on the radar for having overstayed their visas then.”
The DNI thought about that for a moment. “They should already be in the ICE database.”
“Which won’t mean a thing for the cells in Seattle, Dallas, or Baltimore.”
“Why not?” Carlton asked.
“They’re sanctuary cities,” the FBI Director explained. “They don’t take action against illegal immigrants. Oftentimes their police departments are told flat-out not to work with the Feds and not to cross with their databases. Just flagging these guys for having overstayed their visas wouldn’t have any impact at all. That’s why the Bureau wants them tagged as terrorists.”
The Old Man shook his head.
“How about Deng, at least?” Harvath asked. “Why don’t we go nationwide on him for the murder in Tennessee?”
“And if one of the national newscasts picks it up?” said Johnson.
“What if the White House reached out to the head of each network in advance?”
“To tell them what? That we have a suspected Chinese intelligence agent coordinating a massive terrorist attack, but don’t say anything?”
“No. It would have to be something that put them on a moral meathook so large that they couldn’t flop off it,” Harvath replied.
“Like what?”
“How about an assassination plot?”
The FBI Director shook his head. “You’re one administration too late. The mainstream media hate the current president.”
“Who says we have to go with the current president? We can use his predecessor. That’s even better. They loved him. We’ll make it a journalistic act of conscience for them to keep quiet.”
Johnson looked at the FBI Director. When he nodded and indicated that he was good with it, the DNI said, “Okay, I’ll run it by the President.”
“Which leaves us with Boise,” said the Director as he looked once more at his notes. “There we’ve got at least a little good news.”
“The bus station where the students all accessed the Wi-Fi network?” Harvath asked.
“That’s the one. We pulled the CCTV footage for the entire day and have been able to identify each of them, when they got there, what they did while they were there, and what bus they got on.”
“What about how they got there?” asked Carlton. “Did someone drop them off? Do we have a license plate? Anything?”
“They were staggered and came at different points throughout the day. Two of them overlapped, but just barely and they never made contact at any point. And as far as how they all got there, we’re still trying to piece that together. There’s no smoking gun, no truck that pulled up in front and dropped them all off.
“I’ve saved the best discovery, though, for last.” Picking up the remote for the monitor at the front of the conference room, the FBI Director activated a string of short CCTV clips. “Recognize the man in the blue jacket?” he asked.
Harvath studied the images on the screen. “That’s Wazir Ibrahim.”
“We concur. He apparently paid cash and bought a ticket to Nashville on the same bus as our Emirati engineering student, Mirsab Maktoum. Here’s a split screen of each of them getting on the same bus, though not together.
“Interestingly enough, five other men, who all look to be of Somali descent, also paid cash for tickets that day. Guess what buses they were on?”
“Every bus that one of our engineering students was on.”
“Precisely.”
“What about CCTV footage from the stations in the arrival cities?” Harvath asked. “Have you pulled those to see who picked them up or where they went once they got there?”
“We’ve had agents going over the footage, as well as looking for any footage from other cameras radiating out from the bus stations. As it stands now, all of them appear to have just walked off and disappeared into each of the cities.”
Harvath was about to ask if the bus drivers or any of the passengers had been identified and interviewed when there was a knock on the conference room door.
It was the FBI Director’s assistant. He was holding up a file folder and the Director motioned for him to come in.
Walking over to his boss, he handed him the file, said something quietly in his ear, and then left the room.
Harvath wondered if they had finally located Tommy Wong. It turned out to be something even better.
Opening the folder, the Director quickly scanned the contents and then said, “I think we may have just caught a very big break.”
“What is it?”
“We think we have located three more of the storage units.”
CHAPTER 49
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While the FBI coordinated their strike teams, Harvath and Carlton commandeered one of the conference rooms and