Chapter Three #4
“He won’t use it. He likes gathering information. I already know where his next set of victims will be. Like I said, he likes to know all of us INTIMATELY. That’s how he’s going to break me,” she said, with no emotion in her voice.
Ethan went to say something, but she cut him off.
“There’s information that you can use to try to profile this.
Right now, I acknowledge his clues. I know exactly what he’s telling me.
I have called a meeting with my team there.
I’m going to warn them to be hyper vigilant.
I know I did already, but this time, I’m going to be sure I stress it.
He’s likely still in DC, and that makes it dangerous for anyone who knows me there. ”
Blackhawk saw the fear in her eyes.
He’d done this by telling her he didn’t have faith, and now, he regretted it.
On top of being afraid, she was angry with him.
REALLY.
ANGRY.
That she wouldn’t even engage with him meant she’d drawn the line—around herself as a way to protect her peace.
From him.
“Where are you staying?” Gene asked, finally breaking his silence.
She was honest.
“Raph, Uriel, and myself are booked into the Conference Center. Our normal room. We will be bunking in the same space.”
Ivan popped onto the screen.
“Are you insane? That’s the norm. Have I taught you nothing?” he asked, horrified.
Only, she didn’t need him on her ass, too. This was NOT her first day.
She stopped him before he said something stupid, too.
“Do you have faith in me, or have you lost it too, Ivan?” she asked.
He knew this was a landmine.
But still, he was honest.
“You know I have faith in your skill. It’s your common sense I worry about, Crazy Train. I worry you’ll stay there to get him to show up so you can shoot up the damn town!”
She wished, but she wasn’t playing bait.
Instead, she was honest.
“We are staying in my office with MATE locking it down. We made the reservation to hide a little better in DC. This is my kingdom, and I know the holes here. Not him.”
Ivan chilled out.
Elizabeth was to the point.
“No one will be in or out of my office. I’m cuddling up to two Marines tonight.
For the record, I’m not the village idiot.
I’m also playing the game. After we leave the White House tonight, a second car, one I always am in, is going directly to the Conference Center without us in it.
We’re riding out in Secret Service vehicles to the FBI building.
Tiffany is going to transport us to the FBI post my meeting with Gabe. ”
Ivan reassured her.
“Good. I don’t want that face hurt. I like it despite it making me want to puke simultaneously.”
She actually laughed because if she didn’t, the pressure would make her cry. Never had she felt so alone while she was out in the world.
“I love you too, Ivan.”
He winked at her.
“Be safe, Cupcake.”
That was the plan.
Gene was curious.
“Can you tell us what clues he left you? Because I don’t know how you saw a uterus and a cross and thought about going to DC. Help a dude out? Unless you put it in your notes.”
She broke it down because she hadn’t.
Not yet.
To get him to see what she was seeing, Elizabeth said two words to her fellow Catholic.
“Corpus Christi, Gene.”
He stared at her.
Oh, and she could see the wheels turning as he processed that information.
And when the lightbulb went on when he got it.
“The body of Christ? The Corpus Christi celebration in DC?” he asked.
She nodded.
Callen was confused.
“Isn’t that the masses you guys take our daughter to? It sounds familiar.”
Chris knew.
Addison was always so amped about that time of the year in June. She looked forward to it.
“It is the masses you take Addy to. It represents Jesus in the sacraments as being the reason the Catholics all come together to embrace them. Or that’s what Addy told me.”
Gene gasped.
“Holy shit. He picked the first city based on that? He’s laying easter eggs all over the place. That’s fucking insane.”
She was aware.
The man had a long time to lay this all out to catch her off guard.
“So ,you asked what made me decide on DC? Well, first, it was Corpus Christi. Then, it was the rosary. Care to guess what it looks like?” she asked. “Well, not covered in goo?”
They nodded.
“Flip to page ten.”
They did, and Callen saw it.
“What the holy fuckity? How many goddamn times is someone going to replicate that freaking rosary? I got that for my woman, and now everyone has one. I swear to God, nothing is fucking sacred.”
Just by the fact that Callen was dropping f bombs told them how pissed he was.
And scared.
Sadly, he was right.
It wasn’t the first time someone used that to get them. Javier Hughes had bought one to mess with Ethan, and now, she’d bet that somehow, he found information or had seen it at a gala when she’d been wearing it.
“I think he saw it,” she said. “Six months ago, we went to the Presidential Gala, and I wore red and gold for my Marine son. I also wore my rosary around my one wrist.”
She had.
They all remembered it.
“So, he saw it on the media, or he was there. I don’t recall seeing him there, but…I don’t pay jack shit attention to those things. I’m mostly sucking my gut in, and trying to check out my men.”
They were aware.
“That was the one where it was you and Chris there, correct?” Gene asked.
She nodded.
“You and Ethan were in Puerto Rico, and Callen was on a book tour. We went because Baldini told me I had no choice.”
Yeah, they all remembered now.
As for the cross being altered, Gene knew what that meant.
“When Jesus is off of the cross, it goes from suffering to resurrection. That’s the difference between a Catholic crucifix and a Christian cross. Before and after.”
She was aware.
For hours, she’d been mulling this over, and she was trying to get a grasp on it.
“How many days did it take?” she asked, knowing Gene would understand what she was saying.
And she was right.
“Three,” Gene said. “Jesus resurrected after three days,” he said. “So, he’s going to do what in three days?”
She was to the point.
“Cause death, I’d say, or possibly come for one of us.
He’s leaving clues for me to find in threes.
That’s the holy number. As soon as I land in DC, and he gets wind of it, and he will, the clock starts ticking.
We have three days until something bad happens.
So, I need you guys to be very careful.”
Elizabeth only hoped she wasn’t wrong about this, or this could cost someone their life.
HER.
Ethan had a question.
“Will you be coming back here?”
She wasn’t going to answer him at first, but instead, say something petty. But she didn’t have the time or the energy for that.
Honestly, she had to choose her battles.
For now.
Later, she and Ethan would have to have a talk because she didn’t want to be in a marriage with someone who didn’t have faith in her.
Oh, she got his mood, temper, and melancholy, but she couldn’t, and wouldn’t, let it take her down.
This was their make-or-break moment, and she knew it.
“I’m willing to bet that he directs me back there at some point. Right now, he’s having fun with me a day or two behind him. I’m sure he’s living for this. When I least expect it, he’ll drop the hammer on us. For now, he’s controlling this, and where I pop up for a reason.”
Well, that sucked.
And it was dangerous for her.
“Ivan?” she asked.
He appeared back on the screen.
“Yo?”
Because she was worried, she went there.
“The clock starts tonight. In two days, before the seventy-two-hour mark, I want all of our kids IN THE AIR. I want them flying from airport-to-airport and out of reach. Bounce them around, and if you think there’s danger, don’t let anyone off that jet.
You have security and ONLY security pick the next airport.
No predetermined locations. Put the places in a goddamn hat for all I care and pick that way, but their safety is PARAMOUNT. ”
He got it.
She wasn’t playing, and neither would he. Those kids would be safe no matter what.
Plus, he knew why she was doing it.
“He can’t chase you and them.”
She shook her head.
“Nope. As for us, when the bodies get to the FBI building, I need all of you guys transported. Empty out the house, for now. Everyone in, and everyone is staying there for the next seventy-two hours. If we’re interpreting this right, it’s better to be safe.
If need be, we use Corbin and Alex to assist. I’m likely going to have bodies there, and I’ll need help.
They are to stay in lockdown too, but can work from there. ”
Callen cleared his throat.
“Uh, hate to be the one who reminds you and makes you angry, but you have partners.”
She shook her head.
“No, Callen. I have targets now. I can’t let that happen. If you’re all in the same room with each other, he can’t find a way to get to you. He’ll be watching like a hawk. If he’s already on his way there, I need for you guys to be REALLY cautious.”
Oh, they would be.
“I need EVERYONE to stick together, and if you do have to leave, for some reason, you do it in a big group. No one divides off, or goes off. He killed my one tech. He’ll take the weakest link until he can get an important player in this game. Until I catch him, we’re all in lockdown.”
It appeared that was the best plan.
“We can work out of the office,” Gene said. “We can sleep there too.”
Oh, they had no choice. She was pulling rank.
Here.
And.
Now.
“As your boss, I’m telling you that is the case.
I’m not playing with any one of your lives.
What I suspect is he’s already moved on someone in DC, so for all I know, he’s already in the air after a body dump and heading there.
Like I said, he’s two days ahead of me now that I had to deal with the Von bullshit.
It’s just a matter of time until I find out who and where. ”
Ethan didn’t like this.
“You need to be careful, too.”
She said nothing.
Honestly, finding out he didn’t have faith in her was a devastating blow.
So, she said one thing.