Tommy scanned the area he was patrolling for the hundredth time, sighing. Part of being a cop involved just sitting in a car for hours waiting for something that may never happen. His duties didn't always involve fighting with the bad guy and bringing down major operations that could potentially ruin millions of lives, like Bubonic's schemes usually involved. Many cops never saw that kind of action, which was best. It was better they never found out the level of fear that one could live with when a maniac threatened you or your loved ones.
Tommy rubbed his face, feeling helpless. He'd been sitting in his car for five hours, concealed behind a row of trees, near the warehouse where Bubonic and Amanda had operated out of. He had been hoping to see signs of life that would indicate that the warehouse was still in use, but so far nothing. It looked to be exactly what it was. A dilapidated, abandoned industrial sector of the city.
He felt utterly alone, even though he knew that Pascal was nearby patrolling another area. Yeager and George had stayed behind at the precinct deciding to look through the CCU's system for anything else that could be helpful. He felt like he was getting nothing accomplished sitting here, but he would happily stay here for months if there was a chance that Lindy was here.
Just then his phone vibrated in his pocket. Tommy jumped at the chance for a change in his monotonous duty. "Yeah?" he answered.
"Tommy!" came George's excited voice through the phone.
"What's wrong?" Tommy asked, his heart leaping into his throat.
"It's actually the opposite of wrong, Tommy-boy. Lindy has sent us a message."
Tommy's heart skipped a beat. "Seriously?"
"Yes."
"Well, what did it say?" he asked impatiently.
"I'll tell you in a minute, but first, I need you to focus. Look around you and tell me if you see what I'm about to ask."
"What is this for?"
"Just do it and I'll tell you in a minute."
Tommy sighed, knowing there had to be a perfectly good reason for this. Tommy nodded and then realizing George couldn't see him said, "Okay."
"That warehouse is near the waterfront, right? Yeager said it was."
"Yeah, it is." Tommy could see the sun sparkling off of the bit of water he could see from his vantage point.
"Do you see a dark blue building anywhere near you that says 'Henry's' on it?"
Tommy looked around, but from his angle, the furthest he could see was the back and one side of the warehouse. Tommy cursed under his breath. "I'll call you back," he told George and immediately called Pascal who was in another car. They had decided to go into radio silence for the time being, in case Bubonic could pick up on their cell activity, but this seemed like a good time to break it.
"Pascal," he said as soon as she picked up.
"Tommy?"
"I need you to look around you," he said. Not wasting any time, he relayed George's information to her and waited.
There was silence for a beat and then, "Yeah I do. It's a dark blue building like you said, with a sign that says, 'Henry's Hardware and Co.'" He thanked her and then reported back to George.
"This is great!" George practically shrieked.
"What is?" Tommy asked dying to know.
"Okay," George said finally after Tommy heard the keyboard's clacking through his phone. "Lindy managed to send me an encrypted e-mail through a system we created a long time ago, and she was able to tell me a few things."
"Like?" Tommy prompted, exasperated.
"She was somehow able to see outside from where she's being kept and she was able to give me a bit of a description for that building I had you look for. She said it was right across from Derek's office."
Tommy sucked in a sharp breath. "So, she is here."
"It sure seems that way. She doesn't know exactly where she is. She knows she's still in the city because she said that from another window, she could see the waterfront and the Statue of Liberty—ironically. She figured I could pinpoint her location. Which I have, and you and Pascal are there now."
Tommy sighed in relief, but before he could respond George continued.
"Lindy wasn't able to tell me much, but apparently, Bubonic isn't working alone and she's not the only one being held captive."
"What do you mean?"
He heard George hesitate. "Bubonic has Sara."
"What?" Tommy asked in disbelief.
"He has Sara, Tommy."
Tommy rubbed his forehead hard, his mind running a mile a minute. "How the hell did he even find her?" This was about to get a hell of a lot more complicated. "You know what this means right? Bubonic has to be holding Sara over Lindy's head then. And you know Lindy. If it has anything to do with Sara, she'll do it. No matter the risk." Tommy could feel his chest tighten at the danger she was in. Especially now that the stakes for her were higher.
"He has to be planning something bigger, George. It can't just be about revenge for him—although of course he wants that more than anything, but he has to be planning something else if he's holding Sara over her head. He must need Lindy's skills for something he's planning, right?"
"I think you may be right, Tommy. She said that the country's power grid was in danger."
"The country's—?"
"She also sent a warning for you."
"She did?"
"Yeah, here, I'll read it to you." Tommy heard George click some keys and then his voice came through the phone again. "Tell Tommy to lay low. Derek won't stop until he's dead."
Tommy let out a frustrated groan. "You know I can't do that, George."
"I know," he said quietly, which surprised Tommy. George was never quiet. "But I'm sure she figured she might as well try to warn you. For your own good. She's been through a lot, Tommy. She couldn't bear it if something happened to you too."
"Nothing's going to happen to me, George," Tommy assured him with more confidence than he felt. "But I couldn't bear it if something happened to her when there's something I could have done to prevent it."
"I know," George repeated. "It's just…Bubonic apparently has some help, and you're not going to like who it's from."
Tommy squeezed his eyes shut, bracing himself. "Just tell me who it is, George."
Tommy could hear his hesitation through the phone. "It's Hamish." Tommy felt the breath whoosh out of him.
"Hamish?" he echoed. "Hamish Stone? The owner of Reconnoiter Media? That Hamish?"
"Yes, that Hamish," George confirmed.
He had never trusted Hamish. Ever. Especially not after finding out that he was the one behind Babylon. But in his desperation to find Lindy when Jake had taken her, he had cut Hamish a deal so he could get the clue he had needed to find the real identity of the Flirtual Killer. Still, he hadn't thought Hamish was capable of doing something like this.
A memory suddenly came to him from the night at the art auction. He had had Lindy in his arms, the music from the string quartet floating around them, his guilt gnawing away at him over how he thought he couldn't be with her. He'd looked past her shoulder to see Hamish. He had stilled, and Lindy, having noticed, asked him what was wrong.
"I see Hamish," had been his answer. He had thought that he was just there to buy art and that he hadn't seen them. After all, his back had been turned to them, but he had seen them. He was sure of it now. If what Lindy said was true—and he knew that it was—then Hamish had been working with Bubonic that night and must have tipped him off that the Cyber Unit was there undercover, and he and Lindy had been ambushed.
Tommy slammed the steering wheel in front of him. "How didn't I see this? How the hell didn't I see this?" he roared.
"Tommy, calm down," came George's voice over the phone.
"How the hell am I supposed to calm down? Two sociopaths have Sara and Lindy. And because they have Sara, Lindy is going to do everything to keep her safe. Even if it means working with Derek and Hamish and putting her life at risk."
"That's why we have to act soon, Tommy. We know Lindy is there. You have to get a warrant—now. How soon can you get it?"
Tommy didn't hesitate. "In the next hour or so. Get Yeager on it," he ordered, getting into detective mode. "I'm going to continue to scope out the place and look for possible entrances and weak spots with Pascal. See if you can bring down Bubonic's entire network. I want to stop whatever it is that he's doing and I don't want them to be able to see us coming. He has to have security cameras around. He wouldn't just turn a blind eye, especially with whatever it is he's planning. He's paranoid as hell."
"Don't you think he's going to see us coming if his entire network suddenly collapses?" George asked.
"That's why we won't bring it down until show time. In the meantime, I want you well situated in his network until the time comes. He probably has more firewalls in it than the government. Getting in is going to take some time. And please let the right people know that the nation's power grid is in danger. They need to reinforce their cyber security. Okay?
"Sure thing. I'll get on it now."
"Good." Tommy hung up, his blood pumping. He was going to get Lindy back and she was going to get her sister. It would all end well. He had to believe that.
He picked up his phone to call Pascal, but before he could dial, his phone buzzed with an incoming message.
It was from an unknown number with an address and a meeting time for tomorrow night. It told him to come alone if he wanted to see Lindy alive again.
Bubonic's work. He wanted him alone to kill him in an ambush, he was sure of it.
A small smile flickered across his face. Bubonic thought that he was the one in control. He didn't know how soon his plan would fall apart.
This ended tonight.
X
"Does everyone know what they're doing?" Tommy asked one last time, looking around the table of detectives and cops gathered around.
They had the papers from Bubonic's file spread out on the table in front of them. The white board behind Tommy, who was standing the head of the table, had pictures and blue prints taped up of the warehouse their team was going to invade in two hours' time. The pictures were marked up with lines drawn from marker, and possible entry points were circled several times.
Everyone either nodded or made a noise of understanding at Tommy's question. "Good. Now, everyone, start getting into position. As soon as night falls, we're going in."
Everyone, but Yeager dispersed. "You okay?" he asked Tommy.
Tommy was staring out the window, watching the sun set over the Brooklyn skyline. The sun having painted the sky into beautiful shades of pink, orange, yellow, and bright red. As beautiful as it was, Tommy wanted the sky to turn indigo and black. It would help cloak him and his team, and it would indicate to him that it was time to move ahead with his plan.
"I'm fine," he told Yeager, not looking at him.
"Are you sure about that?" Yeager countered, knowing something was on Tommy's mind.
Tommy sighed. "It's just," he turned and faced Yeager, "I can't help but think of all the things that can go wrong. You know about Murphy's Law? Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong. As much as I don't want it to, it keeps popping into my head."
"You sure put up a good front," Yeager remarked. "It didn't look like you were worried at all as you were briefing us. You looked like you usually do, like you're about to spit fire."
Tommy rolled his eyes, but couldn't help but laugh, some of the tension easing out of his body. "It is a front. If I looked the way I actually felt, some of the detectives wouldn't think it's worth going through with the mission. They'd think it's a lost cause and this is anything but. If I was too scared to do what I needed to do, then Lindy would end up staying with Bubonic, and that is not going to happen."
"It's not," Yeager confirmed.
"Of course, it's not. There's no way in hell I'm leaving Lindy there in that hell hole with those zealots—or her sister."
"I know." Yeager smiled. "We're going to get them out of there. You'll have Lindy back and Lindy will have her sister."
A ghost of a smile passed over Tommy's face as he looked out the window at the sinking sun. He desperately wished night would come already. "Yeah."
"Tommy?"
He turned to see Sophia walking up behind Yeager, Connor beside her. Tommy's eyebrows raised in surprise. He had expected Sophia, but not Connor. He didn't know if he was here as moral support for Sophia or if he actually liked Lindy more than he let on.
"What's going to happen?" Sophia asked before Tommy could utter a single word. "What's your plan?"
Tommy's eyes flicked over to Yeager and then back to Sophia.
He had promised Sophia that he'd call her if anything new emerged regarding Lindy's whereabouts, but Tommy had wanted to wait until after their mission, when he had Lindy and Sara in tow.
How had she known to come? He supposed Yeager could have told her, but he looked as surprised as Tommy to see her here.
He looked out across the room and his eyes snagged on George's gaze. Tommy stared at him hard.
She made me tell, he mouthed, and quickly ducked his back down out of Tommy's line of sight.
Tommy suppressed the urge to groan and instead looked into Sophia's worried eyes. "Well?" she demanded.
"We're going to launch a surprise attack against what we believe is Bubonic's headquarters tonight." Sophia's eyes widened in trepidation, but Tommy rushed ahead. "Along with our own team, multiple SWAT units will be helping us. We want to take them all completely by surprise so that they don't have time to hide anything, least of all Sara and Lindy."
Tommy sighed, running a hand tiredly through his hair. "George is over there working on getting into Derek's network so that he can bring it down when the time comes."
It'd usually take much longer than an hour to gain access to the network, but George has the resources of the entire Cyber Crimes Unit, along with the help of others. It was a wonder that Lindy had even been able to contact them undetected when she was surely being closely monitored. It gave him a nagging feeling, but he didn't tell his team or Sophia this.
"We're going to go in and storm the place, overwhelming them. Our priority is to get Sara and Lindy out of there unharmed." Catherine's priority was more along the lines of arresting Derek, but he didn't tell Sophia that either. "If anything tips them off, we have a potential hostage situation on our hands and I'm not going to let that happen," Tommy assured her firmly, before she could voice her concern. "So as soon as we're in position, George is going to flip the switch and bring down their entire network. That will interrupt whatever work they're doing and take down their entire security system, so they'll be blind. The first thing they'll do is go after Sara and Lindy when that happens, and we need to be in the building by then."
"But how will you know where they are?" Sophia asked, looking dubious about the whole plan.
"In her e-mail Lindy gave us a very brief outline of the building—or what she's seen of it. We know that they're being held somewhere on the second floor. Our teams will split off on the first floor to guard the exits. Some will secure the second floor and bring out Sara and Lindy. I'll be on that team. The rest of our team will head to the control room and Derek's office located on the third floor. They'll go after him and confiscate all of his computers."
"Won't most of you be concentrated on going after Bubonic?" Sophia asked, shifting her weight onto one hip and crossing her arms. "The Cyber Crimes Unit has let Lindy take the fall before. You've used her to get to Bubonic. How will I know that you won't go after him and leave my best friend and her little sister in search of him?"
Connor made a noncommittal sound, reacting to Sophia calling Lindy her best friend. Sophia ignored him, cocking an eyebrow at Tommy.
What Sophia pointed out was true, but it still stung. Derek wasn't his priority—not anymore.
"My priority is Lindy," he said, gazing at her steadily. "And Sara. Maybe Bubonic is Catherine's priority, but not mine. I'll let the other detectives and the SWAT unit deal with him—and Hamish, if he's there."
"Bubonic threatened your life, Tommy. You're not going to go after him?"
Tommy shook his head. "Not while he has Lindy."
Sophia grinned, despite the severity of the situation. "Congratulations, you passed the test. I officially approve you as boyfriend for my best friend."
Tommy rolled his eyes. "Thanks," he said drily. "I wasn't aware that I was being interviewed."
"Relax, Bond," Connor piped up, with a dismissive wave of his hand. "You passed. Now stop wasting time and go get them already."
X
The sound of the lock to her room turning, startled Lindy out of her nap. She hadn't even realized when she had fallen asleep, but she had been so tired.
She stood up quickly, managing to blink the sleep from her eyes just as Derek opened her door and walked into her room.
Without preamble, he said, "Tomorrow night you will be joining me on an assignment."
"What kind of assignment?" Lindy asked, immediately suspicious.
Lindy saw something flash in Derek's eyes and disappear just as quickly. "We'll be heading to another location. I have backup servers there that I need to make sure are running smoothly for the attack on the grid."
Lindy cocked an eyebrow at him, still suspicious. "Why can't you just do it?"
Derek's lips twitched as if he were trying to hold back a smile. "I have what is supposed to be an impenetrable code on those servers, which should prevent our work from being traced. You'll be testing them out."
Lindy snorted. "You out of everyone should know that nothing is impenetrable."
"And that's why you're going to help me get as close to it as possible."
Lindy was a little caught off guard by the change of plans, but she knew she had no choice but to do as he ordered. Everything that she did always went back to Sara for her.
She nodded once. "Fine."
"Good."
As he turned to leave Lindy heard a beeping sound coming from his pocket. Derek reached into his overcoat and pulled out a smartphone.
His face twisted angrily and his entire body stiffened as he read whatever was on his screen. Lindy got the sense that something was terribly wrong.
He glanced quickly at her and Lindy couldn't help but notice the spark of anger and uncertainty in his eyes. Without another word he left the way he had come, shutting the door to her room hard behind him. The lock turning in its place resounded more firmly than usual.
Out in the hall, she heard Derek bark out an order to the guard. That in itself was unusual. In her experience, Derek never yelled—even when he was angry. His voice was always strangely formal and detached—cold.
She smiled to herself. The Cyber Crimes Unit was here.