Page 18 of Ground Zero

“Understood,” Maverick muttered

With her free hand, Sheridan answered the phone. “Mendez.”

“Agent Mendez!” Cook’s voice was sharp with concern and barely contained frustration. “Where have you been? I’ve been trying to reach you for the past hour.”

Sheridan met Maverick’s eyes as she carefully chose her words. “Adams got away, sir.”

“Got away? So you found him?”

“He was surfing just as I suspected.”

“How did he get away?”

Heat flushed her cheeks, but she forced her voice to remain steady. “Four men showed up on the beach as I was trying to apprehend him. These men claimed to be with FBI Cyber Crimes Division. They weren’t. They began shooting.”

“What?” Surprise lilted his voice. “Why didn’t you call me right away?”

“Because I was too busy trying to survive and get to safety.”

Cook didn’t acknowledge her comment. “And Adams? Where is he?”

“He knew the terrain better than I anticipated and ran. I’m still pursuing him, trying to figure out where he went.”

“I can send backup.”

“No need. He’s far away now. He actually swam out into the ocean. There was a boat waiting.”

“I can call the Coast Guard.”

Her throat burned. “That’s probably a good idea.”

She blurted out a description of the imaginary boat, hating that the Coast Guard might waste their resources on a lie. But she was backed into a corner and running out of options.

Forgive me.

“I’ll need a full report on what happened,” Cook continued.

“Of course,” Sheridan said..

“We need Adams in custody immediately. See if you can figure out where he went. Call local marinas. Talk to rental agencies. Talk to his friends. In the meantime, we’ve had an incident at the Pentagon.”

“An incident?”

“Someone scrambled the access codes. It’s a mess.”

“Adams?” she asked.

“We don’t think so—this seems to have originated out of China. The rest of the team is headed to DC now.”

She swallowed hard before asking, “So Adams isn’t a priority anymore?”

“We definitely want to question him,” Cook said. “But now we’ve got to handle this security breach up in DC. Keep looking for him. I need to know what he knows.”

“Will do.”

“And Agent Mendez, I want you to understand something.” Cook’s tone turned deadly serious. “Maverick Adams isextremely dangerous. He’s not just a hacker—he’s a trained EOD specialist with combat experience. Don’t underestimate him.”

Sheridan looked at Maverick, who listened to every word with that same calculated expression.