Chapter 10
“Sir,” Red said from the doorway to Steele’s office. Her eyes looked just a little frantic.
“Whadda ya got?”
“An anonymous tip,” Red said, shaking her head. She was actually Special Agent Rebecca Redmyer, but due to her last name and her natural hair color, she was forever just Red.
“From Cassandra?” Agent Steele said, sitting up straight.
“About Cassandra,” the technologist said. “Untraceable, anonymous, and just four words: Protect Blake Train 29.”
“Tell me you already know what Train 29 refers to?” Steele asked.
“The Amtrak Capitol Limited train from Pittsburgh to DC. Runs daily and right now is just leaving the Martinsburg, West Virginia station.”
“Alert the team, alert Major Crimes, and get HRT moving,” Steele said, but the words were no sooner out of his mouth when Leah Frayer walked in, followed by Special Agent Evan Hawke, lead agent for the HRT contingent housed in the Triple Threat Complex.
“Our teams are scrambling, and I have two Blackhawks inbound now,” Hawke said.
“We’ll take Kazeem, Flanders, Quintel, and Zita,” Frayer said. “As well as me.”
“Red?” Steele asked.
“Kessler, Carmine, Rao, and Chen are grabbing their go bags now, sir. I’m continuing to pursue the backtrace on this communication. ”
“Alright. Let’s go find our mystery girl,” Steele said, grabbing his own ready bag from the cabinet behind his desk.
Seventeen minutes later, both Major Crimes and Counterterrorism were airborne in near identical UH-60 helicopters flown by HRT pilots, each with a half dozen HRT agents.
“Sir, the train will make a stop in Harpers Ferry, West Virginia in twenty-nine minutes. You will be there with a solid ten minutes to spare. We’ve ordered the train to remain in station until released by your command,” Red said over his headset.
“Circulate the best three photos we have of Miss Blake to every member of this task force, as well as a head shot of Oscar Wymer,” Steele said. “We must not allow her to come to harm, understand?” Steele asked across the team frequency, getting affirmatives from every agent in both aircraft.
“Sir, AD Shire is ordering me to connect you on a side channel,” Red said, a note of warning in her voice.
“Go ahead, Red.”
“Agent Steele, you failed to inform me of your excursion,” Shire’s voice said. “Where are you headed and how did you get this lead?”
“You will need to talk to Red about where the lead originated, Assistant Director. It was an anonymous tip that demanded immediate action.”
“I did not approve this action,” Shire said.
“No ma’am. But I have operational command authority of my task force, as you know, which was set up precisely for speed of decision and reaction.”
“You have not told me your destination,” Shire said.
“Patching in the director on this channel now,” Red said suddenly.
“You have a lead, Brian?” Director Brown asked.
“Yes sir. Anonymous email tip with enough credibility to warrant immediate response.”
“Vetted?”
“No sir, but it used Cassandra Blake’s name and gave a specific location, along with a warning to protect her.”
“So it could be false?”
“That is a possibility, sir, but I deemed the risk worthy of response.”
“Very good. Go get that young lady, Agent Steele.”
“Yes, sir,” Steele responded, and the entire channel went quiet.
Kessler caught his eye. “The director seems highly involved, sir,” he noted. Carmine and Chen watched the byplay closely.
“Yes. Yes he does.”
“Seems like a good thing, sir,” Kessler said carefully.
“An outstanding thing, Agent Kessler,” Steele said with a smile.