Russo snorted. “Still haven’t heard nothin’ from the JTTF about a potential dirty bomb. Just sayin.’”
Uzi’s face shaded red. Vail was certain he was angry with the head of the city’s JTTF, not Russo.
“I’ll look into it,” Uzi said.
“Yeah, you do that. Meantime, like I said. Thanks, Karen. All those serial killers you chase? Ain’t nothing compared to the number of lives you saved on this case.”
Uzi sighed in concession, then looked out into the sea of uniformed personnel. “What was his target, do we know?”
“No idea. We haven’t had access to the truck. Now that we’re clear, CSU can start digging in,” Russo said, referring to the department’s Crime Scene Unit.
“Check out the GPS. And the driver’s phone. And any emails on his smart—”
“Karen. We got it.”
“Right. Sorry.”
Russo turned to a nearby detective. “Get a search warrant for the GPS and cell phone.”
“How’s the driver?” DeSantos asked.
“He’s had better days.” Russo must’ve seen DeSantos’s furrowed brow because he added, “Asshole’s dead.”
They arrived at the vehicle, which was swarming with uniformed and Hazmat-suited personnel.
Twenty minutes later, Vail made out the commissioner and mayor, several captains, chiefs — there was no shortage of brass. Russo was part of the gathering. The group conferred for a couple of minutes, then Russo joined Vail, Uzi, and DeSantos.
“So?” Vail asked.
“So they were going to release a dirty bomb inside the Freedom tower. Beyond the symbolism, twenty thousand people would’ve been killed — in the tower alone. If the bomb detonated on any of the middle or upper floors, the cloud would’ve hovered over the city, probably even into Jersey.”
“Holy shit,” Uzi said.
“Nothing holy about it,” Russo said. “Pat yourself on the back, Karen. Because that’s what I feel like doing right now. If you hadn’t told me they were planning this, I doubt we would’ve stopped it.”
DeSantos’s phone buzzed and he consulted the display.
“I’m gonna finish up here.” Russo checked his watch, then started backing away. “I learn any more, like an ID on the driver, I’ll let you know.”
Vail nodded at DeSantos’s phone. “Anything?”
“Knox will be here in about forty minutes.”
Uzi’s Lumia rang. He recognized the number and excused himself, walking down the street a bit.
“Isamu, what have you got for me?”
“Your person of interest. He met with a Middle Eastern — looking guy on Canal Street. I was able to ID the guy as Amer Madari. He doesn’t have a record, but he has been to some hot spots the past two years. Pakistan, Syria, and Gaza.”
“Meaning?”
“Meaning he’s been to Pakistan, Syria, and Gaza the past two years. I’m not trying to be funny. That’s about all we can say. We know those areas are rife with terror groups and terror activity, but we don’t know enough of who this guy is to know what it means.”
Uzi sighed. “You’re right. Thanks for the call. You find out anything else, let me know.”
“You want me to keep following this guy?”
That was a good question. Uzi closed his eyes. If Madari turned out to be a terrorist, he would kick himself for not taking action. Then again, Fahad was a CIA operative. Maybe his meets with people who have made trips to hotbeds of terror could be explained. But maybe not. “Tell you what, switch to Madari and let me know if he meets with anyone we should know about.”
“Sure thing.”
Uzi thanked him and texted Rodman, asking him to look into Amer Madari. He did not explain, merely labeling him as a person of interest. He then took a few minutes to think before rejoining Vail and DeSantos.
One thing was certain: his interest was piqued. The question was, at what point did he have something worth discussing with Vail and DeSantos? Or even Knox?
29
When Vail rejoined Uzi and DeSantos, Knox had arrived and was getting a briefing from police commissioner Brendan Carrig. It did not take long before the discussion got animated, at which point Knox stalked off to meet with the director and an assistant director of the FBI’s New York field office.
When he finished and gathered with Vail, Uzi, and DeSantos, his jaw was set, his eyes narrowed. “Where are we on this thing? Anywhere?”
Uzi shifted his feet. “Slow progress. It’s hard to know exactly what we know and what we don’t know, but we’ve got a lot of pieces.”
“We got a few more pieces this morning,” Vail said, “from the rabbis.”
Knox glanced around, then led them down the street to an area with fewer officers around. “I looked into that. There’s something you three need to understand. And this is not to go anywhere — Where’s Fahad?”
“Good question,” DeSantos said. “He’s been AWOL all day. Hasn’t answered any of our texts or calls.”
Knox absorbed that, then moved on. “This is extremely sensitive. What the rabbis told you about the codex is true. The fact that Sahmoud has those pages has tremendous relevance to what’s going on.”
“What is going on?” Uzi asked.
Knox gave another look around. It was starting to make Vail paranoid.
“As we speak, there are covert peace negotiations going on in Cairo between the Israelis and Palestinians. Very sensitive. We’ve been through this before, so you know the deal. The president wants it done. He’s putting everything he has behind it.”
“That’s nothing new in peace negotiations,” DeSantos said. “Sometimes they’re done outside the public eye so things don’t get sabotaged by the media, or by politics. Whatever.”
“There’s a difference this time,” Knox said. He shot a glance around them and inched closer. “According to highly placed sources — so even I can’t confirm it — the Palestinians are holding two items over Israel’s head. One is the codex. The other …” He looked at their faces then settled on Uzi’s. “The other is something best explained by your father.”
Uzi swallowed hard. “My father?”
An agent came up to Knox from behind. “Sir, excuse me for interrupting. Commissioner Carrig wants another word with you. He seemed a little put off.”
“He did, did he? Why don’t you tell him—” Knox forced a chuckle. “No, I’ll do it myself. Thanks.” He backed away and pointed at Uzi. “Your father, Agent Uziel.”
Vail appraised Uzi, then shoved her hands into her back pockets. “So you going to tell us what the problem is?”
“What problem?”
“You looked like you wanted to crawl under a rock when Knox mentioned your dad.”
Uzi turned away. “You know how it is. Family. We’ve all got our shit.”
DeSantos shook his head. “That may be, but that’s not what’s going on here. You respected your dad. You had a good relationship with him. You looked up to him.”
Uzi took a deep breath. “Orders are orders. Let’s go.”
As they turned toward their car, a glass window beside Uzi’s shoulder shattered and the unmistakable crack of a rifle echoed off the tall buildings.
“Down!” DeSantos yelled, dragging both Uzi and Vail lower with fistfuls of their jackets. He pulled them behind an NYPD cruiser parked at an angle by the curb.
They had their handguns out — as did the nearby officers and federal agents in the area.
“Anything?” Uzi called out.
Various replies — all indicating that no one had eyes on the shooter.
Vail snuck a peek over the top of the sedan. “Any idea which direction it came from?”