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Lauren sent Li Na an enraged email—documenting the conversation with Hannah and every visible bruise—then curled up into a ball and cried herself to sleep again. I held her until the sobs subsided, and she finally fell into a restless sleep. Then I sat there for a long time, just watching her.
I couldn’t sleep. Images of Hannah’s bruised face kept coming back to me. Lauren’s shuddery breathing pierced my heart. And I kept thinking about Wes, lying in a hospital bed, hooked up to a hundred tubes.
Li Na had ripped my family apart.
I made sure Lauren was settled, then went out to the empty living room. Levi and Ash had come back late from meetings with the police and the FBI and must’ve gone straight to bed. I grabbed Asher’s laptop and fired it up. He’d been unable to ascertain the final digits of the license plate on the security tape. Numbers were my thing, so maybe there was something I could do. I opened up the images from the video feed and started working on an algorithm. I knew that if I could run the different variables, I could possibly match them with a plate from the database Ash had accessed.
By the time the sun came up, I’d figured out the plate number and found a match in the database. I mentally high-fived myself as I went in and sat on Ash’s bed, staring at him as he slept. After a minute, he half opened his eyes. “Have you been staring at me? That’s really rude.”
“I figured out the plate number.”
Ash sat up, instantly alert, the dark circles under his eyes indicating he’d had only a few hours of sleep. “How?”
“Math.” I opened the laptop and pulled up the database. “I found the listing in the database—it looks like the plate was taken from a car at a shopping center in Sunnyvale. Which is only ten miles from Lauren’s house. I’m sure they’ve switched cars since then, but at least it’s a start.”
Ash hopped up and dressed quickly. “I’m going to get it traced and see if we can find where they dumped it. And then I’m going out with the crew. We’ll start searching the area.” He nodded at me. “Good work.”
“I know. Being a genius has its advantages.”
I hustled out to tell Levi what I’d done. Already dressed in a pressed shirt and khakis, he nodded at me over his coffee.
I grabbed a mug for myself. “I figured out the plate number. I used an algorithm and ran the variables.”
Levi’s eyes brightened. “If you’re looking for compliments, you came to the right place. Nice job. Is Ash on it?”
“Yes.”
He started pacing, his mind clearly racing. “Excellent. Finally, a break.”
“I just hope something comes from it.”
“It will.”
I sat down with my coffee. “We spoke to Hannah again last night via Skype—she looked like hell. They’ve been beating her.”
“Jesus.” Levi curled his hand into a fist, looking infinitely pissed. “I’m going back out there, and I’m going to find her. With the plate number, we have a place to start tracking them. I’m also meeting with the NSA today, to compare intel.”
“Good—I hope they have something.”
Levi nodded. “Since your tech expertise is coming in handy, I have something else for you to do.”
“What’s that?”
“I want you to review those two Skype videos more thoroughly with your IT team. You work with the most sophisticated people in the industry—hopefully they can figure something out. Maybe reroute the IP address and track it back to Shenzhen, or something. But there’s gotta be a way to get more information about Hannah’s location from that interface.”
“I’ll send the tape from last night to Dave and Leo. If anyone can figure something out, they can. But they reverse-engineered the first session, and the signal was rerouted from a proxy server in Russia—which is what these people do. Li Na has this routine down pat.”
Ash came in, fully dressed and ready to go. He nodded at Levi. “I have a call in to the police to find out if this car has been dumped. I’m going to head to Sunnyvale while I wait to hear back from them. I need to do something—if I sit around here anymore, I’m going to go nuts.”
I stood up. “I’ll go with you.”
Ash and Levi exchanged a quick look. “I don’t think so,” Levi said. “We should leave the fieldwork to the experts. You did a great job tracking the number, and we appreciate the hell out of it, but you should stick to what you’re good at.”
I ignored him and turned to Ash. “Can I come? I’ll go crazy waiting to hear something.”
Ash looked miserable. “I think we need to stick with the plan. But I promise I’ll text you as soon as I find something. Please tell Lauren I’m going out there, and I’m going to find something, okay? I promise.” Nodding at me one final time, he took off.
I stared Levi down. “Why won’t you let me help?”
