Terror Rising: Book 0 – The Insurgence (11 page)

“What’s next?” Patrol Agent Bernasconi, a
muscular tank of a man asked from the group.

Angela held the notepad close to her chest,
nervous at all the unwanted attention.

“Come on, Agent Gannon,” Bernasconi
continued. “You gotta bring us in on this thing.”

“I’m working on it,” she said, storming past
them and trying to ignore their groans. As soon as she turned the
corner, she nearly ran into Captain Reynolds, who was tossing her
ponytail and standing directly in her way. She was holding a
rolled-up newspaper.

“Here,” she said, handing it to Angela.

Angela took the paper and
unrolled it, revealing the front page of the Del Rio Post. Agent
Dawson’s official photo was in the side left corner under a
headline that said,
Terrorist Bombing
Rocks Border Town, Kills Agent
. Just
seeing his boyish face nearly brought tears to her eyes. First
Dawson, and now Martinez was missing. It was almost too much to
take.

“They got it all wrong,” Reynolds said,
brushing one side of her shoulder-length red hair back.

Angela scanned the article. She could see in
the first paragraph that there was a lot of embellishment in the
article. They spoke about the box truck as though it were a missile
headed toward town, prematurely detonated while being intercepted
by Border Patrol agents.

“That’s the media for you,” Angela said,
reading. She then looked up at Reynolds, noticing her pained
expression. “At least they make Dawson out to be a hero. That’s
worth something, right?”
Captain Reynolds’s finger tracked across the article, pressing
down. “It’s too much speculation. Did they call you or me or any of
us to confirm this bullshit?”

“Not that I know of,” Angela said. “I mean,
the chief gave his press conference earlier.”

Reynolds snatched the paper back and huffed.
“Either they have a fiction writer on staff, or someone from this
station is giving credence to this crap.” She turned and walked
past Angela toward the lobby, while Angela remained standing there,
stunned. She hoped that Reynolds wasn’t implying something with her
comment.

What reason would Angela possibly have to
lie? No one from the local media had tried to contact her yet, and
for that she was grateful. Reynolds was upset, but instead of
fuming around the station, Angela wished she would offer to help or
just go home. There were terrorists out there, and now wasn’t the
time to fall to pieces—or so Angela believed.

She continued to Chief Drake’s office at the
end of the hall. The door and blinds were closed, and she wasn’t
sure what game the FBI was playing. She knocked on the door and
heard Drake’s voice call her in. As she opened the door, she could
see him at his desk with the FBI team around him.

Thaxton turned around and welcomed Angela,
asking her to close the door. Angela pushed the door shut and
approached the desk, notepad in hand, as everyone watched her in
silent hope.

“What’d you bring us?” Thaxton asked.

Angela stopped, ready to hand over the
notebook, but it was clear something was troubling her. “Can I ask
you a question, ma’am?”

Thaxton leaned back, surprised but
agreeable, while Sutherland eyed her suspiciously. “Sure.”

“Why did you leave me in the holding room
with those men? After all your work getting information from the
suspect, it seemed strange that you and Agent Sutherland would just
walk out.”

Thaxton crossed her arms and looked down,
nodding. Her face then shot up, with her thin, straight hair
swinging to the side and a slight smile on her face. “There are
many moving parts to consider here, Agent Gannon. If we’re going to
find your partner, we need to be able to trust each other and work
together.” Not directly answering the question, she held her hand
out for the notebook. “The coordinates, please.”

Angela slowly handed it over. Sutherland and
the other agents watched from Drake’s desk as Thaxton pulled her
digital recorder from her pocket and pressed play. Through its tiny
speaker, Angela could hear Mahmoud’s faint voice.

“
31761970…
1062960792.”

“Perfect match,” Thaxton said, turning the
recorder off.

Angela looked at her in disbelief. “You… you
recorded him. What is this, some kind of game to you?”

Chief Drake looked up at Angela, shocked by
her tone. “Agent Gannon. Please.”

Thaxton waved his objection away smiling.
“It’s quite all right, Chief. Agent Gannon is right to ask
questions.” She stopped and then handed the notebook back to
Angela. “I just wanted to make sure that we’re on the same
page.”

“Have a seat,” Chief Drake said, indicating
the chair in front of his desk.

Angela felt as though she had no choice. She
sat down at the edge of the seat, hands on her knees, eager to go
to the next step in finding her partner. “So we have the
coordinates. What are we waiting for?”

Agent Lynch set a Toughbook laptop in the
center of Drake’s desk and opened it as everyone gathered around,
leaving a space for Angela to see the screen. A satellite image was
displayed of lush green land, with spots of clear white all around
it. There were numbered coordinates everywhere, listed in parallel
and vertical lines like a graph.

“The numbers, please,” Lynch said, turning
to Angela.

She handed the notepad to him, wondering why
Thaxton had given it back to her in the first place. He took the
pad and typed in the coordinates. The screen moved along and
shifted to a new location. Lynch zoomed in closer with a scroll of
the mouse as the image centered over a large desert area with a
curvy line of mountains running through it.

“That’s El Paso, all right,” Lynch said with
confidence. He typed some more, and the image moved in even closer
to a largely uninhabited area far outside the city and close to the
Mexican border.

“Starting to see a pattern here in how these
guys operate,” Sutherland said. “Surprised they haven’t crossed
paths with the cartels.”

“Who says they haven’t?” Lynch said. “Could
be a mutually beneficial relationship.”

Everyone continued watching the screen as
Lynch scrolled around, trying to get in close enough to see some
kind of structure. But it was all desert.

“Keep in mind, it’s only a satellite image.
Whatever is there might not show up.” He zoomed in closer on the
hills and outlines of nearby roads. There was nothing that
indicated a secret hideout or gathering place, even as Lynch
pinpointed the exact coordinates.

“Well. I’m sure we’ll find something when we
get out there,” Sutherland added, scratching his head.

“Wait a minute,” Lynch said urgently. He
moved around the screen in deep concentration. “I can kind of make
something out there.” He got in as close as he could get before the
image began to get fuzzy and pixelated. “There!” he said, touching
the screen with his index finger.

He was pointing to a lightly shaded area in
the vast desert, barely noticeable. “They’ve got the place covered.
Camouflaged,” Lynch said.

“Shit. Cartels do that all the time,”
Sutherland said. “How do we know who we’re dealing with here?”

“Guess we’re going to have to go out there
and find out,” Lynch replied.

Sutherland glanced at his watch. “That’s a
six hour drive. Not exactly a hop, skip, and jump away you
know.”

Thaxton backed away from the desk and walked
to the window, staring out into the parking lot. It was already
late afternoon of a very long day. Angela shuddered at the prospect
of making that long trip.

“Who said anything about driving?” Lynch
said.

“Ma’am?” Sutherland said, turning to the
window where Thaxton was standing.

“I see a lot of red tape
already.” She turned from the window and looked at her team, all
dutifully prepared to follow her every whim. “We might have to
bring in some other teams on
this
. Not sure if going it alone is
the answer here.”

“Your call, ma’am,” Sutherland said.

“Our department would like to help,” Drake
said, folding his hands. “But El Paso isn’t exactly our
jurisdiction.”

Angela looked around the room, feeling
helpless in trying to influence their decision. Or perhaps they
were done with her. Either way, she wanted in. Nothing was going to
settle right with her until they found Martinez. She had met with
him just the night before; how far could he possibly have gone?

In a startling coincidence, Angela’s cell
phone vibrated in her pocket. She took it out, expecting a call
from Doug but saw Martinez’s name on the screen instead.

“Oh my God,” she said, covering a cheek with
her free hand.

“What is it?” Thaxton asked her from across
the room.

Angela held the phone up, displaying the
screen for all to see. “Captain Martinez… he’s calling.”

A New Mission

The room watched Angela anxiously. The cell
phone buzzed again as she hesitated.

“What are you waiting for?” Sutherland
barked. “Answer it!”

Thaxton moved swiftly from the window to the
chair next to Angela, sitting and trying to listen in.

Angela swiped the screen and held the phone
to her ear. “Hello? Captain Martinez? Are you there?” Her tone was
hurried and eager. She so much wanted to hear his voice, but he
didn’t answer.

“Put it on speaker,” Lynch said.

“Nah. He won’t be able to hear her,”
Sutherland said.

“What about us?
We
can’t hear
him
,” Agent Hopper cut
in.

“Gentlemen, please!” Chief Drake said. “Let
Agent Gannon talk to him.”

“Hello?” she said again.

“Angela…” a faint voice said.

“Captain Martinez. Sir. Where are you? We’ve
been looking everywhere—”

“No!” he said. The static over the line was
bad enough, but whenever Angela talked, her own voice echoed back
to her, making it harder to hear or understand him.

“
Keep them away. I’m close,
Angela.”

Angela looked to Thaxton
and spoke as clearly as she could. “The
assistant director
of the FBI is
here, Jennifer Thaxton. You need to tell us where you are. Your
wife. Your family. They’re all worried sick about you.”

“The FBI?” he asked.

“Yes. Are you in El Paso? If so, stand fast.
We’re on our way.”

“The FBI have you?” Martinez asked.

Angela paused. “No… I mean they’re here, and
they’re trying to find you.”

She heard some kind of background noise,
like wind, but otherwise, only silence. Angela glanced again at
Thaxton with a confused look, but then the call suddenly dropped.
She held the phone away to see the number as it blinked across the
screen. It wasn’t clear whether he had hung up or whether the call
had lost reception.

“What?” Sutherland said, stepping forward
after noticing Angela’s blank expression.

“Lost the call,” she said.

“Well, call him back!”

Angela pressed the callback button and held
the phone against her ear. “I’m trying.”

It went straight to a message saying that
the mailbox of the recipient was full. She tried to call again and
got the same message. “Nothing…” she told the agitated group.

“What did he say?” Chief Drake asked,
leaning forward in his chair.

As she looked across his desk, she could
feel the FBI agents’ eyes on her, demanding and anxious. She held
the phone in her lap and tried to summarize the conversation the
best she could. “He said that he was on to something. Sounded like
he was in hiding.”

“
Did he say anything about El Paso?”
Hopper asked.

“
Or anywhere else?” Sutherland
added.

Angela hesitated. “He didn’t.” She looked up
and saw Thaxton standing behind the other agents, studying her
intently. “Did he hang up on you?” she asked with a suspicious
tone.

“
I don’t know,” Angela replied
defensively. “He just said that he was on to something and that he
didn’t want our help.”

Hopper and Sutherland glanced at each other
in disbelief.

“
What?” Sutherland said. “Does he
think he’s some kind of secret agent?”

Lynch snorted while shaking his wavy, gray
hair.

Angela said nothing. She had no idea what
Martinez was into or why he seemed so insistent on being left
alone. “He sounded different,” she conceded. “Not like his usual
self.”

“
Paranoid?” Thaxton asked.

“
A little,” Angela answered. She took
a deep breath and then looked around the room, trying to figure
things out. “I just don’t understand it. His wife is worried sick
about him. Why is he doing this?”

Thaxton answered in a cool, collected tone
that made Angela wonder how the assistant director of the FBI would
know her partner better than she did. “He doesn’t trust us. The
government, I mean. Let’s just say that he has some theories all
his own.”

Angela studied her back
for a moment then spoke. “Ma’am, if you don’t mind me asking, how
do you know Captain Martinez? He mentioned a friend in the FBI
before. Are
you
that friend?”

Thaxton smiled and backed away as the other
agents turned around to look at her. From his desk, even Drake
couldn’t hide his interest. Thaxton ran both hands through her hair
with a sigh. “I met Captain Martinez years ago at the academy. We
were both recruits.”

Drake seemed the most surprised. His eyes
widened as he stood up from his chair. “Recruit? You mean to tell
me that Martinez was FBI?” He looked around, astonished. “That’s
not on his record.”

“
He didn’t complete it,” Thaxton said
with a kindly tone.