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CHAPTER EIGHTEEN: INTO THE FLAMES ( aka 04x01: mayhem )
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"WE'RE GETTING REPORTS THAT an explosion has rocked a neighbourhood in the vicinity of the Federal Plaza. Authorities have closed down the entire area and are not going to give any information at this time..."
Dallis pressed her foot flat against the accelerator, urging the SUV further down the road. She had her phone pressed between her ear and her shoulder, knuckles bone-white around the steering wheel. The Homeland Security building wasn't far from the Federal Plaza -- it was certainly close enough that the ground trembled with the force of the explosion, shocking both her and Morgan into silence -- but every second it took them to navigate traffic felt like an hour.
Beside her, Morgan spewed out another series of curse words as his call failed to go through once again. Dallis wasn't having much luck either. For the fifth time in two minutes, Rossi's phone went straight to voicemail.
"Hey, listen," she tapped Morgan's arm, nodding her chin towards the radio. "Turn it up."
"Breaking news now! We are just getting an update. The bomb is now reported to have been inside an SUV. A black SUV parked just blocks from 26 Federal Plaza."
The blood rushed from Dallis' face. The force of those four sentences was enough to knock the breath from her lungs. She had her team spread out across the city and knew only one of them was safe. This was different to when she found Garcia. She'd fought her way through the uncertainty, the terror of having one life hanging in the balance. What was she meant to do with six?
"Oh, God," she exclaimed, her chest rising and falling with every shallow breath. Her phone slipped down the side of her seat but she made no move to reach for it. She was frozen, stuck watching everything she knew and loved threaten to shatter. Her eyes darted to where Morgan sat motionless. "Morgan..."
"Keep driving, Dallis," he said, pressing the button that would set off their sirens. The wail was like a Banshee call, a heralding of Death. "I'm going to try Garcia again."
It took several attempts that left Dallis on the brink of a breakdown, and then she heard the blissful sound of Garcia's voice through the speaker.
"You're okay," her sigh of relief was heavy.
"We're almost back at the Federal Building," Morgan said. "What the hell's going on?"
"We're going over the closed-off circuit footage right now."
"Who else have you checked on?" Dallis asked, waiting anxiously for her answer.
"You're the first," Garcia said. "Rossi and Reid called me."
So three of them were safe. Good. But what about the others? That meant either Hotch, Emily or JJ were in harm's way. Dallis swallowed thickly against the nauseous feeling creeping from her stomach to her throat. Focus. She guided the SUV around a particularly sharp corner, blasting the horn at the cars too slow to move out of her way.
