“But I’ve seen your face. I’ve watched TV. I know what that means.”
“You’ve watched TV?” He laughed, going through her belongings. “I don’t care if you know who I am. The feds are going to know it was me, anyway.” He looked up at her. “Not my first rodeo, if you know what I mean.” She took off a boot, handed it over, and he began feeling around init. “I’ll be out of the U.S. before you get the chance to squawk to anybody about what happened to—”
He stopped talking and looked up at the girl, his crazy eyes widened.
“What?” she asked. She was genuinely confused.
“Yo, Bennett! Get your ass in here!”
The boss kept his hand inside Andie’s boot until the man who’d searched her earlier returned to the room. “Yeah?”
Slowly, the boss took out the insole of the boot, threw it on the ground. He then took out the liner under the insole, ripping it clear of the boot.
Finally, he brought his hand out holding a small silver Apple AirTag.
He held it up to Andie, who had no idea that had been in her boot. “Who’s going to come looking for you?”
“I…I…I don’t know.”
“Your dad? Yourrealdad?”
“I…” Confused by the wording of the question, she said nothing else.
The one called Bennett said, “We can be out of here, but it’s going to take a—”
The boss cut him off. “Where are those other guys?”
“I’ve got two more; they’ll be here in a half hour. They’re good. They know the area. They’re armed.” He added, “And they want that five grand. They’ll do whatever you need.”
Kincaid handed the AirTag over to the man. “Take this a few miles down the road, then throw it in the trees. Get back here in twenty minutes, get the rifles out of the truck, and get ready. We might have company.”
Bennett took the AirTag and ran out the door.
Andie started to cry now. “I swear to you, sir. I’ve never ever seen that—”
“I believe you. But that’s not gonna save your daddy or your mommy if they come up that driveway looking for you.”
“No!” she cried, and she charged at him, her fists pounding his chest. He shoved her off, down to the floor. The man with the bruise on his face entered the room, and the boss looked to him. “If she tries anything like that again, tie her and gag her.”
The boss left the room without another word.
Forty-Four
A half hour after Zack put in the coordinates for the ski resort, he was on the mountain, just minutes from the entrance.
He’d spoken to the team at Ghost Town twice in that time, and during their last conversation, ten minutes earlier, they told him they had looped Angela Lacy and Jim Pace at CIA into this because they had access to methods that Ghost Town did not.
The Signal line rang again. It was Court; he told Zack he would be flying into Boulder Municipal Airport. It was closer to where Andie was last seen, and there would be a vehicle waiting for him so he could meet with Zack wherever he was.
Zack instructed Court to make sure the vehicle was four-wheel drive—the roads were shit and getting worse—but he did not tell his friend that Lancer had demanded Court’s neck in exchange for his daughter.
The conversation was brief; Zack was busy fighting the elements and concentrating on the road, and after Court hung up, the former Navy SEAL began winding his way up the mountain.
Just minutes later the Signal app chirped again; Zack answered it with the press of a button on his steering wheel.
“Yeah.”
Hanley said, “Night Train, you’ve got everybody on conference here. Lacy, Gumdrop, Teddy, and myself. We’ve got intel for you.”
