Chapter 23 #2
Tyler responded. "Rest of the building is clear."
"It's just you now," he told Qadir. "All your men are dead."
"Perhaps the ones who were still here when you arrived," Qadir said.
He bit down on his lip at that statement. He'd known all along Qadir had taken Kara to set him up, and as much as he wanted to shut him up, he needed to keep him alive until he could get Kara out of that vest and find out what the hell else was going on.
The silence was almost more terrifying than the gunfire, Kara thought. Had Qadir gotten away? Was everyone dead? Why was she still alone?
She glanced at the timer, hating to look, but knowing she had to.
Twenty-one minutes and five seconds. She squeezed her eyes shut for a moment, saying a prayer, putting the images of everyone she loved into her head: her mom, her brother, her big, crazy family, the people she worked with…
Max. His image stayed with her until she heard a crash.
Her eyes flew open as Max dragged Qadir through the now open door, his gun at his back. Tyler, Jason, and Alina, along with several SWAT officers, came in seconds behind them.
She was both happy and terrified to see them all.
Max shoved Qadir forward with the barrel of his gun. "Get her out of that," he ordered.
"I'm afraid that's not possible," Qadir replied with an evil calm.
"The hell it isn't. Disarm it. Now."
"Or what? You'll kill me?" Qadir's laugh was genuinely amused. "Look at the timer, Max. Nineteen minutes and counting. Kill me now, and she dies anyway. Along with everyone else."
A bomb technician came forward, squatting down next to her to inspect the device. His grim look told a terrible truth. "He's right. I can't disarm this without a code. And even without the timer, one wrong move, and it could detonate immediately."
A shocked hush filled the room. She wasn't as surprised as they were, because she'd had time to understand exactly what was happening.
She could see the war playing out on Max's face—the desire to put a bullet in Qadir's head warring with the knowledge that her life depended on keeping the terrorist alive.
It was exactly the position Qadir had wanted to put Max in, and she was simply the pawn. But she wasn't the only one.
"There's another bomb," she said quickly.
Max's jaw tightened as he met her gaze. "Where?"
"I'm guessing it's somewhere symbolic. Somewhere that would make the whole world watch."
"What the hell have you done?" Max gritted out, turning back to Qadir.
Qadir smirked. "The city is always so busy, the bridges packed with traffic, especially the Brooklyn Bridge.
It's such a beautiful piece of American engineering, don't you think?
Like the bridge your friend Dominic wants to build in my country, a bridge to show his American strength and power.
But he doesn't have the power there, and you don't have the power here—I do. "
She almost had to marvel at Qadir's confidence, but the sad fact was that he wasn't wrong.
"Son of a bitch," Tyler muttered, looking to Jason.
Jason turned to Alina. "Send everyone to the bridge. Start an evacuation."
"You'll never clear the bridge in time," Qadir said, making Alina pause by the door. "Only I can help you."
"What do you want?" Max demanded.
"Safe passage out of the city. There's a helicopter and a pilot waiting on the roof of the building next door. I walk out of here, and once I'm safely airborne, I'll text the disarm codes for both devices."
"And if we say no?" Max challenged.
Qadir gestured toward Kara. "Then she'll die in seventeen minutes. And thirty seconds later, half the Brooklyn Bridge collapses into the East River."
"Where's the bomb on the bridge?" Jason asked.
"The main suspension cable on the Manhattan side. Two-thirds up the tower. It can't be disarmed without the code. Neither can this one. I didn't come just to play," Qadir continued. "I came to win."
Kara was terrified he was going to win, and they were all going to die. "You need to go. All of you," she said. "Get out of here. Go to the bridge. Get as many people away from there as you can."
"I'm not leaving you," Max told her.
"Fourteen minutes," Qadir said.
She couldn't believe what she was about to say, but she had to say it. "Let him go," she said. "Let Qadir go. Not for me. For everyone else. Thousands will die."
"He can't be trusted," Tyler said. "He'll escape, and he won't send the codes."
"Is there another choice?" Jason asked Max.
"No," Max replied through tight lips. "We have to let him go. But we'll do so with insurance."
"What are you talking about?" Qadir asked, sounding surprised for the first time.
"I have a photo, too," Max said, taking out his phone. "Of your wife and child being held by the CIA."
"That's a fake," Qadir said, but she could see the uncertainty in his eyes as he looked at the photo.
"Look at the newspaper in your wife's hands," Max added. "It has today's date on it. Did you really believe you could come into this city without us knowing, without us taking advantage of the fact that you'd left your family far behind?"
She wondered if the photo was real, how the CIA would have gotten to Qadir's family so quickly.
The two enemies exchanged a long, measuring look.
"I will send the codes to that phone," Qadir said, pointing to the one he'd used to take her picture. "As soon as we are away from the area. But I'll need my hands to be free."
He uncuffed him and then turned him over to Jason, who escorted Qadir out of the room.
"Everyone else needs to leave, too," Kara told the others. "Go to the bridge. Save however many people you can just in case Qadir doesn't send the codes in time."
There were murmurs of protest and also words of encouragement, promises she would be okay, but she didn't really believe any of them.
And then she and Max were alone. He came forward, squatting down in front of her. "I'm so sorry, Kara."
"You have nothing to apologize for. I'm the one who let myself get taken.
This is on me, not on you. I don't want you to ever think you're responsible," she said fiercely.
"Whatever happens to me is not your fault.
And now you have to leave. Take that phone and go outside.
Don't come back in unless you have the codes. "
"I'm not leaving you. I'm staying with you until he sends the codes."
"If he does. Was that photo real, Max?" She searched his face for the truth.
He shook his head. "No. It's a fake. When I knew Qadir was here, I had my contact at the CIA make it up. It was a long shot that I'd ever use it or that he'd buy it. But it was good enough to make him want to call this off and live to fight another day."
"I'm not sure that's true. He wants to kill us, Max. He wants to blow up that bridge. He wants to make a huge statement. Will he really give all that up based on a photo?"
"If he loves anyone, it's the two people in that photo.
I actually got close enough to take their picture a few months ago.
That's why I was able to send Reza something that would look real to Qadir.
At the time, Qadir wasn't there, and I staked out the place for almost a week, ready to get him as soon as he appeared.
But he didn't return. I think he has been staying away from them to keep them safe.
" He drew a ragged breath. "I should have stayed away from you, Kara. I made you a target."
"I told you this isn't your fault. And when the time on this vest gets down to four minutes, you are going to run like hell. Because I don't want you to die, and if you want to do something for me, if you want to give me some peace before my life ends, then you'll go."
"Kara, I can't," he said, his voice breaking. "I can't leave you. I don't want to be alive if you're not."
"But I want you to be alive, and that's the promise you have to give me.
That's the only thing that will make me happy right now.
Promise me you'll go. And you'll tell my mom and my brother that I love them, that they were the best family in the world.
" Tears slipped from her eyes, and she wanted to wipe them away, but she couldn't move. "Max, please."
He gently wiped away her tears with his thumb. "You are so brave, Kara."
"Don't tell anyone I cried, okay? Let them think I was tough until the end."
"There's not going to be an end," he said desperately. "Qadir will send the codes. He'll make the trade. He has to."
She really wanted to believe that.
Max's gaze roamed her face, as if he were memorizing every detail, and she was doing the same. His face was the image she wanted to see when she took her last breath.
Max's earpiece crackled, and he took it out of his ear so she could hear Jason.
"Helicopter is airborne," Jason said. "We should have the codes in the five minutes."
She looked at the timer. It was down to eight minutes.
She felt a strange sense of calm, of acceptance.
If death came, it would be quick. Maybe that was the blessing.
"I love you, Max," she said suddenly. "I want you to know that.
It's kind of crazy that I could feel this way for someone I've only known for a week. But I'm glad I got to feel it."
"I love you, too."
"Even if you don't mean it, I like hearing it."
"I mean it, Kara. It's fast, but it's also real."
"You need to go, Max. It's down to seven minutes."
"You said four," he argued.
"Three more minutes won't make a difference."
"The code is coming. It has to," he said fiercely.
She smiled through her tears. "And you said I was the optimistic one."
He cupped her face with his hands, still being careful, then pressed his lips against hers in one last emotional kiss.
And then the phone on the table buzzed.
She couldn't quite believe it. "Is that it?" she asked in disbelief.
Max grabbed the phone. "Two sets of numbers," he said, taking a photo of the code and sending that one to Jason, before he came to her.
She could hear Jason confirm receipt of the code.
Max looked at the keypad on her vest. "Here we go."
"Don't you want to send a bomb tech in here?"
"I can do it. Trust me."
"With my life," she breathed.
He carefully pressed each number on a code that felt ridiculously long. Her heart was thundering against her chest. She felt like she was going to pass out, which might be a blessing. But she was still awake when Max finished the sequence.
"Done," he said.
Nothing happened. The timer kept counting.
"It's not working," she said with despair. "He probably just wanted to stall us."
Jason's voice came across the radio, tight with stress: "Timer is still running on the bridge device."
"Maybe there's a delay," Max said, but she could hear the fear.
"Max, get out of here," she pleaded. "It's down to four minutes. Go."
"No."
He put his arms around her. "If you die, I die. Just look at me."
They held each other's gaze for a long minute, and then she heard a click.
Max pulled slightly away from her so he could see the timer. "It stopped," he said in amazement. "The screen is blank."
"Oh my God!" she said, not quite able to believe it. "Are you sure?"
"I'm sure," he said with a joyful smile.
"Bridge device is down!" Jason's voice exploded through the radio.
"All good here, too," Max replied, a smile lighting up his face. "We made it, Kara. It's over."
"Qadir believed the photo. That was a brilliant move, Max."
"I'm glad it worked."
"But he's still free. And once he knows that his family is safe, he'll come for all of us again."
"We'll stop him before he can do that. Let's get you out of this vest." He pulled a knife out of his pocket and cut the zip ties as the bomb squad came into the room to remove the vest.
Alina followed a moment later, her gaze happy and triumphant. "Thank God you're all right, Kara."
"I am thanking God," she said as the heavy weight was finally taken from her body. "That was the longest and shortest thirty minutes of my life." She stretched her aching arms in front of her, still feeling a little too weak to stand up.
"Was the picture real?" Alina asked Max.
He gave a negative shake of his head. "I took the picture a few months ago. The newspaper, the CIA agents holding them, was doctored."
"That was quite a gamble," Alina said. "But also impressive. When did you have time to do that?"
"As soon as I knew Qadir was in New York City, I had a friend of mine at the agency create it. I wasn't sure if I'd ever use it or not, but I had a feeling Qadir would come after me at some point. I've been making him move locations every couple of weeks."
"So, you've been a pain in the ass," Alina said lightly.
"You could say that." Max paused. "Were you at the bridge?"
"No. Jason asked me and some of the team to stay here to guard some of the injured combatants and the deceased."
"There are survivors?" Kara asked.
"Two," Alina replied. "Six men are dead, including Caleb Azrani and his brother, Malik.
Obviously, the terrorists who delivered the bomb to the bridge are still out there, but we'll do everything we can to find them.
In the meantime, the city is safe for at least one more day.
" Alina paused. "I have to say that you impressed the hell out of me, Kara.
I would not have been nearly as calm in your position. "
"I'm sure that's not true."
"Let's get out of here," Max said, offering her a hand. "I'm sure Kara would like to see some daylight."
"I really would." She got to her feet, but before they could move, one of the SWAT members came back into the room with an odd expression on his face.
"What's wrong?" Alina asked sharply.
"We've been clearing the buildings in the area," he said. "We found two men next door. One was deceased, the other was half naked and unconscious behind a dumpster at the helipad. He said he was supposed to fly Qadir out of the area, but someone knocked him out and apparently stole his clothes."
"What?" she said in shock. "The helicopter pilot was knocked unconscious?" She turned to Max. "Who the hell is flying Qadir's helicopter?"
He stared at her for a long minute. Then his gaze swept the room. "Where's Tyler?"
"He went to the bridge," Alina said.
A moment later, Max's earpiece came to life, Tyler's calm voice coming across the radio. "I just landed a helicopter at Morris Field in Westchester. Ali Qadir is deceased. Repeat, Ali Qadir is dead."
She sucked in a breath as she met Max's gaze.
Then Max said, "Copy that."