“Right,” Edgar said, still in a daze.

“Chief!” Nic turned his superior away from the bleeding woman and locked gaze with him. “I’ll handle things out here. You need to get on the phone and get the CDC out here ASAP.”

Nic could see the fear in Edgar’s eyes change to righteous anger and a sense of responsibility. Edgar swallowed hard and nodded. “I’m on it.”

Chapter 59

Sam Carter wasn’t necessarily afraid to die. He was confident in his soul’s destination, and truth be told, he sometimes wished to meet his wife again in the next world. But as he watched Lamar push the button to detonate the explosive vest, he realized that, while he didn’t fear death, he still wasn’t ready to punch the clock just yet. He wondered if some higher power was yelling for him to wake up, that his work wasn’t quite finished.

Thankfully, when Lamar pressed the button, nothing happened. No explosion. No death. Just fear turning to confusion.

Lamar looked at his hand as if it no longer belonged to him, as if he had awoken from a dream with someone else’s appendage sown onto his arm.

The dying terrorist pressed the button again with the same result.

Carter pulled the Glock 24 pistol he had concealed at the small of his back, rushed forward, and kicked the gun out of Lamar’s reach. To the woman, he said, “Go. You’re safe now.”

Still trembling, she stood up on unstable legs. Carter caught her before she could fall, while still trying to keep his pistol trained on Lamar.

“Ortiz!” he yelled. “We’re clear. Get your ass in here.”

Taz and another SWAT officer rushed into the room. Taz hooked an arm beneath the Indian woman’s shoulder and led her out. The big blond officer kept the M4 to his shoulder and said, “Do you have him covered, sir?”

“He twitches, and he dies.”

Carter saw the blond’s name tag Velcroed to his chest: Stromberg. To Carter’s eyes, the officer looked more like a high school football player than a cop, but he had lost all perspective on age assessments years ago. Still, the big blond surely wasn’t an experienced officer, despite the confidence and skill he displayed.

Lamar still looked confused, as if he was trying to figure out if any of this was really happening. Stromberg gently pulled the detonator out of Lamar’s hand and secured the terrorist’s hands with plastic zip cuffs. Stromberg started to examine the explosive vest, but Lamar absentmindedly said, “It’s supposed to … tamperproof. But who knows. Might not even … real.”

A look of indecision swept over Stromberg’s face, and Carter said, “Maybe you should ask Sgt. Ortiz what he’d like to do.”

Within a moment, Taz was back in the room and said, “Loria wants him out of the building.”

“Are you sure moving him is a good idea?” Carter asked.

Taz shrugged. “Not the way I would do it, but for all we know, the thing is just for show like the other one. And Mr. Loria made all kinds of threats against me and about the next five generations of my family if that bomb is not removed from his property.”