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CHAPTER NINETEEN: SKIN AND BONE ( aka 04x01: mayhem )
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DALLIS WAS SITTING IN the waiting room when the rest of the team arrived. They were quick to gather around herself and Morgan, who was standing off to the side keeping an eye on the closed door that Hotch was changing behind, just in case he decided to lose it at a nurse again. Emily drew Dallis into a quick hug then handed her a bullet-proof vest to put on over her shirt. Dallis was strapping it into place when Hotch emerged, battered and bruised but alive.
"Are you okay?" Emily asked, looking him over.
"Yeah," he mumbled. "I just want to understand why I'm still alive."
"We think the idea was to maim, not to kill," Reid explained.
"Did you identify Sam, the bomber?" Hotch turned to him.
He shook his head. "Garcia put Sam and the other dead unsub into every known database. Nothing."
"I don't think you'll find him under the name Sam," Dallis muttered.
Hotch sighed. "Just tell her to keep trying."
"We know how terrorist cells evolve," Rossi continued. He was yet to say anything to Dallis but she wasn't oblivious to the scalding heat of his gaze flickering to the side of her face. Checking for injuries and, thankfully, finding none. "They learn from one campaign to the next. How to stay off radar like the London bombers."
"Yeah, but they hit at 8:50 in the morning with a series of coordinated blasts aimed at London's transportation system. And this cell targeted a lone SUV where the only people on the street are two federal agents."
"If it's not multiple targets, it's one target," Morgan said firmly. "One target, one bomb."
"Garcia said the device was placed under Kate's SUV," Rossi commented, making Hotch swallow thickly at the woman's name. There was still no word on how her surgery was going. Over an hour had come and gone since she entered that room, and Dallis was yet to shake the feeling that she wouldn't be leaving it.
"It was likely made using oxidising agents, including chromates, peroxides, perchlorates, chlorates and red mercury," Reid said. "All jammed into a device no larger than a cell phone."
"Imagine what a bomb the size of an oil drum could do," Morgan grimaced at just the thought.
"Yeah, but to make something that big, you'd need a chemical engineer," Hotch considered with a frown.
"Like the recently deceased Dr Azahari Husin," Rossi said. "Asia's most-wanted bomb maker. Authorities dubbed him the 'Demolition Man.' He treated each bomb like a work of art. One wrong move, he becomes a victim of his own creation. He'll be more revered than all of the people who died as a result of his devices."
