of the FBI at exactly 8:00 a.m. that Monday morning. The call had been recorded, and the alert operator immediately informed her ranking supervisor, who contacted Special Agent Georgiana Reed. The NYC subway system was the target of a possible terrorist threat. The source was unknown, possibly a hoax, but all threatening calls were taken seriously.
Agent Reed reacted immediately and picked up the phone to call her partner, Mark Strickland. “Come to my office right away, Mark.”
Georgiana’s tone made it clear that this was no ordinary bullshit session. Mark was a fairly new agent at the Manhattan Field Office, early into his second year with the FBI, but he had ten years of experience on the NYPD. Georgiana recognized him as a proven asset and they worked well together. She felt lucky to have him as a partner.
When she and Mark listened to the playback, the menacing call sounded like the real deal, and George, as her staff called her, knew instinctively not to let this one pass.
The muffled male voice made it brief, uttering one sentence: “Subway hit today.” The trace was to a public telephone in downtown Manhattan.
“Damn,” she said, under her breath, looking at Mark.
They listened to the recording several times. George knew that the public telephone would offer no useful information, but she had to check it out anyway.
Georgiana was a tall, attractive redhead with green eyes. She was well known for her serious, take no shit attitude. An expert marksman, her Glock never left her hip. Both she and Mark were single, somewhat friendly, but stayed focused on their jobs. She met Mark when he was assigned to be her partner and liked him immediately. In fact, she liked him too much. She kept her feelings buried and maintained a strictly professional attitude toward him.
Georgiana was divorced, no kids, and had leftover scars from her brief marriage. She and Denny had been high school sweethearts and were still going together in college. He was the love of her life, but when George found out he had gone out with another girl, she was crushed and broke up with him. Several years after graduation, they ran into each other and reconnected. She fell for him again. She had never really gotten over him. They soon became engaged, and everything felt so right. He had a business degree, plus an MBA, and was working in marketing for a large corporation. George had a degree in criminal justice and was in training at the FBI when they got married. Everything felt so perfect, and she loved him with all of her heart and soul, but it hadn’t taken long for her to realize he was the same old Denny. She had been in denial at first. He had to travel frequently on company business, and all the signs were there. After an ugly confrontation, he admitted he had been with someone else. His assertion that it meant nothing to him didn’t work for her. The marriage was over. She hoped the right man would come along some day. She put the job first and kept relationships on an impersonal level. Being a “loner” worked best for her, but in her heart, she needed love. For now, work filled the gaps.
Mark was single and didn’t have much free time to date. His career was foremost right now, but he wanted marriage and a family someday. Being an agent was a high-risk profession requiring a lot of overtime hours. It would take the right woman to put up with the demands of his job. He was tall with dark brown hair and a dark shadow of beard. He trained hard to stay in shape, a habit he learned while working on the force.
His sexy appearance had not escaped George’s notice. She sensed that he liked her but had to maintain a barrier. She often wondered how it would feel to have him hold her, but she forced herself “not to go there.” It was at night, though, when she was struggling to fall asleep and feeling alone, that she imagined someone in bed next to her, holding her. In those moments, the only man she ever envisioned next to her was Mark.
.
8
Maggie entered Century Air crew scheduling, said hi to the guys as she signed in for Flight 227, and then went into the adjoining flight attendants’ lounge. The chairs were full with FA’s between flights or waiting out delays. She was an hour ahead of departure and saw the