"What's wrong?" Alina asked sharply.
"We've been clearing the buildings in the area," he said. "We found two men next door. One was deceased, the other was half naked and unconscious behind a dumpster at the helipad. He said he was supposed to fly Qadir out of the area, but someone knocked him out and apparently stole his clothes."
"What?" she said in shock. "The helicopter pilot was knocked unconscious?" She turned to Max. "Who the hell is flying Qadir's helicopter?"
He stared at her for a long minute. Then his gaze swept the room. "Where's Tyler?"
"He went to the bridge," Alina said.
A moment later, Max's earpiece came to life, Tyler's calm voice coming across the radio. "I just landed a helicopter at Morris Field in Westchester. Ali Qadir is deceased. Repeat, Ali Qadir is dead."
She sucked in a breath as she met Max's gaze.
Then Max said, "Copy that."
Chapter Twenty-Four
It was after five p.m. when they returned to the Castleton Hotel. They'd planned to pick up their things and go back to her place, but once she sat down on the soft couch in the living room, Kara didn't think she could get up again any time soon. "Maybe we can spend one more night here," she said. "It's so much nicer than my apartment."
"I could do that," Max said, sitting down next to her and grabbing her hand.
He'd been holding her hand for most of the day. After they'd left the warehouse, they'd gone back to her office, where they'd met up with the rest of her team for a lengthy debrief.
Qadir's men, who had not been killed at the warehouse, were already talking, giving names and contact information for those who had escaped after setting up the bomb on the bridge.
There would be a long investigation into everything else that had happened, including Hartford's original revenge plot, including the café bomb, and the explosion that had killed James Cooper as well as Dominic's shady deal with Qadir. There was a lot to be sorted out over the next several weeks, and her team would be on it.
Kara had also been relieved to hear that the safe house leak had been tied to a low-level analyst at 26 Fed, who happened to be David Hartford's cousin, and who owned Hartford a great deal of money for canceling his gambling debts. That analyst had been Hartford's eyes inside the investigation. Thankfully, most of the investigation had been done by her team, but the analyst had been able to access the safe house location, which was used by the New York field office. Kara was thrilled that no one on her team had been responsible.
The most important update had come from Tyler, who had escorted Qadir's body back to New York City for confirmation of his death. Then he'd told them what had happened. Once he'd learned Qadir's escape plan, he'd slipped out of the warehouse, taken out the guard at the helipad, knocked out the pilot, and put on his clothes and flight gear. He'd been waiting in the helicopter when Jason had escorted Qadir to the helipad. He'd wondered if Jason had recognized him.
Jason said he had, and he was on board with the idea and with Tyler's initiative to think that quickly. He was also impressed that Tyler knew how to fly a helicopter.
Kara had been impressed by that, too. Apparently, Tyler had a lot of talents, and she was happy that he was not only someone she could trust but someone she could count on to be extremely good at his job.
After Qadir sent the codes, Tyler said he'd landed the helicopter in the field instead of the small airport where Qadir had wanted to go. Qadir attacked him with a knife that he'd hidden in his shoe, and he shot him in self-defense.
She wondered about that part of the story, but no one had seemed interested in discussing the details of Tyler's actions since he'd killed one of the most wanted terrorists in the world.
"Kara?"
She suddenly realized how long she'd been lost in thought. "Sorry, what did you say?"
"Just wondering what you're thinking about?"
"Everything," she said with a helpless shrug. "There's a lot to process."
"You don't have to do that tonight."
"I know." She paused. "What did you think about Tyler's actions?"
"I thought he was brilliant," Max admitted. "And I was impressed Jason let him do it. There was a lot at stake."
"We had more control with Tyler in the pilot's seat. If Qadir hadn't sent the codes, if the bombs hadn't been disarmed, he was going to kill him."
"He was always going to kill him," Max said, meeting her gaze. "Maybe that won't be the official story, but I think it's the truth."
"So do I. Are you sorry you didn't get to be the one to do that?"
