"Cal might run his own group here."
"Or be working for someone else. He seems more like a middleman to me. Can you do some digging?"
"If these events are tied to Qadir, this is the last thing you should work on, Max. Qadir has already stolen so much of your life. Look what you've lost."
"Which means I have little else to lose," he said harshly. "And this is more about Dominic, my employer, than anything else."
"For now, but not if the group is tied to Qadir." Reza gave him a sharp look. "You can't tell me that Ashford isn't a cover to get you back into a region that you should not be going to again. Or that his money isn't fueling your obsession."
"Can you help me or not?" he said.
"I'll look into it," Reza said, then dug his hands into his pockets and walked away.
His heart was still pounding as he watched his friend leave the park. There didn't appear to be anyone following him, but as his gaze moved around his surroundings, he very much hoped that no one had followed him here. He'd been careful. Hopefully, careful enough. But if these events were tied to anyone in Qadir's network, things were going to get a lot worse.
He pulled out his phone and called Kara.
Kara ignored her buzzing phone. "Is Whitney all right?" she asked Jason, who had just called the team into the conference room for an urgent briefing, which revealed an attack at the safe house.
"Ms. Holden is scared but unharmed," Jason said tersely.
"How the hell did this happen?" Tyler demanded.
"Obviously, the location was leaked. The agent in the hallway was knocked unconscious. The gunman shot the lock off the door. Fortunately, the agent inside reacted quickly, hitting him with gunfire before he could get to Whitney. The attacker was injured and retreated down the hall, where he disappeared into the stairwell."
"Description?" Alina asked.
"Medium height, ski mask over his head and face, oversized jacket, dark pants, and he had a large ring on his left hand. Wes and Charlie are going through security cameras now. The jacket and mask were dumped down the laundry chute. We may get lucky with DNA evidence."
"And Whitney?" she asked.
"The U.S. Marshals will take over," Jason replied. "I'm meeting with Damon in an hour. The information about the safe house most likely came from either his team or ours. Going forward, we'll set up our own safe house, but in the meantime, we need to tighten the circle. Damon and I will discuss how best to divide up the work, but for now, continue on as you've been doing." He let out a breath, turning to Kara. "Are there any updates?"
She hesitated, almost afraid to say anything now that she knew the safe house had been breached. Her team might be comprised of experienced agents, but she didn't know any of them well. In fact, she knew the agents at 26 Fed better, and she couldn't imagine one of them being a mole. But Jason was waiting for an answer, and she had to say something.
"I've been digging into Samantha's case files, looking for a connection between her and James Cooper, but nothing yet. I also contacted Wexler Properties, the owner of the building in the second blast. He is in Tokyo with his executive team and will be back tomorrow. I'll speak to him then."
"I've been researching James Cooper and his financials," Tyler interjected. "He's had several unexplained large cash deposits in the last several years. All for different amounts, all cash, none reported on his taxes. I spoke to his wife, who said she didn't handle the banking. She barely knew how to get into their accounts. I also talked to another woman in the Building Department, Grace Wilcox. She said James was a quiet man, kept to himself, did his job, and never had any arguments with anyone."
"The cash deposits are interesting," she muttered. "Maybe someone was bribing him to sign off on work that wasn't quite right."
Tyler nodded. "I haven't found a trail yet, but I'm looking into it. Also, followed up on Vincent Castellano. Hasn't been home or at work. But he used his credit card at a bar in Brooklyn yesterday, so I'm going to follow up on that."
"Castellano's employer, Petrosyan Automotive, is under investigation for tax fraud by Samantha's team at the DA's office," she interjected. "But there's nothing to tie that case to James Cooper."
"Alina?" Jason said.
"I've been looking into the Novik brothers," Alina replied. "Sergei Novik has been in Prague for the last month. He's expected back in the US this weekend. Alex Novik has been MIA at the Crimson Club since Cray was killed. He's allegedly sick, but he's not at home, and he hasn't used any of his credit cards since Tuesday night when he bought dinner in Soho. Judging by the bill, the meal was shared by more than one person. I was just about to start looking at cameras by that restaurant to see if I can identify him or his companions."
"And Cray's shooter—an individual possibly named Cal?" Jason asked.
"The car he was using was dumped in Chinatown," Alina said. "He's in the wind."
"All right. Let's get back to work," Jason said. "We need to figure out what connects those two bombings so we can prevent a third."
After the meeting, Tyler followed her back to her desk.
"I'm going to meet with a friend of mine at the ATF," Tyler said. "He's going to go over the explosive devices with me, see if we can find a signature, a part we can trace to a common buyer. After that, I'll follow up at the bar in Brooklyn, see if anyone knows Castellano. Do you want to come, or…"
