Plan to Read This Weekend!

8/28/2025

Declan paced back and forth a few times before coming to a stop next to Blair and Forge. “I guess I’ll say it. The construction site was rigged to implode. It wasn’t simply a test of first responder time and the ability to scramble their signals. It was also an assessment of their networking and equipment.”

“We’ll contact you as soon as we’re in the apartment building.” Sayyna tucked one of the radios into her bag, nodded, and turned, leaving the room. Maisy had a second radio and Lucas and Forge the other two.

“Meet you there, love,” Dane said.

“How much time in the countdown?” Palle’s voice was in Blair’s ear too.
“Just under two hours,” Blair said. “If it doesn’t speed up or slow down.”

“It takes time and planning to set up for an implosion. The equipment must be well hidden,” Forge pointed out.

“Or blends in with the surroundings so no one takes notice,” Lucas added.

“It’s also possible not all the buildings are set up to implode. An old-fashioned explosion will cause as much havoc,” Declan said.

“How come it didn’t show up on your tracking app?” Forge asked.

“They weren’t active until just now,” Blair explained. He looked at Lucas. “Can you smell explosives?”

“I might if I knew what they smelled like. It’s certainly worth a try,” Lucas said. “If those are online, they’re attached to something electronic, right?”

Blair nodded.

“Electronics give off sound,” Lucas pointed out.

“Between your nose and my ears, we might be able to find them,” Declan said.

“First Blair has to contact Varian. If he needs help, he might just give up where they’re placed and what they look like,” Forge said.

Blair nodded. He picked up the phone and called Varian. “If this was a test, it wasn’t very hard. Any hacker worth their salt could crack this phone,” Blair said.

“True, but I’m not working with any hacker. I’ve decided to work with you.”

“I’m guessing since all these signals are networked, this is some sort of trap or distraction,” Blair said.

“Bright boy.”

Forge wrote on a piece of paper and showed it to Blair.

“Why all the different places? I get the hotel, not the others,” Blair said into the phone.

“I’d think it would be obvious. There are only so many resources—fire trucks, ambulances—available,” Varian said. Blair could picture the smug smile on his face.

“You’re going to kill people,” Blair said softly. “Stealing is one thing. Mass murder is altogether different.”

“People die. Once the first site goes off, the hotel will close down the exhibit. Everything will be loaded into a truck and moved off-site,” Varian explained as though it was the most obvious thing in the world. “Bring me the phone.”

“Where?” Blair asked.

“The exhibit hall, and don’t think I won’t find you and kill you if you don’t follow my instructions.”

Forge wrote another note for Blair.

“I’ll have to ditch the woman I was working with. It’ll take me some time,” Blair said.

“You have thirty minutes. One minute late and you won’t live to see the end of the day.”

The line went dead.

Blair’s gaze shifted to Forge. Despite how dry his mouth was, he managed to swallow down the burning feeling working its way up from his stomach. Forge patted his shoulder, then squeezed reassuringly before moving back a few steps and giving Blair room to work.

“You and I’ll head down to the parking level, check it and the sublevels underneath to locate the devices in the hotel,” Declan said to Lucas.

“Maisy and I’ll go to the shopping center. If we can’t find and disarm those things, we can at least get the place cleared out,” Palle said through their earbuds.

“There’s no underground level, at least not that we saw, in the shopping center,” Blair said.

“Were you looking for one?” Lucas asked.

“No, we weren’t,” Forge said. “Once he has the phone, he’s going to have control of the network that controls the explosives.”

Blair held up one finger. “Gotcha covered. This might not stop him, but it’ll slow him down. I just need a little time.”

“Do you have access to whatever information your father might have kept on Varian?” Forge asked suddenly.

“His personal stuff?” Blair asked as he worked on the phone. “Yeah. Not his official FBI notes and whatever he kept on those investigations. I don’t even know what most the cases he worked on were.”

“It won’t matter. He had files on Varian. Can you send them to the local cops? Minus the parts about building special faerie-catching equipment or anything falling into the weird and unbelievable category?” Forge asked.

Blair stopped what he was doing and met Forge’s gaze again, a smile spreading over his face when Forge raised his eyebrows and nodded. “There’re no pictures. They’ll think it’s the man they have in custody already.”