I nod my agreement hoping I’ll find something.
* * *
I hate being here at night.
Lyndsey and I spent all day looking through Zack’s files on his work and home computer. We also searched through the phone calls he made over the last few days but came up with nothing that stood out of the ordinary. Everything was work related and looked legit. Too clean, so I’m going out on the limb to assume he might have another phone and possibly another email address he’s using for his extracurricular activities. It would make sense.
Lyndsey left an hour ago because she had a migraine, and I stayed behind to continue checking. There are a few more files on his home computer I wanted to look through before I call it a night.
It’s ten-thirty and I should have left at the same time as Lyndsey. Richard would freak if he knew I was still here.
I get up to get some coffee but the buzzing in my back pocket stops me mid stride. It’s the ghost tracker.
I pull it out and look at it vibrating, signaling Matvey’s number being used again.
Quickly I hook it up to my computer and just like yesterday the number lights up on the screen in a luminous blue. The number being called lights up in red. I tap the blue number and the location comes up showing the number is being used at a warehouse by the docks. I write down the address then tap on the number in red and freeze right up when the location reveals itself.
It’s here!
The location is here.
Oh my God… it’s here in the building.
Chapter Fourteen
Cora
I can’t believe it.
Matvey is speaking to someone here.
The call is still live. Thinking on my feet I enable the audio on the tracker and open the pathway to the line so I can listen in on the conversation.
When a strong Russian accent comes across the line my breath quickens and my stomach twists into knots.
“Everything is in order. I have the men ready for Friday at midnight just like you wanted,” that must be Matvey.
“Good job. You always deliver,” comes a voice that’s muffled. It sounds like the person must be using a voice muffler because the voice sounds robotic. “Giles is out of the picture so we shouldn’t have any more problems. We’ll kill anyone else who stands in the way.”
My skin burns and my throat dries. I can’t believe what I’m hearing. Everything is linked. It’s all linked, and someone here is working with Matvey.
Is it Zack? I can’t tell from the distortion in the voice, but it must be him right? What if it’s not though?
”Wonderful. Great doing business with you.” Matvey chuckles.
“Don’t fuck with me Matvey,” the voice says, confirming it really is Matvey he’s talking to. “The shit with the drug dealers shouldn’t have happened.”
Matvey laughs. “Relax. The agents are vermin, running around like mice. It’s not like me to have people fuck with me and leave it alone. Those dealers screwed with me trying to sell a guy like me synthetic shit. They deserved to be taught a lesson.”
I was right. The murders weren’t linked to why he’s here. They were just occurrences.
“No more lessons need to be taught. I’ll have my people wire the money to you once you’re on the way to Sierra Leone with the arms shipment.”
Arms shipment… Sierra Leone. Oh my God…
“Sounds great to me, I’ll email you the account details now,” Matvey replies.
Something beeps. It’s the email. I must be working on adrenaline because my fingers fly across the keyboard and I manage to pick up the email and forward it to myself.
“Good, got it.”
“I’ll send… shit— There’s someone listening,” Matvey says in a hurried voice. “Someone’s hacked me!”
I disconnect in an instant and my heart beats so wild I think I might die.
Oh God… what am I going to do? Matvey detected me listening, and I’m one of the last few people left here.
I grab my bag, switch everything off then I rush out, hurrying down the corridor but trying not to run just in case they look on the CCTV and see me fleeing. Thankfully there are a few janitors around and some of the other agents working late so I blend in and it doesn’t look like I’m the only person here.
I head to my car as quickly as possible once I get to the parking lot and tear out like I have fire on my ass. I pray no one saw me or suspects me.
Jesus …
Alex was right. I hate to admit it. I see what he means now about the truth and questions. I have questions galore, and I’m questioning myself.
This job isn’t what I thought it was going to be. I came here hoping I’d align myself with good, but evil has infiltrated.
Now I’m in trouble. I’m in the clear now, but what about tomorrow?
The cameras would have picked me up as being in the building.
No one knows I’m a hacker, but it wouldn’t take much to figure out where they were hacked from if someone with the right skill looked. The ghost code should have cloaked me completely but it didn’t. It took a few minutes before Matvey got the alert that he was being hacked and not just hacked but that I was listening too.
He could only know such a thing if he had some special tech person like me and if they had someone like me working with them to implement it in the first place.
If they have such a person or people like that I’m screwed.
I don’t know if I can even go back.
I rush back to the apartment and stand with my back to the door of my bedroom for a full minute before I can move.
I try to calm my breathing hoping it will in turn slow the rapid beat of my heart. My mind is still racing. I know I’m in danger, I can feel it. I overheard a conversation I shouldn’t have. I should leave, but can I just run away and let whatever happens take place. That would be running from responsibility.
They’re planning to traffic weapons to Sierra Leone. I’m not surprised by that discovery. What I’m shocked at is the knowledge that he’s working with someone who was in the Bureau building. Someone who could be Zack.
I need to know more.
I can imagine Matvey and his people hard at work trying to see who hacked them so it’s only a matter of time before they get some kind of lead, and even then they’d still have some work to do to know it was me.
So what do I do?
Glancing at my phone I remember the email.
I open it and see it’s just account details but with that email address I might be able to do something with it.
I had a job once where I was able to use an email address to track a location, but I was also able to get a record of the IP addresses of the computers it was connected to. If I can do that then I can get a lot.
I rush over to my computer and cloak myself with extra firewalls. This was the way I got around for those two years I was in Europe without anyone being able to find me.
I type the email address into my program and it starts to link showing the login activities, and an IP address for a network that has been used repeatedly over the last week. I’m guessing that’s his base. I click on the link and an address comes up.
An address for the base. My God, if that is a base then I found him. I’ve gone from knowing nothing to knowing too much.
It takes me seconds to get through the firewalls on the computer listed in that location. There’s only a handful of files. It’s always easier to check on emails this way too so I can do both. I check that first because it seems to be the way Matvey usually communicates.
There are a lot of emails from an undisclosed recipient. I scroll until I see one going a month back with the title: Mission Protocol, in the subject line. I click on it and when it opens I see quite a lengthy message but I don’t need to read the whole thing to know why Matvey is in Chicago.
The first few paragraphs are sufficient. It says:
Mission Protocol
Retrieve 200 9K38 Igla surface-to-air missiles
from the Chicago Midway Armory to send to Sierra Leone for the payment of $9 million. Take a small team once you arrive and execute the men at the base. Leave no one alive.
Payment will be made in two installments.
Jesus Christ, this is it.
I don’t have to read anymore.
That’s why Matvey is in Chicago.
Surface-to-air missiles are anti-aircraft missiles designed to destroy aircraft, and they are being smuggled into Sierra Leone. The mention of so many suggests prep for war, or selling them to terrorists and militants who want to overthrow a government, or start a fucking war. Why else would they want them and so many?
Matvey mentioned Friday at midnight. That’s when it’s all happening, and there’s a mole in the Bureau helping him.
Maybe Giles found out about the plot and that’s why he’s dead.
This is not good. I have to be careful I don’t suffer the same fate too.
* * *
I pack my bags and book myself on the first flight to LA. It leaves at six-thirty. I just pack what I need to travel light. Some clothes, my phone, passport, and some other stuff. I haven’t called Richard yet. I just plan to find him when I arrive.
I thought about calling Alex, but I quickly realized I couldn’t do that. Or, rather that I shouldn’t. I can’t talk to Alex and drag him into this shit, and I won’t call Lyndsey either.
I don’t want anyone investigating her and seeing I made contact. I won’t put her in danger.
I plan to leave the phone somewhere before I board my flight so no one can use it to track me.
It’s time to go. It’s super early and I just hope I can get out of here before anyone finds me.
I leave the apartment and lock the door hoping I can come back soon to get my other stuff. When I came here, I thought I was going to be here for a while, so I bought things to make the place feel homely. I shake the thoughts out of my head. None of that is important now.
I make my way down the corridor and get in the elevator, taking it down to the parking lot. As I step out, I get this prickly sensation running down my spine. It feels like someone is watching me. It’s not Alex though. I don’t feel like this when it’s him.
So, if it’s not him, who is it?
Am I being paranoid?
I’ve been paranoid since I left work, paranoid since I heard the truth.
I still my breathing and walk down the path. Just before I turn down to the bay where my car is parked, someone clears their throat loudly.
I stop and whirl around to see Zack walking behind me.
“Good morning,” he says and glances down at his watch. “I never figured you to be the early bird.”
“What are you doing here?” I ask, my lips trembling.
“I came to see you, Cora. It seems that you are a lot more interesting than I originally thought, and what I first saw I liked.”
I back away as he steps closer.
“What are you talking about?”
“I think you know full well what I’m talking about. You were in the building last night, weren’t you? I saw you on the CCTV.”
Oh God, it is him. It was him who was talking to Matvey. Bastard… it was him who obviously helped kill Giles too.
I try to keep my cool so as not to give myself away. I need to run and get to my car. I just need to get there, and then I can get away from him.
“There were several people at work last night. I don’t know what you mean.”
“Cut the shit. I know it was you. You heard a thing or two you shouldn’t have, Cora. You know what my one regret is?” he says.
“I don’t know what you mean,” I continue to maintain.
“I wished I’d fucked you well before now. Before you signed your death warrant.”
I’m done. It’s time to run. I turn and run for all I’m worth, but he’s faster.
He catches up to me and grabs me from behind, making me drop my bag.
I scream in the hopes someone will hear me, but it’s to no avail. There’s no one around at this hour.
I kick him, running the heel of my pumps down his shin, and he yelps, loosening his grip on me. I take advantage of the moment to kick him in his face and sprint toward my car.
I run as fast as I can, but I don’t make it. A black van pulls out in front of me, coming up from the level below. The side door opens, and two men jump out.
I try to retreat and run the opposite way, but they grab me. I’m snatched, lifted off the ground like little more than a ragdoll. I scream and scream, but it’s useless. No one comes.
They put me in the van and drive away.
As the van speeds out of the parking lot, I cry.
I cry for everything.
I cry for Alex.
He tried to warn me. He didn’t want me to work on this case.
I don’t think I’ll ever see him again.
As the bald guy with a nasty scar on his left cheek leers at me, I think I won’t see anyone ever again.
Chapter Fifteen
Alex
“One race with the Marcellos,” Donny says with a chuckle, holding up one finger. “Rafi Marcello wants you to kiss his ass. Aren’t you going to make that prick swallow his words?”
I shake my head. “Nope.”
I’ve decided I’m not doing any more racing for the week. In two days, I’m heading out to Italy for a break. I’ll come back at the end of the month and hope things settle down. The mood I’m in is not fit to race. Quite likely, if I race Rafi, I’ll either break something, or end up dead.
“Tell Rafi he can go fuck himself.” I smirk, and Donny frowns.
“Come on, man. I’m betting two G’s you’ll win.”
“Two G’s? That’s shit money when you know I’ll beat his ass.”
“Whatever. You’re a prick. Look at me here at this unearthly hour being the good friend I am to you and you can’t do one little race.” Donny frowns and I laugh.
I won’t be a smart ass and tell him he didn’t need to come by. It was cool having him around.
He knew I was doing my own bike modifications and he came by late last night to help me. We worked right through until sunrise, taking the bike apart and putting it back together.
“Tell you what, when I get back from Italy I’ll do a race for you,” I tell him and he rolls his eyes at me.
“Like I said whatever. I’ll bet you won’t even remember when you get back.”
My phone starts buzzing in my back pocket, and I reach for it.
Panic laces through me when I see it’s Number Four of the secret squad, my street guy.
I answer the phone straightaway. He’d only be calling me at this hour if there was a problem.
“What’s going on?” I ask.
“Cora, she’s been kidnapped. Some men just took her from her apartment complex.
Terror races through me. “What the fuck are you saying to me? She’s been taken?”
Donny looks up at me when I say that, eyes wide with the same panic I feel. All the bad things that could happen to her run through my mind.
What did she do?
What did she find?
“They took her, Alex. If you leave now and take the route to Main Street, you can catch up. I have the plates.”
I gaze at Donny, and he nods. He can’t hear the conversation, but he’s nodding.
“Can you get her?” Donny asks, and I don’t even know why I’m thinking about this.
There is no question, and while I know I’m making a big choice with my next move, I’m doing it. I get on my bike and switch the phone to my earpiece so I can ride out of the garage and hear Number Four at the same time.
“Hurry, Alex. You’re looking for a black van with the plates PV70UAE. They’re about ten minutes ahead of you but stuck in traffic. If you take the back street, you’ll come out where they are. I’ll guide you.”
“Thank you.”
I breeze down the road running two red lights.
I ride hard
and fast like I just came from hell. Matvey…
Let him come for me. Let him come. They have my girl, and I’m not going to let them take her.
I jump the bike over a park bench as I ride over the greenery and ride on the pavements and through the park. It’s quicker, so I’m taking it. I turn onto Main Street two minutes later, and where I am is clear, but I can see the traffic ahead in the lanes heading out to the suburbs.
“Alex, they’re on the move. If you can take a right a hundred meters ahead, then a left, you’ll be closer. There’s a freight train coming. If you can get them near it so they’re forced to stop, then you got a shot of getting her,” Number Four explains.
“I’ll take the shot.” I’ll fucking try it even if it kills me. All those crazy stunts I’ve done need to help me today.
These fuckers aren’t getting away.
I see the van. It’s up ahead with a few other cars.
I push the speed limit and go past one fifty. The roar of the motorcycle vibrates through me and buzzes through my brain.
The driver sees me coming and does a double take. He recognizes me. Motherfucker… all of them will feel my wrath today.
I pull my gun and fire a shot that makes them turn the corner and go down the road I want them to take. It will lead to the train tracks.
“The train will be there in one minute, Alex.”
A bullet whizzes past me. I dodge it.
Fuck, another comes, and I have to jump the bike.
I fire a shot, and they continue exactly to where I need them to be. I can hear the train coming. They can too. I ride closer, forcing them to drive where I want them to go.
The train approaches, and it starts going down the track. The van slows to a stop as the train passes by, and the men jump out.
Good for me, bad for them.
I stop the bike and jump off, shooting the first two men who come at me straight in their heads. Blood splatters everywhere. Another two come, and I get them. One is inside, but he’s been hit. Next to him sits Cora, bound and gagged, crying and screaming.
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