The guy on the right suddenly spun as if he heard something. A bright light obscured his entire head.
“What in the world?” Evan squinted at the screen.
Kiley slammed a fist on the table. “He must have LEDs on his hood.”
Evan swiveled to look at her. “Explain please.”
She swatted at a stray strand of hair. “Infrared security cameras like the one that recorded this video have an auto iris that adjusts for the average light level of the scene it’s capturing. Shining a bright light like an LED will confuse the camera. In fact, it’ll partially blind it and record only the bright light.”
Mack shook his head. “He’s a cut above the usual terrorist if he was smart enough to plan ahead like this.”
“Look at their body language,” Kiley said. “They’re calm, their shoulders relaxed. They don’t expect to be caught.”
“Because they thoroughly planned their escape,” Evan said. “Maybe ran a dress rehearsal back home. And had local men watching the port—scoping out security and knowing the patrol schedule.”
Sean scowled. “They’re not newbies, that’s for sure.”
Evan focused on the pair on the screen as they kept moving straight ahead and out of camera range. He grabbed the armsof his chair and held tight, anger pulsing through his fingertips. They’d finally seen their terrorists but couldn’t ID them other than by their build and clothing, which they would surely have changed by this point. Essentially the team had nothing to go on. Nothing.
“This occurred almost three days ago.” Kiley charged back to her computer. “They could be anywhere in the country, and we need to find them. Starting with where they went from here. Someone turn on the TV, and I’ll display an area map.”
Cam turned on the large flat-screen TV, and she tossed a cord in his direction. Burger in one hand, he took a bite and then plugged the cord into the back while she connected the other end to her computer. A map of the area displayed on the screen.
Still by the TV, Cam swallowed and tapped the glass. “Looks like the most direct route into town is the Murray Morgan Bridge over the waterway.”
“I’ve worked the port neighborhoods many times, and it’s covered by CCTV cameras,” Evan said. “We should be able to get footage from them. But not if these guys went north on the Hylebos Bridge. No cameras there.”
Cam looked at him. “They’d take that bridge if they were heading to Seattle to hop a flight, right?”
“I doubt they’d risk flying evenifthey have fake papers,” Sean said, fry in hand. “Buses or trains are more likely. But honestly I doubt they’d risk public transport at all. Still, I can get an analyst on retrieving all flight manifests from SeaTac for the following morning.”
“That’ll be a long list,” Evan said. “And without names, how will you weed through it?”
Sean shrugged. “If it’s at all possible, we have to look at it. I don’t think it will yield much, which is why I’ll pass it off to someone else.”
Evan wasn’t used to having unlimited resources at his disposal,and something like this would be put on a list to do if time ever became available. It rarely did.
Kiley squinted at her computer screen. “The bridge is about a four- or five-mile walk from the port. They could’ve done it on foot. Someone could’ve picked them up too. Or they called a cab or rideshare.”
“I doubt there would be many rideshare drivers in this area,” Evan said, “especially in the middle of the night. A cab would be more likely. But would someone who was smart enough to find a way to baffle cameras get in a cab where they could be identified?”
“Seems like another long shot, but I’ll check it out,” Cam offered. “And I’ll get police incident reports for the area. Maybe a cop remembers seeing them.”
“I’ll put out feelers with my local CIs to see if anyone’s heard anything.” Evan grabbed his phone so he could send texts to contacts he’d used in the past. If anyone knew where these men went, he hoped it would be someone who frequented the same circles.
“Thank you,” Kiley said. “Because we need to figure out who on earth these men are, and what kind of terror they plan to unleash. And we need to do it quickly.”
CHAPTER 11
KILEY AND THE TEAMcontinued back through the videos to the day the container arrived, in case these guys had crept out of and back into their container before Thursday, but they didn’t even poke their heads out the door. So she kept running the video over and over, replaying it to look for leads as the atmosphere in the room went from tense to atmospherically tense.
Now more than ever, she felt the pressure of her responsibilities. Hearing chatter about the date and seeing the men with backpacks that could contain explosive devices made the impending threat more real. Everyone was right. These guys weren’t newbies. They were experienced. Their organization valued them. Valued their skills. And the country was in for a world of hurt if the team didn’t find them soon.
More determined than ever, her teammates settled into the television seating area to get started on their assignments. Evan remained at the table, sending texts. She could no longer stand the pungent smell of their forgotten dinners and moved the dishes to the cart. She pushed it into the hallway, ignoring an irritating wheel and weighed how this new development impacted her game plan for the rest of the night.
Now would be a perfect time to call Eisenhower for an update. She dug out her phone and stepped to the other end of the room to phone him. Despite the late hour in D.C., he answered on the first ring. She brought him up to date on their progress, or lack of it, and raised the question about investigating a nuclear connection.
“Seems like a long shot to me, but not one we can rule out just yet,” he said. “Leave it with me, and I’ll get the team here working that angle.”
