“The clock starts tonight. In two days, before the seventy-two-hour mark, I want all of our kidsIN THE AIR. I want them flying from airport-to-airport and out of reach. Bounce them around, and if you think there’s danger, don’t let anyone off that jet. You have security andONLYsecurity pick the next airport. No predetermined locations. Put the places in a goddamn hat for all I care and pick that way, but their safety isPARAMOUNT.”
He got it.
She wasn’t playing, and neither would he. Those kids would be safe no matter what.
Plus, he knew why she was doing it.
“He can’t chase you and them.”
She shook her head.
“Nope. As for us, when the bodies get to the FBI building, I need all of you guys transported. Empty out the house, for now. Everyone in, and everyone is staying there for the next seventy-two hours. If we’re interpreting this right, it’s better to be safe. If need be, we use Corbin and Alex to assist. I’m likely going to have bodies there, and I’ll need help. They are to stay in lockdown too, but can work from there.”
Callen cleared his throat.
“Uh, hate to be the one who reminds you and makes you angry, but you have partners.”
She shook her head.
“No, Callen. I have targets now. I can’t let that happen. If you’re all in the same room with each other, he can’t find a way to get to you. He’ll be watching like a hawk. If he’s already on his way there, I need for you guys to beREALLYcautious.”
Oh, they would be.
“I needEVERYONEto stick together, and if you do have to leave, for some reason, you do it in a big group. No one divides off, or goes off. He killed my one tech. He’ll take the weakest link until he can get an important player in this game. Until I catch him, we’re all in lockdown.”
It appeared that was the best plan.
“We can work out of the office,” Gene said. “We can sleep there too.”
Oh, they had no choice. She was pulling rank.
Here.
And.
Now.
“As your boss, I’m telling you that is the case. I’m not playing with any one of your lives. What I suspect is he’s already moved on someone in DC, so for all I know, he’s already in the air after a body dump and heading there. Like I said, he’s two days ahead of me now that I had to deal with the Von bullshit. It’s just a matter of time until I find out who and where.”
Ethan didn’t like this.
“You need to be careful, too.”
She said nothing.
Honestly, finding out he didn’t have faith in her was a devastating blow.
So, she said one thing.
“If anything happens to me, please tell my baby birds that I went down fighting,” she said. “Tell them I loved them until my final breath, and I’m sorry they will have to grow up without me, like I did without my mom.”
That hit them all hard, but it hit the man who also lost his mother around the same age like a ton of bricks.
Ethan had tears in his eyes.
Why?
The idea that his kids would suffer like he or Elizabeth did…it was crushing.
