Payback

124

The captain in charge of Homeland Security matters for the Pennsylvania State Police was about Dean’s age and like him had close-cropped hair. That was as far as the similarities went — the captain stood several inches shorter than Dean but outweighed him by a good bit, even if one ignored the bulletproof vest under his uniform shirt.

His agency had already been alerted that Philadelphia might be a target of a terror attack before Dean got there, but Dean’s impression when he walked into the tactical center shortly after eleven was that the troopers were more annoyed than alarmed. Most of them looked as if they’d been working the day shift and stayed on through the night.

“You’re from Washington, right?” said the captain, whose name tag read: DANIELS. He didn’t offer a first name to go with it.

“That’s right.”

“Homeland Defense?”

“I’m helping them out.”

Daniels gave him a puzzled look but didn’t press. He gave Dean a brief rundown of the extra units they’d called on duty, the patrols they had initiated, and the alerts they had sent out.

“I have to tell you, we get these advisories all the time,” said the captain. “We’ve been tracking this since it broke a day and a half ago. We’ve watched the highways at the border. We shut down I-Ninety-five for a while. We’re still taking all the trucks off the road there. No truck passes without being searched.”

“That’s a start,” said Dean.

“The reports we’ve seen were related to Washington and Virginia,” said the captain.

“My information is more up-to-date,” said Dean. “There’s a good chance the truck is on its way to Philadelphia.”

Daniels unhooked his tie — it was a clip model, a precaution all police took against it being used for a choke hold — and set it on the desk. “Mr. Dean—”

“Charlie.”

“No offense, but looking for a truck packed with explosives is only a little easier than looking for a needle in a haystack. We can cover the major highways, but once you start including country roads, local roads—”

“If I were you, I’d stop every truck in the state,” said Dean. “Every vehicle. The bomb is that big.”