True Faith and Allegiance

The hit was nearly five hours old by now, but the agents began checking all the security camera footage at Newark, and they sent more agents out in a full-court press at the airport, hoping to find out if the man got on a flight. They promised they’d keep Dominic updated, but as he left the mobile command center with a fist full of business cards, he told himself he’d probably have to pester these men and women for information, because he wasn’t a high item on their priority list.

A half-hour after his briefing from JTTF officials, Dom sat at a Starbucks within sight of the attack on Adams Street.

With a coffee in hand, Adara had her iPad out in front of her and was adding thumbtack icons to signify this attack, along with the others from the night before, to a Google Maps page she had created.

Dom spent the time texting Clark details of his conversation with local law enforcement while he sipped an iced coffee, and this made the two of them look like any other thirty-something couple hanging out in a Brooklyn Starbucks on a weekday afternoon.

Until Dominic said, “Oh, yeah. I forgot to tell you. They’ve identified two more suspects. They both flew to Mexico City about five days after the Guatemalan mercs arrived at the Language School. Their return flights were from Costa Rica.”

“They flew together?”

“No, but on the same day. O’Hare to Mexico City, direct. San José to O’Hare, via Houston. One lives in Chicago, the other just north of there in Evanston.”

Adara looked down at her map. “The other day DoJ identified a young Palestinian who flew from Milwaukee to Managua, Nicaragua, then returned, but never went back to his job at a website design firm. If he’s one of al-Matari’s men, that makes three people identified so far who live in or close to Chicago.”

Jack said, “Interesting. There haven’t been any attacks anywhere around there, have there?”

“Closest was in Michigan, then St. Louis. So, not really.” She looked up at Dom now. “Hey, what if we log the towns all the known subjects resided in? Compare it with the location of the attacks.”

“Good idea, although we’re already seeing some copycats, so it’s not going to be as simple a picture as just matching al-Matari’s terrorists to their crimes.”

Adara shrugged. “Something to do.”

It took them just ten minutes to add the locations of the known terrorists to Adara’s map. When it was done, she said, “So unless the same big group is traveling all over the country for each hit, then we have different cells positioned here and there around the map. We have a West Coast team, for sure. The two killed in Vegas were students in the San Fran area, but they did the Vegas hit and the L.A. hit.”

“Both of which were botched.”

“Right. There is a third West Coast terrorist ID’d who lived in Marin County, so still near San Fran. And then there is the Detroit-area group. All four guys killed in Virginia lived in and around Detroit. Wonder why they drove all that way.”

“They took a road trip.”

Adara thought about that. “Maybe because both of the dead from the North Carolina killing were from the D.C. area. They needed new blood in D.C. Of course the Detroit group didn’t fare any better than the D.C. guys.”

“Thanks to you,” Dom said with a smile.

“I had help.”

Dom looked at Adara’s map. “And then there is the guy from Alabama killed in Tampa.”

Adara said, “Assuming all the groups have begun their attacks, it looks to me like al-Matari had at least five different cells. Michigan, D.C., California, somewhere in the South, I guess… and Chicago.”

Dom put his coffee down and leaned forward. “So… why hasn’t this Chicago group done anything yet?”

“Who says they haven’t? Maybe they are traveling the country. The St. Louis attack, that could have been them. Same for Michigan, because by then the Detroit guys were all in the morgue in Alexandria.”

Dom rubbed his temples. “Yeah, but both of those ops were reported as just one attacker. Maybe another for a getaway driver. Still… it’s obvious there is a group that comes from around Chicago.”

Adara looked down at her map. “It’s a big chunk of the country they haven’t attacked yet. There might be a reason for that.”

“Yeah, but maybe they just don’t want to shit where they eat.”

Adara had served in the Navy with Marine infantry. There was, literally, nothing her boyfriend could say to shock her.

Dom’s phone rang, and he was pleased to see it was one of the special agents from the command center, just three blocks from where he now sat. He took the call, listened intently, and thanked the woman for taking the time to keep him in the loop.

“What was that?” Adara asked.

“The killer here has been identified. His name is David Anthony Hembrick. He’s from D.C. He got on a flight at Newark two hours after the attack.”

“A flight to where?”

Dom smiled. “Chicago. The flight landed an hour ago, so we’ve lost him, but at least we know who he is and where he is.”

Adara said, “I think we should go to Chicago. Something big might be planned there.”