“We don’t wanna hurt the baby. Our primary objective here is to get the information we need and that’s it. Summer is lucky. We need the information she stole from ConFlux or she and the baby would already be dead.”
“Who are you?” Mike asked, though he was more than aware these people were likely from Rockwood.
The man grunted. “Don’t interrupt me again, or the baby will pay.”
He shut his mouth.
“Now, your little girlfriend has come into some information. Codes...” The man paused. “If she gives us those codes, we will keep your baby alive. If she doesn’t, we will make you all pay.”
“Before we agree to do anything, you need to prove to me that Joe is okay.” He was careful to use calculated statements, ones all about the man he was negotiating with.
The most crucial key in successful negotiation was for the negotiator to solve the problems and to always push for additional time. But this kind of crisis response was difficult in even the best of times, times when there wasn’t such a deeply personal tie. Negotiating was going to be nearly impossible if Mike kept putting things in terms of this being his own child.
“What do you want with the baby?” he asked, trying to find a baseline on their hostage taker.
“Well, the last damned thing I want is to wake his ass up to prove he is unharmed and then have to deal with a crying baby for the next few hours.”
Interesting, so the guy didn’t want to hurt Joe or, at least, to cause himself too much unnecessary stress. This was good.
He opened his mouth to speak, but then thought about his many hours of training. One of the first practices for negotiating in this type of circumstance was to follow the 80/20 rule. A negotiator had to keep the hostage taker talking eighty percent of the time; he should only do twenty. Next, he had to be a strong, active listener and hear the things not being said in addition to what was.
The man on the other end of the line huffed. He sounded annoyed, as if having to wait for Mike to speak and give him feedback was more than he could handle. “Look, I can send a picture of the baby. But there are conditions.”
“What are the conditions?” he asked, carefully mirroring the man’s language so he would feel validated.
“We want to make this as simple as possible. If you give us what we want, you can have the kid back in a matter of hours.” The man halted, but Mike didn’t say anything. Instead he let him continue with his demands. “We need all the codes that were taken from the ConFlux system.”
“You need all the codes.” Mike pushed the speaker button on his phone so Summer could listen in; the more ears he had on this, the better. Maybe she could pick up something he missed and make sense of this in a way that he was unable. “What are you planning to do with these codes?”
“That’s none of your damned business, Mike.”
The man had used his name. It didn’t come as a huge surprise, but it was jarring, like this guy had somehow just made things a degree more personal and threatening. More, the man had used his name on purpose. Mike had clearly stumbled onto something that had caused the guy to lash out and get emotional.
“How do you think we should get these codes?” he continued, trying hard to restrain his own emotions. He couldn’t backslide, they were making progress, but he needed more time and more information to safely get Joe back.
“That isn’t my damned problem. My problem is that you are apparently a freaking idiot.”
Okay, he needed to dial it back a bit and deescalate. “I’m not trying to be stupid, just trying to get all the facts and to fully understand your demand. This is about you, what you need.”
“No, this is about the kid.” The man sounded frantic, and Mike didn’t try to dissuade him. Some amount of stress on the other end of the phone was good, as long as it didn’t lead to Joe’s being hurt. Stress led to poor negotiation skills, which could definitely be to Mike’s benefit just as long as he was careful.
Summer moved closer, as if to say something, but he stopped her with a shake of his head. She was far too angry and far too close to the situation. He pushed Mute on his phone so the man on the other end couldn’t hear what he was saying.
“Summer, you need to just listen. Please. I’m going to see if we can get this guy to fold without having to play into his demand. We need Joe to be safe. If you get involved, get emotional, these guys will have us at their mercy.”
She nodded. “If they hurt Joe...”
“They don’t want to hurt Joe. But you and I are both going to have to be patient. This is a dance marathon, not a sprint. The longer it takes, the better. We can wear them down and keep Joe safe.”
“How do you know they aren’t going to hurt him?”
“They didn’t even want to wake him up.”
“That was more about them than it was for Joe.”
She wasn’t wrong, but she did give him an idea.
“We need to make them feel something for him,” Mike said with a subversive laugh.
“You think that will work? That they will be that easily coerced?”
Love always had a way of making a person do things that went against reason. He’d once heard that feelings were thoughts of their own and to negate and devalue feelings would only limit a person’s intellectual abilities. In essence, to avoid feelings stunted a person.
He wasn’t sure if he bought into the philosophy in its entirety—whenever he had been able to avoid feelings, it had been an asset rather than a hindrance—but then he could hardly be thought of as the perfect specimen of man. Regardless of his personal introspection, love could be the answer to most of life’s problems.
“Helloooo? What in the hell! Did you hang up?” The man on the other end of the line spiraled into a full meltdown. “Rico, they effing hung up, man. How in the hell are we supposed to work with these people?”
Rico. The man had a partner named Rico.
Mike clicked off the Mute. “I’m right here. I was just trying to think of a solution to the problem with Joe.” He paused.
“What problem?” the man answered, too quickly.
“Well, he is going to require a lot of care,” he said, thinking about all the baby-related items he’d seen around Summer’s house. “He is going to need a bottle, diapers, and someone to take dedicated care of him. Can you provide him with those basic necessities?”
There was a long pause. “You think I care if the baby eats?”
“You may or may not, but I think you are going to care when he is crying because he’s hungry.” He turned to Summer. “What kind of formula does he drink?”
There was so much he didn’t know about his son.
She nodded. “He has a sensitive stomach, so I can only use the formula from Costco, the one with the yellow lid.”
Oh, this was going to be good. These guys clearly hadn’t put a lot of thought into the actual logistical needs of taking care of a baby as young as Joe. And yet, that added level of need and dependence was going to also be what put Joe into additional danger. It took a lot to raise and care for a baby, and these guys knew maybe slightly less than Mike did.
“Did you hear Summer? The baby has special dietary needs. What can we do to get you the food Joe is going to need?”
“We don’t need jack squat. If the baby cries, he goes outside. Plain as that.” The man’s voice sounded strained, as though even he knew that what he was saying was a bad idea. If someone heard a strange baby crying outside, that would pull in all kinds of attention. The only humans who would be pushed outside would be the kidnappers.
Mike paused, letting the lie sink into the man’s psyche as he thought about the reality in which he had just placed himself. The expression “bit off more than they could chew” came to Mike’s mind. But this was all good, all things he and Summer could use to buy time and even maybe to get to Joe all without giving th
e kidnappers the ransom they were asking for.
There was a rattle and the sound of a hand being placed over the phone as the kidnapper must have turned to his cohort, Rico. “Dude, do we have diapers? You know anything about where we can get some?”
Mike nearly laughed out loud as the bumbling kidnappers argued with one another about buying diapers at a gas station.
Summer covered her mouth as she nodded excitedly.
They had found the weak point in the other party’s negotiation that would clear the barriers and give them the in that they needed.
“Look. I know you don’t want to hurt the baby. That would land you in more trouble than I think you care to take on. So let us help you with him. We can bring you everything you need for Joe for the next two days, while we also work on getting you the codes. What do you think?” Mike hoped these idiots would see the advantage of keeping Joe well fed and looked after.
The man mumbled something Mike couldn’t understand. “We are going to need some time. Let me talk to my people. We’ll be in touch.”
The phone line went dead.
Damn it. He hadn’t meant to run the kidnapper off; all he had wanted to do was to get him to give them a little wiggle room.
He stared at the lit screen until it went dark.
There had to be something they could do, something that would help them take back control.
Chapter Ten
Hours later, Summer’s phone rang and she hesitated to look at the Caller ID. Her only hope was that it was the kidnappers and they were coming back with a list of demands—demands that would bring Summer and Mike closer to getting their son back.
And yet, as she looked, she saw that it was her boss, Kevin Warble, from the DTRA. Luckily, as Mike glanced over at her phone from his seat next to her on her couch, all the screen said was Kevin. Mike couldn’t know everything, not yet and maybe not ever. She had been doing the best she could, right up until her enemies had taken Joe. Now everything she had been trying to do, every safety precaution she had thought she’d had in place, was out the window.
She stood. “I’ll be right back,” she said to Mike, quickly making her way down the hall to her bedroom where she could find a little bit of privacy for the call that would now have to take place.
This one was going to hurt. She’d reached out to Kevin earlier when Mike was doing a perimeter check of the apartment complex after they’d received the ransom call.
Closing the door, she answered the phone. “Hey, thanks for getting back to me. I know you said you couldn’t get me the codes, but there has to be something you can do. Something we can trade with these guys in order to get Joe back. Some innocuous codes. Anything...”
“Whoa. Let’s not get ahead of ourselves. You know that isn’t a possibility. Can you imagine if the code used by high-level, security clearance military engineers got into the hands of America’s enemies? It would be a nightmare.” Kevin sighed as though just the question of him getting her the codes exhausted him. “Have you had any other contact with the kidnappers?”
“No. Not yet. Have you had any luck tracking down the phone number or location of the device Rico and his buddy used to call?”
Kevin groaned. “Like we had assumed, it wasn’t a number registered to any known phone. However, we have figured out the source app and have contacted the designers. They are looking into things to see if they can identify the phone assigned the number. But unfortunately, you know how all this goes. It’s a waiting game.”
“Did you guys manage to pull anything from any of the local cameras? Have you gotten any definitive answers?” she asked, begging for information about her son.
Kevin sighed. “I’m so sorry, Summer. All I can tell you is that we’re doing our best and we are trying to work as fast as we can. Just know that we are using every single thing we can to get Joe back.”
She held no doubts he was telling her the truth, but it did nothing for the panic and terror she was feeling. Nothing would help calm her until she had Joe in the safety of her arms. She swallowed back the lump in her throat.
“I assume Mike is working on things from his side, correct?” Kevin continued.
“Yeah.”
“Keep us apprised of any issues that may arise from his digging. We need to keep your role in the DTRA concealed—even from him. If not...well, you know how these things work. If you are exposed or your cover is blown, we are going to have to deny everything. You know what’s at stake here, I hope.”
Apparently, he meant beyond the scope of losing her son—the most important person in her life—she was also quite possibly going to lose her job and her freedom if her truth was uncovered.
Swell. Just swell.
Everything was falling down around her.
“I don’t need you to tell me what else I have to lose. I’m more than aware. But right now, my main concern is the welfare of my son.” Her anger pulsed within her and, for a moment, she wondered if it was misplaced and ill-advised for her to speak up, but at the same time she didn’t care. “I think you calling me to tell me this is reprehensible. You promised to keep me and my son safe—and yet here we are and now you are threatening to throw me under the bus.”
“I didn’t mean it like that, Summer,” Kevin said, contrite. “I just mean that you need to be careful with Mike. This is a tough situation, but know we are all working to fulfill our promises to you. However, you need to focus on doing your job.”
Summer sighed. Maybe she was lashing out in the wrong direction. It was just...well, it was this inability to take direct action that was really killing her. All she wanted to do was to rush out, cut down the bad guys, and get her son back into her arms. And yet, all she could do was to sit in her apartment, make phone calls and wait for them to come to her. This powerlessness was unlike anything she’d ever felt before.
Not even being left at the altar compared.
And then there was that.
Here she was, forced to trust a man who had broken her heart and ripped out a piece of her soul once before. And already, he had allowed kidnappers to get to Joe. He’d only been back in her life for a matter of hours and he was destroying it all over again.
Logically, she wasn’t angry with Mike. She couldn’t be. Not really. The kidnappers had been targeting her; she had brought them to her doorstep. But she couldn’t help the anger she was feeling from spilling over and tainting everything in her life.
Bottom line, she was angry with the world.
“Is there anything I can do beyond sit here and wait?” she asked, hoping Kevin would have something that could help staunch the roiling emotions threatening to destroy her.
“Like I told you earlier, the best thing you can do is stay exactly where you are. Get as much information about Rockwood as you can.”
When she had been a child, she had been taught that if she was ever truly lost in a forest, the best thing she could do was just sit still—to stay where she was. Others would find her. And yet, this tore at the very cloth of her being. She wasn’t a sit-and-wait kind of woman, especially in situations like this. She had to do something.
“Mike won’t tell me anything. I need to start moving, to do something that will bring me closer to getting Joe back.”
“Stop, Summer.” Kevin’s voice was rife with pity, and she hated it. “Let us take care of you. We have teams in place who are doing more than even I can tell you. Just give us time.”
When she had signed her Department of Defense contract with the DTRA and taken the oath of office, there had never been anything about putting herself first. This was about her team and keeping them safe even if that meant putting the needs of her son and herself second. She didn’t have to like it, but she had made the deal when she had taken the job.
She had known there would be sacrifices she would need to make when it came to being a DTRA agent, but she had neve
r assumed her sacrifices would come in the form of her son’s life.
She had been a fool to take this job on. She should have just stuck it out with STRIKE and made it work. She’d loved her contracting world, but when things had gone haywire, she’d thought it had been the impetus she had needed to work full-time for the DTRA, which had led to her taking a position at Rockwood as a spy.
She’d thought she’d been making the right choice, making the best out of a bad situation and getting her life set up so that she could be a good mother while also being able to stand on her own two feet. But all she had done was make everything so much worse. She had fallen for the trap of greener grass in the hope of being a better provider. Guilt flooded through her. She should have just shut her mouth and done the job she had been paid to do for STRIKE, taken the money and gone home to her son. But no, and look where being a good person and doing the right thing had gotten her.
Why did being a good person, a good employee, and a good mother have to be such a juggling act? There was always one ball being dropped.
“You okay, Summer? Do you need anything from us, something I can have someone deliver? Maybe some dinner?” Kevin continued, breaking her train of thought.
“That’s kind of you, but we’ll be okay.” She wasn’t hungry and until now she hadn’t even bothered to think about food.
“Okay, but let me know if you want or need anything. And I’ll be in touch if we get any more leads.”
“Thanks, Kevin. And hey, I appreciate all you’re doing.” She sounded resigned, even to herself, as she ended the call.
When she walked out, Mike was holding a pizza box. “I hope you don’t mind, but I thought you might be hungry.”
What was it with everyone thinking that she needed to eat?
Summer nodded, giving him a weak smile as she forced herself to remember he didn’t deserve to be the target of her rage. She followed him into the kitchen, where he set the pizza down and grabbed a couple of paper towels, handing her one. “Only the finest china for you, m’lady.” He gave a little bow as she took the towel.
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