Page 60 of Play the Game

“Tam, you’ve bought us five more minutes to find a solution, so eleven minutes total.”

I nodded. I could do this for a little longer. “And the bomb squad is close, right?”

He cleared his throat. “Actually, the evacuation has caused some issues for them. But we’re going to do this, Tam, you and I. And the whole team is here helping, as well.”

“Jase,” I whispered, “I’m scared.”

“I know, sweetie. That’s why I’m going to stay right here, talking in your ear.”

“Just what you’ve always wanted, a captive audience.” I would be his audience, captive or otherwise, anytime. Why hadn’t I told him that? Why hadn’t I told him I loved him, and why had I stopped him from saying it to me? These might be my last moments on earth, and I needed to tell him now. “Jason, can I have a private channel with you for a minute, best friend to best friend?”

“No.”

“What?”

“Tam, I don’t think that’s a good idea. If there’s anything too private between friends that you need to say to me, you can do it when this is all over and you’re enjoying one of my world-famous cocktails.”

He was refusing to let me tell him what I needed to say because he didn’t want me to give up. I appreciated it, and I loved him even more for it. But by my estimate, we only had a little over ten minutes left, and sometime, before this all ended quite horrifically, I was going to tell him, even if the rest of the world had to hear it with him.

CHAPTER 22

Jason

The smartest thingI’d done all day was ask TJ to have Pasco brought to the control van instead of taken to the hospital. He would get better care from Bond anyway, who had years of experience as a field surgeon and had saved the lives of countless soldiers and, later, HEAT agents. While the team worked on clearing the house, Bond pronounced him relatively well, other than some dehydration and hypoglycemia, hooked him up to an IV bag, and sat him in a chair beside me.

“What the hell, Brooks?” He glanced around the van, taking in the tens of thousands of dollars’ worth of state-of-the-art computer equipment.

I grinned. “It’s been Jensen for years, asshole, and you know it.”

He grinned, too. “I’m guessing I’m here to help with”—he pointed toward the house he’d just left—“whatever is going on. What can I do?”

I glanced at Alder, who cocked an eyebrow but didn’t say a word.

“Truth is, I’m not sure,” I said. “I just have this gut feeling.”

The same one Tam had described and that had gnawed at Kessler and Li. We’d rescued Pasco, taken down every bad guy in the building, including the runners, and we were collecting electronic devices that probably had enough incriminating evidence to put away the whole lot of them for a very long time. Still, I couldn’t escape the awful fucking feeling that something was very wrong.

“Your team checked the computer, right?” Pasco said. “I assume everything’s fine or you’d be in a panic.”

Fuck me. I turned to look at him. “Computer?”

That’s when Tam’s voice came in over the comms. “Jason, Alder, I need your eyes on this.”

We watched our screens, then exchanged a glance. We knew what we were seeing. Pasco was right, we should be in a full-on fucking panic. And we were, deep inside, but we had to set that aside to do our job. But when Tam announced she was sure the bomb was on-site at the same time Alder and I realized it was set to explode, I forgot my training and panicked for a minute.

“Here’s what the other end of it looks like,” Alder whispered to me, showing me an image of a high-tech bomb on her screen. “I’ll research the wiring schematics.”

“I’ll search for the control panel,” I answered back. “There’s something familiar...”

“I’ve seen it, too,” Pasco said, leaning over my shoulder. In any other situation, I might have punched him in the face. But with Tam and our other teammates in a building with or near a live bomb, I was happy for an extra set of eyes.

TJ ordered an evacuation, and the team prepared for the worst while Alder and I dove into every corner of the internet, looking for a way to save the day. A minute later, everything went to shit. Kat, Kessler, and Li were in a van headed our way. Tam was back in the building. And my whole world shrank down to that one terrifying moment when I realized I might need her.

Alder had shut down incoming chatter going to Tam’s comms so that only TJ was speaking to her.

“Jensen, I have it.” Alder sent me the wiring schematics she’d found.

I skimmed it in seconds. “Okay, it’s a start, but this will only delay the explosion.”

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