Recollection Rick
Chapter 35
"Fallon!" Kate calls out, striding into the bullpen.
The DHS agent emerges from the lounge rubbing his eyes. "Just catching a couple of minutes rest until the manifests arrive." He checks his watch. Pulling out his phone, he stares impatiently at the screen. "They're due any second."
"Good, because when they come in, we need to look for a ship carrying drugs to treat heart disease,' Kate announces.
"How do you figure that, Beckett?" Fallon questions.
"You were right about my husband making crazy connections. He said some explosives are also used in pharmaceuticals for that purpose. I checked. He was right."
Fallon shakes his head. "Beckett, you don't believe that terrorists are going to use pills to blow up a building."
"You're still asleep," Fallon, Kate chides. "They'll use the pills as a smokescreen, to account for anything that registers as certain kinds of explosives. They'd fool a scan."
Fallon's cell lights up. "The manifests are coming in now. I'll forward them to you so we can have a look on a larger screen. Wow, it's a big file. I hope you're right, Beckett. By the time we check on all of this, a block of the city could be gone."
Kate points her finger at the monitor screen of her desktop computer. "This is it, Fallon. Angi-ease. It's a brand name for an anti-angina drug-containing PETN."
"That's the motherf****r of explosives!" Fallon exclaims. "The military puts it in bunker busters."
"Right," Kate acknowledges. "It could take out the museum or any building where al-Ruqai plants a bomb. This manifest is for a ship called the Glenah. It hasn't docked in New York."
Fallon's jaw tightens. "Still, it could offload the PETN onto a smaller vessel, registered here. A small boat could tie up anywhere."
"But it would make sense to look close to the cell tower transmitting Husayn's calls," Kate offers.
"Yes, it would," Fallon agrees. "And if we can get the Glenah on satellite, we can track any craft that goes near it and have the Coast Guard on track it. This could be the breakthrough we've been waiting for, Beckett. Damn, it better be."
Gazing through high-powered binoculars, Hamed locates the boat coming toward his floating command center. It's not making any great speed, but even as impatient as he is, he wouldn't want it to. So far, other than the still unexplained capture of Husayn, his operatives have escaped any undue attention. He wants to keep it that way.
With Husayn in custody, Hamed regretfully abandoned the museum as a target. His secondary choice, however, will strike almost as severe a blow for his cause. As part of a celebration of biodiversity, The Fellowship of the Round Earth is hosting a traveling collection of books from Darwin's personal library. The exhibition is in a skyscraper housing hundreds of offices. The devastation won't be nearly as extensive as the destruction of the towers on 9/11, but the death toll could still reach into the thousands, and the city will be brought to its knees. His engineers have assembled the explosive device. All he needs is the PETN to complete it. He already has a plant inside the building to secure the bomb where it will most effectively weaken the structure. In less than 24 hours, Hamed's triumph will be complete.
As enthusiastic a student as she usually is, Alexis finds her classes at Marlowe Prep increasingly lacking. Except for literature and history, almost everything in her textbooks is outdated. The school buys the new references as soon as they come out, but the publishing process itself can't keep up with the explosion of technical knowledge that doubles in less than two years. These days, information is old news in a few hours.
That's why it's so exciting to be on the cutting edge. She can create information instead of merely consuming it. Or, in the case of high school, regurgitating it on command. She checks the time – again. A few minutes to go, and she'll be headed for the train to Hudson U. She twirls the tips of her own well-conditioned red tresses around her fingers. What clues has her daily regimen left behind? She can't wait to find out.
Fallon glares at the captain of the Glenah, helicoptered to the city from 12 nautical miles out to sea. He refuses to give his name or say anything at all. Had it not been for his insignia and general air of power, the Coast Guard wouldn't have known who to send to Fallon. They'll be questioning the rest of the crew as best they can, using the few Arabic translators they have available. Fallon is fairly fluent in Arabic but better in Farsi. His father, an Iranian immigrant, is still a practicing physician. Whatever this asshole speaks, if he speaks, Fallon can manage.
The agent is not sure it matters. According to his latest report from the Coast Guard, no PETN or any explosive except that in crates of Angi-ease pills is onboard the Glenah. Whatever boat it was passed to has had time to traverse the short distance to shore or another boat. Coast Guard Intelligence is going through satellite footage to trace the PETN's path, but so far is coming up short.
"You know, you won't be a martyr or at least not anytime soon, " Fallon warns the captain in Arabic. "We can send you to prison for many years. There won't be any virgins, and if you don't keep your back to the wall, you'll become another man's pleasure."
Fallon can see his prisoner wince. Good. He'll talk sooner or later. His information will be worth something, but not enough. Not nearly enough.
Alexis gazes around Colbert Hall, one of the dorms on the Hudson campus more recently converted to co-ed. It wouldn't be a bad place to live, she considers. She might want to bring her own wi-fi hotspot to get the speeds her father demands from their provider at home. But other than that, the building seems inviting enough. The walls aren't all Navajo white. The furniture in the lounge off the lobby looks comfortable, and a few enticing aromas waft through the air. Of course, she hasn't seen the rooms yet. She has to make the house mother her first stop. Professor Gilly already got permission for the project. However, Alexis or any visitor not living on the Hudson campus needs to check in before wandering at any length around living quarters. Alexis knows her father would find that comforting.
She knocks on a door with a dozing red setter sprawled across the threshold. "Be with you in a second," a vaguely familiar voice calls from within. A woman not much older than Alexis scoots in behind the dog. "Can I help…Hey, Alexis Castle!"
"Barton! What are you doing here? I thought you were going to Northwestern."
"I thought I was too," Barton confesses. "But after my senior year at Marlowe, I took the Staten Island Ferry to visit my grandmother, and I met Zev. I guess you could say it was love at first sight. He was already a student at Hudson. We spent the whole summer together. I went to Northwestern for a semester, but I knew pretty much the minute I got there that I would transfer to Hudson to be with Zev. We wanted to get married, and married students can get a free apartment by being house parents. So here I am. And here you are. You must be doing the thing for Professor Gilly, right? I'll check you in, and later we can catch up.
A/N Thank you for all the holiday greetings. It is my joy to write for you. We all need a little fun these days. Here's to a better year!
