Second Chances: A PAVAD Duet Page 21

  The first thing that hit him was the smoke. It was thick, dark, and almost green.

  Ed had never seen—or smelled—anything like it. The sprinkler system was operating, but it made little difference. The smoke seemed to feed on the water. People were still evacuating, none seemed injured. That was good. But he’d seen the daily security report—forty-nine people were signed in to the forensic department today. That was forty-nine people he had to ensure got out or were accounted for.

  And he was starting with her.

  Chapter 26

  The sprinklers soaked her to the skin and seemed to spread the smoke and sparks around her. Mari coughed, covering her nose and mouth with her arm.

  She stumbled to her feet. What had happened?

  She’d dropped the box from Indy and started running to the Questionable Documents lab and Payton. Then she’d heard hissing, and the box had exploded behind her. What in the hell had they sent her?

  Debris blocked her path to Payton’s lab. Smoke billowed toward her and behind her. Marianna turned toward the last open hallway and ran. She’d get out, then find her people. Somehow.

  ***

  The smoke continued to build. Marianna found the wall and felt her way through the smoke toward the emergency exit. She could hear people yelling, running as the smoke climbed and climbed. Where all was it coming from? The hallway where she’d been, Payton’s lab—she knew those two points. Were there any others?

  She doubled over, coughing, tears streaming down her cheeks. Strong hands wrapped around her arms. Someone called her name. Ed. Thank God. She couldn’t answer him; the coughing too strong. She could just grab his hand and hold on, as he pulled her toward the stairwell. She’d been fifteen feet away.

  Chapter 27

  Ed was coughing himself by the time they made it to the exit. They’d made it out relatively easily, but how many of his people hadn’t?

  He needed that answer.

  Marianna was still coughing, but much less frequently than before. The fresh air outside would help with that. Ed continued to hold on to her as he visually searched the parking lot looking for his assistant. Len would have a running count of each team’s present and accounted for. And for those who were not. He could depend on that. The woman could do his job probably more efficiently than he could at times.

  Dan was over there, Dr. Brewster in his arms, by an ambulance. Ed watched for a quick moment as his friend lifted the small blonde woman onto a stretcher in the back of the ambulance, and hopped up in the vehicle. But where was Dan’s daughter? The rest of Marianna’s people?

  He tightened his hand around Marianna’s, then pulled her to his side. “I have to go. Find out if we’ve lost anyone.”

  She nodded, then coughed again. “I need to find my own people.”

  “Don’t leave this area. Stay where someone can see or help you if needed.”

  “You think this was aimed at me?”

  “I think it was aimed at your department. We’ll talk more once this is over…” He grabbed the closest agent by the arm. J.T. Tompkins, from Malachi Brockman’s team. “Tompkins, you stay with her, do you understand? Assume there is a threat. Don’t let her out of your sight until I tell you to.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  Chapter 28

  Marianna found most of her people waiting at their assigned evacuation area, but several were missing. Ally. Kelly. Sam. Payton. Were they dead? Hurt? Oh, God.

  Marianna found Richison—one of the two supervisors other than Ally who worked under her. “Elliot? Your team?”

  “Fine. All fine. No sign of Allison’s team. Sam Gareth is on her way to the ER from smoke inhalation.” He stood tall and calm, though worry was on his face. “What do you need me to do?”

  “Start with the sub department supervisors and team leaders. Check for anyone missing.”

  “We’ll do. Dr. Bellows is running a triage; she might have information about our people.”

  Marianna nodded. “I’ll head over there now.”

  Richison patted her shoulder. “What in the hell happened here today?”

  “I wish I knew.”

  Evacuation protocol demanded that heads of departments status check their teams, then meet with other heads for updates and further instructions. Marianna headed to the triage area first, struggling to hold herself together.

  Dr. Bellows was snapping out orders to the three members of her staff. Marianna saw more than a dozen lab personnel waiting for assistance for what appeared to be minor injuries.

  No other department had anyone injured, so the explosions must have been localized to her department. Who would do this? Who would have such a grudge against her people that they would do such a thing?

  “Dr. Glendower! Dr. Glendower!” An urgent voice brought her back to her surroundings. Dr. Bellows stood in front of her, concern on her face.

  “How many people are hurt?”

  “Fourteen minor. We’ve sent seven to local ERs.”

  “Fatalities?”

  Dr. Bellows hesitated. “None yet, though a few are critical. But not everyone is accounted for. We’re still missing several.”

  “Who?”

  “I’m not sure. Ed or Len have that information. But…Dr. Glen—Marianna. All injuries were from forensics.”

  Marianna understood what it meant, and she could see that Dr. Bellows and J.T. knew it too. The someone after her and her people wouldn’t stop. He’d shown that today.

  She and the boys couldn’t stay with Ed forever, and this had proven that she wasn’t even safe at work.

  What was she going to do?

  Chapter 29

  His people. Injured, while on his watch. How many? Kelly Reynolds, Allison Brewster were both carried away in ambulances, as well as several others. Julia was treating still more. And one lab tech, barely twenty-two years old, hadn’t survived the ride to the closest ER.

  Ed would never forget or forgive that. He turned to the woman on his left. “Len, every department head and supervisor, meet me on the first floor of the parking garage. Five minutes. We need to know who is still missing. Also get the media team mobilized. Send out word that faulty wiring resulted in a lab accident. No word about an attack until or if it is cleared with me. Call all teams on stand-down. Confirm locations and statuses. And get me next of kin for—”

  “That’s already done, Ed.”

  “And Len? See that no one even whispers the word terrorism about this.” They didn’t need that type of panic on top of what had happened.

  “Understood.”

  Five minutes later Ed had a list of missing to give to the fire responders. Payton Asher, Eric Gareth, Don Duncan, Miles Jarett, Terri King, Susie Jones, Paige Daviess and Alessandra Brockman. Paige and Alessandra had been on their way to Questionable Documents five minutes before the explosions wracked the lab. Everyone else was lab personnel.

  He knew that if possible, those eight people would have evacuated the building by this point. It had been at least twenty minutes since the fire alarms had first sound.

  Were they already dead?

  How severe and significant were the explosions? Where had they taken place?

  He needed details; something more than just a list of missing.

  The fire chief was at his side, barking orders to his own people. Ed barely heard him, his mind on the eight people still missing.

  “Briggs, Coluter, Ephram! We have trapped survivors! Fire is contained! Let’s move!”

  Ed was on the man’s heels.

  The fire responders found three people in the fire analysis lab. They had minor injuries, but their path out had been blocked. The sprinkler had suppressed most of the fire and smoke where they were trapped. No primary explosions had occurred in their area.

  That still left five people missing.

  He was with the fire chief when two more bodies were found. They were both male, unconscious, but alive. The rescue crews carried Miles and Eric out of the DNA lab on stretchers. They�
�d been close to a primary detonation.

  “Three women missing.” Payton, Marianna’s quiet young friend; Paige, with her quirky ways and extremely soft heart; and Alessandra, a remarkably beautiful young woman with a way of making every one smile. Where were they?

  Ed knew the odds of finding them alive were rapidly shrinking.

  “Pull out! All rescue personnel pull out now!”

  “What?” What had he missed?

  “Sir, Director Ed, some of my men have found signs of a particularly volatile chemical that we’re not certain of its properties. We need to evacuate in case of a secondary explosion.”

  “But I still have three people missing.”

  “And we’ll find them, after we take precautions to protect my people. I’m sure you understand.”

  Chapter 30

  She’d been there when Eric and Miles were carried out.

  Then Ed and the fire chief had walked out.

  Marianna ran to Ed’s side. “Payton?”

  He wrapped a trembling hand around her arm. “We don’t know. Alessandra and Paige are also missing. They were on their way to QD right before.”

  “Do her brothers know? Sebastian’s team?”

  “I don’t know. Tell me what happened, Marianna.”

  “I was opening a package from Indianapolis. I thought it was from my old supervisor. I was walking toward QD, as I thought it was a consult we were expecting. I saw smoke coming from QD, then the sprinklers kicked on. I dropped the package and ran toward Payton’s lab. Then I was knocked to the ground. I got back up, but my path was blocked to QD. I turned around, then you were there.”

  “Gather your people. I want to reconstruct what everyone was doing. We had a total of six nearly simultaneous explosions. I want to know how.”

  Marianna knew what he was wanting. Maybe they’d find something to help. Working was always better than standing around waiting to hear…

  Five minutes later she had her team around her, organizing things the way she did best. No one asked about Payton; they knew the chances of finding her safe were very low at this point. It upped their determination to find out what had happened.

  Smoke could be so damned deadly.

  Someone had rendered a crude diagram of the lab on a sheet of paper. Marianna was marking where everyone was, and where the detonations occurred. Four of the six were in her end of the lab. Two were in Ally’s office area and Cody’s garage. The dead boy had been found filing papers in there, less than two feet from the detonation site. Eric and Miles had been trapped between two detonations, with smoke centered in their area. Marianna had also been trapped between two, but she’d been lucky to be in a hallway, close to the back access hall. There had been more airflow there. Had there not, it would have been bad for her. She tried not to think about that.

  Ed was staring over her shoulder, and she took a modicum of comfort from his presence. He was very much in charge, yet his caring and empathy was clear for everyone to see. Especially her.

  She pointed to the area furthest from where they were currently. “Here’s where Payton would have been.”

  “Within ten feet of these two detonations.”

  “Yes.”

  Agent Len interrupted, the fire chief at her side. “Sir, they’re going back in now.”

  “Concentrate here.” Marianna pointed to QD.

  The fire chief nodded.

  Len continued, “And Agent Sparks has video feed up on her laptop, ready for you whenever you’re ready—”

  Before Len could finish a loud roar went up over the crowd, then cheering and clapping from the group nearest the front of the parking lot.

  Marianna’s breath caught.

  Marianna and Ed took off at a run toward the front of the crowd.

  Two figures were limping from the building, assisted by firemen. A third fireman walked behind them.

  Carrying Payton.

  Was she dead? Payton lifted her head off the fireman’s shoulder and looked straight at Marianna. Injured, but alive.

  Thank God, they were all three safe.

  Chapter 31

  By the time the smoke and fire crews had cleared out, Ed was more than exhausted. But he carried on, along with Len and his top people. Marianna, too, was dividing her time between her duties as head of the lab and calling the hospital for updates on everyone’s conditions. She was calm, steady, and reassuring to everyone who needed it.

  He needed it, that was for certain.

  He’d sent Len and Royal to the home of the technician’s next-of-kin. His twenty-year-old girlfriend and their eight-month-old son. They deserved answers, and he was going to get those answers. But it wouldn’t change anything for that young family.

  And he had an entire field office to get back to business. The fire chief had closed off the bottom two floors—the lab and the basement beneath, but had cleared to top four of the eight floors for use.

  Ed had been surprised at how quickly they’d been allowed back in.

  Apparently the detonations had consisted of a mix of localized explosives and what amounted to very complex colored smoke bombs. The dark green smoke was designed to frighten and confuse everyone in the vicinity; the explosives were used to injure those directly in contact with the device. Targeted, skilled, and familiar enough with how their lab worked to orchestrate the attack.

  Someone who worked for the Bureau; either from his division or from Indianapolis. When he factored in the personal attacks on those women who’d transferred from Indianapolis, it deepened his suspicions. But who would have a strong enough grudge against them to orchestrate an attack on an FBI building? Whomever it had been, they were smart enough to know how to get six packages of explosives into his building without them being detected by his security. That took some serious know-how, both of explosives and of the FBI’s security measures.

  Who from the Indianapolis forensics lab would have that kind of knowledge?

  ***

  He took the files Len had provided home. He and Marianna—as well as Hellbrook and Georgia, who were meeting them at the house—would pour over the twenty-two suspects, and narrow it down.

  It might take them all night to do it, but by morning he’d know who to send his agents looking for.

  Marianna was silent in the car beside him. He’d had agents secure Brynlock Academy where her boys, Matthew, and Dan’s daughter Gracie all attended. The children were then ferried to the appropriate homes under guarded escort. Her sigh was long, and he echoed it silently.

  “What are we supposed to tell the boys?”

  Ed thought a moment. “I don’t know. That there were some injuries at the lab today?”

  “They’ll suspect. I know they will.”

  “Probably. Maybe you should tell them the truth. Watered down, of course. But…I’m keeping a lid on the exact details for as long as possible.” No use stirring up a media-induced panic; that wouldn’t serve anyone well.

  “Of course. But the kids were escorted home by armed federal agents; they are going to have questions.”

  “And I’ll help you answer them; if you want me to.”

  She nodded. “I called the hospital again.”

  “And?”

  “Everyone is stable now. Kelly has some serious burns on her back; Ally a concussion and smoke inhalation. Payton has a pretty nasty concussion, lacerations, and a broken arm; and Sam has had complications with her asthma from the smoke. Other than that, it’s smoke inhalation for most everyone else. Susie Jones had a heart attack, as well.”

  “We were really lucky today. We could have lost so many more.”

  Chapter 32

  Marianna told the four older boys that there had been an incident at the lab, and Ed had them brought home by agents just as a precaution, and because he knew she’d be unable to pick the boys up at their usual time. They’d seemed satisfied with that, though Nate definitely had questions.

  And both she and Ed had reeked of smoke.

  Ed’s house
keeper had dinner ready when everyone arrived, and the younger children were kept occupied playing with Matthew. The older boys had homework, and Marianna set them on it.

  Then she, the Hellbrooks, and Ed settled around the now-cleared dining room table. Marianna stared at the stack of files Ed held. In those papers were the people she’d left three months ago. Friends, colleagues, people she’d laughed and even cried with. And now he was asking her to help him dissect that information to find the one person who might possibly hate her, Cody, Kelly, Ally, Sam, and Payton.

  It made Rosa’s pot roast feel like a brick in her stomach.

  But what other choice did they have?

  Ed’s daughter took a section of the files. “What we’re looking for is someone with a grudge—legitimate or not—turned stalker. Either resentful or rejected in some way.”

  “But the question is why Payton, Allison, Kelly, Marianna, Cody, and Sam?” Ed asked. “There has to be an additional connection between them all, wouldn’t there?”

  Hellbrook looked at Marianna. “Most likely. And this happened in Indianapolis. We’re going to need details and a timeline of what happened in the month or so preceding your relocation. Not just what happened to you, but everyone else. Can you think of anything?”

  Marianna thought for a moment. “A lot of things happened that month.”

  Georgia patted her shoulder. “Start on the day the relocation request was made. Who all was told?”

  “We had a meeting. All lab personnel were included. I knew what was going on; I’d been briefed that morning.”

  “Did anyone else know?”

  “We’d heard inklings that something big was going on in St. Louis, involving forensics. We also heard that the deputy director was presiding over the meeting. You know how rumor mills work; nothing really helpful, more sensational as they grow.”

  “I’m not too familiar with the details—where you all chosen specifically, or was the relocation volunteer?” Hellbrook asked.