Chapter 13
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QUINN STIRRED RESTLESSLY, her hands and arms numb.
At some point, she’d sat down, exhausted, leaning against the wall of the wooden structure.
Shockingly, she’d fallen asleep. Her wrists were still restrained, bound by the rope, and her arms were suspended above her.
If they’d used a longer rope to tie her to the wooden beam, she’d have been more comfortable.
Her comfort was clearly a low priority—not to mention her free will.
She shifted on the hard ground, tears smarting her eyes. Shock and anger coursed within her. How long had she been gone? Did anyone even realize she was missing? Certainly, when she didn’t show up for work, people would start asking questions. But then they’d, what? Go to her apartment?
It would take a long time for anyone to figure out where she’d been taken, if ever. She’d left her car on the side of the street downtown, so she presumed it would’ve been towed. They had surveillance footage of the city—Quinn had sent everyone the links herself.
A brief dash of hope bloomed within her.
If they watched the footage, would they see the man walking by her vehicle?
His name was Adam, she’d discovered, but she still didn’t know his last name.
She wracked her brain, trying to remember the names and faces of the terror cell members they’d ID’d.
Had there been an Adam? She wasn’t sure.
Her gaze flitted around the small room.
It was evening now, she assumed, the light warm as it seeped through the cracks around the door and tarp over the window.
It wasn’t as harsh and bright as when she’d first arrived.
Quinn swallowed, her throat dry. Her gaze scanned over the contents of the room again—it looked to be mostly a bundle of clothes and supplies.
Food. There was no computer equipment of any sort.
Surely Adam had a cell phone. He might even have hers.
But with the wrong SIM card, it wouldn’t work here in the Middle East.
She studied the contents of the room again. If they were plotting attacks from this camp, surely there were laptops somewhere. Or did they all rely on cell phones?
Imagine if she could obtain one. She could send a text to the team.
She had no idea as to where her specific location was, but they’d be able to use GPS coordinates.
Maybe. She had no idea what type of set up they used out here.
Satellite phones? Were they anywhere near cell towers? She had no idea.
Footsteps approached the doorway to the shack, and Quinn froze. It was horrific to be tied and restrained, unable to escape. She hadn’t been harmed—yet. Quinn knew it was only a matter of time.
Two men were talking in low voices, and she looked at the door as it opened.
Adam was there, and her heart thudded as she saw he was holding a cell phone.
Holy shit. He pocketed it, and a second man appeared in the doorway.
Quinn’s gaze landed on him, studying his features.
While Adam was white, the second man was of Middle Eastern descent.
Was he American? They were talking in low voices, so she wasn’t sure.
He had a slender face, with a narrow nose, dark eyes, and a tiny scar on his left cheek.
He was dressed similarly to Adam, with a turban wrapped around his head.
The man locked eyes with her, and Quinn froze. He barked out something to Adam and turned away. Clearly, he didn’t like that she’d seen him.
Adam’s gaze slanted toward her. Noticing that she was awake, he barked out an order. “Stay there.”
Quinn gaped at him. Where the hell would she go?
The door shut, and both men disappeared as quickly as they’d arrived.
She’d barely gotten more than a glimpse of the camp outside, but once again noting men striding by, toting weapons.
Even if Knox and his teammates did somehow, miraculously find her, would she survive the rescue?
Quinn had the horrible feeling that Adam and the men holding her hostage would kill her before they ever let her go free.
***
KNOX HOVERED OVER THE IT team as they scrolled through the passenger data from San Franciso International Airport.
TSA used biometrics to ID passengers, scanning their faces to compare to their driver’s licenses or passports.
Shadow Security had ID’d Quinn’s kidnapper as Adam Thomas, age 25, originally from Omaha, Nebraska.
He’d moved to the L.A. area several years ago and became radicalized after rooming with several young men who’d become disenfranchised with the U.S.
Somehow, Adam Thomas’s fake identification hadn’t tripped TSA’s system.
It was as if his prior identity had simply been erased.
He was traveling under the alias Adam Qureshi, using a falsified passport.
It was interesting that he’d kept his first name, Knox noted to himself. That was a worry for another day.
There was no record of Quinn being in the airport.
No match to the passenger photo IDs that Shadow Security had combed through.
While he didn’t expect the terror cell to use her driver’s license to get her through security and onboard a plane, there were no fake IDs with her photograph either.
IT staffers were currently running facial recognition software on the airport surveillance system footage in an attempt to locate Quinn that way. No dice.
Knox had no idea how she’d been smuggled onboard a plane. They were working under the assumption she was still with Qureshi, but what if that wasn’t the case? Frankly, he couldn’t imagine that her kidnapper would fly to SFO and leave her there.
He was taking her with him, and come hell or high water, Knox would locate them.
“He had to have taken Quinn out of that oversized suitcase,” Knox murmured, mostly to himself.
All suitcases were scanned by security before being loaded into the cargo hold of departing planes.
If she’d never gone through TSA on foot, which was seeming the case, given the lack of any photo ID with her picture, had Adam Qureshi somehow bypassed TSA altogether?
Did he get a suitcase onto the tarmac and move Quinn onboard, unnoticed?
None of it made sense.
Anxiety churned through him as he watched the IT staff work.
Knox was used to remaining level-headed, but he was finding that damn hard to do where Quinn was concerned.
Imagining her scared and helpless—hurt—gutted him.
She was strong as hell, but if she’d been drugged or otherwise subdued, did she stand a fighting chance?
He feared the answer was no.
“Any updates?” Gage asked, hustling into the room.
“Negative,” Knox said, glancing at his teammate.
“Boone and Radley flew down to San Francisco to question people themselves. Xaden and Coop are at the smaller airport here in Seattle. I wanted to stay with them but—” He cut off, shaking his head.
“I’m better off here with IT. I keep hoping to spot some sign of Quinn on the surveillance footage.
Not knowing if she’s okay is killing me. ”
Gage studied him a beat, his eyes assessing. “If Qureshi is as good with tech as we think he is, what with the falsified passport and disappearing former identity, he probably recognized Quinn is highly skilled, too. She’s no good to him incapacitated or dead.”
Knox froze.
Gage clapped him on the shoulder. “It’s true and you know it.
She was on to Adam Qureshi in Seattle. She followed him.
Possibly confronted him. Who knows what shit went down after that, but we’re working under the assumption that he was the one texting us from Quinn’s phone.
He has her and kept her for his own purposes. ”
“You’re not making me feel any better.”
“Her phone might not contain classified data,” Gage continued, “but Qureshi had to see what she was capable of. Sure, Quinn’s a beautiful woman, but I have a feeling he wanted to make use of her technical skills, too.
There’s no reason to go through the trouble of smuggling her out of the country otherwise.
There are plenty of women he could’ve found overseas to meet his baser needs.
Assuming he’s traveling to the Middle East, a woman from there would be a lot more subservient than an American, especially a woman as badass as Quinn.
He took her, yes, but he needs her alive and functioning. ”
Knox ran his hands through his hair. “You think? It makes sense, but shit. Imagining all the horrific things that could be happening to her is killing me.”
“I’m positive,” Gage said. “If he was looking for a quick fuck, he’d have raped her and left her in that damn alley.”
“Son of a bitch!” Knox cried out. “He could’ve still attacked her. Hurt her.”
Gage clenched his jaw. “She’s smart.”
“Sure, but if she was drugged or restrained, she can’t fight him off.”
“We have to work under the assumption that she’s okay—that he needs her alive and well for a reason. He was in a hurry to carry out the terror plot. Even someone as evil as him didn’t have time to attack Quinn in the alley. He took her with him.”
Knox bristled. “And we have no idea what happened after that.”
The IT staff were looking at them. Emily swallowed but nodded. “Gage is right. Plenty of women are raped or harmed, then killed. This wasn’t some random sex assault in the dark of night. He took her. All signs point to him leaving the country.”
“No signs point to that yet,” Knox argued.
Emily muttered under her breath. “You think a homegrown terrorist plotted an attack and then disappeared to vacation in Florida or something? He’s freaking joining the jihadists overseas. I guarantee once we track his movements, that’s exactly what we’ll unearth.”
“Emily’s right,” Gage said. “The pattern checks out given the path others have taken before him.”
“I’ll believe that when we have the flight manifests,” Knox retorted.
“We do,” Logan suddenly said, spinning around in his chair, a victorious look spreading across his face.
“Thank God,” Knox said, hurrying over.
Logan pointed at the screen. “Right there. SFO just sent them over. He flew nonstop from San Francisco to Heathrow. Adam Qureshi, seat 18C.”
Knox’s gaze flew over the passenger manifest, searching all the names. “But what about Quinn?” he asked, his voice tight. “How do we know if she was on the airplane? None of the biometrics were a match for her, and neither are these names. Can we get surveillance footage from the gate?”
“Already on it,” Emily said, typing rapidly at her keyboard.
She eyed Knox. “Better update Holt. Having the gate number narrows down the areas of the airport I need to search. I’ve got facial recognition running over the surveillance footage from both inside and outside the terminal.
This will save us hours. We’ll confirm Quinn was with Adam Qureshi and determine their final destination.
No doubt there was another leg to their trip. ”
“Hell yeah!” Gage said, clapping Knox on the back. “Now we’re making progress. Logan—track Qureshi through Heathrow. We need to know where he went after he landed. Emily will confirm Quinn was with that bastard. Knox, let’s head to Holt’s office. We’re going to go get your girl.”