“Nothing yet,” Finn told him. “Local LEOs have the dogs on the scent, though. Your bomber is still on premises.”
Jack steered Claire out of the crowd. “What was Maddie’s twenty at last transmission?”
“Still headed toward the congressman’s room in the presidential suite when I heard from her last.”
Shit.
“I have to go back in,” Jack muttered. “She’s in trouble.”
“Not advisable, Jack,” Finn warned. “Will would have my ass if I let you go back in when there’s a bomb threat. I can’t lose two Templars in one day, brah.”
“I’m not leaving her.” Jack glanced around, looking for a safe place to leave Claire. “Guess you’re just going to have to say you tried to talk me out of it, brother.”
He snatched the comm from his ear and dropped it back in his pocket, knowing he was going to get an earful from the normally Zen tech specialist. “Claire, I have to go back for my . . . colleague. I want you to stay here with the rest of the guests. Blend in. And don’t go with anyone else but me. I don’t care who it is.”
She nodded, looking a little uncertain about his plan. He turned to go but pivoted back to her and held out his hand. “And I’ll take that flash drive, if you please.”
She blinked at him in surprise and then pressed her lips together in a stubborn line. “I need that information.”
“You promised to trust me, Claire,” he reminded her. “Trust me on this—what you’re looking for isn’t on that flash drive.”
She crossed her arms with a huff. “But—”
“Will’s alive, Claire,” Jack interrupted, impatient to get the hell upstairs and find Maddie. “He’s alive and he’s in Chicago. That’s all I’m going to tell you until you give me the damned flash drive. When I get back, I’ll fill in some more blanks for you, but I have to have that device or you’ll put all of us at risk—Will included.”
She hesitated for a brief moment and then reached into the pocket of her black slacks and handed Jack the flash drive.
He grabbed it and spun back toward the hotel, slipping around to the service entrance he remembered from the maps he’d studied with Maddie. The darkness hid his movements, but he still couldn’t shake the feeling that he was being watched. He reached into his tuxedo jacket’s inside pocket and took out the key card Finn had created for him and slid it into the slot on the door. The green light on the lock came on and the door clicked.
Jack sent one last glance around the darkness, but seeing no one, he slipped inside and raced down the hallway until he found another stairwell that would take him to the top floor. He took the stairs two at a time, hoping to God he wasn’t too late.
