He frowned, and his tight look as he ran a nervous hand down his slate-gray tie raised Kiley’s concern. “Actually, that’swhy I stopped by,” he said. “I’ve got bad news for you. The Waleeds are in the wind.”
“What?” Kiley planted her hands on the table and glared at the man. “How on earth did that happen?”
“They both went for a swim. As they got back in the boat, the other guy dropped a towel over their heads, blocking any view of their faces. My agents had no reason to believe it wasn’t the Waleeds, so they didn’t investigate. Hours later, one of my agents caught a glimpse under Nasim’s towel. It wasn’t him.”
“A diver switched places,” Evan said.
Kagan nodded. “We immediately checked on Ibrahim. Same thing.”
Kiley slammed a fist on the table, thankful for the pain to keep her from railing even more at this senior agent.
Kagan solidly met her gaze. No backing down or cowering. “We’re mortified this happened.”
“Could’ve happened to us just as easily,” Sean said.
Kiley shot Sean an irritated look and didn’t want to admit he was right, but he was.
“I’ve already put out an alert for the Waleeds and have additional agents headed out there to interview people. We’ll thoroughly canvass the area. Let me know if there’s anything else I can do.”
Kiley nodded and waited for the door to close behind him. “This is the last thing we needed.”
“So Nasim’s DNA matched the slugs or casings?” Evan asked.
She nodded. “Fat lot of good it does us, as we have no idea where he is right now.”
“We’ll get him,” Evan encouraged.
Kiley gave him a nod and dropped into her chair to regroup for about the thousandth time. Before Jennings called, Kiley was planning to update Sean and Mack on Eisenhower’s information, so she proceeded to do so.
“Man,” Mack said, “that doesn’t sound good at all.”
“We have no proof Olsen’s theory holds any weight,” Kiley continued, “but the Glen Canyon Dam is the best target we have right now.”
“Since the Waleeds showed up here, I think we should look at Oroville Dam too,” Sean suggested. “They had recent issues with a damaged spillway and had to evacuate two hundred thousand residents downstream. I have to think it would be a target.”
“Your report said they made the necessary repairs, though,” Kiley said.
“To one of the spillways, yes,” Sean said. “But what about the others? Are they in good condition? Questions I can’t answer, but I can research it.”
“I think this lead is strong enough to at least do additional research on both dams.” Kiley looked at her watch. “I’ll get back to Eisenhower to see if they want to take any precautions at Oroville or Glen Canyon. But we should all be prepared to spend the night gathering intel.”
She didn’t bother saying why. Didn’t say tomorrow was their last day to find the target and neutralize the threat. She didn’t have to. Everyone in the room knew the clock was ticking down faster than their answers were appearing, and the pressure was nearly unbearable.
Seven hours. Only seven hours until the clock hit 9/11. And Kiley was jumpy. She got up from the conference room table to pace. The Waleeds were still in the wind. Not even a hint of where they were hiding out or what they were doing. The team was no closer to determining the actual target than when they’d started gathering details last night, and she was more tired than she’d ever been.
And the pressure. Man, the pressure was beyond bearable at this point. Her skin crawled with it. They’d worked all night, and she had to admit Sam Olsen’s take on the Glen CanyonDam was seeming to be the most logical target. If so, were the terrorists planning a cyber attack or actual bombs? Sure, there’d been a big theft of the RDX, but Eisenhower had yet to gain any additional information connecting the break-in to the container suspects. So with the Waleeds missing, she was leaning toward a cyber attack, though she had nothing to base that on. Just a gut feeling, and she didn’t know what to do next.
Should they head to the dam or sit tight?
She needed to make a decision soon but kept hoping God would reveal the lead they needed. Kiley didn’t know if they could even find the target, but God knew, and Kiley closed her eyes to pray for divine intervention in a situation that seemed impossible.
A text sounded on her phone. She looked at it to find the message was from Deb Bessemer.I emailed updated files on Nabi and Shah to you.
Thank you, Kiley replied and opened her email.
“Got facial recognition results back on the guys from the boat ramp,” Mack said, taking Kiley’s attention. “They’re on The Righteous list, but no terrorist activities attributed to them.”
“Go find Kagan and have him assign local agents to visit them too,” Kiley instructed. “Maybe we’ll get lucky and the Waleeds will be at one of their homes.”
