Page 37 of Dead Fall (The Quantico Files 2)

Logan shrugged. “Maybe. I’m not going to judge them since I don’t know them, but if my kids needed me, I hope I’d move heaven and earth to make sure I was there for them.” He took a sip of tea before saying, “So have you and Kaely come to any new revelations? Is that what she said you could tell me? The reason she stopped by?”

“Actually, yes.” She filled him in on what they’d been talking about, about who the UNSUB could be targeting next.

“You think he’s after us? Kaely, you, and me?” He shook his head. “I can’t be a target. Even my mother forgets my name sometimes.”

“Very funny. I’m sure that’s not true.”

“That’s a little unnerving. Why you and me? Could it be related to a case we all worked together?”

“Maybe. Or maybe it’s just because he sees us as the opposition. The people looking for him. Tomorrow we talk to Jeff. We’ve been looking at the victims, how they might have triggered the UNSUB, but now we need to concentrate on the four of us.” She stopped for a moment.

“What?”

“It’s just a big shift in my thinking.” She frowned at Logan. “We’ve helped on ... what? About a dozen cases together? The biggest one involved Adam Walker. But he’s dead. His family is dead. So it couldn’t have anything to do with him.”

Even the mention of their work on the infamous Train Man case made Logan nervous. “Someone from the Circle?” He shook his head slowly. “This doesn’t feel like them. Besides, most of them are peaceful. Just duped.”

“We certainly met some who weren’t peaceful,” Alex said.

“But they were outcasts. Besides, why would they kill John Davis and Evan Bayne? They had nothing to do with what happened with Walker.”

Alex drew a circle on the table with her finger. Logan wondered if she realized it. The Circle, a secretive society that believed the world was inhabited by angels and demons, had impacted both of them. But Logan had moved on. Had Alex?

“You’re right. Davis and Bayne had nothing to do with the Circle.” She offered him a small smile. “Sorry.”

“Don’t worry about it. Believe me, I think about them too. Wondering what they’re up to now.”

“Probably nothing. Just waiting for the world to end.”

Although she hadn’t meant it to be funny, it was, and Logan laughed.

Alex’s lip quivered before she laughed too. “Sorry. That was the strangest case I’ve been involved in.”

“Before this one?”

She studied him for a moment. “Yes. The way he’s set this up? It’s diabolical.”

“I agree.”

“Kaely also thinks our UNSUB could be here. Watching us. Or maybe someone working for him.”

“That’s not possible. Everyone here is law enforcement—except for the support staff, and I’m sure they’ve been thoroughly checked out.”

“What about Bradley Summers?”

Summers was an FBI agent who turned out to be an operative for the Chinese, yet the agents who served with him in BAU 1 never suspected him—not for a moment. Washington sent in someone from Homeland Security pretending to be a supervisory special agent, and he was planted into the unit. It took four months, but Summers was finally outed and indicted for treason.

“Summers was an anomaly,” Logan said, his tone a little brusque. Several people in DC had also been involved in the scandal. It was a black eye for the Bureau. The men and women who worked in the FBI were proud of the work they did, and a traitor like Summers was hard to accept.

“I know,” Alex said. “I’m sorry. That was tough on all of us.”

“No, I’m sorry. We all have to get past that. Hopefully, we’ll be able to earn back the public’s trust.” He took another sip of his tea. “Let’s forget Summers and look at this situation clearly. Kaely thinks the UNSUB may have some kind of access to us?”

“We both wonder about it. It’s just a theory, but the UNSUB knows too much.” She pursed her lips for a moment before asking, “Could Reinhardt be a target?”

“I’m sure Jeff’s thought about that. He’ll be brought in safely.”

Alex sighed. “I still feel like we’re the next targets. We all have to be careful.”

“Okay,” Logan said slowly. He paused a moment, then added, “We just need to keep our heads on a swivel.”

“I agree. Maybe tomorrow Jeff will have something encouraging to tell us. Who knows, the UNSUB might have already been caught.”

Logan nodded, but in his gut he knew that wasn’t true. And by looking at Alex, he knew she didn’t believe it either.

---