by Mark Nolan
“We tracked the kids’ phones here. Do you have them?”
“No, not unless they tossed those in here with us.”
Terrell searched and found two phones in a plastic bag. He handed the bag to Roxanne. “Are these their phones?”
Roxanne held her device close to the plastic bag. “Yes, that’s both of them.”
“Now we’ve lost track of the kids.” Terrell picked up Isabel, the nanny. He lifted her over the edge of the dumpster and handed her off to Beth then did the same for Kim before climbing out himself.
Beth asked Roxanne, “Is there any other way to find the kids now?”
Roxanne looked off into the distance. Her eyes lost their focus for a moment.
Beth glanced at Terrell. He nodded and whispered, “I’ve seen her do this kind of thing before. She’s the poster girl for nerdy-geek-hacker cops.”
Roxanne held up her right hand and snapped her fingers. “Yes! We can put the recent travel history of these phones into our system and then run that against the database of local OnStar and LoJack tracking data. An overlay of all three systems will find the one and only vehicle with a one hundred percent identical pattern, and where it went from this point onward.”
Beth gave Roxanne a fist bump. “Back to the van.”
A Porsche SUV drove up and stopped, and a golden-haired dog stuck his head out of a back passenger window.
Terrell went over to the SUV. “Dammit, Jukebox, how did you follow us?”
“Luck of the Irish. Now please tell me you found phones in that dumpster, but not dead kids,” Jake said.
“Affirmative, we found the nanny and the driver, alive and well. Now we’re going to track the kids another way.”
“I’ll tag along behind you, just in case you need a K-9 to help you search.”
“No, you won’t. You’re not a cop, and you don’t belong here. Listen, if you put a tracking device on my rig, I’m going to kick your ass.”
“I would never do that to you—so I had one of the security people put it on Rox’s van instead.”
“Seriously? You bugged a police surveillance van?”
“It seemed like my only option at the time.”
Terrell slammed his hand against the SUV. “Cody, why do you put up with this idiot?”
Cody woofed, reached out and put a paw on Terrell’s shoulder.
Terrell scratched Cody behind the ears. “I should arrest your dumbass master for this, but then who would feed you your kibble, huh, buddy?”
Terrell, Beth and Sarah were the only other people Cody would allow to touch him unless Jake ordered him to socialize.
Terrell turned and looked Jake in the eye. “When we find the perps and the kids, there will be cops everywhere. SWAT might show up and maybe the FBI helicopter. I don’t need you two there. You might even get arrested again, or shot by accident.”
Jake nodded. “Maybe I’ll head back to the Stephens’ house. The kidnappers will probably call Lauren and state their demands.”
Terrell motioned toward the nanny and the driver. “Give those two a ride back to the house. And they might need medical attention for shock.”
“Will do.”
“If the kidnappers call, let me know immediately.”
“Of course.”
Beth drove up in the surveillance van and stopped next to the Porsche. Roxanne jumped out and said, “Jake, give me your phone. I’ll unmask that unknown number.”
Jake handed over his phone and she connected it to a handheld data extraction device. In a few seconds the device unmasked the number and she handed the phone back to Jake. “Got it, thanks. This could help us find the kids.”
“You’re welcome. And if that unknown number calls your phone, do not answer it.”
“Right.” Roxanne got back into the police van and Beth hit the gas pedal, sending the van roaring down the street.
Terrell ran to his police SUV, got in and drove after them.
Jake glanced at his phone and saw the unknown phone number she’d just unmasked. Several ideas crossed his mind about what he might do with this new information, but first, he had to get Isabel and Kim back to the mansion.
He and Cody got out of the car and walked toward the two women. Jake tapped his phone and made a FaceTime call to Lauren Stephens. Her worried face appeared on screen. “Jake, what’s happening now?”
“The police are on the trail and they’re getting closer. They found Isabel and Kim. Both of them are okay.”
“Oh, thank God.”
Jake held the phone so Lauren could see the two women. “I’ll send them home to you in a taxi, so I can keep searching for the kids.”
“Good idea.”
“Your nanny should probably get a raise in pay, if she passes the police investigation.”
“Yes, Isabel passed, but the maid was arrested and taken away in handcuffs. The police said Sophie broke down and confessed that she’d switched the headphones. Someone was threatening to kill her family. She felt she had no choice.”
“Understood. If Isabel has time to do both jobs, pay Sophie’s salary to Isabel on top of her own. ”
“Isabel works part time and she asked for more hours, so if she wants to do Sophie’s job too I’d have one less person to worry about.”
Jake ended the FaceTime session, and he smiled kindly at Isabel. “You passed the investigation, and Lauren is going to double your hours and income.”
Isabel gave him a hug, holding on far longer than he expected. Jake pried himself loose and turned to Kim. “Who gave you that black eye?”
Kim held out her hand and looked at her bruised fist. “Some dirtbag sucker punched me with no warning. He said he wanted a USB drive. I got a piece of him afterwards.”
Jake’s eyes darkened. “Describe him to me.”
“White male, short, with a thick neck, brown hair and eyes. His nose looked like it had been broken in the past. There were symbols tattooed all over his hands and neck. He had a foreign accent, maybe Russian.”
“If I happen to meet him, I’ll give him your regards, in a way that he won’t forget.”
“Please do. Tell him I said hello.”
Their eyes met in understanding.
Everyone got into the Porsche and Jake drove to a taxi stand where he gave some cash to Kim. She and Isabel chose a cab and drove away.
Jake sat in the SUV and looked at the unmasked private number again. He thought of the children, and his heart ached, they must be terrified. And Lauren, trying to be brave but living through a mother’s worst nightmare.
He decided to try a different tactic. If he couldn’t find the kidnappers, maybe he could make them come to him. It was a risky and reckless plan, but that had never stopped him before.
He thought about how to frame the lie he wanted to tell, and then he sent a text in reply to the one he’d received with the symbol.
It’s Jake Wolfe. I have the thumb drive. I’ll trade it to you for the kids. No cops. No money. Just you and me. Win-win scenario. You have 5 minutes to reply. After that I’ll take this to the FBI.
Minutes ticked by and he feared that his bluff had failed. Four and a half minutes later, he received a text.
Drive to Alta Plaza Park, at the intersection of Jackson and Steiner. Wait there for further instructions. If you bring the police, you’ll be killed, and so will the kids.
Jake wondered if this might be a fatal mistake, but he was determined to find the kids. He texted a reply.
On my way.
He began driving toward the park. As he got closer, he thought about the two frightened young children being held hostage by criminals who’d threatened to kill them. His anger flared, and he felt the violent, protective animal inside of him rise to the surface, willing to kill the evil to protect the innocent.
Chapter 17
Jake arrived at the park and drove slowly past. He lowered his window and studied the various people there, trying to profile any one of them as a professional criminal.
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He saw an eccentric man walking a poodle. The man’s hair was perfectly groomed and he had on a red bow tie and a green plaid sweater. The poodle was equally groomed and wore a matching bow tie and sweater.
Jake studied the happy, smiling people at the park and realized he’d forgotten what it was like to be that carefree. He’d felt that way in his past, before going to war and seeing his friends die. And before he’d avenged their deaths by killing high-value targets for Uncle Sam.
Those carefree days were just a memory now. He’d been through too much, seen too much, knew too much. He thought of a college girl he’d been dating before he’d joined the Marines and been deployed overseas. They’d visited this park, tossed a blanket down and enjoyed a fun picnic lunch. Where was she now? Did she ever think of him the way he sometimes thought of her?
He shook his head. He had to focus on the kids, not on his past. Where were they? Who had taken them? Who would he have to fight in order to rescue them?
In the backseat, Cody growled, sensing Jake’s darkening mood.
On the road, next to the driver’s side of the SUV, a man suddenly stood up from where he’d been crouched between two parked cars and fired a Pneu-Dart CO2 tranquilizer pistol at Jake.
Jake felt a sting on his left shoulder. He reached around and found a remote drug delivery dart stuck into his skin. He recognized it as similar to one he’d seen used near Lake Tahoe by the Nevada Department of Wildlife to tranquilize a bear that had gone into the garage of his parents’ vacation home.
He cursed as his vision blurred and his reflexes slowed to the point that he was almost paralyzed. He yanked out the dart and pulled the car over into a bus stop zone. The car hit the curb, driving the two right-side wheels up and onto the sidewalk. Jake managed to put his foot on the brake and stop the car before it crashed into the bus stop shelter.
The doors on a nearby parked car opened and several men got out. Jake opened his door and staggered out onto the street, so dizzy and weak he could barely find the strength to open Cody’s door.
When Cody jumped out, one of the men fired a Coda Netgun at him. The canister shot a fifteen-foot knotless net into the air, with four steel bullet-shaped weights on each of the four corners. It expanded open like a spiderweb and flew toward Cody.
Jake staggered forward to protect his dog. He was hit by the net and wrapped up in it. As he fell to the ground, he gave commands for Cody to escape and evade capture.
Cody barked in protest, but he obeyed the commands and ran away. Moments later, Jake’s body went still from the tranquilizer, and the world faded to black.
Cody’s Marine Corps training kicked in as he obeyed his alpha. He took off running, even though every fiber of his being wanted to stay by Jake’s side and fight to protect him. He barely missed getting hit by a tranq dart and a man chased after him. Cody turned down an alley and ran around a corner. He waited there in hiding, sniffing the air and listening for the approaching enemy. He’d been trained to avoid capture.
He smelled the man who was chasing him and he heard his footsteps. Closer, closer, closer … now! Cody leapt out and snapped his teeth at the man’s face, slammed his body against him and pawed at his chest.
The man yelled in surprise and fell down on his back. He rolled over, jumped to his feet and ran away in panic. Cody snapped at his heels, barking and growling as he chased him into the street. An eighteen-wheeler truck hit the man square on and ran over him with its whole length.
Cody’s war dog brain understood that he had caused a man’s death. That made his PTSD flare up. He was a Marine and was following orders, but this was a different kind of battlefield. It was hard to tell the civilians from the combatants. Nobody was in uniform, but he would protect his pack from any and all attacks. He ran back toward Jake’s location, and saw two men toss him into the trunk of a car and drive away.
Cody ran after them and though he couldn’t keep up, he followed the scent cone and tried to make up some of the distance every time the car stopped at a traffic light. When the car turned right, Cody turned right. When the car drove a mile, Cody ran a mile. His paws were getting sore, but as long as the car didn’t go onto that place Jake called a highway, he might have a chance. His loyal heart was beating fast. His training, instincts and loyalty drove him to rescue his alpha, or die trying.
Jake woke up with a headache and nausea. He got the impression that he was in the trunk of a car. His hands and feet were bound with what felt like plastic zip ties, so he moved his bound feet toward a back corner of the trunk and felt around for the taillight assembly. Once he found it, he began to kick it—over and over again. He hoped that if he could break it, or push it out so it was dangling by the wires, a police officer might notice it and pull the car over.
Soon, the car stopped, and the engine shut down. Jake heard a garage door rolling closed, and then somebody popped the lock of the trunk. He positioned himself to kick his feet at whoever lifted the trunk lid. When it opened, he kicked out but missed a man who was standing off to the side.
The man shocked Jake with a stun baton, making him shake like a leaf in a storm. He and another man pulled Jake out of the trunk and hauled him into the house.
Jake recovered from the shock and found that he couldn’t see or move. He was blindfolded, his wrists were bound to the arms of a chair, and his ankles were secured to the chair legs.
A man leaned close to his face and spoke in a foreign language. It sounded to Jake as if the man was cursing him in Russian. He could smell his cigar breath and sweaty armpits.
Without thinking, he tried to head-butt the man with all his pent-up anger. He felt a lucky hit, and the man grunted, stumbled and landed on the floor with a thud. Jake tried to stand up, pulling the chair up with him. A fist hit him with a sucker punch to the stomach, knocking him backwards onto the floor.
Someone lifted him and the chair and dropped him back where he’d been before. Jake noted that now his feet were free; the zip ties must have slid off the chair legs when he had fallen backwards. He kept his feet close to the chair and hoped that nobody would notice.
Another man with a foreign accent spoke in English. “Give him the truth serum.”
Somebody jabbed a needle into Jake’s arm and he began to feel a strange buzz. His eyes fluttered behind the blindfold and he heard a sound in his ears like waves crashing on a beach. He felt as if he was floating in warm water, yet experienced random and surprising cold shocks when he least expected them.
It reminded him of when he’d been shot in combat and a corpsman had given him morphine, or fentanyl—whatever it was. But now he also felt like he was hallucinating, and something was making him grind his teeth.
Jake heard the scraping of chair legs on a hardwood floor right in front of him and smelled the cigar breath again.
“Jake, can you hear me? Answer my question.”
Jake spoke slowly, slurring his words.
“I can hear you … asshole. How did you like that head butt?”
“You’re going to tell me the truth now.”
“The truth is I’m going to kill you soon.”
“You want to answer my questions, don’t you, Jake?”
“No. I want to slit your throat.” Jake clenched his fists and strained his wrists against the bonds.
“Thank you for being so honest. Honest answers will set you free. Please continue. How do you feel?”
“I feel kind of … hungry.”
“The truth is starting to come out. Tell us a secret.”
“Bankers control the world. Politicians are their puppets.”
“I mean a secret about yourself. Tell us a bad secret, one you’re ashamed of.”
Jake hesitated. He didn’t want to remember it.
“Tell us, you have to.”
“Come closer. I’ll whisper it to you.”
“What did you see at the mansion, in the underground room?”
“I saw—what I’d like to do to your face.”
&
nbsp; “You said you had the item we want. Give it to us. We’ve searched you and your vehicle, and we can’t find it.”
“I proposed a trade, but I knew you’d try to steal it from me, so I hid it somewhere safe.”
“Tell us where it is, or I’ll start cutting off your fingers one by one with these pruning shears.”
Jake felt two cold blades press onto both sides of his left thumb for a moment. “Prove to me that the kids are alive and well. Let me talk to them first, before I trade what you want.”
The other man said, “He’s playing with you. Give him another dose.”
“Another dose could kill him, or drive him insane. This serum is opiates mixed with nootropics, hallucinogenics, meth, and date rape drugs. That amount hasn’t been tested on humans yet.”
Jake heard someone racking the slide of a pistol, putting a round into the chamber.
“Test it now—on him. Give him another dose, or I’ll test it on you instead.”
There was some loud cursing, and somebody stuck another needle into his arm. “Don’t blame me if the prisoner dies or loses his mind. I’m only following orders.”
Chapter 18
Cody ran down sidewalks and streets, following the scent cone. He smelled all kinds of things—restaurants, bread bakeries, coffee shops, the ocean, trees and grass, garbage dumpsters, and the urine traces of dogs, cats, and rats. There were endless distractions, but he ran past them all and focused on his mission.
He lost the car’s scent for a moment and paced back and forth. He held his head up high, then down low. He whined in frustration but kept searching until he caught the scent of the vehicle’s unique burnt aroma. Then he started running as fast as he could.
After a while, the scent faded away and he stopped at a crossroads. He ran straight ahead but didn’t find any scent. He returned to where he’d been, and then turned left. Nothing there. One last chance. He headed back, crossed at the intersection and went down the other direction. Just when it seemed that he’d lost the trail—there, he smelled the car he was seeking.