Part 14 (1/2)
”It wouldn't be a failure of character!”
He gave her a look so full of stubborn resolve that she wanted to kiss him, nosebleed and all. ”I can stroke out when this is over.”
Some people, Katie reflected, were just too hardheaded to suffer things like that. He probably had Teflon veins in his brain, anyway. She surrendered. ”What's happening?”
”Still in the van. They're cutting through an industrial area, and traffic's pretty heavy. No help to us in identifying a white cargo van there. Could be a thousand of them on the roads. And rush hour is going to start soon.”
Rush hour in L.A. was more like rush half day; it began stacking up around 6:30 a.m. and didn't finish until after 9:00 a.m. Traveling west, they'd gained some time, but not enough, and traffic was going to slow them down. Of course, it would slow down the van, too. Hopefully.
”I need two things,” Katie said. ”A cross street, real time, and your cell phone. Mine's on its last legs.”
He handed over his phone. She turned on her own long enough to retrieve Allison Gracelyn's number from it, then shut it down again-she'd missed three incoming calls, all from Craig Evangelista-and programmed the number in Stefan's phone.
”Cross street?” she asked.
”I'll have to go back in,” he said. ”Teal can't see very well right now. They moved her to the back.”
He wasn't saying something important, she could sense it. She put her hand on the back of his neck again, gently. ”What happened?”
He just shook his head. ”Let's stay focused,” he said. ”She's okay. She's going to be okay.” He sounded as if he more wanted to believe it than actually did, and she felt a chill race through her body at the implications.
”And Lena?” she asked. ”Is Lena okay, too?”
”Fine.” That, at least, he said without hesitation. ”Teal's running interference for her.” And it was, without a doubt, costing Teal. And therefore costing Stefan, too. ”I have more signs for you.”
Marine was watching them curiously, bright-eyed, but she wasn't saying anything. Apparently, she took her role as hired driver seriously. Katie focused on Stefan's right hand as he carefully formed the signs, one after another. The first few were the same as Teal's previous message-she must not have been sure that he was receiving it-and then it branched off. ”North Soto, and pa.s.sing Valley...I don't think you need to go back in. She must have been looking out the windows before you dialed in. That's probably why they pulled her to the back.” She had her cross streets, and a hot flicker of excitement started burning in her stomach. She dialed Stefan's cell phone.
”Who's this?” asked a strong contralto voice on the other end. Of course-Allison wouldn't recognize the number, and she'd instantly know that. Being a math whiz allowed her to keep a permanent, instantly accessible database of such things in her head; being an NSA agent imbued her with serious paranoia about unknown phone calls to a very private number.
”It's Katie Rush,” Katie said. ”I'm on a borrowed phone, sorry, I know that's not a good thing for you. It's an emergency.”
Some of the tension left Allison's voice. ”Is this about the girls? Lena and Teal?”
”You heard.”
”Of course I heard. Everybody's heard. How can I help?”
”A friend of mine had a good idea about using satellite tracking on the van the girls are in,” she said. ”But you're the only one I can think of with the resources to make that happen. Maybe.”
”Can you pinpoint a location and description?”
”North Soto and Valley, LosAngeles. White cargo van.”
”Do you have the plate number?”
Katie blinked. ”You can match a plate number? From a satellite?”
”Not officially, no.”
”Well, unofficially, no, I don't have a plate number. Do you think-”
”Hold on,” Allison said, and there was an instant silence that stretched on for a while. They were definitely getting close to Los Angeles-the suburbs were rolling by on either side, stretching off to infinity in rows of strip malls, houses, streams of cars moving either with or against them. The sun wasn't up, but the horizon was growing lighter. Los Angeles was waking up.
”Right,” Allison said. ”Do you know exactly when the van pa.s.sed those cross streets?”
”Not exactly, no. We're working with secondhand information.”
”Hmm. That's a little more of a puzzle. What kind of time frame are we talking about?”
”Anywhere from five to fifteen minutes ago,” Katie said. ”That's a guess, but I think it's pretty accurate.”
”Narrows things down,” Allison said. ”I've got several possibilities. One's still traveling in a straight line on the same road, so that's probably our guy, but I've painted the others just in case he got tricky.”
”But you can track him?”
”Unless he goes underground-tunnel, parking structure, something like that-or unless he gets outside of the satellite's range, yes. I'd have to retask the satellite to get him back, and that would require some paperwork I don't think you have time for. And I don't have adequate justification for, either.” Allison's voice softened. ”You doing okay?”
”I'm fine,” Katie said. She was, remarkably. Her ribs ached-more after the crash than before, and now she was about ninety percent sure there were hairline fractures-and she was so tired she could feel her whole body trembling with it. She was so tired, in fact, that she no longer craved sleep. ”I want to finish this, but I'm pretty low on resources right now.”
”Name it and you'll get it.”
”Backup when I call for it. There's an FBI task force that just landed, they're at the local field office. I'd call myself, but I'm pretty sure that we might have to waste some time on questions I can't answer now. If you make the call for me, you can cite need-to-know and scary black-box operations.”
She expected to hear amus.e.m.e.nt in Allison's reply, but it surprised her by being completely sober. ”I'm not so sure it isn't,” she said. ”This is no ordinary abduction, Katie. I'm sure you already ruled out s.e.xual predators....”
”Not completely,” Katie said grimly. ”Let's just say that one of the men holding the girls isn't someone I'd want babysitting.”
”But that isn't the real intent behind it. This is a ma.s.sive operation, Katie. I've been tracking it from this end, and the data flows are strange, to say the least. Favors are being called in at a rate that I can't quite believe, and it's stretching out to a lot of criminal organizations that normally don't interact.”
”What do you mean?”
”Let's take Timmons Kent,” Allison said. ”He's a drug trafficker and dealer. High level. Who does he interact with? To stay where he is, he has to be very careful. It's a closed loop, very small interactive circles. Yet all of a sudden, Timmons is calling people outside of his own organization for favors. This includes the Salomon brothers, who promptly start calling their people on the west coast. This van's been defying the odds, Katie. Between you and the state police, not to mention the resources of the FBI, these guys should have been found a half dozen times. Instead, they've been evading the search, and when they're caught, they shoot their way out. Not normal.”
Katie remembered her previous conviction, that someone in law enforcement had been providing information. ”Insiders,” she said.
”Big time. And not small ones, either. I can count at least three data ripples that are significant-”
”Allison, I have no idea what that means.”
”It means three people out there in positions to influence and direct the investigation have been compromised,” she said. ”Bad guys are coming out of the woodwork on this one, and they're blowing the covers of resources they probably worked very hard to get. That means this isn't an ordinary abduction, or even an ordinary ransom kidnapping. This is something else. Something much bigger.”
In the front seat, Marine and Stefan were starting to have a hushed conversation of directions to follow, exits to take. Apparently, they were nearing Stefan's family home.
”I don't think that can matter to me right now,” Katie said. ”My one priority has to be getting these girls back safely. Anything else needs to be another conversation.”
”Understood, Katie, and no argument here. But I wanted you to get the big picture-this thing is attracting attention, and it's going to attract even more unless it's resolved quickly. It's in the best interests of the Athena Academy to make sure that happens. So do whatever you can.” Allison's tense voice thawed a little. ”And take care of yourself.”
”Look who's talking,” Katie replied.
When she hung up the phone, she erased both number and call record. She didn't have to worry about the provider network; Allison would take care of that as a matter of course. She handed the phone back to Stefan, who was pointing out a sprawling hacienda-style house sitting on a sinful expanse of California real estate behind a wrought-iron fence.