A Blessing in Disguise 5 | COMPLETED

Suspicious

The loud cheers of the crowd drowned out the arriving vehicles of the 21st district's intelligence unit. The car doors opened and people dressed in their respective gear came out. They all formulated a plan before they arrived, but what they didn't plan about was how much people there would be. "That's a lot more people than we thought," Adam looked around at the overcrowded sidewalks and the people marching down the street. "Ok, same plan. Spread out," their sergeant ordered. Everyone nodded at their order and disseminated out to the crowd. "Anyone have eyes on anybody that looks suspicious?" Sgt. Voight asked through their comms. "Nothing," Maggie responded for both her and OA. "Same here," Kim replied as she and Adam snaked through the crowd of people. "We might have someone," Vanessa reported as she and Kevin spotted a male with a backpack that was too big for a parade. They watch him walk up to a woman in a crowd. An excited squeal left her being as she hugged the man carrying the backpack. "False alarm." Everyone continued searching their area again as they heard Kevin report their situation. "Sarge, maybe he's not here," Jay glanced back and forth from the crowd and Hailey who was at close proximity with him. Their eyes met each other after he said this. The spark of hope in Hailey's eyes when they first arrived was slowly fading from their seemingly futile search for their suspect. "Agent Castile is still at the district trying to find more with the feds, so we keep searching until she has something," his sergeant replied. "Copy," he nodded at Hailey to say that they should keep going. He received a nod back and continued searching.

Several minutes had passed and everyone thought that they were never gonna find him here. They had lost all hope but their determination still continued to push them to keep searching. Hailey was snaking through the crowd when her eyes caught something. She stopped in her tracks and eyed someone in a hoodie. Her gut feeling kicked in and told her that there was something suspicious there. Her head snapped at the direction where Jay was, but she couldn't find him. However, instead of continuing to wonder where her partner went, her eyes went back to the suspicious person. She started walking towards him, not breaking any eye contact with his hoodie that blended in well with the crowd. As she was excusing her way through the crowd, the hooded man disappeared from her line of sight. She froze. 'Where the hell did he go?' Hailey walked past the people in her way as she frantically looked for the hooded man. She stopped in the middle of the crowd. The sounds of people cheering, the marching band playing their instruments, the chatter around her. It all started to overwhelm her. Her mind started racing. She immediately shut her eyes and told herself to breathe. She took several breaths in and out. "Hailey, what's your status?" She heard her partner's worried voice through her comms. She could hear how he was slowly starting to panic. Her eyes slowly opened, but she didn't immediately respond to her partner as she suddenly caught a glimpse of the hooded man again. Her eyes quickly scanned the crowd and it landed on the man who was now standing still in the middle of the crowd.

Hailey furrowed her eyebrows as she thought of how to handle this situation, but before she could come up with a solution, the hooded man started walking towards the parade in the middle of the street. Her partner's concern faded from her thoughts as she felt the adrenaline rise in her. She started making her way towards the hooded man. As she approached him, gun ready in her hand, she saw him take his jacket off. She slowly came to halt as she saw it. The bomb was strapped around his chest, a red light continuously blinks indicating that it was connected to some kind of detonator. The people in the parade were the first to notice this and panic started to ensue. The realization spread to the crowd on the sidewalks and they reacted. People started racing towards the opposite direction of the bomb. Hailey snaked her way past the people running towards her and arrived a few feet from the man. It wasn't Barnes, it was someone else. He looked young, 16 maybe 17 years old. With the distance, she had a better look at his state. Hesitation was sprawled across his face. Now, she knows why he hasn't detonated the bomb yet. Beads of sweat were forming on his forehead and it clearly wasn't entirely because of the weather. "Hey!" Hailey called out. The man's head snapped up at her. "You don't have to do this, man." The man's hesitation left his face and a courageous one dominated it. He reached for his side and got the detonator out from a pouch by his vest.