“We have to contain this,” Kara said. “He could slip out with the crowd.” Which was probably his intention.

Ryder ran to the main doors and whistled loudly. “I need your attention! I am Ryder Kim with the Federal Bureau of Investigation. We need to evacuate in a calm and orderly manner. We need to verify that everyone gets out safely. I will take your name and your room number as you exit.”

“It’s freezing out there!” a woman said, her arms around a young girl. They had grabbed coats, but the girl only had socks on.

Shit shit shit! Could this get any worse?

Kara said to Ryder, “They can sit in their cars. If they don’t have a car, someone will share. I’ll look for Hamilton. Just keep them exiting single file.”

Ryder nodded, relayed the information by shouting over the alarms. There were grumblings, but Ryder was doing a great job dealing with it. SWAT headed up the stairs.

“What happened?” someone cried out.

“Is it the boiler?”

“It was on the top floor,” another person said.

“I saw smoke in the staircase.”

“The elevator, too.”

Kara kept her attention focused on the people leaving. SWAT had the other exits covered. Glen Hamilton was not among these people.

She sent Costa a text message.

125+/-people have been evacuated, mostly from the first and second floors. Hamilton not among them.

Another group of people came running down the main staircase.

“There’s fire on the top floor!” one of them said. “It’s spreading, I didn’t think that could happen.”

Another explosion caused several people to scream. Kara itched to run upstairs and help with the evacuation, but right now she was the only one who had recently seen Hamilton.

And he wasn’t among these people.

Three more explosions sounded. They sounded a lot closer.

Ryder frowned. “I think he set them on each floor, at the north end.” He hooked on an earpiece. “Costa, it’s Ryder Kim, you there?”

Silence.

“Dammit,” Ryder mumbled. He looked at Kara. “Coms are down.”

She tested hers. “No they’re not,” she said. “It’s just Matt, isn’t it?”

“And Michael. They were on the third floor.”

That’s where she needed to be. But Hamilton was creating a diversion so he could escape—which meant she needed to be here to spot him.

Shit. She felt helpless to help her team, but no way in hell was she letting Glen Hamilton walk out of this hotel free and clear.

Matt ran down the hall to where Michael had disappeared. The emergency lighting was on, and the hall was filling rapidly with smoke.

People were running out of their rooms and down the hall. Matt directed them to the southern staircase. They were panicked, but mostly orderly.

“Harris! Dammit, Michael! Can you hear me?”

Matt reached the door. The ceiling tiles had fallen and dust was everywhere. He couldn’t tell where the smoke was coming from. The first explosions came from the top floor, but the next three sounded like they were on the second floor.