Page 87 of Lethal Game

"I'd like to come, too." Stephanie got to her feet, a little unsteady until she grabbed her cane.

"No. You stay here," he said with a firm shake of his head.

"Jason, I can help. At the very least, I can watch the door when you go inside."

"Thanks, but I can't involve you in this." He saw her frustrationand felt some empathy for her. "You're helping by giving us the lead. That's going to have to be enough."

She gave him a long look. "I really want to nail that bastard."

"So do I."

She let out a sigh of resignation. "Good luck."

By the time, he left the building, he had Savannah, Nick, and Beck at his side. They took two cars across town, with an FBI HDU, otherwise known as Hazardous Devices Unit, set to meet them at the address. With Novikov and Dominic's love of explosives, they couldn't discount the possibility that the building could be rigged.

It took them about twenty minutes to locate the address in an industrial area near the airport. It was a little past six now and dark on a block with few streetlights. The front door of the shop was boarded up, as were the windows, but there appeared to be a light on in the back of the building, just as Stephanie's CI had described. There were no vehicles in front or back, but it was possible a vehicle could have been driven inside through one of the two large garage doors.

He parked on the street, with Beck and Flynn pulling in behind him.

They met on the sidewalk.

"HDU is five minutes out," Flynn said. "We need to wait."

He didn't want to wait five seconds, much less five minutes, but he forced himself to rein that feeling in. "I agree," he said heavily. "Three years ago, my father died chasing a lead like this, a lead so tantalizing he couldn't slow down for a second. He couldn't wait for backup. And neither could Stephanie. And if Patrick Hastings and I hadn't gotten delayed by a train, we'd probably be dead, too."

The other three agents stared at him in somber silence.

"Sorry. It all just came back to me." He paused as an HDU team of two men arrived.

Within minutes, they sent a robot around the perimeter of the building to check for heat signatures, vibrations, and otheracoustic disturbances that might indicate the ticking of an explosive device. The robot was outfitted with numerous cameras and sent the photos back to them on a computer they had open in the back of the SUV.

"No heat signatures apparent," one of the officers said.

"Are you sure? There's no one inside?" he asked, disappointed by that comment.

"Doesn't appear to be. But depending on variables, we can't be one hundred percent sure," the officer replied. "We can have the robot breach the back door on your order," he added to Flynn.

"Do it," Flynn said. "Jason and Savannah, why don't you go around the back? Beck and I will watch the front door."

He nodded, following Savannah to the rear of the property, staying in the shadows of the adjacent building as they did so. When they got to a good vantage point, they watched as the robot moved toward the back door, its mechanical hand placing several small, focused explosive devices around the lock on the back door. Then the robot backed away as one of the HDU officers used a remote device to blow open the door.

It fell off with a dusty thud. The robot moved over the debris field and into the building. He and Savannah waited on either side of the building with their guns drawn.

No one came out of the building. It could be empty. This could be a dead end.

He took a few steps forward, wanting to at least take a look inside, but a second later, he was knocked off his feet by a series of thunderous explosions that sent a heavy spray of rubble all over him, and fires lit up the building.

A moment later, Beck and Flynn came running around the back, helping him up, and pulling him away from the fire.

Savannah had been further away and had some pieces of plaster in her hair, as did he, but otherwise, they were fine.

Breathless, he stared at the inferno, knowing if they hadn'tgotten the HDU team to the site and sent the robot inside the building first, none of them would be alive.

But the real question was whether there had been anyone else in that building.

The robot hadn't picked up any heat signatures, but what if someone inside was already deceased?

His body clenched with the thought that Alisa might have been in that building. Maybe her father, too.

---