No Test for the Wicked: A Lexi Carmichael Mystery, Book Five (19 page)

Chapter Twenty-Six

Wally crossed his arms. “You do realize this is totally, one hundred percent un-fricking-fair.”

I shifted in the chair. “What’s unfair?”

“He’s going free.”

“Better him than no one.”

Wally sighed. “Yeah, but did it have to be Mack? Figures he’d be the only one of us to survive.”

“Mack? Wait. Mack is Martin Herman? You’ve got to be kidding.”

“I wouldn’t kid about something so crappy as that.”

I sat back in the chair. “Mack’s father is a senator?”

“Yep.”

“Any idea what senate committee he might be on?”

“Not a clue. Usually I try to have as little to do with Mack as possible.”

“It could be important. I think Ice Eyes is trying to blackmail the senators for information.”

Wally looked at me with wide eyes. “Information? About what?”

I looked over my shoulder, kept my voice at a low whisper. “I’m not sure. I think it might be a peace process in Pakistan that the U.S. might be involved in. It’s called Operation Dove.”

“What? You’ve got to be kidding? Why would they hold a high school in the U.S. hostage in order to promote a peace process in Pakistan?”

“Because this group doesn’t want to promote it. They want to sabotage it.”

“What does that have to do with our school?”

“Well, Excalibur Academy happens to teach two of the children of well-known senators, whom I would presume are on an important U.S. foreign policy committee.”

Wally twisted his face in a disgusted expression. “Extortion? Blackmail with kids as the bargaining chip? That is
so
rank.”

“You won’t find me disagreeing with that. But I imagine it would be extremely effective.”

His mouth twisted into a scowl. “So, these terrorists are going to kill us for information? That’s the sum price of my existence? What does Ice Eyes get out of it? Are these terrorists paying him?”

“Probably. But it’s a huge risk for him. It would have to be heck of a lot of money. An operation this size had to be exceptionally well planned and organized. It had to cost a ton of money. The added cyber component to this operation would have made it super pricey. I don’t know for certain how big terrorist budgets are these days, but given the scope of this operation, I have a feeling there isn’t enough money in it to make it worth his while.”

“So why is he doing it, then?”

“It has to be the opportunity to make more money. A lot. He’s a mercenary. But how he intends to get it, I’m not sure yet.”

My mind raced, sorting through the emails I’d read in Jouret’s account while in his office. Jouret’s email to the two senators had said to reply directly to his email account. I was certain I’d not seen a reply of any kind from Senator Herman. I still didn’t see one now, so what the heck was Ice Eyes talking about? How had Senator Herman cooperated?

The FBI cyber command team was probably going nuts now that word of the release was live. I wondered what Slash was doing and what he would think if he knew it had been me who uploaded the message to the FBI’s website.

I glanced up at the security camera and watched the light blink red. We were the view of the moment. I looked over my shoulder at the guard by the door and he raised his eyes from the screen and met mine.

Oh, yeah, he was definitely keeping tabs on us. But at least he wasn’t close enough to hear us if we kept our voices down, and Ice Eyes couldn’t hear us unless we spoke up.

I looked back at the camera. I’d timed the rotation earlier in the cafeteria. From what I could tell, the camera cycled through all nine views in and outside of the school, holding the picture for sixty seconds. Nine minutes for an entire cycle. I thought of Elvis and prayed he and Piper were alive. If they had survived the second sweep and Piper had showed him the bridge, it was highly likely Elvis had already tapped in to the system and made contact with the police’s cyber team. He might even be watching me at this very moment.

Ice Eyes suddenly appeared on the computer monitor. My hands jerked on the keyboard. I was beginning to hate the way he came and went like a freaking ghost.

“I have confirmed the upload. Nice work, Lara. I appreciate the fact that you require so little instruction. Stand by.”

Like I had a choice. I leaned forward, scouring the desktop, wishing I could click on a half dozen items while knowing I couldn’t. Jouret’s mail was open, which is how I could see he didn’t have a reply from Senator Herman, or anyone else for that matter, but other than that, little else was visible to me.

Wally touched my arm, causing me to jump.

“Jeez, Wally. What do you want?”

“I want to ask you something.”

“Ask away.”

“Look, I respect your sexual preferences and all, but if we ever get out of this alive, will you go out with me? I mean, just for a drink or something. I need some practice with girls. Besides, I think being in imminent danger has brought us closer emotionally, not to mention physically.”

I sighed. “You’re not even old enough to drink.”

“Technically, neither are you. But I can make us a couple of excellent fake IDs. No one would be the wiser.”

“Jeez, Wally, don’t tell me things like that.”

“Is that a yes?”

“No!”

“No? Really? How can you say no? I’m wearing an explosive device, perhaps in the final moments of my pathetic life, and you are going to let me die knowing nothing but rejection from women, even lesbians?”

“I’m
not
rejecting you.”

“You just said no. In what universe is that not a rejection?”

“It’s really complicated. It’s not a rejection in the technical sense. It’s just an I-can’t-go-out-with-you-for-a-number-of-important-reasons rejection. Okay?”

We were saved from further discussion when another guard entered Computer Central. He spoke rapidly to our guy then slipped out. I checked the clock. Five minutes until Mack’s release. My fingers itched to go into the security system. I wished I could see what was happening.

Ice Eyes was busy on the system. The cursor moved around and he was clicking on different things. He was checking the mail, as well. He seemed to be waiting for a message from someone.

I presumed by now the terrorists had Mack by the gym door. No matter which way I looked at it, his release was good for the police and for us, despite the fact that Mack was a first-class jerk. The police could debrief him and get a lot of useful information. He might even tell them about me. If he told them that I’d been taken to Computer Central, it might change the way they approached the situation. Well, at least how Slash played things. It also meant the police would know about the bombs, the vests, how many terrorists were present, their mood and many other things. More information made for informed decisions. Informed decisions were a plus in our current situation. If all went going according to our plan, and if Elvis were still alive, he should be able to feed them some additional information from the inside, which would be critical.

If he were still alive.

I couldn’t bear to contemplate the alternative.

I had to focus, get my head in the game. I was exhausted, hungry and very thirsty despite the bottle of water I had drunk in the cafeteria. I glanced over my shoulder. Our guard was intently watching his monitor. He had an important job right now monitoring the security cameras during the exchange, so I knew he’d be far less focused on us. That gave me an idea.

I leaned over toward Wally and whispered in his ear. “Wally, do you know Morse Code?”

“Hey, I may be a geek, but it doesn’t mean I have
that
much time on my hands.”

I sighed. “I don’t know it either. What about sign language?”

“Not really. Well, I know the alphabet. More or less.”

I perked up. “Is that more or less?”

He shrugged. “Both. It’s not like I use sign language every day. In fact, I’ve never used it. I’m not even sure I remember all of the signs for the letters, but I can try.”

“That will have to do.”

“For what?”

“Never mind. Just teach me what you know, okay?”

Learning sign language was good for me. Wally and I kept our hands in our laps and made our motions as small as possible. It took my mind off the fact that an exchange was taking place during which we might all be blown sky-high if something went wrong. It also gave Wally something to do and calmed him down, which benefited me, as well.

“Do you think Mack is free by now?” Wally asked me after teaching me the letter
L
.

I glanced at the clock and then over my shoulder at our guard. He’d been steadily been giving reports via the walkie-talkie for the past fifteen minutes. If I spoke Urdu I might have known what was going on.

I turned back to Wally. “I think so. It shouldn’t take that long to open the door and push him out. If that’s the way they are doing it.”

“I don’t think the police will try to storm the place if they’re releasing hostages, right?”

“Agreed. They wouldn’t want to jeopardize that.”

“Good. It’s not like I want to be fried chicken anytime soon.”

My eyes fell to his vest. The red light was still blinking.

“Don’t think about it, Lara. I don’t. It helps.”

I raised my gaze to his face and he gave me a weak smile. “Look, if it’s my time, it’s my time anyway. No sense worrying about it when we can’t do anything.”

“You’re
not
going to die. At least not today.”

“I certainly hope not. So are you going to tell me why you’re all hot to learn sign language?”

“No.”

“I knew you were going to say that. It’s your favorite word.”

“Then don’t ask next time. Come on. Let’s keep going. How do you make an
M
in sign language?”

We had gotten all the way to the letter
U
when Ice Eyes suddenly appeared as a small box in one corner of the screen. I quickly folded my hands together in my lap.

“Are you ready for your next assignment, Lara?”

“Yes.”

“Good. I want you to send the following email. Wait a moment, it should appear in your inbox momentarily.”

I heard a ding and saw the email. A quick glance indicated it was from a different account than he had sent the earlier one. He was hopping around sending the police cyber team all over the world chasing after phantom accounts.

Damn him.

“I got it,” I said.

“Open it and make sure the content is there.”

I opened it up and started reading. Wally rested his chin on my shoulder to read as well.

Dear Senator Walters:

As you can see we have released Senator Herman’s son.
He provided the information we needed despite the FBI’s warnings.
I
will give you one final chance to provide information on Operation Dove in exchange for the release of your daughter.
You have exactly one hour to respond to this email.
If you do not answer
,
your daughter will be executed at exactly twenty-two hundred hours.
If you do answer
,
be aware that we will be closely comparing your information to that of Senator Herman’s.
If the information does not agree or if I am suspicious of it in any way
,
we will execute her.
Be advised that I know more than you might think and have eyes and ears in many locations.
Be very sure that the information you send me is accurate.
You have one chance only.

I felt sick. “The content is there.”

“I couldn’t hear you.”

I raised my voice. “It’s there.”

“Cut and paste it into an email in your account. Mark it urgent and send it to the following address.” He rattled off a personal email for Senator Walters.

I did exactly as he said and he disappeared from the screen without another word.

“What the hell was that all about?” Wally whispered.

I closed my eyes. “It’s all about the money. He’s blackmailing them.”

“Well, duh. I got that. Looks like he’s exchanging the kids for the information. Just like what you said. Apparently he’s got half of what he wanted.”

I shook my head. “That’s the problem, Wally. I don’t think Senator Herman gave him anything.”

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Wally looked at me with an incredulous expression. “What are you talking about? He just released Mack. How is that not giving him anything? Senator Herman must have given him something.” His voice got louder.

I glanced over my shoulder and saw the guard staring at us. “Keep your voice down, Wally.”

“Sorry.”

We stayed silent for a few minutes. When Wally thought the guard had lost interest, he leaned over whispering, “Why did Ice Eyes send that email to Senator Walters if Senator Herman didn’t send any information?”

“He’s tricking her.”

“I’m so not following you.”

I lowered my whisper so far that Wally had to lean his head on my shoulder to hear me. “I think Ice Eyes let Mack go for a purpose. He made a big public announcement about it, thanking the Herman family for their cooperation. But as far as I can see, the Herman family didn’t cooperate at all. The FBI never would have let Senator Herman or Senator Walters give in to demands from the terrorists. But by releasing Mack, Ice Eyes made it seem as if the Herman family
did
cooperate, just without FBI permission. Senator Herman can protest six ways to Sunday that he didn’t do it, but he’s now suspect with the FBI, the police
and
Senator Walters. Ice Eyes is effectively driving a wedge between all the parties involved. At the same time, he’s privately appealing to a mother’s desperation to save her daughter.”

“Oh, my God. Would Senator Walters do it? Send the information to save her daughter?”

“Would you, if it were your kid?”

Wally swallowed hard. “So, what happens to us if Senator Walters sends in that information? Is it game over?”

“I don’t know. I think there’s some component to all of this that I’m missing.” I glanced up at the security camera and saw the red light was blinking. “Stop talking. We’re on camera.”

Wally looked up at the camera and then down at his hands. “I’m so hungry.”

“Me, too. But I’d rather have something to drink.”

“God, I’m dying for a drink of water, no pun intended. Let’s ask the guard. I’ll do it.”

I nodded, so Wally lurched to his feet. I looked at the red light on the security camera and then blinked. I wasn’t one hundred percent sure, but I thought I’d seen the red light blink twice before it blacked out. Either I was becoming delusional or it was possible Elvis had sent me a message. Or maybe it was just wishful thinking. I did hope with all my heart he was there watching over me.

Safe and alive.

I heard Wally talking behind me. “Hey, dude, we’re really thirsty. We need to drink. Water. We want to have something to drink.” I turned around and observed that the guard had the rifle aimed at Wally’s head.

“Sit down.”

“Sure, sure.” Wally held up his hands and backed up. “Look, we’re just thirsty. Please. Just a bottle of water.”

The guard grunted and sat down, fumbling with the contents of a black duffel bag. He tossed Wally a bottle of water. Wally caught it with one hand.

“Thanks, dude. Appreciate it.”

He brought the bottle back to his seat and handed it to me. “Ladies first.”

“That’s very chivalrous of you.”

“Of course. I’m a gentleman.”

I smiled and twisted off the cap, taking a gloriously long gulp of the water. I had to stop myself and hand it over to Wally. He took a long drink. After that we had only about a third of the water left. I wet my lips and looked away. It would be better to ration it.

“Now what?” Wally asked. “I hate all this sitting around and waiting to get blown up.”

I looked at the guard again, but he didn’t seem to care if Wally and I whispered as long as we weren’t bothering him.

“I have an idea. Wally, let’s play fantasy for a minute.”

His mouth dropped open. “Oh, thank God and all the stars above. It’s really happened. Do you have any idea how long I’ve waited for a girl to say that to me?”

“Not
that
kind of fantasy. Jeez. A military fantasy.”

“Oh, figures.”

“Do you play any of those online shooting games? You know like Honor Bound or Strike Force Delta Six?”

“Exactly how does that figure in with our current dire situation?”

“Just humor me.”

“Fine. Truthfully I don’t play them much. My parents don’t allow it, so I have to do it on the sly, which cuts into time spent on said games.”

“Okay, just follow me. If you wanted to blow something up in one of those games, how would you do it?”

He considered for a moment. “Bombs, of course. Hand grenades, if I were on the run.”

“Let’s stick with the bombs. Say you have multiple bombs. How would you set them off?”

“Remote control, of course.”

“What about a timer?”

“Well, a remote could start a timer. I’d definitely want a remote as opposed to kneeling in front of said bomb and programming it to go off. I’m not a fan of timers. There are just too many chances for something to go wrong. Frankly I’d prefer a remote button that would result in an instantaneous boom, since it lets me be more in control of the exact timing. Countdowns are only good for drama in the movies.”

I tapped a finger on my chin. “Good. Okay, so, let’s say you have a remote. How exactly would you set off your bomb using this remote?”

“Are we getting technical here?”

“Yes. You any good at engineering?”

“I’m decent. I like to put stuff together.”

“Excellent. Play bomb maker for me.”

He looked at me for a long moment and then down at his vest. “You’re thinking of the vests, aren’t you?”

“Yes,” I admitted.

“How to disarm them?”

“Maybe.”

He blew out a breath. “Okay then, quit playing and get real. I can handle it.”

“You sure about that?”

“Of course, I’m sure.”

“Alright then. I don’t see a timer device on these vests. So, my guess is that they are being controlled by a single remote. That also means they’re probably wired to blow at the same time. This would make sense since it would provide the leader with an instantaneous ability to set all things off, which would likely to be important to him, especially if he were under duress.”

“Makes sense.”

“So, we agree the most likely assumption here is the leader would have a quick-trigger remote designed to set off all the bombs at once?”

“Yes.” Wally held up a hand. “But there’s a caveat. If I were the leader and wanted to live through said explosion, I’d make sure my remote had a fairly decent range. However...”

“However, what?”

He frowned. “Our situation is unique. There are too many vests and we’re in too confined an area.”

I nudged his arm. “Which means?”

He exhaled a deep breath. “Which means these guys intend to go down with the ship. Blow themselves and us to the moon. Range isn’t a factor here.”

Elvis and I had already come to the same conclusion, but it helped to know someone else did, too. “Okay. Let’s operate on the assumption that range is out. Now, given these parameters, how would you create the remote?”

“You’re really focusing on the remote. Why?”

“I hope it will be the weak link.”

He stared at a spot above my shoulder, thinking. “That’s pretty clever thinking. So, how would I create it? Smartphone. Yeah, I’d create my own app. Fast, easy and secure and known just to me.”

“True, but a smartphone requires Wi-Fi to work.”

“Right. I forgot. A cell phone won’t work here in the school building.”

“So, how else?”

“Well, there is laser triggering. You know, point at the target and click.”

My brain raced, considered. “Yes, that’s a possibility. Laser triggering. Except it would take a lot of time to set off each vest one at a time. Not a good plan if things went bad quickly. I’m still leaning toward the scenario that will blow everything sky-high all at once. That would make more sense. I mean, think about it. Why do they have the kids with vests flanking the others in a circle?”

“Because it’s easy to keep an eye on us?”

“No. Because it’s a maximum arrangement designed for one big kaboom. When the vests explode, they’ll take all the kids with them all at one time...maximum destruction.”

Wally gave an audible gulp.

I put a hand on his arm, trying to reassure him. “Sorry. I was just theorizing aloud...trying to think like one of them. That’s
not
what’s going to happen. We’re going to stop them.”

“How can you be so sure?”

“Because we’re smart and they’re bullies. This time we are going to win.”

“I wish I had your confidence.”

“I’m happy to share. Now, speaking of being smart...would a laser trigger require the bomb to be in visual range?”

“Yes, I’d think so. Most laser triggers have a limited range.”

I considered. “But you’re here, Wally. The leader didn’t think twice about you leaving his sight. I think that implies he doesn’t care about range or visual. He’s just going to push the button on the remote and kaboom.”

Wally looked down at the vest. “I wish I could take it off, but they said it would explode.”

I patted his shoulder. “They probably just said that to scare you. Still, we aren’t going to risk it. Don’t worry. We’ll do even better. We’ll render it inoperable. We’ll get through this. Hang tough.”

“You do realize if I explode you’ll go with me.”

“You’re
not
going to explode. Let’s stop worrying about what the terrorists want to happen and use our energy and brains for what
we
want to happen. Worrying will get us nowhere.”

“True.”

“So, help me out, Wally. The terrorists need a vehicle for the remote. How would they make it?”

Wally fell silent thinking. After a moment, he spoke. “If I couldn’t use Wi-Fi, it would have to be something else that utilizes a frequency.”

I closed my eyes and searched my memory. I went through a visual catalogue of everything I’d seen in the school, on the terrorists and on Zogby himself. I made myself go slow to make sure I didn’t miss anything.

Then, just like that, I had it.

I snapped my fingers. “His belt.”

“A belt? Whose belt?”

“The leader’s belt. The guy who brought us here to Computer Central. He’s the same guy who is running the deal in the cafeteria. I think it’s safe to assume he’s running the show here at the school, right?”

Wally looked perplexed. “Sure seems like it. But what does his belt have to do with anything?”

“As the leader, he’d be the one to explode the bombs.”

“That seems the most logical.”

“Well, I noticed he has an odd device clipped to his belt. It looks like a garage door opener.”

“A garage door opener?”

“Yes.” I started to get excited. “Actually, it makes perfect sense. Wally, how do you open your garage door from your car?”

“I don’t have a car.”

“Theoretically speaking.”

“Oh. Well, you press a button and it opens. Not following you.”

“Why does the door open?”

He snapped his fingers. “Because the remote talks to the door via a code transmission that utilizes a radio frequency.”

“Exactly. A frequency. A radio frequency.”

Wally’s eyes widened. “Wait. Are you saying they rigged the remote using a radio frequency via a garage door opener? Wow, that’s pretty ingenious.”

“Simple, cheap and effective. But that’s really good news for us.”

“Why?”

“Because all garage doors in the U.S. use a standard radio frequency. The codes are different, but the frequency is standard.”

“How is that good for us?”

“Because, if we can jam the frequency, the remote won’t work...”

His eyes lit up. “...and the vests and bombs won’t explode.”

“Exactly.”

His momentary excitement faded. “Well, in theory that rocks, but how are we going to build a jammer under the watchful eyes of our guard and Ice Eyes?”

“We don’t have to. Someone else will. If I can get them a message.”

“Just who is someone else and how would you get them a message?”

I smiled. “Just trust me, okay?”

He stared at me for a long moment and then sighed. “It’s crazy, but I do.”