FBI COMMAND CENTER, QUANTICO, VA
News of the mass kidnapping went off like a bomb.
FBI child abduction emergency protocols were triggered and a whirlwind of activity was automatically set in motion. Barely forty minutes after Ezra confirmed the kidnapping, Sayer paced at the head of the large command center usually reserved for national emergencies. The room began filling with agents gathering for the emergency task force meeting triggered by the Child Abduction Rapid Deployment.
As people kept filing in, Sayer realized that she was suddenly leading a task force of more than fifty people. This was going to be more like steering a cruise ship than a sports car.
Ezra had a photograph of the teenagers posing in front of the charter bus up on the screen at the front of the room.
“All right, let’s get started.” Sayer held up her hands, quieting the room. “We’ve confirmed that this bus carrying twenty-four high school students from the D.C. Public School District, one adult chaperone, and one bus driver, is missing. None of the passengers nor the bus have been heard from since 5:00 P.M. last night and it’s 4:00 A.M. now, so they’ve been missing for eleven hours. Let’s get on the same page so we can figure out what’s next.”
Sayer indicated for Ezra to put up the next photo, which showed Rowena Chang in safety goggles and a lab coat.
“It appears that someone hijacked a bus with twenty-four high schoolers on it and, unfortunately, we’ve already found one of the kidnapped children dead.”
Ezra clicked to the aerial photo of Rowena Chang while Sayer summarized the case.
“So, first thing we need to figure out—what the hell is going on? Is this an attack on the D.C. school district for some reason? A ransom attempt? Are the kids being sold into slavery as we speak? Or is this a terrorist attack? Some kind of hijacking?” Sayer began to pace. “Maybe Rowena Chang was the primary target. But then why take the whole busload of kids? Ezra, where are we on family notifications?” Sayer realized her thoughts were bouncing around like a pinball.
“Looks like we’ve contacted almost all twenty-four families.” Ezra looked up from his open laptop. “We’re asking them to head here now.”
“We have a family liaison to work with them?” Sayer asked, looking around the room.
A plump, pale-skinned woman with graying hair and a warm smile stood up. “I’m the Child Abduction Rapid Deployment family liaison. Agent Robbins.” She waved, looking like a soccer mom in an ill-fitting black suit.
Sayer tried not to look too relieved. She always felt responsible for working directly with the victims’ families, but this case was just too big and moving too fast. One girl dead and twenty-three kids missing was not the kind of case she could cowboy alone.
“All the families are D.C.-based,” Agent Robbins continued. “Normally, for a kidnapping we would set up at their houses, but because we have so many families involved here, we’re asking them to come to Quantico so we can centralize everything. When I last heard, they only had one or two notifications left.”
Sayer realized that they were about to have two dozen terrified families to wrangle. She drained her coffee, hoping for a jolt of energy for what was about to be a very long haul. “Are you able to manage the families once they arrive?”
“Yes, ma’am, that’s my primary role as family liaison,” Robbins said. “I’ve already set up a block of rooms for them at a nearby hotel so they don’t have to drive back up to the city if things … take longer than expected. I’ve arranged for a conference room here where they can gather with access to snacks, water, coffee, and grief counselors. We’ve got a separate room for the Chang family so they aren’t in the room with the missing children’s families. I’ve got agents preparing to trace any communication attempts made. If this is a ransom kidnapping, we’ll be ready for calls, emails, or any other way the kidnapper might try to communicate with them. Can I have four or five agents assigned to me for family interviews? We need to start creating a file on each missing child. You know, gather history and detailed descriptions. I also need to send someone to each house to remain there for the duration.”
“Someone at each house?” Sayer asked. “In case a ransom demand is delivered directly?”
“Yes, and that way they can look around to assess if any family is connected somehow. Or if one of the kids comes home,” Robbins confirmed.
“That makes sense. You can have five agents working with you on interviews and let’s get local law enforcement assigned to each house. The D.C. Police Department has already offered help so let’s get uniforms on that. Let me know once the initial intake interviews with the families are done.”
“Will do.” Robbins smiled so encouragingly Sayer could see why she had the job she did.
“Okay, PR?” Sayer asked.
A young, very eager-looking man in a bright blue suit jumped up. “Media liaison, ma’am.”
Sayer hated being called ma’am, but she let it go. “In addition to the Amber Alert, I want to release the description of the bus and the victims to the media ASAP. I want every person in the area watching for that bus. Does that sound right to you?”
The media liaison nodded vigorously. “Yes, I’ll get a basic description and photo of the bus to the media right now.”
He typed on his phone as he spoke and Sayer realized that he literally meant right now.
“That should get the word out to the public.” He looked up. “I’ll be keeping track of the reporting so we know exactly what information is out there. Since you’re the lead on this, Agent Altair, I would suggest you do a briefing at some point. This is going to be a huge story.”
“Shit. Let’s make sure we manage to get all the notifications done before those poor families are contacted by the media.” Sayer paused, letting herself think about all the families finding out tonight that, instead of on their way to a scholarly competition, their children were missing or, worse, dead. “I assume we have a BOLO on the bus to local law enforcement. What about traffic cameras? Air searches? Does the bus have a tracking device?”
One of the data techs grimaced. “The ‘be on the lookout’ was issued about twenty minutes ago, but no hits yet. The bus company is low budget. No tracking on their buses. All the local police departments have increased street patrols for the night to keep an eye out. They also all have their choppers up looking. We’ve sent out notifications to all gas stations in the area able to refuel a bus. On the traffic cams, we haven’t been able to locate any footage of the bus yet. Three of us are combing the video feeds from the expected bus route.”
“Stay on it. Unless the kidnappers get in touch, locating the bus is the best way to find those kids quickly.” Sayer paused, knowing that the unsub was probably already off the streets. “Ezra, what else do you have for us on the kids?”
“I’m still searching social media, but not much yet.” He pulled back up the photo of the kids in front of the charter bus. The banner hanging on the side screamed STEM is the future! way too cheerfully. “We know that this trip was for the top twelve girls and the top twelve boys from the district-wide STEM fair. Apparently this is an annual Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math competition where the kids can win scholarship money for college. I’ve got the list of names from the school district and I’m using social media to match names to faces, but until the families get here, we won’t be able to do much more.”