"Scarecrow, this is Green team, come in?" Lee and Amanda stopped their search of the ballroom when they heard the voice come alive in their ears.
"Go ahead, Fielder."
"We found McGuinnis' hideout, in a warehouse about two blocks from the embassy." Amanda smiled at Lee when he gave her a nod. "But we missed him by a few minutes. He didn't leave much behind, but he was obviously working from here. Marks and Bennett spotted him not too far from you but then lost him in the crowd setting up for the parade.
Lee looked at Amanda and mouthed, 'parade'?
"St. Patrick's Day parade," she whispered back.
"How fitting," he sighed. "Okay, we'll keep an eye out for him, Green team. Over."
"Agent Fielder, did he have anything with him? A bag perhaps?" She was certain that he couldn't have already planted the bomb, not with all these agents and bomb-sniffing dogs around. But how did he plan to get the bomb into the building? She racked her brain trying to figure out his plan. She had even stayed up late the night before reading through all the documents and journals from Agent Nobles apartment. She came up empty. All she had learned was that he had told Agent Nobles he was planning to take her on a trip to Brazil. She had scoffed at herself when she caught herself wondering why he hadn't wanted to take her on a trip. 'Ridiculous!'
"Uh, yeah, Mrs. King. Agent Bennett thought he saw him with a backpack. He's likely got the bomb in the pack."
"Okay, Fielder. Put a net over the warehouse and make your way toward us. We need all hands on deck if we're going to stop this guy. Over."
"Lee, we've got less than a half an hour before the conference starts," Amanda said worriedly.
"I know, Amanda. Francine, do you have eyes on the diplomats? Over."
"Yes, Scarecrow we're in the basement waiting for the all clear before bringing them up. Over."
"The basement?" Amanda questioned.
"Yes, Amanda the basement. Believe me, it's not by choice. We needed them out of the way so we could finish our search upstairs. The basement was cleared an hour ago and there's no way in or out without going through our team. Over." Francine's voice sounded disgusted.
"Has anyone checked the basement?" Amanda whispered to herself.
"I just told you it was!" Francine's griped through the earpiece.
"No, I meant the basement of the building next to us." Amanda muttered.
"Scarecrow! We have a siting of McGuinnis coming up Wisconsin Avenue," Fielder rushed.
"He's approaching from the back of the building! I'm on my way, Green team!" Lee slipped the gun from its holster and ran toward the back of the building. "Amanda, find Francine and help secure the attendees." He quickly yelled back to his partner before turning his attention to apprehending the terrorist and more importantly to him, the man who had attempted to kill his partner. "Red team, head to the West of the building with me. Blue team, cover the East."
"Look alive, people. This is it. Do NOT let him past you. Yellow team, hold the perimeter of the embassy." Amanda heard the stern voice of her supervisor come over the airwaves as she made her way to the front of the building. As she stepped outside, she squinted and covered her eyes as the sunrise peeked in between the buildings.
She listened to her partner's short bursts of instructions to the teams of agents as she made her way down the brick steps of the embassy. With each step she took toward the Brazilian embassy next door, she knew she was on the right track.
They were three steps behind Sean McGuinnis the entire time. He wasn't making his way to the building to plant the bomb; he had already been there and gone. Now he was only playing games with them, sending them on a wild goose chase. But she had to be sure before she pulled them off their current search. If she were wrong . . . well, she couldn't be wrong. Too many people's lives were at stake.
She quickly made her way up the concrete steps of the Brazilian Embassy, clicking off her mic, she rushed through the front doors. At the startled look of the guard, she flashed her Agency badge and ordered him to take her to the basement. Recovering, the guard quickly complied.
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7:49 a.m. Monday, March 17, 1986
Lee made his way through the crowds of people dressed in green and carrying plastic cups full of beer. From the looks of some of them, they'd been partying all night.
"This is Alpha Leader, do we have a location? Over."
"Alpha Leader, we're on his tail, heading straight toward you. We're coming through Dumbarton Oaks Park toward Observatory Circle. 6'3", 185 pounds, black leather jacket, blue jeans, black tennis shoes. Over."
Lee frantically scanned the horizon in search of the suspect.
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Amanda moved quickly toward the Northwest corner of the basement. Scanning each of the rooms along the way, she yelled to the security guard, "Have you seen anyone down here in the past 24 hours?"
"No, ma'am. No one's ever down here. What are we looking for?"
She turned and read the name off his uniform. "Mr. Ramirez, we're looking for a bomb."
"Is this a joke, ma'am?"
She threw another door open and scanned the room quickly. "Shoot! There wasn't much real estate left to check and she was running out of time. "No, Mr. Ramirez, this is no joking matter." She tried to keep her voice level, no need to make the man more nervous.
If McGuinnis were planning to take out the embassy next door, he'd want to place the bomb as close to it as possible. He knew they'd be watching the British Embassy, which would leave the Brazilian Embassy completely vulnerable. She listened carefully to the commotion through her earpiece. Hoping against hope that she was wrong and that the teams above ground would find Sean and the bomb. Her gut told her otherwise, so she pressed on.
"Come on, we don't have much time." She called over her shoulder as she threw open another door.
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Lee spotted the tall Irishman coming toward him and the grip on his gun tightened. "This is Alpha Leader, I've got our suspect in my sites." Lee caught site of a large group of parade attendees coming toward him and he waited until he passed by his location. "Fielder, he's at your 3 o'clock," Lee warned.
"Got 'em, Scarecrow. Over."
"Let's not spook him. Fielder, make your way behind him. I'm going to come around from his right. Keep an eye on those civilians, Blue team. No collateral damage, people. Over."
"Red team confirmed, Alpha Leader."
"Blue team confirmed, Alpha Leader."
"On my count. Over."
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Amanda came barreling down the last corridor; throwing doors open as quickly as she could. Right at the moment, she was momentarily distracted by the sounds of her partner yelling at McGuinnis. "We've got you surrounded, McGuinnis. Carefully place the backpack down and lay on the ground."
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McGuinnis shoved his backpack at Fielder and ran toward the park. "He's running!" Lee grunted and took aim, but pulled back when he realized there were too many civilians milling around. Frustrated, he shoved his gun back into its holster and chased after the tall man.
Pushing past the parade goers, Lee quickly caught up and took out the leather-clad terrorist's legs. Slamming into him, they tumbled to the ground and Lee came up swinging. The rage that had been building over the past few days for this man was finally unleashed. He continued beating McGuinnis, not feeling any pain in his hands, until he was yanked to his feet by two of his fellow agents.
"Easy, Scarecrow!" Called one of the agents.
"You're going to kill him, Lee!" Beaman screamed trying to stop him from pummeling the man to death.
Lee held his hands up to let them know he was calmed down and they released him. Then without warning, Lee jumped at the terrorist as they were pulling him up off the ground. With a hard left cross, Lee grabbed the man's bloodied shirt and pulled him toward him. He whispered harshly in his ear, "Her name's AMANDA, not MANDY, you piece of shit!" He shoved him back down in disgust.
"Come in, Alpha Leader." Fielder's voice broke through his anger.
"What have you got, Fielder? Over." Lee shook out his hand and flexed his fingers to ease the pain that had begun to settle in.
"Scarecrow, the bag was full of bricks! Over."
"What do you mean 'bricks'? Over."
"There was no bomb in the backpack, Scarecrow! Over."
"What have you done, McGuinnis?" He shook the bloodied man by his jacket lapels and the terrorist just laughed at him, blood dripping from his mouth. As much as he wanted to kill this man for what he had done to his partner, his gut was telling him to get back to the embassy.
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As Amanda rounded the corner she stopped dead in her tracks. There against the cement block wall was enough C-4 to blow them all to kingdom come.
"Oh, my gosh! Okay, Mr. Ramirez, I need to you get back upstairs and start clearing everyone out of the building as quickly as you can." As he took in the site of the bomb, his face paled and she continued, "Do you understand what I'm saying, Mr. Ramirez?"
He nodded and backed out into the hallway and then took off in a full run.
Amanda quickly turned her mic back on and called out to Lee. "Alpha Leader, please come in. Over."
"Amanda?" Lee's voice crackled in her ears.
"I found the bomb, Scarecrow. Over." She tried to portray a calmness she did not actually possess at that moment.
"What! What do you mean? Where are you?" he questioned nervously.
She examined the contraption in front of her and located the timer. She gulped down some air. "Oh, my gosh! I only have 1 minute and 48 seconds left to disarm this thing, Lee."
"Calm down. Tell me where you are, partner." His voice was breathy, like he too was having trouble breathing.
"There's no time, Lee. I'm in the basement of the Brazilian Embassy. You need to get everyone cleared out of here. There's enough C-4 to take out this entire block."
"Amanda, get out of there now!" He rushed. She heard Billy Melrose shouting orders to the different teams in an attempt to evacuate the surrounding areas.
"There's no time, Lee. I'm going to have to try and diffuse this thing. She reached into one of the pockets of her jumpsuit and fumbled for the small screwdriver and flashlight.
"Amanda, please . . . just get out of there," he pleaded.
"Are you going to help me or not, Scarecrow?" She said sternly. If he wasn't going to help her then she was going to shut off her mic. She needed to focus.
"Okay, okay, describe what you see."
"I see a small gray box sitting on top of several bricks of C-4 attached to the cinder block wall in the Northwest corner of the basement."
"Do you have anything to open the box?"
"Yes . . . yes, I've got a small screwdriver from the kit they issued us this morning."
"Use it to unscrew the top and slowly take it off. Sl-ow-ly, Amanda."
"Not too slowly, Scarecrow. I only have 46 seconds left before this thing blows. Unscrewing . . ." She bit her lip. "Okay, it's off."
"What do you see?"
"Shoot!" She squeezed her eyes shut.
"What is it? Amanda?" he asked in a panic.
"No blue wire!"
"You didn't think it was going to be easy, did you? Now, tell me what you see?"
"Uh, there's a black, green, and yellow wire going into the C-4 through the timer."
"Grab your wire clippers from your kit, Amanda."
"What color shall we go with this time, Scarecrow?" She laughed sardonically.
"I'm feeling, green. How about you, partner?"
Just then Amanda heard through her earpiece the distinct voice of the man that had created this entire mess. "Mandy, cut the yellow wire! Do it, Lass!"
"Get him out of here, Fielder!" Lee's voice boomed in her ears.
"Lee! 10 seconds left. What should I do?" She screamed into the mic.
"Go with your gut, partner. I trust you."
"No guts, no glory. Hey, pal?" She clamped onto the wire, squeezed her eyes shut and prayed.
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"You cut that a bit close, didn't ya?" He grabbed her around the waist when she was halfway up the basement stairs and he pulled her against his chest, burying his face into her neck. He could feel her pulse beating out of control below his lips.
She murmured something unintelligible into his ear and then sobbed into his chest, "Sorry, I'll work on that!" They stepped out of the building to find a dozen or so agents running around trying to calm civilians and coordinate with local law enforcement.
"You did it, Amanda." He soothed and rubbed her back. He kissed her temple and helped her walk down the stairs toward Billy and the others. "Come on, let's get this over with so we can get you some rest." The look of pride on his face was there for everyone to see.
She followed him obediently down the steep steps, wiping her brow as she did.
TBC . . .