Chapter 71
Knuckles had the Uber drop them off about a block away from the entrance to Blaisdell Consulting, not wanting any record of
him being associated with the address.
Brett said, “I’m getting a little sick of this sneaky-Pete BS. One of these days I’m filling out an application for Blaisdell
Consulting and signing on as a permanent employee.”
Knuckles laughed and said, “You do that and you’ll be off the employment rolls for GRS. You’ll be working behind a desk the
rest of your Taskforce time.”
“Yeah, but I wouldn’t have to be slinking through the garage like I’m hiding an affair. It’s hot as balls out here and we’re
walking to a desk anyway.”
“True, true.”
“Pike’s down there slaying and we’re up here about to play patty-cake with Creed. It’s insulting.”
Knuckles turned into the garage, taking the ramp down into the darkness and leaving the scorching heat behind. Brett said,
“You got any ideas on how to crack this nut, or are we just spinning our wheels?”
Knuckles said, “Yeah, I have a couple of ideas, but honestly, it’s nothing that couldn’t have been done over the phone.”
They saw the back entrance of the Taskforce, a glass door with Creed behind it waiting. He opened it and let them in, then
passed through the second door to the elevator lobby, pushing the up button.
The elevator arrived, and they entered. Knuckles said, “So what’s the latest? Did I just waste my time flying back here?”
Creed said, “The latest is everybody’s freaking out about the hostage situation in Argentina. Nobody’s really focused on the
threat here anymore.”
Brett said, “Nobody?”
“Well, I mean the grunts are working it, but they’re not getting any pressure from the administration. They’re all focused
on Amanda Croft. In fact, I figured you guys would have been headed straight back to Buenos Aires.”
Brett said, “Yeah, we did too. Trust me, this is the last place I want to be.”
Knuckles said, “What have you learned since we boarded our airplane? Anything on the car?”
“No, that thing’s disappeared. We’ve been focused on the rental agreement. The man who received it had to put in his driver’s
license, so we’ve got an all-points out on him, but so far nothing’s turned up. It was from Qatar.”
Brett said, “Let me guess; it hasn’t been used anywhere since.”
“You guess correctly, sir.”
“It’s because he used it and burned it. The name’s fake, the data’s fake, it’s all fake. He’s now using a different fake one.”
Creed looked insulted. He said, “We know that. We have the entire diplomatic corps at our disposal. We’ve already run the
license through the Qataris. They have no record of it. Or they’re lying about it. Either way, it hasn’t turned up, and the
name on that ID never entered through any port of entry.”
They exited on the third floor and Knuckles said, “Is Wolffe around?”
“He’s upstairs spinning like a top.”
Knuckles said, “You have access to LEO databases?”
“Yeah. I can access any law enforcement system there is. I can do whatever we need at this stage, and I don’t have to hack
anything. I might as well be the FBI right now.”
“Good. Take me to the NOC and I want you to start on a different angle.”
They walked down the hall and entered a large room with rows of computer monitors and banks of servers lining the walls, about a half dozen men and women all typing away.
Knuckles said, “You guys never found that car with a license plate reader after Nashville, right?”
“Yeah, he reached Nashville and disappeared.”
“And that credit card was never used again, correct?”
“Correct.”
“So we know he’s got a different way to get money that we’re not tracking, but he didn’t have a different way to make a damn
license plate.”
Creed said, “Okay?”
“Get into the LEO databases for Nashville and find every single ticket given for a vehicle driving without a license plate.”
Creed looked at him like he was afraid to talk. Knuckles said, “What? Get to work. I have to go see Wolffe.”
“Knuckles, he’s IRGC Unit 840. He’s probably operated inside the United States multiple times. I get that no license plate
means he’d evade the ALPRs, but he’s not dumb enough to drive to DC that way.”
Knuckles closed his eyes like he was dealing with explaining the color of the sky to a child. He opened them and said, “He
stole a license plate off another car, most likely at a motel or hotel parking lot. That person didn’t realize it and continued
on his or her journey to wherever they were headed, and hopefully got pulled over. Or if they did realize it, they reported
it.”
The light bulb went off in Creed’s head. He nodded rapidly, saying, “We’re trying to find the license plate he’s using right
now!”
“Yes. Correct. I’m glad I had to fly fifteen hours to tell you that. Seems pretty simple to me, honestly.”
Creed turned around and barked out a string of orders, then said, “This could take a while. Even if we find a license plate,
I still have to run it through a bunch of different ALPR databases. Some are commercial, some are with the local PDs, and
some are federal. There isn’t a single database.”
“You have the rental car description, right? You can eliminate false positives by matching the rental description with the
image from the license plate reader.”
“Yeah, but still, I’ll have to track him from Nashville to wherever he ends up.”
“Focus on DC. Find the infractions driving without a license plate and put those strictly in DC. How many databases does DC
have?”
“DC proper? One or two. But if you mean the greater area, like Alexandria or Baltimore, we’re talking quite a few.”
“Focus on DC first, then expand out. Get to work. I have to go see Wolffe.”
He left Creed in the NOC, walking back to the elevator, Brett right beside him.
Brett said, “Hey, that was pretty slick.”
Knuckles pressed the up button, saying, “Seriously? We could have done that from Argentina.”
The doors opened and Brett said, “Yeah, but we wouldn’t be here to execute on the intel.”
The elevator rose and Knuckles said, “What, you want to be here now?”
Brett said, “Well, if they find the vehicle, they’re going to need someone to take down the driver, and look who’s in town.”
They exited on the fourth floor and Knuckles said, “Don’t count on it. I have a feeling we’re not going to be allowed to operate.”