Page 25 of Russian Rescue

Piper shook her head. “Once we let them know you’re in Moscow, they will be hunting you down. The only way to make sure you don’t end up in their hands again is to get you out of Moscow. Marcus and Knox can make the plan and let us know when it’s time to move.”

Grumbling, I agreed. She was right, of course. And Marcus always made the extraction plans. I trusted him to find a way to get my baby sister out.

Piper handed me her tablet. “Use this to start researching what building we need to go into. I’m going to call Marcus and Knox and let them know the plan.”

“Okay.” Excitement fluttered inside me. A plan. Something I could do. A way to get back my little sister.

I went to work on Piper’s tablet, figuring out exactly what MIPT had that I could use to get inside access to the Russian systems again. I figured if I started hacking the same path that had gotten me discovered before, it would tip off the hacker that had found me the first time. An hour later, I had an idea of what building I needed to get into at MIPT. Oleg arrived with the car Piper had requested, and he threw the keys to Piper when he walked into the apartment.

“It’s a rental, so try not to scratch it,” Oleg said. “Just leave it at the airfield, text me the location, and I’ll come pick it up.”

“About that,” Piper said. “We may not be leaving this morning. Slight change of plan. Do you still have that cabin an hour outside of the city? If we need to stay in Russia, I want to get Wes out of the city at least. Somewhere completely off-grid.”

Oleg scrubbed a hand down his beard. “I do. You’re welcome to use it or crash here as long as you need. You remember where it is?”

She nodded. “Thanks, Oleg. You’re the best.”

Piper stood and walked over, pressing a kiss to his cheek. His rosy complexion deepened to crimson as he grinned.

Yep, any man would do anything for Piper. Especially me.

“Thank you, Oleg. For everything.” I waved a hand down the jeans and t-shirt that fit me well. “Especially the pants that aren’t squeezing the life out of me.”

“You are always welcome here too.” Oleg smiled. “There’s food and vodka at the cabin, as well as more changes of clothes if you need them. I finally got a powerline out there too, so no more noisy generator to turn on. Oh, and I still have the vault of weapons if you need to borrow them.” He lifted a finger. “Borrow. Some of my favorite guns are up there, so don’t take off with them.”

“I’ve got these.” She hoisted her black bag filled with weapons. “But if I need to borrow them, I promise I’ll return them. I’ll make sure everything is exactly how I left it.” She stopped and smiled. “Well, the vodka will be emptier. I mean, we are in Russia.”

Oleg laughed. “I’ll make sure to bring more when I go to stay at my cabin next. Enjoy it.”

“Thanks, Oleg. Marcus and Knox may be getting in touch with some equipment needs for an extraction as well.”

“I’ll be ready. I can get whatever you need.”

She brushed her fingers across his furry cheek one more time for good measure. He nearly melted into a pile of goo as she tipped her head and thanked him again.

“Come on, Wes. Let’s go find your sister.”

I pulled my baseball cap down tight over my head and slid the sunglasses up over my face. They wouldn’t need me if their current hacker wasn’t as good as me, but we still weren’t sure how good they were at finding people. Not wanting to reveal my location until I was ready to do so, I kept my head down as I slid into the passenger seat of the beat-up old car that looked ready to fall apart.

“Seriously?” I joked as I got inside. “I thought you special ops people drove like super-fast, cool Bond cars. This thing smells like B.O.”

“Sometimes we do, but not when we’re going undercover in the city. We drive what helps us blend in. Stealth. That’s the focus of Elite Stealth Force. This car may not be pretty, but it’s not going to call any attention either.”

“I suppose.” I settled back into the seat as Piper started the clunking engine. “But I’m bummed I don’t get to ride in some fancy sports car on my first ever op.”

“Let’s just focus on finding your sister and keeping you both alive and out of Russian hands.”

We chugged off down the street to the MIPT campus. I used the map I’d pulled from Piper’s tablet to locate the building that housed the best computers. With it being Sunday, all the buildings were locked, but Piper made quick work of the locks and let us in without being detected. I found the system that would allow me to run my program, and I made myself at home.

After twenty minutes of setting up, my fingers blurred across the keyboard as I went through the footage Brooks had sent us for the last sighting of Amanda. My heart squeezed in my chest when I watched them shoving her into the back of an SUV. The terror in her eyes nearly broke me. But I pushed past it and kept on typing, hacking security footage from other cameras on the street until I pieced together the direction they’d taken her. Then one after another, I hacked the cameras, following their path through the city until I saw them pull into an underground garage beneath a luxury high-rise apartment building.

“There. This is where they took her.”

Heart throbbing in my chest, I accessed the security feeds from inside the building. Following their footsteps, I watched them enter a room on the twentieth floor.

“Is she still there?” Piper asked from her perch over my shoulder.

“Give me a second and I’ll find out.”