Blinded

Chapter 22

All hell was breaking loose in the war room.

"Get me surveillance videos from outside the building!"

"What's the status on Agent Marcus?"

"It's been 90 minutes, where are we on the trace?"

D finally yelled out. "EVERYONE STOP!" Everyone halted and looked at the supervisor. He rubbed his hand against his face.

"We need to calm down. We need to focus. Everyone gathered around. Let's regroup."

Within a few moments, everyone made their way to the center by all the boards. Next thing they knew, they saw the young agent hobble in through the side door on crutches, looking a little worse for wear.

"Daniel!" Emma exclaimed, rushing over to her colleague.

"I'm okay." He pronounced, to everyone staring at him. "I've got a wicked bruise and my ankle is sprained. Bit of road rash they had to clean up but I'm otherwise okay." D and Greg both looked at him sternly, sizing him up as to whether to believe him or not. "The paramedics cleared me. I promise. I want to be here."

Greg looked at D and just nodded. Someone got Daniel a seat so he could join but not put more weight on his leg.

"Okay everyone, where are we at?" D asked. Greg was the first to speak.

"Agent Hudson was taken at approximately 1320 as a car rammed into Agent Marcus who was accompanying him to get a coffee across the street. Whomever abducted him fired a shot into the air to distract bystanders."

"It's my fault…". Bobby said quietly. "I told him to go get some fresh air. After what Allan Whittaker had shared, and the note with Sue's picture, none of us thought they would still be after him…". Tara and Myles looked towards Bobby sympathetically. D stepped in.

"This is no one's fault but Pete Hadley. We all presumed the same. There were no further signs of communication from Pete Hadley to Jack. We had suspected he might try and lure him in, especially as he had also been Hadley's arresting agent, but all his communications seemed more targeted towards Marty and Sue. This man is unpredictable, which makes him dangerous."

"I checked all of the communications on Jack's phone, which unfortunately he had left here when he stepped out." Tara added. "I didn't see anything out of the ordinary."

"Wait a second." Daniel added in. He moved to stand, but Emma put her hand on his shoulder and pushed him right back down. "I saw the car that hit me, and I think I caught some of the license plate as it was driving away." They all turned to him. "It was an older model 4 door blue Ford sedan. It was hard to see, but I'm certain the license plate had a 7, F and 2 in it, there were other letters and numbers." Tara rushed over to her computer.

"That's something to start with!" She exclaimed and started typing furiously.

"Any chance you saw the driver?" Myles asked. Daniel shook his head.

"No. He hit me from the side and behind. I was still on the ground when they drove off but had enough time to see the car retreat after I heard the gunshot. I did hear him threaten Agent Hudson, however. He told him to get in the car or we would both die. I thought I was a goner."

They could see Emma's hand biting into Daniels shoulder. He turned to her and quietly said "ouch". Her face and grip softened. D took control of the conversation again.

"Tara – if we can narrow down more about the vehicle, let's get a BOLO out. What else do we know?"

"One of the witnesses saw the driver of the car that hit Daniel." Myles replied. "We showed him a picture of Sammy Miller, the bartender. He thought he looked a lot like the driver of the vehicle. He also said it was a blue 4 door sedan but couldn't provide any other description. Miller 's bar has not been open for over 3 weeks according to some regular patrons."

"Thus far we are fairly confident that Pete Hadley and Samuel Miller are working together. There are no indications of a third accomplice. We are trying to find ways to track either of them." Greg added. Tara joined in.

"We've been working closely with the DEA. Turns out that Pete Hadley's access was never fully removed when he had been arrested. Turns out he had managed to woo a naïve young IT specialist after his arrest not to follow protocol and immediately remove all access. We think this is how he's been able to get information about the case as well as stay under the radar using their state-of-the-art VPN. Unfortunately, for the protection of their agents, there is no way to back trace where communications were sent from, but we are working on a way to auto-trace any future communications or logins by Hadley. It would give us a 5km radius to his whereabouts. We hope to have it active by this evening." D nodded.

This was a hopeful turn of events. Between the potential BOLO and a trace on Pete Hadley, they had a few leads.

"The bullet recovered from Levi…" Myles paused. Bobby and Tara both hung their heads. "Matched a 45-calibre colt. We checked, neither Pete Hadley nor Samuel Miller had any guns registered under their names."

"Okay. Tara, please continue to work on the trace with the DEA as well as narrowing down potential vehicles and getting out a BOLO. Myles, please assist. Bobby, can you review surveillance tapes from around the Hoover building. See how far you can trace and in which direction this blue sedan may have gone." Bobby nodded.

"I'm on it."

"Greg, Emma. Continue to look up any property or areas Sammy or Pete may have had a connection to. They must be housed somewhere discrete and with minimal traffic. Their tirade has gone on for over 2 weeks and they have not brought attention to themselves. They must have access to some resource where they have been holding their hostages." Both agents nodded and left towards their desk.

"What about me?" Daniel asked hopefully.

"You, son, are you going to take it easy for a few hours. Then I will decide where we can use you. I'm glad you're okay and were not more badly hurt. Please help Agent Manning." Daniel agreed and slowly got to one foot and made his way over to where Bobby was sitting, his arm still in a sling. If the situation had not been so serious and dire, they two working side by side would have looked comical.

A few hours later as evening was starting to settle, he saw Greg waving to catch his attention, his ear to the phone. D quickly got up and made his way over to his desk. He caught the last few words. "Thank you. Please send us pictures as soon as possible." Greg hung up, looking solemnly at D. "Can I see you outside?" D nodded and followed the agent to just outside the room, noticing the eyes that were tracking them. Once out of earshot, Greg took a deep breath.

"They found another body. Greenbelt Park. They also found Agent Hudson's gun and badge, covered in blood."