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“Why is she here?” Rebecca’s head snapped up, the sound of a new voice causing alarms to go off inside her head. “Don’t we have enough problems?”I know thatvoice.
“Who is that? I know that voice,” Diver asked, the same sense of alarm in histone.
“Me, too.”Dammit!Move thecamera!
Jauhar released Natalie, turning away from the table to greet the owner of the familiar voice, stepping outside of the camera’s view.No! No! No! Come back! Who the hell isthat?
“We’re almost there!” Daniel called out over his shoulder as her phone beepedagain.
“Okay. I think she’s in the basement.” Rebecca blew out a frantic breath. “Stop about a block away and we’ll discuss how we’re going in.” She punched the ignore button on her phone again and zeroed in on thevoices.
“We should be hearing word from Mumbai any moment, Senator. While we wait, I have orchestrated a little demonstration for you. One I know you will be quite pleasedwith.”
“Senator?”
“Mumbai?” She and Diver shouted over oneanother.
That’s not possible!“Diver, I thought you said his signal was coming from Mumbai! What the hell is he talkingabout?”
“Itiscoming from Mumbai! And that’s Senator Collins!” An ominous chill raced down Rebecca’s spine, a full color image of the highly esteemed head of the foreign intelligence committee Senator Collins filling her screen as he approached Natalie’s prone body.This is nothappening!
“Son of a bitch! Grant is inside. He found a wireless repeater cell, Ms. Danes! They could be anywhere and bouncing their signal from Mumbai!” She could hear Diver shouting technical gibberish and barking orders to Grant like a well-seasoned drill sergeant. “Get out of there, Lieutenant!Now!”
“Daniel, stop! It’s a false signal!” Daniel slammed on the brakes, the van screeching to a halt behind the building. He threw the gearshift in park and climbed to the back of thevan.
“What do you mean a falsesignal?”
The life drained out of Daniel’s face, his eyes focused on the monitor behind her. “Daniel, she’s not there. We have to go back toNavi.”
“Is that…Natalie?”
Rebecca’s phone beeped again and when she raised it to look at the number she heard Diver’s shouted pleas. “Rebecca! Rebecca! Ms.Danes!”
“Diver I have to take this call. We’ll pick up Grantand…”
“It’s a bomb! Get away from the building! Do youcopy?”
The deafening silence inside Rebecca’s head immediately gave way to a spine-numbing ringing sound. Her mouth moved, calling out for Daniel, but she heard nothing. Heat from the flames warmed her exposed skin, the pavement beneath her cool in comparison.I’m alive.Daniel had saved her life, pulling her from the van, pushing her down the narrow side street and into the concrete culvert as the buildingexploded.
Panic laced her veins when she realized the heavy weight covering her body was Daniel. He wasn’t moving. “Daniel!”She pushed against the road, tiny shards of rubble and glass from the crumbled building biting into her palms. She ground her teeth against the pain and finally managed to roll him off of her. Freeing her legs from his tangled and bleeding limbs, she clenched his shirt in her fists and pulled herself up to sit beside him. “Daniel! Wakeup!”
She let out an exasperated sigh of relief when he opened his eyes and looked at her. His mouth moved but she couldn’t hear his words any more than she could her own. She was fluent in eight languages. Unfortunately, sign language wasn’t one of them. Her ears suddenly popped, one after the other, and the roar of the blaze filled her head. It sounded so close she flinched away from Daniel and shielded her ears from the thunderoussounds.
“Natalie!” Daniel called out, his hands cupping his head. That’s when she noticed a trickle of blood running from one of hisears.
“Daniel, you’rebleeding!”
“Natalie!” Daniel pushed to his feet and ran toward the burning building, screaming his daughter’s name. She peeled herself from the pavement and ran after him, grasping his shirt in her fists and pulling him away from theflames.
“Daniel she’s notthere!”
“Natalie,no!”
“Daniel!” Rebecca stood in front of the big burly man she’d known since the day she took over Natalie’s investigation. She’d never seen a stronger, more determined man. He never gave up, literally tearing the world apart with desperate hope that he would hold his baby girl again. Her heart crumbled as she looked at the broken man before her. He’d aged a lifetime in mere moments, the last flicker of hope draining from his tearfuleyes.
“Daniel!” She cupped his face in her bleeding hands. She had to get through to him. “Daniel, look at me!” His eyes slowly trailed from the burning building to hers. Emptiness was all she saw, the towering flames reflecting in his hopeless tears. “It’s okay!” She shook her head to tell him no. “She was notthere!”
“What?”
