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Emily was crying loudly enough that two nurses came running in.
“I’m sorry, you’ll have to leave,” one of them said.
Ignoring them, Jenna squeezed Emily’s hand. “Does it hurt? Tell me where it hurts, Emily.”
She shook her head. “It doesn’t hurt. But that man…”
One of the nurses was pulling on Jenna’s arm, while the other was looking at Emily’s vitals and chart.
Jenna let herself be pulled slowly. She didn’t know if she’d get another chance to talk to Emily like this. “What about him? What about that man?”
Emily lowered her arms, but she was still crying. “He killed one of the doctors right in front of me. Shot him. Said if the doctors couldn’t do their job by the deadline, he’d find someone who could.”
Chapter 21
“Where the hell is Callum?” Mark asked Ian from the conference room where they’d been watching Jenna’s conversation with Emily. “That woman just admitted that she witnessed Joaquin murder someone in front of her. Let’s quit fucking around and arrest him.”
“I don’t know where he is. He should’ve already been here.”
“We need to let him know what Emily said.”
Ian leaned back in his chair and scrubbed a hand down his face. “Problem is, I’m not sure what she said is enough to get a warrant. Lawyers might argue that a woman who’s been arrested is conveniently trying to frame someone else to get herself out of trouble. Not to mention she’s talking crazy…crispy ink fingers.”
As much as Mark didn’t want to admit it, Ian was right. “Yeah, I guess the huge cocktail of drugs in her system doesn’t help establish her as a credible witness either.”
“Did you understand any of that darknet stuff?”
Mark shrugged. “I know it’s real, but that’s about it. Computers definitely aren’t my area of expertise. Jenna will be able to tell us more, but it sounds like we were barking up the wrong tree, thinking Joaquin was trying to siphon info from the servers.”
“Honestly, the dark web stuff makes more sense to me.”
“How so?”
Ian crossed his arms over his chest. “If Joaquin was trying to get to the info held on the government servers…why use the robots and send them to locations all over the country?”
Mark nodded. “Agreed. Why not just hack them? Would be easier and more efficient.”
“Exactly. But if I’m not mistaken, the dark web doesn’t have to be accessed from a special location.”
“You’re right.” Jenna walked through the door, frown creasing her brow. “Joaquin could access the dark web anywhere.”
Mark got up and handed her a bottle of water. She chugged it all down at once. “So, what’s his endgame?”
“I don’t know. I just know what we thought we knew was wrong.” She tossed the bottle in the recycling bin. “I need to rewatch the footage of Emily and me. There’s more. I’m missing it, but I know there’s more. I’m making too many mistakes.”
Mark hated the way stress blanketed her features. He grabbed her and pulled her into his chest. “Hey, librarian, you’re not making mistakes. You’re taking each step based on the intel you have. As the intel changes, our steps change. You’re not doing anything wrong.”
“I’ll avoid turning this into some awkward group hug situation, but I concur with Outlaw, Jenna,” Ian said. “Don’t doubt yourself. We’re not doubting you.”
She seemed a little stronger as she pulled away, and that was all Mark could ask for right now. “I’m not sure where to focus my attention, to be honest.”
“On the sixty-eight-hour countdown.” He and Ian said it at the same time.
Mark nodded. “We now have confirmation of some sort of attack or something in just under sixty-eight hours.”
Jenna sat down at the laptop she’d brought into the hospital. “Emily was in that clothing store seven hours ago, so I’m going to start a timer for sixty hours to be conservative.”
She clicked on the keyboard, and a few moments later, a countdown timer started on her screen. “We have exactly two and a half days to figure out what Joaquin is doing and stop him.”
