Where Is She?
Max
Trying not to lose my mind is harder than I thought it would be. Waiting and worrying about my woman, who is about to get herself kidnapped by a human trafficker, shouldn’t be on the list of things I should ever have to worry about.
The phone rings. I click before it finishes.
“That is one fine, crazy woman. I like her,” Fly says.
You can’t kill the idiot just because you’re angry at the world. “Is she still alive?”
“She was when I dropped her off thirty seconds ago. But they were looking at her funny. I rolled away real slow as a van drove past me in a hurry.”
An unknown number rings on my private phone. That never happens. “Hello.”
“They took her,” Everett says.
I click off on Fly without a word. “Tell me you have a tracker on her.”
“One of the best in the world.”
What does that—The one in his back. “What does that mean?”
“We need to move fast before the hit squad or acquisition team arrives. If that jammer isn’t on before they arrive, they’re going to take Fiona in, question her, and then kill her. They’ll make the Spanish Inquisition look like a walk in the park.”
Think. Don’t react. “Send me the tracking information.”
“Already on the way to you.”
“You’re nowhere near that place, right?” I don’t need to be worrying about Everett, too.
“Nope. I’m sitting in a safe room in Vex’s secret lair. Did you know he has a secret lair? I can’t wait to see yours. His has so many weapons.”
The tracking information comes in.
They’re on the move. I send that information to the group I set up earlier, which means everyone is now moving in her direction.
“I’m already searching for cell phones close to her location so that we can hear what she hears,” Everett says.
It’s like our minds are synced up. “Good. Send me the feed when you have it. I’ll coordinate with the team leads. Where is Vex?”
“Don’t know. He won’t say. All I’ve got is comms to communicate with him. He told me if I tracked him, he’d kill me.”
Which means Vex plans on going in first. “Don’t unless I tell you.”
“Got it.”
“How long until your friends show up?” That could add a distinct kink to our plans.
“Every time I sent out false pings, it took them around thirty to forty minutes.”
And Fiona has been driving for five. “Set a timer. We need to get her and be gone in twenty-five.”
“That’s not going to happen unless they stop driving soon.” Everett starts tapping something in the background. “This guy might not even be around to find. What if he isn’t there?”
Then Vex is going to lose his mind. “Doesn’t matter. We’ll get Fiona and figure out the rest after.” She'd better be alive when I get there, or I’m going to lose my mind.
Her dot keeps moving.
The rest of the team are spread about, making different turns so as not to draw attention in case they have sentries placed around and the helicopters are inbound.
“Got their phone feeds,” Everett says.
“Anything useful?” Give me something. Any excuse to pull her out now.
“A whole plethora of raunchy jokes that aren’t funny.”
“Tell me if there’s anything else.”
“Will do.” Everett’s voice gets high and off.
“What?”
“Nothing useful yet.” He’s lying.
It’s got to be bad. “What?”
“You don’t want to know.”
Now, I have to know. “Everett!”
“They’re discussing…sexually assaulting her.”
I didn’t want to know, but I needed to. “Save their voice prints. And if you can get an ID match, send it to me. If not, I want to know their voices and track their phones, labeling them as dead one and two.” They will be soon enough. Vex better not kill them before I get a chance.
The van pulls into an underground parking lot and comes to a stop.
Fiona’s dot starts moving again but slower. They’re on foot.
Are they swapping cars, or have they arrived at their location? From all the information on The Spider, I expect them to swap. It would be the smart thing.
What I would have done. After I swept for bugs. “You sure they can’t see her bug?”
“Positive. If I didn’t know it was physically there, I would never have been able to find it or hack it. You should see what it took to hack it and shut it down. The coder on this was brilliant. Better than most military stuff.”
“You know I do most of the security for the government.”
“Yeah, I do, old man. This is better, just saying.”
Like he’s seen all my work. “Let me check it out.”
Everett snorts. “Maybe if you’re alive in a few hours.”
I glance over at Dad…he knows the risks. We all do.
“They’re at their destination. They’re putting her in a cage to wait for their boss. And Max…she might need medical attention. She bumped her head pretty bad. They said she isn’t awake yet.”
“Mute.” Dad bites out.
I do what he says.
“Can you do this? Can you see past your rage to do what needs to be done? Think carefully. Because if you can’t, you could become a danger in there.”
Do I want to go in there guns blazing and bodies dropping like Vex? “I want her alive more than I want anything else.”
Dad nods. “Unmute.”
“I’m searching for new phones to hack into, but I think she’s alone right now…Nix that. I’ve got two phones in her vicinity. Getting us ears now.”
Faster… “I’m going to look for any cameras around that I can hack into for some visuals.
” We need to know what we’re walking into.
Ethan prepped us for military level security.
His team will drop in from the sky and work their way down.
While the rest of us move in from all sides after we cut power to the building.
Just stay alive. Just stay alive.
“Anyone know if there is cobra antivenom available?” Everett asks. “I think she’s going to do it. Max, your woman is absolutely insane.”
What?!?
“I have antivenom back at The Street. Tell Barb to get at least six vials ready, as well as IV fluids, and a vent just in case.” Of course, Maddox has antivenom in his chamber of horrors.
My world goes blurry for a minute. Focus. She’s going to survive.
She’s got to survive.
“False alarm. That guy has a twisted sense of humor.”
He trafficks women. Nothing about him is normal.
“The woman keeps calling him Spidey. We have confirmation of target acquisition. She did it. Fiona did it.”
And there are cameras everywhere. They used an old petting zoo which had some really antiquated cameras hard-wired that they didn’t bother disconnecting. “Visuals inside being sent to team leads now.” I open them up in a slow scroll across all our tablets. “Time to go in.”
Be alive.
Just be alive.