Terminal Rage by A.M. Khalifa Read Free Book Online Page A

the hostages inside?”
    “Tried and failed. He ’ s confiscated all their devices and shut off phone and internet connectivity on the thirty-ninth floor.”
    “So how ’ d he make that one call to ask for me?”
    “He left a land line active in the conference room where he is now holed up with the hostages.”
    Carter fired up a map application on his iPad to show him the setup at the scene. Blackwell had seen one of these tablets with Milo and Calista and had assumed it was a just toy. It wasn ’ t until Carter showed him Julia ’ s proof-of-life video that Blackwell realized these things could also serve a useful purpose. He had some catching up to do on operational tech advances.
    “We have a hostage rescue unit on the rooftop of the building. Monica and the other agents have set up at fifty-four Vanderbilt Avenue, which is right across the street.”
    “And midtown?
    “It ’ s a fucking pandemonium like you wouldn ’ t believe. We faked a HAZMAT at the corner of Vanderbilt and Forty-sixth.”
    “How do you fake a HAZMAT?”
    “A broken-down chemical truck.”
    “Is that even legal?”
    Carter shrugged and studied Blackwell ’ s face for a few seconds, as if Blackwell had been abducted by aliens who vaporized the part of his brain required to differentiate between important and trivial questions.
    “It was the only way we could ’ ve evacuated and barricaded a big chunk of the city. We ’ ve also enforced a no-fly zone over Manhattan.”
    “News media? How a re they coping with the no-fly zone?”
    “They aren ’ t buying it of course and dying to get the skinny on the whole affair. But, we ’ re managing the narrative pretty well. So far, at least.”
    “What are the boundaries of the barricade?”
    “East of Madison, west of Lex, south of Fifty-third and north of Thirty-fourth.” Blackwell looked at Carter ’ s map to get a spatial sense of the evacuated zone.
    Thank God it ’ s the weekend.
    “Grand Central?” The hub of the New York metro system was close to the besieged building.
    “Trains are just passing through it now with no access to the station. I think even that will stop, depending on how this plays out.”
    Blackwell put his shades back on and tried but failed to sleep for the remainder of the flight to the aircraft carrier. Not with all the unknowns ahead of him.
    Then Milo and Calista crossed his mind. When he was done with this op, he ’ d go see them. Melanie would be pissed the visit was unscheduled, but the kids would love it. And it would do him good. Whatever healing he had been able to achieve on his own had multiplied when his kids reentered his life.
    With the way this case was shaping up and the prospect of working with Monica Vlasic again, he ’ d be needing all the rebooting he could get.

SIX
    Saturday, November 5, 2011—5:37 p.m.
Manhattan, NY
    B lackwell stood alone in the cavernous meeting room converted to the FBI ’ s forward command post for the hostage operation. The space had been sequestered from an accounting firm in a building right across from the besieged tower.
    The room had been set up in record time, but they ’ d chosen one with no windows for security, and Blackwell already missed the fresh air and natural light. The oppressive smell of toner ink and moldy carpeting didn ’ t help either.
    His mind was yet to conform to the absurdity of what had just happened to him. He had started his day with a run on the beach with his dog, then had a strong coffee sitting on his porch looking out to sea. On a Caribbean island where he lived and ran a boat charter. The last thing he would ever have imagined was to be back in the thick of the life he ’ d spent four years negating.
    The FBI had made him sign reams of paperwork to enable him to come in as a one-time contract negotiator on this case. Including signed assurances he would be protected and defended by the FBI and the US government if something went wrong and he was held responsible.
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