to call this off and live to fight another day."
"I'm not sure that's true. He wants to kill us, Max. He wants to blow up that bridge. He wants to make a huge statement. Will he really give all that up based on a photo?"
"If he loves anyone, it's the two people in that photo. I actually got close enough to take their picture a few months ago. That's why I was able to send Reza something that would look real to Qadir. At the time, Qadir wasn't there, and I staked out the place for almost a week, ready to get him as soon as he appeared. But he didn't return. I think he has been staying away from them to keep them safe." He drew a ragged breath. "I should have stayed away from you, Kara. I made you a target."
"I told you this isn't your fault. And when the time on this vest gets down to four minutes, you are going to run like hell. Because I don't want you to die, and if you want to do something for me, if you want to give me some peace before my life ends, then you'll go."
