Kill Zone: A Lucy Guardino FBI Thriller (16 page)

Lucy staggered around in a circle then focused on Jenna as if just noticing her. “Walden?” Her voice was too loud, shouting. She began coughing before she could ask anything more.

“He’s okay. Leg’s bleeding and I can’t get it to stop. We need to take him to a hospital. You guys should get checked out, too.”

David grabbed hold of the dumpster and pulled himself up. “We need to find Rashid. I should have never let you compromise my mission.”

He was yelling at Lucy. Jenna doubted if he even knew how loud he was. Lucy lurched towards him, her balance still off. “One man or sixty civilians? Do the math!”

“Fat lot of good we did them. They’re all dead.”

“What else was I supposed to do?” She spun on her heel, teetering, then spun back. “And what the hell is wrong with you? You’re the only one with military experience. All your FAST missions in Afghanistan. All that intel Raziq has been feeding you. Why didn’t you or he or the damn DEA know about the cartel and its plans?”

“He did the best he could. The man’s lost his entire family—”

“For all we know the man may have
killed
his entire family!”

David stared at her, his face flushed. He stumbled toward her, one hand tightened in a fist although he didn’t raise it. “Bullshit! He saved my life. He just lost everything. That man—” He sputtered to a stop, at a lost for words. “That man is my friend. He loves his family. You think he, what, sold them out to the cartel for money? You think he let his daughters be butchered so he could make a few bucks? You are one heartless bitch!”

Jenna stepped between them. “We need to get Walden to a hospital. I think the Tahoe is drivable, just a few dents. Let’s go.”

David climbed over the rubble and headed toward the Tahoe. Lucy watched him, a scowl on her face, both hands on her hips. “Idiot.”

“You should cut him a break,” Jenna told her. “There’s a good reason he let you take the lead tonight.”

“What?” Lucy clapped one hand to her ear, eyes wide. Jenna wondered if it was because her ears had just popped or if it was because Lucy just realized just how far she’d fucked things up tonight. Jenna tried not to gloat, but she couldn’t ignore a twinge of satisfaction at seeing Saint Lucy reduced to human fallibility.

“Did he tell you about Afghanistan?”

“Don’t shout, I can hear you. Yeah, Raziq pulled him out of a burning building, saved his life, whatever.”

“David suffered a traumatic brain injury. It was months before they let him return to work. Raziq may have saved his life but he couldn’t save the Marines who were with him. Don’t you think you’d think twice about leading people into danger if the last time you did you got seven of your friends and a bunch of innocent girls killed?”

Lucy stopped. Stared at Jenna as she wiped the snot and dust and blood from her face with the back of her sleeve—about the only part of her parka that wasn’t coated in blood. Jenna hated to think of what they’d found inside the 911 Center, but however bad it was, Lucy didn’t have the right to play the holier than thou card with David. Not that that would ever stop St Lucy the Judgmental.

Lucy sniffed. Started walking again but this time more coordinated. They climbed over the retaining wall into the garage and caught up with David and Walden. Most of the car alarms on the ground floor had died. It was weird, Jenna almost missed them wailing in time with her pulse. But at least she could finally hear herself think.

“Now what?” Walden asked as David helped him to his feet.
 

Lucy was silent. She probed her scalp beneath her thick, dark hair, her fingers coming away with blood that she wiped on her vest before anyone but Jenna could see.
 

“Now we go after Rashid,” David said. “Like we should have from the start.”

“Where?” Walden asked.

“I say we get to a hospital,” Jenna said. For like the third time. Why was it no one would listen to her?

Lucy paced, her gaze darting from dead body to dead body. “What do we know about the Rippers?” she asked, gesturing to the last man Jenna had killed and his gang colors. “Why are they working with the cartel?”

“Partner with the Zapatas and they’ll drive out any competition,” David supplied. “You’d be the last man standing.”

“Plus they know the territory,” Walden added. He hobbled to the Tahoe’s passenger side door, opened it, and sank down into the seat. “Could be a help when you’re from out of town. And you get to use their foot soldiers, saves bringing in too many of your own men.”

Lucy nodded. “And if you had valuable hostages, the safest place to keep them would be—”

“In the middle of territory you or your partners controlled,” David finished for her. “You think Fatima and the baby are with the Rippers?”

“If so, that’s where they’ll be taking Raziq.”

“Pretty big territory,” Walden argued.
 

“I can narrow it down,” Jenna chimed in. Silence as they all looked at her. Finally she had their attention. “I tracked down the threats and the letter bomb to a few blocks radius.”

“How’d you do that?” David asked. “You’ve only been on the case a week.”

Honestly, by working practically nonstop—except for the few hours she could escape Morgan’s surveillance and go out at night. She didn’t tell him that. “I combined the areas where the physical letters were mailed with CC TV and traffic cam footage, weeded out the international ISP addresses—a bunch of false trails you’d already followed—and used GIS along with a program Taylor lent me to find the ISPs that were local. They’re all unsecured wifi that center on Ruby Avenue. But the undetonated device was the jackpot. A former gang banger with a Juvie record used that exact same bomb making signature when he was active eight years ago.”

“Let me guess,” Walden said. “He lives in Homewood.”

“His grandmother does. It’s the only address we have for him. Right in the middle of the Ruby Avenue ISPs I traced.”

Haddad leaned forward. “Are you talking about Andre Stone?”

“Yeah, that’s him. You know him?”

“He was one of the Marines I worked with in Kandahar. The guy was burned in the same explosion that almost killed me and Rashid. When he came to at the hospital he said it was Raziq who’d set up the ambush that killed his squad. But of course that was impossible. I think the blast scrambled his brains.”

“Does Stone have any ties to the cartel?” Lucy asked.

Jenna shrugged. “None that I saw. But I wasn’t looking for anything as big as this.”

They all were silent for a moment as the enormity of the destruction surrounding them sank in.

Lucy nodded to herself as if making a decision. “Jenna, you take Walden in the Tahoe,” Lucy ordered. Back to normal. “Give me your car keys. Haddad and I will take the Mustang.”

“Like hell you will,” Jenna protested.
 

David looked up, a sullen look on his face. “You and me? Where to? I’m not heading back to the Federal Building. I don’t care if you do outrank me.”

“I’m not giving up on Fatima and the baby.” Lucy said it as if daring anyone to challenge her.

“Or Rashid,” David put in.

“Or Rashid. We’ll check out the Rippers’ headquarters on Ruby Avenue. And this alleged bomb-maker’s granny’s house.”

His mouth dropped open. Then he closed it again. “Okay, then. That’s more like it.”

Chapter 18

To Lucy’s dismay, Jenna had insisted on Haddad being the one to drive her Mustang. His driving was worse than ever. Jerky, as if his mind drifted along with the car and he needed to pull them both back on course.
 

Lucy rolled down her window, inhaling the fresh, cold air. Sirens provided a constant background noise, surrounding them, but none were close. Helicopters zigzagged overhead. More news copters than law enforcement, unfortunately.

Because of the roads the Zapatas had blocked around the Communication Center, they’d been forced to go through a parking lot then wind their way along narrow residential avenues. For a Friday night the roads were eerily quiet. On many blocks the only signs of life were the holiday lights and the flickering of TV screens glimpsed through windows.

Haddad turned on the car stereo. Instead of music, there was the tone of an emergency broadcast alert. “We repeat, Pittsburgh and surrounding areas are under emergency curfew. Please remain off the streets and stay in your homes until further notice. 911 calls are being handled on a priority basis. Road closings include Parkway East and West, I-79, Fort Pitt Bridge and Tunnels, both inbound and outbound…” The list went on and on followed by event cancellations.

Word was out. Pittsburgh was under siege.

Haddad turned the radio down as the message began to repeat itself. Lucy gulped in air through the window, trying to settle her stomach. Her jaws clenched, activating her TMJ, pain spiking into both ears. She had a metallic taste in her mouth she couldn’t get rid of—the aftertaste of adrenalin.

The feeling of panic reminded her of last month when Morgan’s father had taken her. He’d used a stun gun on her, knowing exactly where to aim to cause the greatest amount of pain. She’d almost surrendered. Almost given up.

That weakness haunted her. She hadn’t told anyone about what happened in the back of that van—not Nick, not the FBI counselor, certainly not her boss or anyone on her team. The official report skimmed over those moments of terror in dispassionate bureaucratic terms:
Subject overpowered this agent, removed her service weapon and cellular communication device, and restrained her with handcuffs in the back of subject’s van.
 

Too bad she couldn’t translate her nightmares into equally dry language.

“I didn’t get his name.” She broke the silence first.

Haddad almost ran them into the curb. “Who?”

“The deputy. I couldn’t read his name. His badge was smeared with blood.”

Silence. “Someone will know.”

“Sixty families.” Despair colored her voice. “I should have listened. When you said the Zapatas would think nothing of murdering civilians. As soon as that tanker blew, I should have evacuated the Communications Center, called—”

“Called who? Zones Four and Five were down. All the rapid response teams, county, local, even our guys, were running around the city trying to put out fires and stop tunnels and bridges and hockey games from being blown up. Who were you going to call?”

He had a point. But it didn’t make her feel any better. “I’m sorry about Raziq. I shouldn’t have said what I did.”

“You wanted someone to blame and he’s an easy target. I get it.” His tone was bitter. As if he’d been on the receiving end himself.

“Why take his family? Why make things so complicated?” Lucy asked. She knew the cartels used kidnapping to extort money and favors, but those were simple transactions that ended up with most of the victims dead whether the ransom was paid or not.
 

They didn’t need all this elaborate staging. Killing the girls first, setting an ambush timed to the bombing of the Communications Center… It felt like too much, over the top, even for a cartel trying to create shock and awe. Diversionary tactics. “Why not just take him on the quiet? What do they really want?”

Haddad’s answer was grim. “Maybe they want to make an example out of him. Victor Zapata has perfected the art of terror. You know how he disposes of bodies he doesn't want found? He takes them to a field, has his men prepare them like they're butchering a cow, then feeds them to his very own flock of vultures."

She didn't believe it for a moment. "No way. That's just what he wants you to believe. Building himself into a legend."

"Nightmare is more like it. But it's true. I saw it. All caught on a surveillance camera. They drive up and the vultures start gathering. Hundreds of them. Just watching and waiting. I have no idea how he trained them, but it's spooky to watch. His men slice open the bodies, take a sledgehammer to the skull so the birds can get to the brains, then they signal the vultures." He shuddered. It took him a moment before he continued, "Ten minutes later, there's nothing left."

Lucy hugged herself against a sudden chill but she didn't close her window. She needed all the fresh air she could get.
 

“That might work in Mexico, but it’s not going to work here,” she said with a bravado she didn't feel.

“I wouldn’t be so sure about that.”
 

“You really believe that? A Mexican drug cartel could come into a US city like Pittsburgh and just, just
own
it?”

“Like I said before, all they need is one night, a few hours, and a little help from the media to win.” He nodded to the radio. “Which means we’ve already lost.”

She let that sink in. Exhaustion weighed her down and she struggled against it. “I guess the only question is, are we going to let them get away with it?”

For the first time since she’d met him, he smiled. “Hell no.”

They pulled onto Fifth Avenue, heading north towards Homewood. Despite the curfew, she was surprised there was no traffic on the major thoroughfare. Of course, given how widespread the cartel’s attacks were, people would have no idea which roads would be safe. But this road led past Zone Five’s station house. Surely there’d be some first responders using it.