Chapter 5

Reaching the car, Liz pulled out her phone. "I'll call Meera, then Clarke. We've got maybe two hours until whatever happens- happens."

Nodding, Ressler replied, "We'll head to his place of work first."

"Hey Meera, it's Liz. We've got an ID on our next target- Benjamin Clarke, works in Mayor Jackson's office." Reaching the car, Liz got in.

"What about Union Station? Do we have any information on that yet?" Meera asked.

"Aram's still working on it. See if you can get Frost talking. Also see why someone would want to target Clarke."

"Frost is still not talking. I'll see what i can find."

"Right. Let me know if you get anything," Liz said, hanging up. She couldn't help but think to herself that it would be a lot quicker if she called Red. She turned to Ressler. "Frost is still not talking, but she'll give it another go. If we want a proper background on Clarke, I think i'll call Red. It'll save us a lot of time."

Ressler agreed and pulled out his phone. "I'll call Clarke, you call Red."

Pushing two on her speed dial, Lizzie waited for the call to pick up.

"Twice in one day Lizzie? Do you miss me?"

"Red, I need everything you can get on Benjamin Clarke..." Before she could continue, she heard a bark. "Was that a dog?" she asked, getting a funny look from Ressler.

"Why do you need information on Clarke? And more to the point...who is he? I already gave you Frost."

Hearing a door close and no more barking and noting that Red had ignored her question, Lizzie knew something was going on.

"All we know is that he works in Mayor Jackson's office. Clarke is Frost's new target. At the moment we have a slight chance of stopping it. It's going to take place at Union Station in less than two hours!"

"Alright, give me 15 minutes. I'll see what I can find out, but you know all politicians are dirty. There's always something to be covered up." With that, Red hung up.

Seeing that Ressler had finished his call, Lizzie raised her brow in question.

"Clarke's out of the office for the rest of the day, and he's not answering his cell. We need to keep trying. His secretary did tell me where he catches the train at, so we head there and wait for him."

"So we wait and see? I'll see if Aram has anything more. Red's getting our information, and he'll be contacting me in 15 minutes." Turning back to her phone, Liz thought to herself that she needed to invest in a hands-free kit. Her arm was starting to hurt from all the phone calls she was making. She pulled up Aram's number.

"Mojtabai."

"Aram, do you have anything?" Rubbing her forehead, she could feel a headache coming on.

"I should have the location narrowed down to less than a quarter of a mile in five minutes. I'll call you as soon as I have it."

"That's great! Thanks Aram." Hanging up and turning to Ressler, she told him the news from Aram. "So do we wait here and hope we find him, or do we head to Union Station?"

"I'll call Cooper have him get some agents to sit here and wait for him. We'll head for Union Station."

Liz nodded her head in agreement. Starting the car, Ressler headed for Union Station.

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After finishing his phone call with Lizzie, Red walked back into the lounge. When he noticed the dog and Kate cuddled on the couch, he smiled at the sweet scene, but at the same time he didn't want the dog picking up bad habits.

Pointing to the floor, Red told the dog to get down in his most authoritative voice. When the dog complied, Red patted him on the head, taking his place on the couch. Kate, having noticed that her dad was back in the room, started talking to him straight away.

"Is Lizzie ok?"

"She's fine, Pumpkin. She just needs my help on her case." Having said that, Red turned to Dembe. "I need you to get any and all information on a Benjamin Clarke- works for a Mayor Jackson- and I need it in 10 minutes. Use some of our contacts if you have to."

"I'll see what I can find Raymond." With that, Dembe left the room.

"You hungry yet Pumpkin? I fancy Thai."

"Mmm...yeah...sounds great Dad. You know i'm always hungry. While you order that and wait for Dembe, I'm gonna take Red for a quick walk."

Getting up from the couch, Kate whistled and Red hurried to join her.

"Take Grey with you and don't go far." Hearing a mumbled 'yes Dad' and the door closing closing, Red shook his head. He was about to get up off the couch when Dembe returned.

"Anything?"

"I found quite a lot in such a short time. I've got Luli still checking, but these were the bits that stood out." Handing Red some printouts, Dembe went to stand by the window.

Reading over what he was given, Red couldn't help chuckling.

"I love it when I'm right." Grabbing his cell, he called Lizzie. "Lizzie. Our Mr Clarke has been a naughty boy."

"What do you know, Red?"

Red could practically hear her eyes rolling.

"Murder, Lizzie. Mayor Jackson was driving home drunk one evening when he struck and killed a 15 year old girl. Benjamin Clarke, being his PA, made it go away."

"How did he cover it up?"

"I've got all the information here...I'll have it sent to Aram. If you want to know who hired Frost for this hit, I'd look to the girl's family."

"Thanks Red."

"Didn't I tell you all politicians are dirty?" Chuckling, Red hung up and handed the papers back to Dembe. "Have Luli email everything to Aram." Getting up off the couch, Red went to find the Thai menu.

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After hanging up with Red, Liz filled Ressler in on what they knew. "Clarke covered up a murder commited by Mayor Jackson."

"So Frost was hired for revenge?

"From what information Red has, it looks that way. He's sending everything to Aram."

Arriving at Union Station, they both got out of the car and watched all the people coming and going. Ressler checked his watch. "We have 20 minutes before Cooper closes and evacuates the station. We need to know where and what the thing is so we can stop it."

Before Liz could say anything, her phone started ringing. Checking the ID, Liz smiled. "Perfect timing Aram, what do you have?" she asked, putting her phone on speakerphone so Ressler could hear.

"Your location is on track 2, a qaurter of a mile down from the tunnel, south side. From what else I could find out, it's a bomb scheduled to go off when the six fifteen train goes past."

"And we're certain it's for that train?" Ressler asked.

"Frost followed Clarke for over a week. He was very meticulous with his schedule...Clarke had the same routine everyday."

"So Frost wants to take out Clarke, but the other passengers on the train have to suffer for it?" Lizzie spoke in a annoyed voice.

"Unfortunately. I've already told Cooper, he's sending SWAT and bomb disposal. ETA 20-30 minutes with rush hour traffic."

Hanging up with a quick bye, Lizzie turned to Ressler. "Do we wait or...?"

"We go and see if we can locate it. It'll save us time. When the bomb squad arrives we'll have less than an hour to evacuate and be able to safely dispose of the bomb."

Noding her agreement, they both grabbed their body armor and radios, and after texting Aram to let him know the plan they headed inside the station. Following the signs, they made it to platform 2. The problem they had now was being able to go down the tracks safely.

"We need to be careful, Keen. The tracks are live...one wrong move and we're both done." Seeing Liz nod her head he continued. "The next train on this platform is due in less than 10 minutes. So be quick but cautious." With that, Ressler jumped down. Taking a big breath, Lizzie joined him. After walking for five minutes, they both knew they had to pick up the pace.

"I don't think we have that far to go now, according to Aram anyway," Liz spoke while looking at the tracks.

While stood still looking around, she could feel vibrations. Checking her phone and noticing she had no signal, she continued looking around her. She was just about to ask Ressler about it when he interupted her.

"I've found it."

Noticing Ressler walk towards her and the vibrations getting worse, Lizzie spoke up. "Wait. Can you feel that?"

Hearing the panic in Lizzie's voice forced Ressler to stop. Noticing it for himself, he started to look around. "Get to the alcove behind you, Keen."

"What about...?"

"There's another one over there. Go quickly!"

Rushing as carefully as she could, Liz squeezed herself into the alcove. Hearing the train coming, Liz closed her eyes and couldn't help but hold her breath as well. She didn't think of anything. It was like her mind went blank. After the train had passed, she took a couple of breaths and opened her eyes. Realishing she was rubbing her scar, she stopped and stepped out of the alcove. Looking for Ressler, she found him already back looking at the bomb. She started towards him and realized her legs were shaking. Closing her eyes and taking as much of a deep breath she could in a dirty tunnel, she opened her eyes and started walking towards him. "So what do you think? Can it be disarmed before the train gets here?"

Looking at it, it was the shape and size of an old vhs tape, with some wires hanging from it. After only having experienced a bomb once it had gone off- apart from the one strapped to little Beth- this was new territory for Lizzie. But then she had had Red on a phone telling her everything was going to be alright. She could do with another phone call from him right now, letting her know she was going to be ok...that everything would be ok. Shaking thoughts of Red away, she tried to concentrate on here and now and the dangerous situation she found herself in. She needed to ignore the fact that she thought of Red at all and that she had been doing it for a while...especially during The Stewmaker case. Shaking her head again- which didn't help the headache- she turned back to Ressler, who tried to explain the situation.

"From what I can see, there's hardly any parts. So when it went off it'd be hard for us to piece it back together." Seeing that Liz was understanding what he was saying, he continued. "But I can also see that it's only attached to the track with duck tape."

"Seriously? You go to all this trouble and you stick it down with duck tape?" Seeing the serious look on Ressler's face and once again realising that she could never have a joke with him, Liz went back to the topic at hand.

"So can we just peel it off and move it? Is it safe for us to do that?" she asked, noticing the countdown on the bomb was showing 10 minutes.

"If there's no boobie traps, yeah we can. How long til the bomb squad gets here?"

Getting the radio from her pocket, Liz asked for an ETA and checked her watch at the same time. She could feel the sweat starting to run down her back. She couldn't wait for this day to be over. She just wanted a shower some food and to curl up on her couch with Tom and Hudson.

"The bomb squad is ten minutes out and the train is due in five. Cooper's already on the phone with Mtrack. He can slow it down, but not stop it."

So what, that pushes the train to arrive at the same time as the bomb squad?"

"Yeah." With that, Ressler pulled out his knife and started cutting the tape away.

"What are you doing?"

"Contact Aram, see what's on the other side of the tunnel. We don't have time to wait for anyone. We need this bomb away from here and away from us."

Seeing Ressler carefully pick up the bomb and start walking down the tunnel, Liz followed while speaking to Aram. When they were nearly at the end of the tunnel, Liz finished her call. "We've got two minutes and Aram said it should just be a parking lot and some abandoned buildings. He's evacuating the surrounding area."

Coming out of the building they turned right. As they approached a low fence, Ressler turned to Liz. "I'm going to pass you the bomb carefully, and once I'm over the fence, pass it back to me."

Trying to control the shaking of her hands, Liz accepted the bomb. Once he was over the fence, Ressler reached back for it. "Stay here."

"You've got 50 seconds," Liz called to him. Seeing Ressler break into a light jog, she called back to him. "30 seconds!"

Looking back at Liz and seeing how far he was from the tracks, Ressler threw the bomb as far as he could and starting running back towards Liz.

"10 seconds!" As soon as the words left her lips the bomb went off.

A/N

Once again, a huge thank you to Thousand_miles for the support and advice, and to jadenanne7 for being my wonderful beta.

Thanks to everyone for reading and reviewing.

The Lizzington is coming folks!