Staying Alive by Debra Webb

been confiscated as evidence since the terrorists had used it to converse with the police.
    “The call is bouncing off one server after the other, sir. We believe it’s him. ”
    That bone-chilling cold she’d felt earlier crept its way through her body.
    Krueger tucked a Bluetooth wireless earpiece into his ear. Then he took the cell phone and offered it to Claire. “Stay calm and listen carefully to whatever he tells you. We’ll be monitoring the conversation, but we don’t want him to know that.”
    The ringing abruptly stopped.
    An anxious breath heaved past her lips.
    Krueger thrust the phone closer to her. “He’ll call back.”
    As if his mind were linked to the caller’s, the ringing started again.
    Claire took the phone. Her hand shook. She moistened her lips then flipped open the phone.
    Her gaze collided with Krueger’s as she placed it against her ear. “Hello.”
    “Claire Grant?”
    She flinched. “Yes.”
    “You must go to Bellevue Square. Your task awaits you at the first-level children’s play area. Do not deviate. Do not elicit help. No extraordinary measures like bulletproof vests or weapons. Nothing. I repeat, you must do as I say, unarmed and with no help. I am aware that you are not alone and that this call is being monitored. Do not allow your new friends to interfere. Keep this phone with you at all times. You have forty-five minutes, Miss Grant.”
    Krueger made one of those keep-going gestures with his hand and whispered, “Ask him what happens in forty-five minutes.”
    Claire couldn’t think. The blood roaring in her ears from the frantic pounding of her heart made concentrating impossible.
    “I don’t understand your instructions. What is it I’m supposed to do at the mall?”
    “You will receive additional instructions when you arrive at the play area.”
    She probably needed to ask other questions in order to keep him talking, but her mind simply wouldn’t fix on anything.
    “I’m…I’m not sure…”
    “Hurry, Miss Grant,” he interrupted, “or a child will die.”

Chapter 7
    “E TA is sixteen minutes, sir.”
    Claire rushed into the waiting elevator with Krueger and two other members of his team, Agents Talkington and Holman.
    Her mind kept trying to make sense of what was happening, but somehow things wouldn’t connect to form a logical pattern.
    “I need the layout of the mall’s first floor. We have only minutes to get backup into place.” Krueger rattled off the orders as if nothing that had transpired in the past few minutes surprised him.
    This was his job, she reminded herself. He probably did this kind of thing all the time.
    But she didn’t.
    She looked at him, felt panic rising all too fast. “What’s happening? I don’t understand this.”
    Krueger shifted his attention to her, but before he could answer her question the elevator bumped to a stop on the lobby level.
    He barked additional instructions to his men as he took her by the arm and herded her toward the hotel’s front exit.
    Seconds later they were en route to the Bellevue Square Mall. Claire watched in horrified amazement as the men made preparations. Special communication devices were positioned on shirt collars and tucked into ears. Krueger continued to dole out orders with a keenly honed focus that transcended the norm.
    “Sir,” Agent Talkington broke in, “the first-floor play area is a padded tugboat playground near Nordstrom’s and Eddie Bauer.”
    “Let me know when we have backup in place. We need to take every possible precaution.”
    “What did he mean,” Claire asked, her mind scrambling to catch up, “when he said I should hurry or a child will die?” All the possibilities, some far more horrifying than others, tumbled through her head.
    Krueger met her gaze, his expression formidable and totally closed to assessment. She didn’twant some prettied-up version of what was going down. She wanted the whole truth. Whatever was happening here she needed to