Chapter Five
Cassidy jumped when she heard his voice calling her name.
She’d been focusing on one of the gilt-edged mirrors on the hub at the center of the ride.
She could no longer keep her eyes shut, and turning around to watch the world whizzing past was completely out of the question.
She honestly didn’t know how much longer she could handle staying on, no matter what her instructions said.
Jake’s call was exactly the distraction she needed. “Copy. What have you got?”
She nodded as she digested what he was telling her. They’d found another bomb. The fifth, counting the one on her back. Not bad for a couple hours’ work.
“I, uh…” She squinted her eyes shut, gave her head a decisive shake, willing logic to break through the fog of fear and nausea. “There’s an auxiliary building,” she blurted.
Then she took a deep breath and forced herself to speak in complete and coherent sentences. “On the other side of the Coliseum,” she said, her voice growing stronger as the plan took shape. “Thompson, you read?”
“Already heading in that direction,” the older man responded. “I’ll scoop up Witchell on the way.”
“Jake, Bud and Ed Witchell will help get the cattle moved. Ed oversees security around the livestock. He should be able to round up a hand or two to help.”
There was a pause before Jake answered. “Ten-four. I have a team here to work on the device. Max and I are heading for the Arkansas Building.”
Bile rose in her throat as she let the information sink in. Jake and Max had found the bomb. There were explosives planted all around her fairgrounds and they hadn’t the faintest idea what the perpetrator’s game plan was. She glanced at her watch and saw it was nearly one o’clock.
Biting down on her lip, she did her best to quell the panic clawing up her throat as she spoke into the radio. “It’s nearly one,” she said, her voice quavering. “You want to hold off until the top of the hour passes?”
Her voice rose on the last part of the suggestion, turning it into a question. Cassidy hated sounding so unsure but, at the moment, there was no controlling it. She was sitting on a spinning ride with a bomb strapped to her back. She figured she had every right to feel scared and uncertain.
“Good call,” Jake said. “I’ll relay.”
Cassidy turned her head, searching out another spot at the center of the ride she could latch on to while Jake conferred with the other members of law enforcement.
She wanted to be looped in. When Jake came back on, she’d insist on having access to their radio communications.
There was no way she was sitting here being spoon-fed bits of buffed and polished information like she was some kind of victim to be protected.
But she wasn’t. She was stuck on this stupid ride all by herself. Synced up with no one.
She closed her eyes and exhaled. “Two minutes.”
In those brief minutes, she allowed herself to feel the weight of being both the victim and the probable target in this mess.
She gave herself over to the thrumming headache at the base of her skull and acknowledged the churning in her gut.
The urge to plug her ears with her fingers was nearly unbearable.
She wasn’t sure what it would do for her—block out the wind, keep every intrusive thought she was having trapped inside, or maybe stop things up so she imploded before she exploded?
Curling her fingers into fists, she clamped her jaw tight and began humming.
At first, it was tuneless, something to drown out the panic.
But within a minute, it morphed into a pop song.
One she and Jake used to mockingly belt out as it played at full volume in his car. A song she secretly loved.
“Ma’am?”
She opened her eyes to see a slim man wearing cargo pants and a navy T-shirt proclaiming him to be a LRFD Trainee standing near the carousel. He wore the curved brim of his LRFD cap pulled over his eyes, but the lines fanning from them told her he was squinting against the bright sunlight.
“Yes?”
“Can I get you anything? Water? Food?”
He sounded hopeful. Eager to help. It reminded her of Trooper Rhodes, and her stomach curdled. “No. Thank you,” she added with weak smile. “I’m okay.”
“If you need anything, let me know. I’ll be around,” he assured her.
“I appreciate you.” He turned to go, and she had a flash of Trooper Rhodes doing the exact same thing. “Hey,” she called to him. “What’s your name?”
When she came around again, she caught the tail end of a self-effacing shrug. “Everyone calls me T.B.”
She nodded and raised a hand as she spun toward the back again. “Thanks, T.B.”
Closing her eyes again, she ignored the ever-present rush of wind in her ears and concentrated on taking air in. After three cycles of box breathing, her heartbeat finally slowed, only to have it kick up when the platform shook beneath her.
“Cass?”
Her eye sprang open and the first thing she saw was the time displayed on her phone: 12:59. Then she focused on the pair of boots in her peripheral vision and the gold-brown paws beside them.
“I thought you were supposed to be falling back until after the top of the hour.” She practically spat the words at him, her heart hammering with fear and anticipation.
“We are.” Jake sat down beside her.
“If you haven’t noticed, one of the bombs is on this ride,” she reminded him tightly.
“I have a feeling that one is the midnight special. This is probably the safest place on the grounds.”
Cassidy recognized the stubborn streak in his tone, and she couldn’t say she was sad to hear it.
The noble thing to do would be to send Jake and his gorgeous dog as far away from her as they could possibly get.
But she wasn’t feeling noble. Or brave. Plus, she agreed.
The bomb she carried was probably meant to be the finale in this pyrotechnics display.
After clearing the lump of emotion from her throat, she asked, “Where are we at with everything?”
“We disarmed the device at the pirate ship. They’ll start working on the cattle barn location once the animals are moved. Max and I are waiting to check the—”
An explosion at the south end of the grounds shattered the relative calm.
Cassidy stared at the smoke rising into the air, mentally calculating proximity and the possibilities of people working nearby.
“Arkansas Building.” She turned, needing to see him. What if she’d hallucinated his return? What if he and Max—
“What?” Jake tore his attention from the teams running past them toward the blast site.
She bobbed her head in the direction of the explosion but couldn’t take her eyes off him. Wetting parched lips, she spoke again. “I’m afraid that may have been the Arkansas Build—”
His radio squawked to life. It seemed like every user was trying to talk at once. Finally, Colonel Aronson’s baritone broke through the noise. “Arkansas Building. Let Fire through first.”
Jake started to rise, and for the first time, wobbled a bit. He hit the bench seat beside her hard, his eyes wide with realization.
He and Jake would have been in there if she hadn’t reminded them of the possibility of a countdown. Cassidy’s stomach did a full somersault as they stared at one another, comprehension dawning.
“Twelve o’clock and now one.”
“Another bomb located.”
He continued to stare at her, but his eyes were unfocused. Pensive. As if he were searching his memory for a clue he wasn’t quite sure was there. Eager to help him along, she dove into her theories.
“Okay, so not in a numerical pattern.” He tipped his head quizzically, and she shrugged. “North gate, midway, livestock barns, now a building on the south end.” She pointed in each direction.
“We got some of it right, counting buildings,” he countered.
Cassidy nodded but wrinkled her nose. “Might have been luck. Or process of elimination.”
“Let’s settle for an educated guess.” Jake turned back toward the action, his expression tense with impatience.
“Go,” she said, making a shooing motion.
She’d captured his full attention again. “What? No.”
“You’re clearly dying to be in the thick of it, and there’s no point in you staying here.”
He flexed his jaw as he mulled. “There’s no point in me going there,” he concluded flatly. “Max and I do detection and identification.”
She pursed her lips as she took in his explanation. “Then you need more places to look.”
He let out a sigh as he gave Max’s head a reassuring pat. “I guess so.”
“Is someone checking the Arts and Crafts Building?” Cassidy plowed ahead without waiting for a response. “It’s open space in there, aside from the display cases, but there is an office and a kitchen.”
Jake nodded as he digested the information. “Good to know.”
“The Hall of Industry is a blank slate aside from the bathrooms and the concession area.” When he didn’t move or give any indication he’d heard her, she jabbed him with her elbow. “Wanna write this down?”
He turned to look directly at her, his face a mask of concern. “What happens if the bombs we’re dismantling were scheduled for two or three o’clock?”
She assumed he was merely musing aloud, but the impulse to answer his possibility with one of her own was strong.
Her lips parted, but the thought died on her tongue as she absorbed the unspoken questions layered beneath the one he’d asked.
It was entirely possible they were working their way to an expedited end to their situation, but it might not be the best overall outcome. Particularly not for her.
“You think they’d retaliate if one doesn’t explode?” But they both already knew the answer.
“Look what they did when we tried to get you out of the backpack.”
She turned in the direction of the mangled corn dog stand, sighing as the ride carried them past, then holding her breath until she caught sight of the twisted food trailer again.
“They could set them all off.” Cassidy spoke through fear-numb lips.