Her phone rang, and seeing Nigel Clark’s name on the screen, she snatched it up with a frenzy. “Agent Dawson.”
“Yes, Agent Dawson. Nigel Clark here. You’re looking for information on Mohamed Nabi and Jangi Shah.”
“Thanks for calling back. My print examiner said you gave him their names.” She thought for a second on what to tell him and decided he needed to know the severity of the threat so he would adopt her sense of urgency for the request. “We have reason to believe they’ve entered our country and are planning a horrendous attack. I need additional information on them ASAP.”
“That doesn’t sound good,” he said, a hint of worry in his tone. “I can email a detailed report, prints, and DNA profiles for the pair.”
“I’m also looking for information on Bilal and Gadi Amari. Especially prints for Gadi.”
“Hold on while I look at what we have.”
Kiley had no time to stand around and wait for him to come back on the line. She moved to the end of the table to set up Gadi’s phone to image where she could keep an eye on it.
“Okay, yeah,” Clark said. “We have Gadi’s prints. Brother’sprints too. They’re new to the terrorism scene so not much additional info, I’m afraid.”
“Send everything you have on all four men. Don’t delay. It’s urgent.” She gave him her email address and warned him to keep the fact that these men were in the U.S. confidential.
“Understood. I’ll send the email right away.” He disconnected.
Hoping she’d set a fire blazing under him, she opened her email on her computer. She kept one eye on it and the other on the team. “He’s sending DNA, prints, and details on Nabi and Shah. Plus he has the Amaris’ prints.”
Evan dropped into a nearby chair. “Seems like we’re finally making some progress.”
“But we need more. Much more. And faster.” She shot a look at the wall clock. “We have a little less than twenty-four hours until 9/11. Give me an update so we can get moving. Anyone. Go. Toss it out there.”
Cam looked up. “No CCTV at the motel, but I’ve got calls out to nearby businesses.”
“Since we totally struck out on cars in the motel lot,” Mack said, “hopefully the CCTV will catch Bilal’s car if he’s in town.”
“Agreed,” Cam said. “Clark’s data might give an idea of the role the Amaris are assigned in the attack. If not, I’ll work on expanding our information on them.”
Kiley scribbled the wordscyberandbombon the whiteboard. “We still need to nail down the threat. If it’s cyber in nature, Bilal’s IT skills could come into play. If a bomb, he could be in charge of the Wi-Fi backup.”
A knock sounded on the door, and a woman poked her head in. “I’m Agent Haddad. You needed a translator?”
Kiley rushed to the door. “Come in. Come in. We recorded a message and need to have it interpreted immediately.”
The woman wearing a black pant suit and white blouse cautiously approached the table, and Kiley had to resist the urge to get her moving faster.
Sean had connected his phone to a Bluetooth speaker and started the recording playing.
Haddad frowned as she ran her hand over gleaming black hair pulled back in a ponytail. “Would you please turn up the volume and play it again?”
Sean tapped a few buttons, and the voice sounded louder.
“Okay,” she said. “He’s saying, ‘work hour wait win yesterday.’”
Kiley didn’t know what to say or do. She’d counted on the message providing that all-important lead, but Haddad’s interpretation was just nonsense. “Are you sure that’s right?”
“I know it doesn’t make sense and that’s why I had you play it again.” Haddad shrugged. “But that’s what he’s saying—‘work hour wait win yesterday.’”
Kiley nodded. “Thank you, Agent Haddad.”
Her eyes narrowed, and she backed out of the room.
Kiley turned back to her teammates. “Any ideas?” She frantically searched for an explanation from the team as the pressure of their short deadline built. Sean and Mack shook their heads. Cam and Evan frowned. This was up to her, but what did it mean?
An idea popped into her brain then. “The letter we intercepted at the Abeds’ mailbox place seemed to be in code. Maybe this is code too. It could even fit with the information in that letter. Or something in Firuzeh’s journals. Or files at the shipping company.”
