Read Online End Days Super Boxset by Roger Hayden - Free Book Online Page A

his two-way radio from a clip on his belt. Patterson didn’t answer.
    The police were still blocking off traffic as a tow truck pulled up to haul away the pickup truck that had been destroyed against the light post. Craig took pictures of the pipe bombs—five in all—on the pavement. He didn’t know where Rasheed had been headed with the bombs and why, but he was relieved to find a brown leather wallet in Rasheed’s backpack. Inside were Rasheed’s Virginia driver’s license and some credit cards. Nothing more.
    Two police officers had just approached Craig for further instruction when his cell phone vibrated in his pocket. Craig pulled his phone out expecting to see Patterson’s number, but instead he saw that it was Assistant Deputy Director Calderon. Everything began to hit him at once: the surveillance, the chase, the diner shooting, the police, the ambulances, and the news media. It had no end. Craig hesitated but then answered.
    “Agent Davis.”
    There was silence on the other end before Calderon’s noticeably restrained voice began. “Your name came on my radar a minute ago, and I don’t know why. But it seems you have a little situation out there in Richmond.”
    “That’s correct, sir.”
    “I’m seeing it on the news now. A total bloodbath. Is this you?”
    “Bloodbath, sir? I don’t think so.”
    “I just received word that we have an agent in the hospital. Your partner.”
    Craig was speechless. “I-I don’t know. We were apprehending two suspects on foot and got split up.”
    “What the hell are you doing out there, Craig?”
    “Rasheed Surkov. He’s connected with the sleeper cell in Minneapolis.”
    “And?”
    “And we have reason to believe that he was planning an attack here in Richmond.”
    Calderon sighed. “We’re sending a field agent team out there. Counterterrorism. We have no choice now but to show a presence.”
    “What happened at the diner? Where’s my partner?” Craig said, dreading the answer.
    “I was hoping you could tell me that,” Calderon said.
    Craig began to move quickly away from the scene. He ducked under the yellow tape and ran back toward the diner.
    “You’re to come to D.C., Agent Davis,” Calderon said. “Immediately.”
    Craig hung up the phone without responding and ran to the diner. Surkov, the pipe bombs, and Calderon were no longer on his mind. All he could think about was Patterson.
    “Please let him be okay,” he repeated to himself.
    When he arrived on the scene, he was unsettled to see so many people gathered around the perimeter of the building. There were more news trucks than he could count and what looked like the entire Richmond police department out in full force. Bodies were being wheeled out of the diner on gurneys with white sheets covering them, stained with blood.
    Craig held up his badge and pushed his way through, trying to get a better look at the diner.
    “Officer!” he shouted to a detective standing amid the chaos.
    “Yes?” His name tag identified him as Detective Harper.
    “Special Agent Davis, FBI. I’m looking for my partner, Agent Patterson. We were in the middle of tracking two suspects. Mine ran away on foot. The other one was here. What happened?”
    Harper looked pale and queasy as if he was suffering from food poisoning, no doubt related to the crime scene directly behind them. The glass had been shot out. The air reeked of gunpowder. Pools of dark red blood were everywhere on the floor of the diner.
    “There was a shooting here, and yes, an FBI agent was involved.”
    Craig’s heart sank.
    “But he’s still alive,” Harper said. “They took him to the emergency room a few minutes ago. Had him listed in stable condition last time I checked. Many others weren’t so lucky.”
    Craig felt relief for his partner but distraught to hear that so many had died. There wasn’t much more to say.
    Surkov’s young counterpart had been sent into the diner to spray the place with bullets. Surkov himself had