Hayes and I were playing keep-away-from-Wheeler with the last cherry yogurt, a flavor I didn’t even particularly like, when Pasco yelled out, “Code red! Code red!”
“What the hell is a code red?” Hayes asked as we ran toward the IT room.
“No idea,” I said.
Lang was there next, followed by the three women in charge.
“When did we get a color-coded system?” Lang asked.
“Never,” X said. “Pasco, what’s happening?”
The IT guru hadn’t looked away from his screen orstopped typing frantically when we’d joined him. “There’s a problem at the clinic.”
My blood ran cold. “Cami’s clinic?”
“Why the code red, Pasco?” Kat asked.
“Because it’s Cami, and Bella’s there, and…” He was spiraling, not a normal reaction for a HEAT agent.
Then again, Pasco was there for his IT brilliance, not his ability to remain cool under fire. That was a required skill set for field operatives like tactical and logistics, although I was having trouble with the capability myself at the moment.
“Theissue, Pasco,” I demanded.
He gulped a few breaths of air. “Okay, I got a signal that the security cameras went down. It can happen. The system’s not as elaborate as ours, a brownout could cause a blip. User error could cause a longer outage.”
“I’ll go check it out.” I turned to leave.
Lang grabbed my shoulder and held tight. “Not without more information. Pasco, sounds like it might be nothing.”
“Except I just tried to call the clinic. No answer. So, I tried Cami’s cell.”
My body tensed, wanting,needingto make sure she was safe. Yeah, she would fucking love that if this turned out to be nothing. And I probably wasn’t getting through the wall of HEAT agents prepared to stop me.
I swallowed a dry lump in my throat. “No answer?”
“Worse,” he said. “No signal. I tried all their phones. Has to be a jammer. An area as small as that building, it could be done with something off the internet.”
“It’s Riker. That’s it, I’m going.” I pulled out of Lang’s grasp.
“Stop,” X said quietly. That’s the power of being the boss of the boss, you don’t need to be loud to be listened to.
I halted, my instinct to protect Cami warring with years of intensive training and operational knowledge. The training won out, only because the quick math I did in my head pointed to the odds of protecting her increasing exponentially if I had my team and a plan behind me.
Lang sat in front of a computer monitor. “Pasco?—”
“Sending you the pre-blackout footage now.”
“Got it,” Lang said.
I stood behind him and watched as he rewound the footage, going from snow, backwards to images inside and outside the building. I caught an image of Gina in the hallway. The exam rooms and OR suite were empty, which made sense because the clinic observed a lunch hour. No sign of Cami, but there were no cameras in the staff offices or bathrooms.
“No clients or pets to worry about, except…” I pointed to the woman in the lobby. “She doesn’t have an animal with her.”
As Lang rewound the footage further, we saw the woman move back out the front door. When we got to the outside images of her, the sunlight flashed on something around her neck. Worry squeezed my heart and I could barely speak, but I didn’t need to.
“Zooming in on it now,” Lang said, having seen the same gleam. “Potential explosive, controlled by remote.”
“Not anymore,” Pasco said. “I’ve blockedtheirsignal.”
