Mason handed Alvarez back his phone. “Thanks.”
“She’s good?”
He nodded, then realized how much doing that hurt. His ears still rang from his close proximity to the gun going off. The bullet had barely missed his head.
He sighed. “Rayna is safe at home with her mom.” Mason grabbed the handkerchief Alvarez had given him and started to get up from the bumper of the back of his SUV.
“Not yet.” Alvarez put pressure on Mason’s shoulder until his legs buckled, and his butt landed back on the interior carpet. “Wait for the ambulance.”
It pulled up a couple of minutes later. Parked beside them in the superstore lot where the bank robber had left the vehicle.
Mason let them prod and poke him even though he knew for a fact his nose wasn’t broken. His wrists were red, the skin abraded, from being restrained. “Just put goop on them, and I’ll be good.”
“No can do, my man,” the paramedic said. “Gotta get you all checked out by a doctor.”
“I’m fine.”
“You’re not medically qualified to make that assessment.” The paramedic shrugged. “Neither am I, so you’re coming in with me. Your friend here can pick you up later.”
Alvarez had stepped away and was on his phone.
Mason decided to tell the truth. “I’ve never seen that guy before in my life.”
The paramedic frowned. “Huh.”
Secret Service agents he worked alongside milled around. They’d been there with Alvarez when he pulled the back door of the SUV open and cut Mason free. As had a handful of FBI agents, and that guy Welvern. This had turned out to be a multi-agency operation. All for little old him?
Okay, so he wasn’t little or old—unless you asked Rayna—but that wasn’t the point. Mason had been kidnapped from his house. The bank robber had made a video call to Talia, where he’d told her to let him into the Secret Service’s computer network.
The guy threatened Mason’s life, and he’d seen Talia’s reaction. The bank robber had laughed at the look on her face. Then he’d given her ten minutes to give them access before he killed Mason.
But he hadn’t done it. He’d driven Mason to this parking lot and left him here.
Did that mean…
No. There was no way he’d actually gained access to their system this way. Talia and Victoria would never have complied with the demand. They’d never have given in to a threat.
After the bank robber got off the call, he’d gotten a notification of some kind. Then he’d tapped his phone for a few seconds. Contacting someone, or trying to hack the Secret Service from a cell phone? Mason didn’t know. But they needed to find the guy so he could get the answer.
“Ready?”
Mason took the ice pack the guy handed him and got up. His head swam, and he had to grab for the paramedic.
“Didn’t figure you’d want to get on a stretcher.” The paramedic took some of his weight, until Mason could get his balance.
If he’d been under orders from someone, they hadn’t felt the need to keep close tabs on him. Maybe he wasn’t the one who’d wanted access to the Secret Service network and maybe it was the person in charge instead.
Mason didn’t know.
Nor did he know what the hacker could want from their system. They weren’t involved in witness protection, and they didn’t have anything to do with the president’s security. Not on their end. Someone with the necessary skill could use their system to get information about daily security words, protocol updates or to take charge of the nuclear football. But that was a stretch. This would be a pretty roundabout way of getting into that stuff.
Maybe they wanted to make the president vulnerable for some reason. Doing it like this—using Talia and putting his life at risk—could be a way of throwing everyone off the scent.
He sat on the stretcher inside the ambulance and laid down, blowing out a slow breath.
“Yeah, you’ll have bruises tomorrow.” The paramedic flashed a penlight in Mason’s eye. “Did you hit your head?”
“No.”
The guy shined that light in his other eye. When he was done, Mason shut his eyes. Orange light flashed behind his lids.
“Mason!”
He lifted his head and looked to see who it was. Talia raced toward him. Mason sat up. She climbed into the ambulance while the paramedic shifted out of her way. “Whoa there.”
She stopped, bent over him.
Mason moved his legs. “Sit down.”
“I want to hug you, but you don’t look good.” Her eyes flared. “Not that you don’t look good. That’s not it. I—”
“Talia.” When she closed her mouth, he said, “I could use a hug.”
Both of them shifted, she sat on the stretcher, and he wound his arms around her.
“Are you okay?” Her breath touched the skin of his neck above his collar.
Mason had to hold back the shiver and gave her a quick squeeze. “I will be.”
“I can’t believe he kidnapped you.” Her voice hitched, and he knew it was more than that.
“He was waiting in my kitchen when I got home.”
She leaned back but didn’t meet his gaze with hers. Why did he think that was about shame more than not wanting to look at his injuries up close? “He could’ve killed you. Like he killed Sarah Palmer.” She bit her lip.
The paramedic busied himself, shifting supplies around. Probably just giving them a semblance of privacy in which to have a conversation.
Mason set his hand on her shoulder. “Come with me to the hospital?”
She nodded. “I want to know what they say about your injuries.”
“Good. We can compare notes, see how to catch this guy. We don’t want him trying to access the Secret Service network for real.”
“You don’t have to worry about that. We kicked him out of the system. He can’t get in again.”
Mason leaned back a fraction. “Again? He got in?” There was no way… “You let him into the system.”
Talia lifted her chin, her lips pressed into a thin line. It bothered him that she hadn’t had the time or the inclination to refresh her lipstick. She’d been that worried about him? Or just too busy.
Letting the hacker into their system.
Her voice was steady when she said, “He would have killed you.”
Like that made it right?
Chapter 11
“Talia!”
She spun to find who had called her name and heard the door to the ambulance shut. The engine revved, and it pulled away. But she didn’t turn back.
Mason was mad.
He’d heard that video call happen. Any one of his colleagues, upon hearing the whole thing and understanding what had been at stake, would agree with her choice.
“Get over here!” That was Alvarez.
Beside him, Welvern glanced over and frowned. “Bro, you have no skills with the ladies.”
Talia got close to their huddle. “He claims he doesn’t think of me like that, more like a sister. Whom he will apparently happily yell orders at. Across a crowded parking lot.”
“Sounds like the title of a country song,” Welvern said.
They both glanced at Alvarez.
“What? I’m supposed to know about country songs?”
Talia figured if anyone would, it’d be him.
Instead of continuing the conversation about country music, Alvarez motioned to the departing ambulance. “He okay?”
Talia winced. “I don’t think he appreciated my efforts to uh…buy him time.” Both of them stared at her. “He’d rather have been killed?”
“Who are you trying to convince?” Alvarez shifted his slender hips and cocked one knee, which she figured was to take weight off an old injury. His boot tapped the concrete.
“Don’t give me your night-school, self-study psychology, m’kay?” She put all her frustration into her attitude. “We need to find this guy, not stand around picking apart my methodology.”
&nbs
p; Welvern shook his head, but she saw that smile play at his mouth. “That’s why we called you over. My people found surveillance footage where the bank robber parked the SUV—” He motioned to Mason’s abandoned car, now a crime scene. “—and walked off in that direction.” He shifted his hand to the west, between him and Alvarez.
“Where did he go?”
Welvern said, “They backtracked the footage, looking to see if he left a car close by.”
“He had to have done that after he killed Sarah Palmer, right?”
Welvern nodded. “It didn’t take long, since they only had to wind back a few hours. They found a man they think is him, parking a car over there earlier this afternoon.”
“He had a getaway car waiting.”
“And it was parked there until the camera went dark about an hour ago.”
Satisfaction surged in her. “Make and model?”
“And license plate,” Welvern said.
She could have kissed him.
Alvarez broke in. “So he had this all planned out?”
“Looks like it.” Welvern glanced back to her. “We have a BOLO out now to all law enforcement in the area. I’m confident we’ll get a hit on it soon enough.”
Alvarez had spent the entire conversation studying her.
Talia was kind of sick of him pinning her with that disapproving stare. She shot him a look right back. “What?”
“You really didn’t think he would be mad?”
“That I let the hacker into their system?”
“You gave in,” Alvarez said.
“He’d have rather died? I bought time for you to find him, and yes that meant giving a hacker access to their system. But whatever he looked at, or did, was monitored. And the first chance I got, I ejected him from it.”
“Risky move,” Alvarez said. “Given how good he’s proven himself to be.”
“It was a gamble. But his assumption that he’s better than me is going to be his downfall.” She hoped. “I accounted for things I wouldn’t have otherwise thought of, to give him the least chance of slipping away undetected.” She lifted her hands, then let them fall back to her sides. “It worked, didn’t it?”
Alvarez said nothing.
She turned to Welvern. “We’ll find him, right?”
He nodded. “Might take time, but we’ll get him. No one can hide forever.”
Alvarez made a grumbling noise.
“Something to say?”
“I was already looking for the hacker.” He actually huffed. “The trail was running cold, and then he just walks into the bank this morning?”
“You’re mad you didn’t find him first.” Talia studied her colleague. Her friend. “It’s okay that you don’t win every single time, you know? You don’t have to be perfect.”
“This conversation is about you messing up, not me.”
Welvern started to argue. Talia waved away his concern and said, “Its fine.”
Welvern was a new addition to the group. Though not part of the task force, he’d been working closely with them for a couple of months.
She glanced at Welvern. “Alvarez is going to double down on this surveillance thing. No doubt he’ll be scouring the streets all night for that car.”
“Darn straight.” Alvarez wandered off, long, skinny legs eating up the parking lot.
“Interesting fellow.” Welvern chuckled.
She smiled. “He’s a good guy.”
“Oh, I know that. I’ve met enough bad ones to recognize goodness when I see it.” He stared at her, a pointed look on his face. As though she should read something into that which she otherwise wouldn’t.
“It’s too late in the day for subtext.” She brushed hair back from her face. “We’ve got a man to find, and an agency with ruffled feathers to soothe.”
She thought about all those computer techs at the Secret Service office. People who knew her reputation from the circles they ran in outside the federal government. Okay, they were nerd fans, and she’d been around long enough she’d made a name for herself.
Welvern winced. “I don’t envy Victoria that job.” As he spoke, he motioned for her to walk with him toward his car.
She strode alongside him and noticed him shorten his stride so she could keep up. Did he do that with Victoria? Did she notice? Maybe she did but didn’t appreciate what it meant to have a considerate man in her life.
Kind of like Mason.
No, they hadn’t spent enough time together for her to know for sure. He’d kept her safe during a tense situation at the bank that morning, though.
It seemed like days ago, not just hours. Now Mason was in the hospital, and she had to convince the Secret Service—and him—that she’d made the right call. That she had done the only thing she could’ve in order to save his life. Which hadn’t worked for Niall, back when he’d chosen his family’s safety over the team and working the case. But that whole thing worked out in the end, hadn’t it? Everything was fine now, and he had Haley in his life as well as in their office.
Welvern stopped by the passenger door. “Was it him?” Any humor in his expression was gone now. “Was it the hacker?”
Talia shrugged, though it was hard to lift her shoulders even that much with the weight that seemed to sit there. “I don’t know.”
“We’ll find him.”
She nodded, and got in. When he turned away she let the shudder come over her. The hacker had targeted her, and now he’d gone after Mason.
None of them were safe until he was in custody, or dead.
Welvern climbed into the car. Before he could turn the engine on, she turned to him. “I want a protective detail put on Mason’s daughter and his ex-wife. I don’t want them getting hurt.”
He nodded, and shifted to pull his phone out of the front pocket of his pants. “Of course. I’ll have a team sent over.”
. . .
A light tap sounded on the door. Mason looked up from his iPad, where he’d been writing up his report on everything that had happened.
Victoria Bramlyn came into his hospital room, and shut the door behind her. “How are you feeling?”
Mason shrugged one shoulder. “Fine.”
But disappointed it hadn’t been Talia coming to see him.
She stopped at the end of the bed. “You’re still mad.” She said it with no inflection in her voice, no emotion either way on the subject.
That initial frustration over the fact she’d actually gone ahead and allowed a hacker access to the Secret Service network had burned hot. Since then, the fire had calmed considerably. He was still unable to believe she’d given in to a ransom demand. But he could also see why she’d done it.
“I get it.” He smoothed down the edge of the blanket, feeling at a disadvantage. “I’d have probably done the same thing in her place.” Especially if it was Rayna who’d been threatened, or even his ex-wife. Then there was Talia. His feelings for her were as complex as his feelings over this. “I may have overreacted.”
Victoria’s lips twitched. “I’m thinking you should tell Talia that.”
He would have, if she’d been to see him yet. It had been hours since the ambulance. They’d run tests, and even done a CT scan. Apart from a few bruises and abrasions, he was totally fine. Though, they’d insisted he stay overnight just to be sure.
He’d spoken to Rayna, for longer this time. She had a detail of FBI agents in the living room, and her mother was trying to grill them for information she could use when she taught her next workshop at the university.
Victoria waved to the chair. “Do you mind?”
He shook his head.
“If you could go over for me exactly what he said and did, I’d be grateful. A clear picture of who this person is will help the ongoing efforts of the task force.”
He wondered what the real reasons were. After all, that was as political of an answer to anything as he’d ever heard.
When he nodded, she said, “It was the same man from the bank?”
“What kind of knots?”
Mason hesitated, mouth open. He lifted his hands and looked at the bandages. Underneath, not visible at the moment, were two rows of abrasions on each wrist. “Two half hitches.”
She nodded. “And the bruises?” She motioned to his face with a flick of one index finger.
“Punches and slaps, mostly.”
“Military?”
He shook his head. “Open palm strikes. Martial arts, maybe.”
She nodded again, then said, “Accent?”
Mason shut his eyes for a second. He knew she’d heard the man’s voice over the video call, but that was distorted the way a phone call could be. Not the same thing as hearing it in person. “Pretty generic. Only…”
He thought, but couldn’t put his finger on it.
Victoria said, “I got a Canadian vibe from his word choices.”
Mason considered that. “Maybe.”
“Okay. Any impression he was the one doing the hack, like he initiated a program from his phone?”
Mason had thought about this a lot over the past few hours. “Wouldn’t he have to do something like that on a computer? Is it really just enough to run a program?”
“I’ve seen Talia do it from her tablet, but maybe that was a unique circumstance.”
“I’d have thought he would need to respond to things that come up in real time.”
She said, “The alternative would be to simply flag everything labeled with a certain keyword, and then pull all those files. Or copy them to his own server.”
Did she know what the keyword was? Seemed to him that someone like Victoria Bramlyn would be in the know about information like that. Mason had to wonder what the hacker had been after, and whether it was about their operation last weekend. That was the biggest thing they had in the works right now.
Victoria let out a frustrated sound that was incredibly delicate.
“What is it?” Maybe she would confide in him, and he’d have a better idea of what on earth was going on. He’d landed in the middle of a Northwest Counter-Terrorism Task Force operation with no idea which way was up.
Third Hour Page 9