Page 94 of Lethal Game

"I'll stay here," she promised, touched that this man who had professed to be an unemotional workaholic dedicated to his job, would be worrying about her during such an important moment. She wanted to tell him to be careful, to be safe, but that caution could play no role in what was happening now.

Jason looked at his team, then checked his watch. "We've got fifty-three minutes. Let's go."

"Why don't you sit in here with us?" Kyle said, motioning to an empty chair in the van.

She took the seat as Jason and his team ran into the hotel. At least, from here she could see some of what was happening inside on the monitors. She knew Jason would do his best to find the explosives and save her father along with everyone else, but he had a monumental task in front of him, and she felt an amazing amount of admiration and respect for him and all the first responders, who were running toward the danger instead of running away. His job was incredibly dangerous and one forwhich he could lose his life, and she was immensely proud of him. She was also grateful that he was the one searching for her father because he would do whatever it took to bring him back to her. She just didn't want to lose either of them.

Drawing in a deep breath, her gaze moved to the monitors, which showed feeds coming from different parts of the hotel. There were people in every frame, officers going through the hotel, knocking on doors, helping guests out of their rooms, some carrying babies or helping a disabled person down the hall.

It was overwhelming to see how many people were inside, and she was only looking at the hotel and not the other areas in danger.

Her gaze moved to the monitor on the other side of Kyle, which showed the industrial areas of the hotel, the laundry, the loading dock, the food service offices, and the heating and ventilation systems. Of course, that would be the first place they would look. But it almost seemed too obvious. Novikov liked to be unpredictable. She wondered where he and Stephanie were now. They would have to place the bombs and then get out of the area. Were they even still here now? Another question she couldn't answer.

As the minutes ticked by, her heart raced faster and faster. Despite the massive effort to get everyone out as quickly as possible, there were still steady streams of people pouring out of the hotel, and she kept hearing on the various radio feeds around her that the mall evacuation was complicated by panic and a stampede that had already injured dozens, who now had to be attended to.

She picked up glimpses of Jason, Savannah, and other members of his team racing through the hotel. According to the Secret Service, the vice president had left with a federal agent, for a private meeting, and the officer who had gone with him had been found shot in a hotel stairwell. She had a feeling that the federal agent was Stephanie. Another crime to add to her list of traitorous and evil actions.

Jason was going to have a lot to deal with when it came to her. His respect and concern for his former partner had been evident every time he spoke about her, not to mention the guilt he'd carried thinking he was partly responsible for her getting shot in the first place. Her injuries must have been an accident. She must have gotten caught in the crossfire between Novikov and his father. But even having suffered at Novikov's hands, she'd continued to work for him. She'd probably had no choice after that. He would have killed her if she'd balked at anything he asked, and if she'd come clean about her involvement with him and told the FBI where he was, she would have been sealing her own arrest warrant. She had tied herself to him, and she couldn't untie herself.

She didn't feel an ounce of sympathy for Stephanie, but she did feel bad that Jason would have to detail with her betrayal. But all that would come later, once this was over, and it was going to be over soon, one way or the other.

Twenty-eight minutes…

Her body tightened as the time was called out on the radio, and the sense of urgency turned to complete and utter desperation.

"You should get out of here," Kyle suddenly said, turning in her direction. "There could be radioactive fallout. We don't know what we're dealing with. You should run down the road, get as far away as you can."

"I…I can't," she said.

His lips grew into a tight line, and he turned his attention back to the monitors.

Was she wrong to stay? She did have her mother to consider. But as the minutes ticked by, she didn't think it would matter anyway. It would take her more than twenty-eight minutes to run out of the area, and she probably wouldn't be able to get that far away.

Kyle and his partner continued to direct the agents to clearer hallways and better exit routes, as she sat and watched, herblood pressure rising, her fear increasing, as every minute took them further away from a good resolution.

Fifteen minutes…

She got to her feet, feeling like she couldn't breathe.

She heard one of the incident commanders outside the van call out the time to the brave men and women who were still inside, risking their lives to save others.

No one was running out. The only fear was from the innocent people fleeing to safety. Everyone else was focused on their mission to clear the area and find the bombs.

Looking back at the screen, she watched as the monitor images changed over to a different view. "What are we looking at now?"

"We just got a feed onto the top floor," Kyle said. "Cameras were disabled when the VP was taken away."

As she looked at the new feed, she saw Jason making his way down the corridor. Her heart stopped at the sight of him.

Would this be the last time she saw him?

She couldn't stand that thought. Tears rushed into her eyes, blocking her vision for a second, and she hastily blinked them away, needing to see him for as long as she could.

Twelve minutes…

"He needs to get out," she said aloud. "It will take longer than twelve minutes to get down from that floor."

There was no response from the men next to her, just an air of grim determination because everyone knew that no agents were going to leave until they found the bombs.

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