Unauthorized Deception

by Lisa Ladew

  Ryker grabbed Brandon by the front of his shirt and shoved him backwards against Monroe’s hedge. Anger clouded his vision and clipped his words. “All we have to do? Blow up a school like some … some terrorist? Don’t you care that kids are going to get killed?”

  Brandon pulled out his phone. “So you aren’t in, then. Got it.” He swiped the screen and poised his finger over it, cold eyes appraising Ryker.

  Ryker eyed the phone, disgust for his cousin filling him so completely he was ready to shoot himself just for being related to him. “I’m in. Put that fucking thing away. And tell me the plan.”

  Brandon spilled the plan that someone else had to have cooked up. Ryker knew Brandon was too stupid. The thing was, it might even work. Ryker wondered how all this information had gotten to Brandon. Fiore Savoy must already be bribing guards.

  A number sprang in his mind. He doubled it. Then quadrupled it in order to make things harder on Monroe and Brandon. He almost told Brandon, but bit it back at the last minute.

  “I need to think. Run some calculations. Leave me alone,” he said, and walked to the road. He turned right, hoping Brandon wouldn’t follow him. He chanced a look over his shoulder and saw Brandon going back in the house. Perfect!

  He whipped out his phone and dialed a number by heart. It rang multiple times, then went straight to voice mail. “It’s me. It’s important that I talk to you right now. Things are worse than you ever thought. Call me back.”

  He hung up and watched his phone, expecting it to ring right back. Expecting the cavalry to save him. To at least give him some ideas. He turned the corner on the quiet street, and the phone didn’t ring. Dammit, Shaw was supposed to be on constant surveillance! What if he hadn’t gotten any of this!

  After Ryker turned the next corner and was halfway back to the house he knew he couldn’t wait for Shaw to call him back. Someone had to know. He dialed another number.

  Ivy answered on the first ring, her voice cautious. “Hello?”

  “Ivy.” Exhaustion and frustration slammed into Ryker at the realization of what he was about to ask Ivy to do.

  “Ryker! Whose phone is this?”

  “Ivy listen to me, I don’t have much time. I need you to do something for me.”

  Excitement boiled over in Ivy’s voice as she interrupted him. “Ryker I traced the ISP. I have an address.”

  A bolt of adrenaline ripped through Ryker’s body. All his former thoughts fled. “Where, where are they?” he asked, gripping the phone so hard he felt the edges bend.

  “In Saltillo, Mexico.”

  Pure resentment, disappointment, and stark fear dropped on Ryker like a two ton weight. His steps faltered and he almost fell to his knees. An image of his little sister’s innocent smile caused pain to stab through his heart. “I hoped he’d been lying about Mexico,” he whispered. His dreams of finding them somewhere close by and being done with Brandon swiftly and easily fell apart. He lost his battle to stay upright and dropped to one knee, his mind a terrorized blank.

  “Ryker, we can go to the police now. Or the FBI, or something. They can go get them.”

  Ivy’s words mobilized Ryker. She was right. He couldn’t just fall apart. That would be signing their death warrants. He stood. Forced himself to take a step.

  “Ivy, listen to me. Get a piece of paper. This is important.”

  He heard rustling in the background. “Go,” she said.

  He recited a number. “Call that number. Keep calling it till you get someone. You want to talk to Kurt Shaw. He’s FBI. You tell him you’re working with me. Tell him I said I want protection for you. Tell him Brandon Savoy wants me to blow up the federal prison —I don’t know when. Tell him Brandon is getting the explosives for this by having me set off C4 at Westwood Prep on Monday.”

  “Westwood Prep — Ryker!”

  Ryker heard the anguish in Ivy’s voice but knew he had to ignore it for now. In a few more steps he would be back on Monroe’s street. “Ivy just listen. Tell him he has to go and get my mom and sister today. Give him the address. He has to get them out of there. He has to. I’ll call you back when I can.” About to hang up, Ryker ached to tell Ivy he loved her. But his plans to kill Brandon hadn’t changed. And once he was in jail for that crime, Ivy would need to move on. To date other people. No sense making things harder on her. He hung up without waiting for a reply.

  He checked the street in front of him as he turned, then deleted the two numbers off his phone and shoved it in his pocket. Twenty-five more steps put him back in front of the house. Brandon came out the front door to meet him.

  “Well?”

  “500 pounds.” Ryker named his number and prayed Monroe wouldn’t know he was inflating it just to make things difficult.

  Chapter 8

  Ivy heard the click of the phone in her ear and dropped the hand holding it to her waist. Her mind reeled. Ryker’s situation was completely hopeless. She could see no way out of this for him that didn’t end in disaster or heartache. Ivy dropped to the couch and stared at her computer. Her mind rushed down a dark tunnel of horrible thoughts, each more hopeless than the last. Blow up the school? Blow up the prison? Her thoughts turned to Brandon and she felt hate fill her heart. Could they really save Ryker's mother and sister from that punk in the next day and a half?

  With effort, Ivy pulled herself away from the spiraling thoughts. She knew they were a dead-end. She had to do something.

  Quickly, she dialed the number he had given her. The phone rang several times and a voice recording answered. A man's voice informed her that he wasn't available right now. She hung up, then tried again almost immediately. Same voice mail.

  Ivy called the number a dozen times before she admitted that she had to try something else. Who had Ryker said Shaw was? FBI? She typed FBI, Westwood Harbor, into her computer. The search engine returned a phone number to an office and she called that number. No answer. Ivy gritted her teeth and thought hard. What day was it? Saturday. Around noon. So no one was in the office, but how could she get around that?

  Frantically, she typed the name Kurt Shaw into her search browser. Thousands of hits. None of them from Westwood Harbor on the first few pages. She typed his phone number in and discovered it was a cell phone. If only she could get a hold of his home number or his address. She felt more desperate with each passing moment.

  Ivy considered going to Hunter. Ryker had made her swear that she wouldn't, but she had to do something. She decided she would save that for a last resort. She eyed the time nervously and decided she would give it one hour.

  Ivy's fingers ran lightly over her keyboard as she furiously ran through her options. She could hack into the telephone company’s files and get an address and possibly an alternate phone number for Shaw. She'd never done it, but she knew how it could be done. It was highly illegal, but at this point, as long as she didn't get arrested before Ryker's mom and sister were found, she didn't care.

  The phone rang in Ivy's hand, startling her. Blocked number. Hope and fear surged in Ivy's throat in equal parts. "Hello?"

  "Who the hell is this?" a male voice growled in her ear.

  "Is this Kurt Shaw?" she asked.

  He didn't answer for a moment and then he said, "Who's asking?"

  Indecision wracked Ivy. At this point she didn't know who she could trust and who could get Ryker killed. But did she really have a choice?

  "I'm a friend of Ryker's," she almost whispered.

  This time when the man spoke, his voice was free of hostility, but that didn’t put Ivy’s mind at ease. But still, she knew she had no choice. She had to trust someone.

  “What's your name?" he asked.

  "Ivy. Are you Kurt Shaw?"

  "Yeah, I'm him." Ivy heard something in his voice, but she didn't know what it was. Deception? Caution? She wondered if she should ask to meet him. See his badge. Her mind berated her. She’d called him. She had to trust him. But wait, she realized, she hadn’t called him!

  "Mr. Shaw? Ca
n I call you right back? At this same number?"

  "How long?" The irritation was back in his voice.

  "It will just be a second."

  He grunted a reply that she took to mean yes. Excitedly, she hung up the phone and pressed redial on the number she had called earlier. If he answered then she had to trust him.

  It rang once. He answered. "Yeah."

  Ivy rejoiced and spilled her story. Agent Shaw asked her a dozen questions that she didn't have the answers to. Like who was the man who wanted the school blown up? And what kind of explosives were they using? And when did Brandon want to blow up the jail?

  "Agent Shaw, I told you everything I know. Seriously, there is nothing else that I can tell you. It was a twenty-second phone call. I am sure that Ryker will get back to us quickly or as soon as he can with more information. But he stressed many times that you have to go and get his mother and sister today. I have an address in Mexico for them." Ivy felt her heartbeat speed up. If he asked how she got the address, should she lie? What she’d done was illegal.

  "Ivy, ah, you hang on to that address. I will need to get approval before we send someone down to Mexico."

  "And how long will that take?"

  "Ah, it could take a couple of days."

  "A couple of days? But that's too long! They could be dead by then!" Ivy bit her tongue, her mind not wanting to admit that what she just said was the truth. But she knew it was, and Agent Shaw had to know it to, didn't he?

  "I'll put in a request for rush approval. Now are you sure that Ryker didn't say anything else?"

  "Rush approval? And will that get it approved today?"

  "I don't know. We'll just have to wait and see." Ivy didn’t hear concern or even empathy in his voice. Just business.

  Ivy couldn't believe it. It seemed to her that this guy didn't even care what happened to Ryker's mother and sister. Her heart sank and her eyes filled with tears. How could she make him care?

  "Ivy, I'll get to work on this right now. Call me back if you hear anything more."

  The soft click in her ear told her that Agent Shaw had hung up. The tears spilled over her cheeks. Ryker, I'm so sorry, I don't know what else to do, she whispered.

  She stared at the phone in her hand and then dialed back the number that Ryker had called from. She gritted her teeth, not knowing if she would get him in trouble by calling the number. But she had to try. After it rang twelve times she hung up, defeated.

  She sat on her couch, tears streaming down her face, her mind racing. She couldn't trust Agent Shaw to do what needed to be done. She could go to Mexico herself. Yeah right, you don't have a passport, and you've never been out of the state. You'll do a great job heading down to Mexico like some vigilante.

  She had to call someone. She had to call Jen. She had to tell Hunter. Even if Ryker hated her for it, right now it seemed like the only chance that she had. But Hunter didn't have any jurisdiction in Mexico either, could he even do anything?

  Wait! She remembered that when Jen had been arrested a month ago there had been FBI agents waiting for her in the waiting room. Friends of her brother. Maybe they could help? Right now it seemed like the only option she had.

  She snatched up her phone and pressed messages. Jen had texted her four times since yesterday. She’d apologized each time. Ivy hadn't answered any of them. She hadn’t even checked her phone, she’d been so busy and worried about Ryker.

  Call me. It's an emergency. Please don't tell Hunter. I’ll explain later, she texted, hating that she was asking Jen to lie to Hunter, but feeling helpless to do anything else.

  Her phone rang in her hand almost immediately. "Jen," Ivy breathed, not sure where to start.

  "Ivy, thank goodness. I thought you weren't talking to me. I'm really sorry."

  "It's okay Jen, don't even worry about it. But I need your help. Where is Hunter?"

  "He's at work."

  "Good. Sorry." Ivy broke off, guilt pressing down on her. She pushed it aside to deal with later. "Jen, you know some FBI agents right?"

  "Craig and Hawk, yeah, they are my brother's friends."

  "I need to talk to them. Really badly. Please don't ask me why. It's a matter of life and death."

  Jen didn't say anything for a moment and Ivy could almost hear her considering. Finally she spoke. "I'll call you back."

  Ivy stared at the phone, shocked that it had been that easy. Or had it? Was she calling them? Or stalling? She dropped to her couch again, phone in hand, her mind running through possibilities if this didn't work out. But she knew there weren't any more possibilities. These FBI agents were her last chance. Ryker's last chance.

  Her phone didn't ring and didn't ring, and Ivy became more and more nervous. Twenty minutes later, she paced her living room, her finger poised over the send button on her phone, about to text Jen again.

  Just then, the phone rang in her hand and she scrambled to press the enter button.

  "Hello?"

  "Ivy, meet me at their headquarters building in ten minutes. Do you have a piece of paper? I’ll give you the address."

  Relief and gratitude flooded through Ivy. "Jen, I don't have my car."

  "Okay, I'll be there in a few minutes."

  For the third time that morning, the phone clicked off in Ivy's ear. But this time she didn't feel hopelessness spreading through her body. She grabbed her purse, her laptop, and an energy bar from the kitchen and ran out to the parking lot to wait for Jen.

  True to her word, Jen pulled up quickly in her tiny, beat-up hatchback. Ivy threw herself in the passenger seat and gushed her thanks.

  "Don't thank me, I'm just trying to make up for not believing you yesterday."

  "We’re even," Ivy said as Jen pulled out of the parking lot.

  Ivy fell silent during the drive. She knew this was only half the battle. She still had to convince these FBI agents to help her … if they could.

  They pulled up in front of a large building that looked more to Ivy like an apartment building than any government agency headquarters. A tall, muscular man with blond hair was waiting for them at the door. Jen parked and ran to meet him. She hugged him and then introduced him to Ivy. "Ivy, this is Craig Masterson. Craig, this is Ivy."

  Craig held out his hand and looked searchingly into Ivy's eyes. "Nice to meet you, Ivy. Come inside and meet my partner and then you can tell us what's going on."

  Ivy swallowed and nodded. They followed Craig into the building, down a long hall and through a pair of double doors into a large open room, lined on one side with computer monitors. A dark-haired man sitting in front of the monitors turned in his chair to greet them.

  Jen hugged him also and introduced him as Hawk. He motioned for Ivy and Jen to sit down in leather chairs across from him. Craig took a seat next to Hawk and looked at Ivy expectantly.

  Once Ivy started talking the whole story spilled out of her in less than twenty minutes. She hoped she was making sense and conveying just how urgent things really were. She kept shifting her gaze from Hawk to Craig encouraged by the compassion she saw in both of their eyes.

  After she told them the last part about Agent Shaw she turned to Jen. "Jen, Ryker begged me not to tell Hunter. He's terrified if Brandon gets picked up by the police that his mom and sister are... are ..." Ivy felt hot tears burn her eyes. She bit her lip determined not to cry, but not able to say it.

  Jen nodded, her eyes huge and worried.

  Hawk spoke up. "How exactly did you get this address in Mexico?"

  "I hacked into the ISP of the Skype address," Ivy said softly, wondering if she was about to get arrested.

  Hawk raised an eyebrow and exchanged a look with Craig.

  "Want me to call Shaw?” Craig asked Hawk. Hawk nodded and Craig left the room, pulling a cell phone out of his pocket.

  "What is the Skype user name you traced?" Hawk asked.

  "Hottvictor."

  Hawk spun in his chair and his fingers flew over the keyboard in front of him. In less than two minutes
he turned back and said "that's the address I get too." Ivy's mouth dropped open. It had taken her three hours to get that address.

  Craig came back through the door and whispered into Hawk’s ear. Ivy tried not to eavesdrop, but she was certain she heard the words no approval yet.

  "Why don’t you call Sara?" Hawk said. Craig nodded and left the room again. Ivy turned to Jen, eyes wide. Could they possibly mean Jen’s brother’s girlfriend Sara? Sara who used to work as an undercover DCIA agent in Mexico?

  Hawk turned to his computer again. Ivy watched the monitor directly in front of him, impressed with his skills and his software. He seemed to be calling up flight patterns into Mexico and traffic patterns in Saltillo at the same time. Ivy almost couldn’t breathe. Hope filled her chest.

  Ivy could hear Craig’s voice rising and falling in the hallway but couldn't tell what he was actually saying. It seemed like he’d been out there forever, talking on the phone. She looked at her phone. Almost 2 o'clock in the afternoon. She should be tired, but her nerves jumped constantly and she didn't think she could ever sleep again.

  Finally Craig came back in. "Sara is on board. We'll have to pick her up in Sacramento."

  "What's going on?" Ivy breathed, not daring to believe what this sounded like.

  "We're going to get them."

  "When?"

  "Right now. If Ryker calls you back, tell him we should have them in six hours. If everything goes well, we should be back here in ten to twelve hours.”

  Ivy tried to thank them, but her throat closed violently. If only she could get ahold of Ryker to tell him. She whipped out her phone to try.

  Chapter 9

  Ivy watched the street roll by from Jen’s car window. Jen was taking her home. “Thanks again, Jen. I can’t tell you how much I appreciate you hooking me up with Craig and Hawk. I really owe you one.”

  “Yeah you owe me big,” Jen said, smirking at her. Ivy felt almost good enough to joke with Jen, but not quite. She settled for giving Jen a weak smile.