Chapter 12

By six in the morning, there were several nondescript vans and other vehicles parked around the targeted parks in Virginia, Maryland, and DC. There weren't enough SWAT units to cover every park that was targeted, so several of the parks were being watched by groups of agents from all of the corresponding agencies. Hotch and Reid were in Hotch's car parked along the street beside Signal Hill Park in Manassas, Virginia; Morgan and Mack were in Morgan's car in the parking lot of Anacostia Park in DC; Kahlan and Chuck were walking around Lake Anne Park in Reston, VA. They were all silently hoping the day turned out to be a waste of time. Hotch knew, though, that the man they had questioned was telling the truth, but a small part of him was hoping that the leader of the group had found out about the capture of his man and changed his plans.

The parks were definitely not busy, but it was early and the overcast sky looked to be threatening rain even if the weather man said there wouldn't be any. Hotch smiled to himself. He couldn't see any of the soccer teams that would normally be there getting ready for the day's games. Apparently Kahlan's scheme had worked with the organized rec groups.

Hotch was pulled from his thoughts when Reid tensed in his seat. Hotch looked around the park quickly. He couldn't see anything that could have upset the young man, though. "What?" He asked him.

"There was a family over there by those blankets and that cooler," Reid told him as he pointed to where he was referring.

Hotch looked at the cooler sitting on the blanket and whoever owned it wasn't anywhere in the vicinity. Hotch opened his door and started to get out.

Reid started to get out, too. "If there are explosives in there, then those people at the pavilion could be in danger." Hotch started walking toward the cooler. "Hotch! You can't go near it. We have to call the bomb squad."

"Reid! Keep it down. I'm just going to get a closer look. We don't need to call the bomb squad just to find out it's full of soda and salads," Hotch told him as he scanned the pavilion. Apparently someone was having a family get together.

"Please don't get too close," Reid pleaded. Hotch shot him a look. Before he could get close enough, though, a young girl ran over to the cooler, opened it, and grabbed a juice box. Hotch and Reid both let out the breath they had been holding.

Hotch shook his head. "At least it's nice to know they aren't actually using families in this mess," he told Reid as he headed back to his car with Reid following close behind.

XXX

Two hours later, and Hotch almost dozing off from the lack of activity, their phones went off. He took it out and quickly read the text. It was an alert telling everyone of an explosion at a park in Vienna, Virginia. Son of a bitch! One explosion probably meant more as the day progressed. He took a deep breath and his phone went off again. That time, though, it was a message from a Homeland Security team at a park in DC. They had apprehended three men as they tried to place a backpack containing C4 beside the park's pool.

Suddenly his phone didn't stop vibrating as several messages came through asking for bomb squads to check out several backpacks that had been left in various locations. Hotch and Reid quickly scanned their park for any unattended bags. With as empty as their park was, it was easy to see that all bags were close to their owners.

Hotch silently prayed for the bomb squads to be able to handle all of the reported bags before any more explosions hurt any more people. Hotch's phone rang. He saw it was Garcia and quickly answered it. "You're on speaker, Garcia," Hotch told her.

"First, reports from the explosion in DC are coming in. Looks like only two people wounded. Apparently the blast wasn't very big."

"Good. Maybe these guys didn't have that much C4," Reid mused.

"Hopefully, but I also need to tell my liege that Double-O and her sidekick have split up and they are on their way to inspect a couple bags at other parks."

"What?" Hotch asked quickly.

"There aren't enough bomb units to handle them all. Double-O is heading to Centerville and Chuckles is heading to Leesylvania."

"I'm going to kill her!" Hotch exclaimed as he started his car. He took one more look around the empty park. Something in him told him that nothing was going to happen at that park, so he put the vehicle in reverse and left. He wasn't sure who would get there first, but he wasn't about to let Kahlan do anything stupid.

"Does she have experience with explosives?" Reid asked him as he put on his seatbelt.

"She's mentioned she'd blown things up, but I have no idea how extensive her knowledge is," Hotch admitted.

XXX

By the time Hotch had reached the park in Centerville, he saw Kahlan putting a backpack in her trunk. He pulled up beside her as she shut the trunk. He jumped out and fixed her with a look. She looked around to see if the look was actually directed at her. "What?"

"Are you trying to cause me to have a heart attack?" Hotch asked her using his stare.

"What? It was so rudimentary that even Mack could have disarmed it. All I did was pull out the blasting caps." He shook his head in frustration. "And don't give me that. I told you about that in the beginning."

"You said you've blown things up, that doesn't mean you know how to disarm a bomb. How did you know that it wasn't rigged to explode when you touched it?"

She chuckled. "Really? You honestly thing a bunch of rednecks are going to be that sophisticated?"

"She does have a valid point," Reid injected but quickly shut up when Hotch fixed him with his stare.

"Did you by chance see. . ." Hotch started as Kahlan's phone vibrated.

"Go ahead Pen. You're on speaker," Kahlan told her as she held out her phone so they could all hear what the tech had to say.

"There's been a massive explosion at the Leesylvania State Park. Chuckles was on with my Puddin Cup when the call dropped," Garcia told them quickly. Puddin cup was her pet name for Cameron. They could all hear the fear in her voice. "Puddin's on his way there now."

"Call Cam and tell him we're on our way!" Kahlan told her and got in her car.

Hotch threw his keys to Reid and jumped in with Kahlan. She was pulling out of the spot before he even got the door shut.

"Chuck's fine," he tried to assure her and silently prayed it was true.

"He better be, or I'll kill him," she told him as she pulled out onto the road and sped her way toward the park on the Potomac River.

XXX

By the time Kahlan got there, everything was in chaos. Fire trucks, ambulances, and police were everywhere. The park had been packed with several church groups holding Vocational Bible School there the whole week. Kahlan parked and they jumped out to find Cam and Chuck. Hotch felt bile rise up in his throat as he took in all the wounded and dead. He pulled out his badge and asked a young police officer who was in charge. "I think the highest ranking person here is Sargent Thomas over there by pavilion," the young man told him. Hotch noticed blood on the man's pants and shirt. He thanked him and went to the pavilion.

Kahlan quickly followed him but stopped when she finally saw Cameron talking to several fire fighters. "Cam!" She yelled as soon as she thought he could hear her over all of the noise.

Cameron turned around and winced when he saw who it was. "God, Kay! I can't find him anywhere!"

"What?!"

"They said the first explosion was over by that pavilion, but then there were several throughout the park all at once. . ."

"Calm down, Cam. We'll find him."

Cameron took a couple deep breaths and nodded. "I checked the wounded, but I. . ."

Suddenly another explosion shot dirt and debris into the air about two hundred yards away from where they were standing.

"Jesus Christ!" Kahlan yelled as she instinctively ducked. She looked back to where she had left Hotch just to make sure he was alright. He locked eyes with her; apparently he was checking on her, too. They nodded at each other and went back to what they were doing. "Help lead these people out of here! I'll search for Chuck," she told Cam quickly as she took in several families looking too scared to move. He nodded and ran for them, and she took off running toward the main part of the park.

After instructing several young police officers to help direct the families out of the park to small regional air strip across the main parking lot, Kahlan headed toward the river. She stopped when her phone went off. She took it out of her pocket and saw that it was Hotch telling her to come to the playground ASAP. She winced. She really didn't want to know what her husband had found that needed her attention so badly. After quickly looking around, she saw the bright colors of the plastic slides and took off running toward them hoping there wasn't more than one playground.

Her heart jumped into her throat as she got closer. Even with all of the chaos, she could hear screaming. It wasn't the screaming of a mother looking for a child, or the screaming of emergency personnel trying to get things organized, it was a high pitched gut wrenching screams of a child in severe pain. She sped up and found Hotch kneeling on the ground beside the mangled remains of a jungle-gym. Kahlan had to fight the urge to throw up as she took the tiny body of a girl who couldn't have been much older than Joey.

Hotch was holding the child's hand with one hand and pressing on a massive gaping wound that ran down most of her left leg. He was trying to sooth the girl with kind words of comfort, but she was too lost in the pain to hear anything. Kahlan ran up to him and place a hand on his back to let him know she was there. "I'll go get a medic," she told him quickly and turned on the balls of her feet to run off.

"You've got to help her," He demanded through clenched teeth.

"But. . ." She started and then went to her knees beside him as her hands joined his on the wounded limb.

"Stop her pain," Hotch told her quietly with pleading eyes.

"What? How?" She asked him.

"Do that thing you do."

She shook her head violently as her eyes filled up with tears. "No, Aaron. I couldn't." She looked around hoping a medic was within sight. There wasn't.

They could barely hear each other over the girls screams. "But. . ." Hotch started.

"God, Hun. Please," she shook her head again. "No. That would. . . It wou. . . she'd. . ."

"She's going to lose it anyways," he tried again as the girl thrashed a little.

"I've never done it to a kid before. Please, no," Kahlan pleaded as tears fell down her cheeks.

"But you'd be helping her."

She swallowed hard as she studied his face. She turned to look at the girl's face; it was scrunched up in pain, and she felt her heart break. She knew that if it had been Joey lying there, that she would want someone to stop her pain, so she finally nodded. Her hands shook as she pulled the child's lower half into her lap. She closed her eyes and let her fingers find the required spots and within seconds the screaming ceased. The little girl's face showed the shock she felt, and she actually smiled up at both Hotch and Kahlan as she breathed heavily.

"Just hang on," Hotch told her with a small smile. "Help's on the way." The little girl nodded, and Kahlan laid her gently on the ground again. Hotch looked at Kahlan. "I'll go get a medic."

"No!" the girl yelled as she fisted a hand in Hotch's shirt.

"I'll go," Kahlan told him quickly and got up. She ran in the directions of where she had last seen one.