Jigsaw (Black Raven Book 2) (36 page)

“Taken with Ana,” Sebastian responded in the matter-of-fact, calm tone that he used when on a high-stakes job.

“Theresa?”

“Safe,” Blackwell responded, tone low. “I’ve delivered the news, sir.”

“Where is she?” No one had to tell him how Theresa was reacting.

“Still at her job, where I am. She’s with friends, in the teacher’s lounge. My eyes are on her. MPD has patrols outside.”

“I’ll talk to her in a minute.”

“Hey, bro,” Gabe broke into the call. “I’m on the call from the airbase in Germany. Making strategic calls to local law enforcement at home.” Home being Miami, the place where Gabe and Zeus grew up, the place they knew like the back of their hands. The place where his daughter was supposed to be safe. “Putting out a Black Raven version of a fucking Amber alert. Should I head to Miami?”

“No. Assume you’re still heading into Praptan on Tuesday night. Whether or not Stollen gives us anything. If you find Maximov, I’m giving you the green light to torture the fucker until he tells you where we can find Ana.”

Because his gut was screaming that all of this—the ITT trial, Maximov, the abduction—was related.

“You’ll have her before then,” Gabe said.

Zeus drew a deep breath, hoping like hell Gabe was right. “What happened to the rest of Ana’s transport team?”

“From the team of four, two of them—Riggs and Looms—are dead,” Sebastian responded. “One—Sanchez—is critical. Bullet to the head. Alive, but unconscious.”

Fuck.

“Did we get any of them?”

“No. We’re thirty minutes out now.”

Zeus adjusted his watch to 2025. Current Miami time. He split-screened it to a stopwatch. “1955 was zero?”

“Yes. That was the time the distress call came out from the Range Rover transporting Ana, and the time Martel and Ana’s GPS went off grid.”

Drawing a deep breath, he managed to choke out, “Fucking GPS has been gone this entire time?”

“Yes,” Sebastian answered. “We’re dealing with pros, or damn smart amateurs who anticipated that Ana and her agents would be chipped and they knew how to effectively work jammers.”

Or they cut the chip out of them.

Don’t go there.

“Any leads at all?”

“Not yet. From what we can tell, it was an ambush at a stop sign. Narrow residential side streets of the Grove worked against us. No crime cameras on site.” Sebastian gave him the intersection.

It was three blocks out from the dance school, which itself was located in a small strip mall. Zeus knew the area well.

“I’m collecting crime camera footage from the area,” Ragno said. “However, other than the camera on our vehicle, there are no cameras within three blocks of the abduction site. Our cameras captured partials. Nothing solid.”

“Who is on scene?”

“MPD. Forensics and investigators. Area’s now shut down,” Sebastian answered. “Police Chief Manuello is there, communicating directly with Ragno and Denver through Gabe.” Manuello was an acquaintance of Zeus and a close friend of Gabe. “We had three teams working in the Miami area on other jobs. Three of our agents from those teams are now on scene. We’ve mobilized everyone at Last Resort. Twenty agents are on their way with combat choppers. Twenty-five more are on standby, ready to depart for parts unknown.”

“C130J?” As with other operations that went to hell, the Black Raven cargo plane that they kept stationed in Colorado, and the assortment of weapons and manpower provided reaction capabilities for whatever was thrown their way. He wanted every bit of firepower the plane was capable of carrying, because he was going to unleash it on the fuckers who dared to touch his daughter.

“Mobilizing. They’ll be in the air in ten minutes.”

Zeus drew a deep breath. “Blackwell, put Theresa on the line.”

He shut his eyes, bracing for her anguish. It came, with chokes and sobs and gasps for air. “Zeus, I’m sorry. You tried to tell me no. It was just dance school. She didn’t need to go. You were right. I’m sor—”

“Listen to me. Not your fault. Do you understand that? Theresa, we’ll find her,” he said, wishing he believed in a good outcome that went with those words. “She’ll be fine.”

He didn’t know that, either. What he believed was he was going to ultimately find whoever was responsible. When he did, he was going to kill them.

Chapter Thirty-Two

Miami, Florida

Tuesday, February 8

“I have a read from Martell’s chip,” Ragno said, her audio feed automatically going to Zeus, Sebastian, and team leaders in a Black Raven staging hangar, at a private airport in Miami, Florida.

Zeus marked the time. It was 0730, Eastern time. A day, so far, that had been sent straight from hell. The balmy, but cool, air in the hangar became electrified, as everyone who heard Ragno stopped mid-sentence, mid-stride, mid-whatever-the-fuck they were doing.

He and Sebastian had been looking at a large-screen monitor showing a map of South Florida and talking to MPD Chief Manuello, and Lieutenant Colonel Simeon from the Florida Highway Patrol. With each hour that passed without a lead, the geographic area of concern expanded. They were eleven hours, five minutes post abduction.

Law enforcement officials in the entire state of Florida, and points beyond, were on alert. Without even knowing what the needle looked like, they were sifting through a haystack for it, and more hay was being piled upon the stack with every passing minute.

“The chip is off the coast of Boca Raton. One mile off. Perhaps two.” Ragno read the longitude and latitude. “Agent Martel only. Not Ana. I repeat. I have a solid feed on Martel’s chip. Not Ana. Agents Michaels and Getty? Copy?”

Zeus knew Michaels and Getty were lead agents on teams positioned in the water. Given that Miami and the rest of South Florida was surrounded by water, and they had no leads pointing to an exit on any roadways, they’d anticipated the need for a maritime rescue.

“Michaels. Copy that. Sir? Awaiting instruction.”

“Getty. Ditto.”

“Standby,” Sebastian said. “Ragno, give me a map and nautical chart.” Working from Denver, Ragno switched the large screen monitor to a map highlighting the coastline. “Red x is the chip. Appears stationary. If she’s moving, she’s going no faster than the current.”

Shit! Stationary?

In the fucking water? As far north as Boca?

Hell, by now, the kidnappers could have gotten as far as the Bahamas. Easily.

“Swimming?” Zeus asked, his eyes fixated on the x. He tried hard not to humanize the x, at the same time he wondered where the hell Ana was.

“Perhaps.”

“Ragno,” Sebastian asked, “what are seas right now?”

“Three to fives. Larger swells coming from the North.”

In other words, high.

“Our teams in the water are here.” A Black Raven logo lit up on the map as Ragno worked from Denver. “That’s Agent Michaels. He’s off of Miami, near the Government Cut inlet.” Another Black Raven logo appeared on the map just south of Fort Lauderdale. “That’s Getty.”

“Getty and Michaels. Proceed to Martell’s position.” Sebastian glanced at Zeus, who stood at Sebastian’s right. “Getty’s closest. Maybe an hour out.”

“Coast Guard is already on alert,” Zeus said.

Sebastian nodded, his eyes on the map. “Ragno, contact Lake Worth Inlet Coast Guard station. Request an assist. Marks. Brachs?”

“Yes, sir,” the voices of two helicopter team leaders answered.

“Mobilize. Stat. Take divers.”

Zeus was torn. Vick was there. Not Ana. Hell. Maybe not Ana. And if the kidnappers had cut the chip out of Vick, maybe she wasn’t even there. But maybe they were both there. His people wouldn’t know, until they reached the area and searched it.

Kidnapping—rather than outright murder—implied that they’d use Ana for barter, but the terrorists could be doing just that—terrorizing. Distracting. If that was their end, they were doing a damn good job of both. Whether they wanted to use Ana for barter was a moot point, until they actually made a demand.

Zeus hoped like hell they’d try barter.

Damn straight he’d bargain with them.

Yet if the abductors were related, in any way, to the people who’d murdered Patricia Devlin, the wife of Judge Kent Devlin, or Madeline Brier, the wife of Robert Brier, he was fucked. Because they hadn’t used Patricia Devlin or Madeline Brier for barter. Neither of the others was abducted. They were ambushed and killed. Murder had been sufficient to get their point out to the world that Maximov was an insidious force, capable of wreaking havoc on a court that was supposed to be stopping cells that claimed to operate on his behalf. What they were doing with his daughter was different. For now, he had to cling to that difference, as though it had meaning.

“Sebastian.” Zeus had to stop the swirling thoughts that were expanding in his head. To do that, he needed to move. “I’m going with the choppers.”

If I stay still for one more fucking minute I’ll go crazy.

“Agree.” Sebastian said, reading his mind with a glacial cool, seemingly unruffled, once over. Sebastian, mic’d to Ragno and all the team leaders, would be able to orchestrate the operation while on the go. “We’ll take the Sikorsky. Marks and Brachs will have full teams in the Bell 525s,” Sebastian said. “If we’re in the Sikorsky, we can go elsewhere. Fast. If needed.”

As Sebastian directed the Sikorsky pilot to mobilize, Zeus turned to the large, open doors of the hangar. His eyes immediately found Sam. Several long tables with electrical outlets had been set up in the middle of the room. Agents with duties that required laptops and tablets were sitting there, working. Upon their arrival at the hangar, Sam had established a workstation for herself at one of the tables, and whenever he turned in her direction, her blond ponytail caught his eye. As Zeus paced around the hangar, he’d stopped by her workstation several times.

The horror he was going through over Ana enabled him to park his feelings about Sam’s rejection elsewhere. Perhaps never to be retrieved. Nothing he was going to worry about until he had his baby girl safely in his arms.

Sam was a professional, and so was he. They were both able to work in times of crisis. She’d been communicating with Abe and Charles, who were now midway through the Tuesday ITT proceedings in London. She’d also been preparing for Stollen’s interview, and, because Zeus was focused on Ana, she was now communicating directly with Gabe on all issues related to Stollen.

She stood, closing her laptop, with Jenkins was at her side. Raven One was preparing to depart to Colorado.

“Jenkins,” Zeus said, stepping between his agent and Sam. “Keep me on audio, along with Ragno and Gabe. You’re lead for Sam’s detail, as of now. Gabe has overall responsibility for the Amicus team detail, but you’re his second if and when he goes to Praptan. Feel free to bounce issues off of me. If I’m not responding, due to my preoccupation with killing the fuckers who have my daughter, use Gabe and Ragno.”

He nodded. “Understood, sir.”

Sam zipped her briefcase. Jenkins took it from her. She turned to Zeus, reached for his forearm, and gripped it. Her eyes, full of concern, matched the earnest worry in her soft tone. “I hope and pray, with every fiber of my being, that you find her.”

He nodded. Couldn’t do much else, because the compassion she conveyed made him want to reach out and hold onto the woman he loved, until he found strength to move forward.

Do not falter.

No emotion. Remember? Send your feelings to the fucking stratosphere, into a galaxy far, far away.

Her eyes hardened. As though she knew him well enough to know that he couldn’t handle any outpouring of empathy. Taking her hand off his arm, she lifted her chin. “I’ve got a question regarding the Black Raven data gathering and assimilation system that produced OLIVER. Or the job that produced OLIVER.”

Jigsaw.
“Which I haven’t acknowledged?”

Sebastian, on his audio feed, said, “Zeus. Three minutes. Wheels up.”

To Sam, Zeus said, “Walk with me.”

Jenkins flanked her right side.

She fell into step with Zeus as he walked to the door of the hangar. “The one that produced Caller X. I know Barrows has to be using it to search the Miami telecommunication grid right now. Right?”

He nodded.

“Are you finding some commonality? Some clue?”

“Not yet. Unfortunately.” As they exited the hangar, a blast of balmy wind whipped them. He had to yell to be heard over the
chop-chop-chop
of the helicopter rotors. “This kind of data collection and assimilation takes time. We’re only now receiving results from the searches Barrows did in connection with the murder of Patricia Devlin. If the fuckers had left a phone behind, though, all bets would be off.”

“Why?”

“It gives us a concrete base of known contacts. I’m not saying our program won’t eventually get to the same answer, but it operates faster when we start with known contacts.” When they were twenty yards away from the helicopter, Sebastian passed him, going at a jog. Zeus pointed in the direction of Raven One. “You’ll be safe with Jenkins. We’re also beefing up your detail once you arrive in Colorado. Intention could be to make Black Raven’s guard go down.”

He paused as a flash of worry crossed her face. “They will fail in that objective.” This was a goodbye, and he was too numb to care. That was the beauty of parking emotions in a different galaxy. He didn’t feel a goddamn thing. “You’ll be just as safe now as you were before. Jenkins has a direct line to me, and Gabe. Gabe will be your go-to if I’m unavailable.”

Before he turned to the Sikorsky, and she turned for Raven One, she gripped his hand. Looking down, her engagement ring caught his gaze, carrying him back to the evening before when his broken heart had seemed like a problem. Now, a mere broken heart—of the romantic kind—seemed so inconsequential it was laughable. “If there is anything at all I can do, I’ll do it.”

He nodded. A world of people were offering assistance. He’d gladly take it all, if it would help. Even if finding Ana required calling in every goodwill chip—and there were plenty—that he’d laid out on behalf of Black Raven, he’d do so.

She gripped his hand tighter. “You’ll find her.”

“Yes,” he said, his voice as cold as his insides had become. “I will.”

Because I will never stop looking. I’ll find her, even if I’m only finding a memory in the minds of the monsters who’ve taken her. No matter how I find her, I’ll make them pay.

One hour later, they had what the bastards had left of Agent Victoria Martell. Ana’s beloved Nanny Vick. She’d been decapitated, her naked torso strapped onto an open-air life raft. The words
I am Maximov
had been carved into her abdomen with a knife. With her torso, there was a handwritten note in a watertight box that had directions on how Zeus was to secure Ana. The kidnappers would release her, to her mother—and only her mother—unharmed, under two conditions.

One, Zeus would take Ana’s place.

No problem.

Two, Richard Barrows would accompany Zeus.

Big problem
.