Chapter 31
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
“Why the hell is he so stubborn?” Jessica looked at her brother as he sat on the edge of her desk with folded arms.
“You know Rutherford hates admitting when he’s wrong. Plus, the Feds have more resources than us, especially on American soil.”
“And their resources led them on a goose chase.” She blew out a flustered breath and focused on her computer screen again.
“Samir’s brother may not have been his trigger point. He’s been in Syria witnessing atrocities for a while. But the CIA inadvertently gave him the nudge he needed for revenge.”
“You thinking Samir didn’t, uh, kill Ara because he wanted to gain control of the group?” She grabbed her black-rimmed glasses off her desk, realizing her eyes were beyond tired.
“He did it to ensure support from Yasser’s old allies. Like the enforcer. The men in Detroit.”
She leaned back in her leather desk chair. “He needed to build a team to enact his plans for revenge.” Revenge . . . a strong enough lure to pull Samir to the dark side.
Luke pinched the bridge of his nose. “And those five men offered themselves as sacrifices to distract the FBI from whatever Samir has been planning.”
“Which means there has to be another player out there helping Samir. And I’m guessing one of those men knows who it is. But they’ll never tell. They’ve been waiting years for a moment like this to come along.”
The anger and hatred for America, bubbling beneath the surface. Ready to explode.
“Samir improvised when he lost his money and realized he’d have to get help from someone other than his team in Detroit.”
“Which is when he was smart enough to throw the Feds off by copying his uncle’s old form of communication,” she noted. “But we’re still looking for a rush job, and damn it, those are always the messiest.”
She leaned forward and paused the terminal footage from Cairo on her screen when she spotted someone who looked like Samir.
She zoomed in closer. “It’s him.” She’d recognize him anywhere after having seen his face in Berlin.
“He even made sure to glance right at the camera as he handed over his ticket.”
“He wanted the Feds focused on New York, but no way is he still in Egypt.”
“Agreed.” She rubbed her eyes beneath her glasses. They’d been going at this nonstop. Her only rest had been on the plane. “It’s a big airport. Lots of people coming and going. A needle in a haystack. But I’ll try to find him.”
“You think his mom was in Cairo and flew with him out of there?”
“Maybe. I’ll pull a photo from her passport and try to get a match in the system since I’m sure she used a different name to travel this time.”
He nodded. “My money is on her. Wherever she is, he’ll be there, too.”
“The problem is, I think they could already be Stateside.”
He stood, cracking his neck. “We’ll find them. I’ll have the team focus on locating this other contact Samir must have Stateside.” He started for the door.
“How far are Bravo and Echo from the office?”
“Five minutes.” He shifted to face her from the doorway and braced a hand against the interior doorframe. “Jessica, um . . .” His brows knitted. “Are you doing okay?”
Oh, God. This wasn’t the conversation she wanted to have right now. There was a possible attack about to go down, and the last thing she needed was Luke worrying about her instead of the mission—a mission they still weren’t tasked to be part of, but to hell with that stopping them.
“I just want to find Samir and stop him.”
“Yeah, okay. Me, too.” He scratched at the back of his head. “After this is all over, we can talk.”
“Mm-hm.” She stared back at her screen.
“And, Jessica?”
“Yeah?” She forced her eyes to his.
“You know I love you. Right?”
“I, uh . . .” She swallowed, pressed her lips together, and slowly nodded.