“Uly, what have you got? I need a status report!” Boone said over the Bluetooth. He was near the rear of the crowd that had piled into the plaza and he could see the Alamo behind the stage. While he waited, he kept scanning for any sign of the terrorists. There was silence on the line as everyone waited for Uly to respond.
“Uly? Copy?” Boone asked again.
“Sorry. I think I’ve got eyes on one of the guys but I can’t tell. He’s wearing glasses and a different hat. And it’s dark. I’m sending a photo to X-Ray now for confirmation,” Uly said.
“Okay,” Boone said. “Keep him in sight while X-Ray runs it.”
“Copy,” Uly said.
X-Ray’s fingers flew over the keyboard as the picture appeared on his screen. The screen flickered and blinked as it compared the photo to the four from the warehouse. Boone waited and a few seconds later X-Ray’s voice said, “Negative. It’s not a match.”
“Copy that,” Uly said.
Boone strolled along, weaving in and out of the mass of people, looking for anyone matching the description.
“Felix,” he said. “Have you got anything?”
“Negative. I’ve had my binoculars on every white SUV I’ve seen and I’ve yet to spot a Tahoe. I’ve seen Fords, Toyotas, Chryslers, and a Hyundai, but not a single Chevy. I think it must be a state law that you have to own a white SUV to live in Texas. But I haven’t seen one that looks suspicious yet. Nobody making any circles around the plaza or anything,” Felix said.
“Copy that. Stay alert. Holler if you see anything that’s at all weird,” Boone said. “Vanessa, what’s your location?”
“I checked out the parking garage across from the plaza. No Tahoe there either. I’m working the crowd now, but I haven’t noticed anyone yet that matches our perps,” she said.
“All right, copy,” Boone said, his voice full of discouragement.
“What am I missing, X-Ray?” he asked.
X-Ray was silent. He knew Boone was asking a rhetorical question and didn’t really want an answer. He’d worked enough ops with Boone to know he sometimes got like this.
“Maybe it isn’t the concert,” Boone said. “Maybe it’s some other target.”
“That would go completely against their SOP,” X-Ray said. And Boone had to agree with X-Ray. Choosing another target would be completely against their standard operating procedure. It wasn’t easy to make a car bomb. In the movies they popped up everywhere, but in real life it was difficult to gather the explosives needed to do enough damage. It would be a hollow gesture for the cell to destroy something without also killing a lot of people, or at least a few important people. They would use the vehicle in a way that would inflict the greatest number of casualties. And in San Antonio tonight that meant the concert. But what if it were something else? Boone was always willing to consider he might have missed something.
“X-Ray, aside from the concert and the Alamo itself, what other targets are there in San Antonio? The top five things the ghost cell could take out and score a major propaganda victory?”
There was no reply for a few seconds and Boone envisioned X-Ray with his fingers flying over the keyboards in the van as he researched possibilities.
“There’s an air force base nearby,” X-Ray said. “San Antonio is the regional banking center for southwest Texas. There’s the historical significance of the Alamo. If someone were to blow up or damage that old mission with a bomb, we wouldn’t need a military response. Every Texan in the state with a pickup truck and a shotgun would chase them to the gates of, well … someplace really hot,” he said. “Fort Hood is a major military deployment center but that’s three and a half hours from here. I gotta say, Boone, if I had to pick, it would be the concert and/or the Alamo itself. The most potential for death and destruction, the highest degree of symbolism, and the easiest to breach in terms of security.”
Boone thought X-Ray was probably right; he had learned to trust his team. It didn’t hurt to make sure he wasn’t missing something. So far they had yet to see any of the suspects, and that fact ate at him, making him doubt his instincts.
He was about to order Uly and Vanessa back to the perimeter when Vanessa cut in over the Bluetooth.
“I think I’ve got something,” she said. “Maneuvering for a photo now. Stand by.”
They waited silently for the image to show up on X-Ray’s computer screen. Finally the picture appeared and X-Ray ran it against the suspect photos. A few seconds later everyone heard him say, “It’s a match.”
“Vanessa, we have confirmation that’s one of the men. Move in and keep him in sight. See if he hooks up with any of the others. But if you think he’s going to use something like a detonator, or use a phone, take him out. Uly, you move toward her position. Vanessa, give Felix your location. Felix, see if you can pick them up through your scope. We might need you. Stay ready.”
The chatter between the SOS agents went back and forth on the line.
“Where are you, Boone?” Vanessa asked.
“Don’t worry,” he said. “I’m around.”