Seek and Destroy (35 page)

    That familiar surge of adrenalin and excitement pulsed through him. It felt good to deviate from the plan. Sometimes. The way his body responded to the sudden change of events didn't bother him. Not in the least.

    He unfastened his pants to allow room for his growing erection. Her picture smiled back at him as if granting him permission for the entire operation. Her smile, to him, was like her seal of approval.

    "Did you like that, my sweet?" He pulled on his semi-hard penis. He forgot about the ache in his hands to tend to another ache. The sparkle in her eyes told him she did. "Do you want me to do it again?"

    Closing his eyes, he relaxed and allowed the image of Charis to take him into her mouth, his hand as her lips. "Just like that, my sweet." He stroked pulling harder, making sure it hurt. He needed pain, needed to be punished for deviating from the plan. She would want him punished.

    "Do you want to punish me?" he moaned at her picture. She smiled back at him, and he knew she did. He slapped his rock hard rod and winced. She was pissed. Squeezing hard, he rocked his hips against her hand. "Punish me, my sweet. Make me hurt. Make me pay."

    He spanked his cock again. The sting making him harder, closer. "Yes, like that." He spanked it hard, faster and faster until he was so close to coming he squeezed it until his knuckles turned white. "Oh, my sweet. I'm going to come inside you."

    He came and shuddered as he milked his slowly softening penis, his hand as the walls of her pussy, sucking in every last drop. He smiled. She was so naughty with him today. He loved it when she got rough with him.

    "I love you," he whispered. Opening his eyes, he grabbed a nearby rag and cleaned himself. With a sigh he pulled her picture to him and laid it against his chest. "I don't know what I'd do without your love, Charis. Just let me finish up and you can have me again."

    With that, he depressed the space bar, sending Riverside Consulting into absolute chaos.

    

    

    "Riverside Consulting in Modesto. I need a team out there ASAP. Sweep the server room. The device will have a heart split in half. And I need immediate transport to that location." David had a bad feeling. Three days ago? That gave Surreal all the time in the world to plant the bomb and get the hell out before he detonated. His neck hairs were at attention, which indicated the ball was about to drop.

    Still, if he kept with his MO he wouldn't be blowing the building for another four days. That gave them ample time to find the device and disarm it before Surreal even knew they'd caught up to him.

    "Order full evac and secure the perimeter," he continued, knowing he'd already ordered that from the Riverside guards. With NASSD rushing in on orders of a full evacuation, no way would there be a soul left within five hundred feet of the building. "Have the fire department on stand by."

    "Yes, sir. Anything else?"

    He thought about what else he could do. How could he get people out of the building sooner? He'd already had them pull the fire alarm. NASSD's bomb squad had been dispatched. He'd done everything to ensure their safety.

    And yet, he still felt like he missed something. Maybe if he had NASSD call the head of security back. Maybe, just maybe, they might get them to evacuate quicker.

    They had nothing to lose. "Call them back. Order full evac."

    "Already did that, sir."

    "Do it again!"

    "Yes, sir. Please hold. Uh...."

    His neck hairs stood at attention. "What?"

    "Their lines just went down," the operator replied.

    "What?" David almost choked. Jesus, God. "Check again."

    After a pause, the operator came back on the line. "Sorry, sir. No response. Their system just went offline."

    No. It didn't just happen this way. No way. Please God. No.

    "Sir? I've been requested to patch you through to HQ."

    "No, I-" Too late. The line went still. His heart slammed in his ears. There would be only one reason to break the connection and patch him through to HQ.

    They were too late.

    Again.

    "Damn it."

    "David..." Charis spoke slowly, her voice shaking. Her tone made what little control of his heartbeat stop. He looked down at her and then followed the trail of her gaze to one of the monitors. There, on the screen, displayed a gruesome site. The grainy black and white surveillance kept cutting out, but what he saw couldn't be mistaken.

    Shit. Son-of-a-
fucking
-bitch. They really were too late.

    The monitor showed the inside of a building. She hit keys on her keyboard to switch between cameras. Two of them were offline, another three showed shadows of people running around screaming and crying. He felt their emotions pouring out from their expressions. Goddamn Surreal. He beat them again.

    He couldn't hear them, but knew from the shapes of their faces, the horror in their eyes they were shrieking in fear. The dust from the explosion was too thick to see anything else. But the one she finally held on her monitor showed the inside hall of a building, or what was left of it.

    The wall on one side of the hall had been blown out completely. The other side had a huge gaping hole. Lights flickered as they hung by wires. Rebar imbedded in the cement walls was twisted and sticking out in all directions. Debris covered the floor.

    Debris? Jesus. Not just debris.
People
. Innocent fucking people. Two lay face down in the rubble. They didn't survive that blast, not at that range. He felt the rage boiling inside him and wanted to kill the bastard with his bare hands. David clenched his hands, controlled his labored breathing.

    Dust settled, and he truly saw the devastation. More people lay motionless further down the hall, covered in heavy cement chunks. Jesus Christ. His heart lurched. None of them moved.

    "Oh my God," Charis gasped and let out a raw sob. "David, all those people." She brought her hand to her mouth.

    Yeah. All those people. More souls on his ever-heavy conscience. "Fuck!" He slammed the phone down. "He's early. The son-of-a-bitch was early."

    "Any chance we were late?" she asked, her voice weak.

    He shook his head. No way. Surreal broke out of his MO. Shit. He stood there in shocked silence, staring at the monitor, watching in horror as she switched views over and over. And every view showed their greatest fear. He held his breath to control his emotions.

    People. Everywhere. More and more people covered in dust and rubble. Some screamed and cried hysterically-both men and women-running toward emergency exits. Others weren't running. It was too late for them.

    He blew out a breath, blinked several times until he pulled his emotions back into check.

    Overturned desks scattered the floor. People were trapped. Those able to help tried to lift desks off their coworkers, grabbing them, desperately pulling them toward the exits. A woman fell to her knees and buried her face in her hands over a man who had a file cabinet over his chest. His eyes were glassy and lifeless as they stared up. A man ran by, grabbed the woman and dragged her to an exit. She kicked and screamed, trying to go back to the man crushed to death by the huge file cabinet.

    David swallowed over and over to keep his emotions in check, but it didn't stop his eyes from stinging with the threat of the horror surfacing. Charis simply sobbed. God how he wished he were strong enough to mourn for them openly.

    Time slowed as they stared at the site, neither able to comprehend the destruction, least of all the reason behind it. An eerie silence settled in the room. When his cell buzzed in his hand, he almost dropped it. "Snyder," he stated evenly into the receiver, no emotion, numb from the horrific site.

    "What the fuck happened?" It was Weber, and he didn't sound happy. Join the club. David snapped out of his emotional turmoil and fell back into the role of agent. Unemotional. Unattached. Uncaring.

    "We didn't make it in time." The thought of that fact made his gut ache. Shit. How many died this time because he'd been too damn preoccupied with Charis and staying within the folds of her warmth? He should have seen this sooner. God
damn
it.

    He rambled out several of his usual cuss words. What in the hell was the matter with him? He couldn't run an op lying horizontal. Sleeping with, sleeping next to, or otherwise.

    They should have stayed at the monitors. They might have been able to pick up on this sooner. They would have been able to stop it.

    Should-a.

    Could-a.

    Would-a.

    A little late to be singing that song.

    "No shit," Weber replied. "Agents are now on site. It's a bloody mess, literally. From the initial assessment, I've been told there are at least a couple dozen fatalities with this one. Maybe more. Most of the bodies seem to be in the halls."

    "A couple dozen?" David exchanged looks with Charis. They thought the same thing.

    They could have stopped this. If only
. If only.

    "Maybe more," Weber corrected, as if David would forget a detail like that.

    The people ran through the halls to get out of the building. Oh Jesus no. He tried to get them out of the building as fast as possible. Now, knowing the fatalities were high
because
they'd been in full evacuation made his gut tighten. He pulled a fist to his chest to ward off the growing ache.

    "I had them pull the fire alarm," he stated, numb. It was his hasty decision that had cost the lives of countless people. "Jesus, Weber. I had them... It was me who..."
Holy hell.
He swallowed as the bile slammed into the roof of his mouth.

    "Listen to me," he stated low and careful. "If you didn't have them pull the alarm, the numbers would have been much higher. Yes, we lost people today, but you also saved hundreds of lives.
You
. And McKoy."

    But they lost how many?

    "How mobile can you be with this system of McKoy's?"

    The request shook his brain back into SAC mode. He eyed all of her monitors, her gigantic tower that seemed to be constantly grinding and spitting out data. The monstrosity of a desk holding stacks of papers. Not really something they'd be able to shove into the back of a van. "What do you have in mind?"

    "You successfully tracked him down to the Riverside location. Chances are, if you can track him..."

    "He can track us," David finished, making the connection. This just kept getting better and better.

    "Exactly. I need Charis' intel on this. I can have a team on its way to pick you up, get you to a safe house."

    "If he can track us here, he can track us to a safe house. Why are you so hell bent on getting us back to Seattle? We can run the op from here. Send a team to cover us. No need to have us haul all this shit back to HQ." Unless Weber didn't fully trust him to run an op. That thought made his chest pinch. "We're better off remaining stationary."

    "If you weren't in the middle of BFE, they'd already be there. As it is, it will be a few days."

    "Fine. But they are only here to cover. We will remain stationary. I told you, Weber. We are-"

    "I know!" Weber barked. He paused, sighed. Well, shit. That sigh only meant one thing. "Snyder, this mission reeks of Colombia. The players may have changed, but it's the same game."

    "And what game would that be?"

    "I made a hell of a lot of mistakes on that op. It almost got us all killed. I wasn't thinking with my head. Well, at least not with the one I should have been thinking with."

    He grunted. "And you think I'm making that same mistake on this op?"

    "I do."

    To hell with him. Weber didn't have any room to talk. He'd almost given up their location so he could meet up with JT in the middle of the night, right under the tango's nose no less. What right did he have to judge David?

    Every right in the world. He was David's director, and ultimately responsible to his superiors on this, or any op within the western region. Hell, this attack had been in Weber's back yard. California was Weber's jurisdiction.

    "I've got it under control," he answered, not denying Weber's accusation. It would be a lie if he did.

    "Snyder," Weber started back in, his voice low and even. "You are going to have to pull yourself in on this. If you can't run point on this op, if you can't keep it in your pants, I'm sending someone in who can."

    Jesus Christ. Another sucker punch. David cussed and clenched his teeth. He'd just have to keep his libido in check. His mouth away from hers. Hell, he'd be better off duct taping himself to the chair. A quick glance her way sent his insides shimmering. Damn it. He'd have to poke his eyes out as well. "I can do this."

    "I know you can, which is why I'm not going to yank you and send you back to Hawaii. Get it together, and get this asshole before he strikes again."

    "Give me a break Weber," he snapped. "We just got the assignment two days ago. So far, the op has been-"

    "
FUBAR'ed
, that's what. He stole the laptop out from underneath you. JT tracked it down to a dumpster just outside the airport. She planted a GPS on it before handing it off to McKoy."

    "You're shitting me. Surreal didn't take it?"

    "Oh, he had a hand in it. Prints taken show it to be a couple of punk kids who have a mile long rap sheet of petty thefts. JT went back and checked surveillance footage. They've been picking pockets, helping themselves to unattended bags, and whatever else they could find. As soon I showed them the footage, they sang and gave up Surreal."