When I Found You

When Ariana’s cell phone rang, Cyn left the office and discreetly closed the door behind her. Seeing the blocked number, Ariana assumed it was Logan responding to her messages.

She was correct.

“Thanks for getting back to me so quickly,” she said.

“I only wish you’d called to tell me you changed your mind about dinner. But I know why you did. I saw the incident notification.”

“Good. That’ll save some time.” She went on to explain the details of the situation.

“I’m on my way,” he said as soon as she finished. “I’ll brief the officers on site and have them meet us at your office. Have you spoken to FSD Stewart yet?”

“Not yet. He’s on the notification list. I tried calling him, too. I’ll mobilize the multiagency security committee in the meantime. I’ll get anyone presently at the airport to meet us. What’s your ETA?”

“I should be there in less than twenty minutes. Once you’ve got everyone together, start without me. We don’t know if the threat is credible, but we can’t afford to take any chances.”

As soon as Ariana hung up, she called Angus again. San Diego was the largest of the airports he was responsible for, but it was still no surprise he wasn’t on site. Contacting Max, she gave him clear instructions. She paused to take a call from Calvin and filled him in on what was happening.

Cyn tapped on her door. “Molly’s not in. I have her on the phone. Can you take her call now?”

Ariana nodded. As she was finishing briefing Molly, Trevor, her supervisor on duty, arrived. Not bothering with the docking station, she inserted the USB drive he handed her into the port on her laptop.

Trevor rested a forearm on the back of her chair and leaned in to watch the screen with her. “What are we looking for?”

“Someone accessing my office over the weekend.” She played the video clip in fast-forward, slowing only when there was movement in the corridor.

“Why? What happened?” Trevor asked.

Ariana pointed to the sheet of paper lying on her desk without taking her eyes off her monitor. “That. Put on a pair of gloves before you touch it. Top right drawer,” she instructed.

She set the video to run at regular speed when the cleaner entered the frame, unlocked her office door and went in and out, to and from her cart, as she performed her duties. She backed out of the office vacuuming the carpet. Pushing her cart, she moved out of the camera’s range.

“Is this for real?” Trevor asked, his voice shrill, as he placed the letter back on her desk.

Ariana shrugged. “We have to assume it is. At least until we prove otherwise.”

“So there’s a—”

“Wait!” Ariana cut him off. “Look at this.”

She rewound and slowed the video clip. A random dot pixel pattern of static, commonly referred to as snow, was all that was visible on the screen.

“Electronic noise. How could that happen?” Trevor asked.

“That’s what we have to find out. The elapsed time was one minute and forty-eight seconds,” she confirmed from the timer on her watch that she’d started when the disturbance had begun. “Long enough for a person to come down the hall, access my office, leave the envelope and disappear.”

“After he’d disabled the camera,” Trevor stated.

“It’s not a far stretch to think someone can hack into our video management system, if he or she wants to. This won’t help us for now. Let’s get going.”

Ariana thought about the new system she had just authorized Max to acquire and the additional security features it had. That system would make hacking more difficult, but even then it wouldn’t be impossible. At the sound of a knock, she swung around. Two of the SDPD officers assigned to the airport stood in the doorway. Carl Rossi she knew but she hadn’t met the other cop. Rossi made the introduction to Officer Haughton. “Captain O’Connor and his explosives detection dog are on the way.”

“Good. Let’s move to the emergency operations center boardroom and meet them there.” Ariana put her laptop in sleep mode. She rose, grabbed it and her jacket, and led Travis and the two cops out of her office at a brisk jog.

“Captain O’Connor filled you in when you spoke to him?” she asked Rossi.

“Yeah. You’ve got the letter with you?”

Ariana nodded as she entered the meeting room. A few of the members of the multiagency security committee were already present. She briefed them as quickly and succinctly as she could.

“I don’t think I need to say this,” she said to everyone in the room. “But you’ve got the full cooperation and assistance of my team. Let me know what you need.”

Even as she said it, she heard footsteps, accompanied by the clicking of canine nails on the hard tile surface of the corridor. A moment later, Logan O’Connor stood in the doorway with Boomer. Ariana had a peculiar sensation seeing Logan, so imposing and virile. She suppressed her reaction. There was no time for it.

Nor could she dwell on the moment of fear at seeing the dog by his side in the doorway. No escape route, flashed through her mind before she quashed that thought, too. She took a determined step forward to extend a hand to Logan.

“Didn’t think I’d see you so soon,” Logan said to Ariana with a ghost of a smile, voicing her thoughts.

Quick introductions were made to those who’d not met before.

“The SWAT team is right behind me, as are two explosive ordnance disposal technicians. The EOD techs should be here any minute.” He gave Ariana a quick appraising glance, the only hint of anything remotely personal between them. Then he was all cop. “Can I see the note?”

Logan pulled on gloves and accepted the sheet of paper from Trevor. Ariana didn’t need to see the letter again to know what it said.

You think you’re smart? So secure? Can you find the bomb before it detonates? Look where you’d least expect it. Will lives be lost because of your failings?

“Is it credible?” Ariana asked, as others filed in.

“Specificity and intimate knowledge are indictors that raise the threshold to a real threat. ‘Where you’d least expect it’ could imply knowledge of the airport’s operations. Impossible to say if it’s credible based on what we have. We can’t ignore it, though.”

Ariana nodded. She felt the same.

Although Homeland Security’s Office of Intelligence and Analysis hadn’t picked up any online chatter or other advance warning, they couldn’t discount the incident being the act of an organized terrorist cell.

“Where’s Stewart?” Logan asked the TSA supervisory special agent present.

“On his way, I’ve been told.”

Logan was well aware of the hierarchy, which gave the FBI overall responsibility, but they had no time to waste for all the key participants to arrive.

“We’ve got to get moving.” Logan said, taking charge until someone else stepped up to do it. “What else do we know about the person or persons responsible and consequently where the bomb might be? The airport has an enormous floorplate for us to cover. If we can prioritize, it would help.”

He turned to Ariana. “How did he get into your office? Did you check for tampering with the lock?”

“Yeah.” Trevor responded, as he’d been the one to do it, while Ariana initiated the critical incident response plan. “There’s no indication of the lock being forced. The guy had a key or knew how to pick a lock.”

“So it’s someone who has access to your corridor, has a key to your office or is skilled at picking locks. He knows where the security cameras are located and has the expertise or access to resources to tamper with them. What do you make of the comment about it being where you’d least expect it?”

Ariana glanced at Trevor and Max, who’d just joined them, to see if either of them had any ideas. When they shook their heads, she offered hers. “I’d interpret it in one of two ways. Either a noncritical area where the bomb wouldn’t do much damage, or a secure area where the person would’ve had to get in through a TSA checkpoint or alternate means of security screening, for example a gate to the airfield. Since the note mentions lives being lost, I favor the latter. A public area with a concentration of passengers—for example when they’re congregated at a gate just after arrival or before departure, or in security screening lines—would be my guess.”