The Serpent's Kiss

15

As Jill moved down the hallway, she spoke in a loud, authoritative voice: “Everyone must leave the building. I repeat: Evacuate the building. This is an emergency. Everyone calmly leave the building!”

A blond man in a white lab coat poked his wire-rimmed glasses up on his nose and stood in her path. “What’s this all about?”

“FBI,” she said, badge ready in her hand. “We have an emergency situation. Please evacuate—”

”What’s going on?” someone else interrupted. Jill wanted to roll her eyes. Count on a bunch of doctors to stand around asking questions instead of getting their butts in gear.

“We have a bomb threat in this building,” she said, hoping this wasn’t the wrong approach. “You need to evacuate the building. Immediately!”

That got their attention. People began moving toward the door. Jill finally threaded her way to the receptionist’s desk and was about to commandeer the phone when a uniformed security guard appeared. “There’s a situation?”

Jill flashed her credentials. “There’s a possible bomb in one of the offices on this floor. We need to evacuate the building immediately.”

The security guard squinted at her, then put the walkie-talkie to his lips, moving away from her. She heard him say, “We have a Code Orange. I repeat: Code Orange.”

A moment later a voice came over the loudspeaker requesting an immediate evacuation of the building. It repeated the message. A klaxon began to sound and everybody hurried toward the exits.

Jill picked up the phone and dialed Matt Gray again. He picked up after a single ring. “Gray, FBI.”

“Jill Church again. There’s a possibility that Harrington’s office here at the Public Health building has a bomb in it. We’ve found evidence of chemical terrorism scenarios and the office may be booby-trapped.”

After moment’s silence, Gray said, “You are way beyond what I ordered you to do, Jill. Way beyond.”

She ignored the comment. “I’ve got security involved. They’re evacuating the building. Can you organize the bomb squad?”

More silence. Then, “We’re on it. I…” Gray trailed off. In the background, over the sound of the siren in the building, she heard a babble of voices. Finally Gray said, “I was going to send you over to the university president’s office to discuss paying the ransom. He’s expecting you—”

”We have a policy of not negotiating with terrorists,” she said, mind momentarily blank. What was Matt talking about? She had a situation here.

“I know what our policy is,” he snapped. “But it’s not our decision, is it? We can only make recommendations. Meanwhile, we need to consider shutting down the university. They may be the target.”

“We’ve got a bomb here, Matt.”

More silence. “Where’s Stillwater?”

Jill pressed the phone to her ear in amazement. “He’s in the office. He’s the one that uncovered the possible device.”

Again that delayed silence, as if Matt Gray were running everything by someone else before responding. “You left him alone?” Gray’s voice was incredulous.

That did it. “Call the bomb squad, Matt. Now!” She slammed the phone down and whirled, heading back toward Harrington’s office and Derek Stillwater.