Page 72 of No Going Back

Max returned with a drawing of the basement. He laid it out on the hood of a truck, and everyone gathered around.

“The problem we have is we don’t know the exact location of where the noise is coming from. The vibration could be coming up from anywhere, transmitting through the pipes. Do you have any idea where survivors might be?” Max spoke to Dale.

“Sam and Mira were interviewing a prisoner, but I don’t know which room.” Dale pointed to the drawing. “There are three interview rooms off this hallway. The two other prisoners are most likely still in their cells. The cells are located here.” He pointed to another area.

“My two agents, I have no idea. Apparently, they were on their way down to the basement, but we don’t know if they took the stairs or the elevator. They may not have even reached the basement before it went off.”

“Alright. One of my guys has found a small hole, here.” Max pointed to an area, just to the side of the interview rooms. We’ll start tentatively moving rubble, see if we can widen the hole, at least to try and get some oxygen down there. We’re also going to clear a way into the elevator shaft. Those shafts can withstand a fair bit of force. It might be our best way in.”

“The hole, you think it leads through to the basement?” Tyler asked.

“It might, we’ll know soon. Why?”

“Mackie, remember the tunnel collapse in Syria? Can we do that here?”

“Hell yeah, we can certainly try,” Mackie agreed. “There should be a repeater in the SUV. It’s a few blocks away.”

“Ours, is closer,” Scottie, Nyx’s tech guy, said. “Come on.” The two men ran off to get the equipment.

“What are they planning to do?” Max asked, looking at Tyler.

“A cellular repeater. The basement is between the parking garage and the ground floor of the building, so not too far underground. Normally you can use cellphones down there?” He turned, asking Dale.

“Yes.”

“If we can feed a repeater down there, it might be enough to boost a signal to them. A long shot, but if their phones are intact, there’s a chance.”

“You can do that?” Max asked sounding somewhat impressed.

“We did it in a tunnel collapse and it worked. It’s worth a shot,” Dex said.

“OK, go for it,” Max said, “but let me remind you this is my rescue site, don’t move any rubble without clearing it with me or my team.” He left them, firing off more orders to the rescue squad.

“I’ll go grab a laptop from the trailer.” Kelly squeezed Dex’s hand before walking away.

“Dale, we heard Reborn claimed responsibility?” Tyler asked while they waited for Scottie and Mackie to return with the equipment.

“Yeah, here, watch.” Dale pulled up a video on his phone as the teams crowded around to see.

The New Dawning of Allah’s logo filled the screen. Tyler cursed; so did Dex.

“Americans have rained terror on our country, taken our brothers, killed innocent men, women, and children in their air strikes, armed raids, and so-called hostage rescue missions. Reborn claims full responsibility for the attack at your FBI office today. An office that harbors some of the people responsible for the crimes against our country. It is Allah’s will that we destroy those that chose to destroy us. This is not the end.”

The video ended.

“Are your people trying to source it?” Dex asked.

“Yes, we have NSA working on it, too.”

“This took planning. No one just walks into an FBI office and plants a bomb. They are way further along in their plans of attacks than anyone gave them credit for,” Dex said through gritted teeth.

“Maybe the hard drives will give us something. Contact names, how much more C4 is out there,” Tyler said. Reborn had messed with women they cared about. Because despite all the shit going on with him, he cared a hell of a lot about Mira. That much he knew.

“What hard drives?” Liam looked at him.

Dex answered. “The HVT we just brought in was involved in weapons smuggling. FBI believe they were supplying Reborn’s cell network here. Tyler managed to get the hard drives from his operation center. We handed everything over to CIA, agent Douglas Kramer.”

“I’ll make a call,” Dale said, “let him know the urgency of this, put pressure on them to share everything. There could be more attacks planned.”

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