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“Because it’s Devi’s birthday in a week. When was the lasttime TJ missed his sister’s birthday for anything other than work?” She staredat the picture. It looked real, but reality wasn’t what it used to be.
“I’ve got the same picture and almost the same text,” Zachsaid, turning his laptop toward her. “Have a look.”
“TJ wouldn’t miss Devi’s party.” Kala was sitting up now.She pulled her cell, putting it to her ear after sliding it open and pressingthe screen. “Has anyone actually talked to him? Not text.”
Lou was staring at that picture, trying to find the holes.There were always holes.
In the picture they sat on a big sofa, TJ’s arm around theblonde’s shoulders and her legs crossed over his. Where was it taken? She openeda piece of software she’d developed with Tristan Dean-Miles and imported thepicture, setting the program into motion.
It scoured the Internet and social media for similarpictures, looking for anything that could ID a position. It would take intoaccount the sofa itself, the placement of the big windows behind the happycouple.
“I haven’t talked to him, but we usually text,” Cooperadmitted.
“Did anyone call Tris?” Kenzie asked.
“Tristan is not reachable at this time,” Zach said. “And youknow I can’t talk about it.”
Tristan hadn’t returned to the States with them after theAustralian op, but that had felt normal. At least of late. When they’d firststarted working together as a team, Tristan had taken every opportunity to comehome and spend time with his long-time girlfriend, Carys Taggart, and bestfriend Aidan O’Donnell. They’d been a trio since they were kids, and whenthey’d hit high school, they’d openly dated. All three of them. Tristan andAidan had decided not to fight over the girl they both loved.
And then something had happened. Tristan had withdrawn. Hewas working on a project, and he claimed he couldn’t share it with the team.
Something dangerous. She worried about Tristan, but she knewshe could get him in serious trouble if she started trying to solve thatmystery. The Agency was using him and his unique skills for some kind oflong-term mission.
She hoped it didn’t cost him the love of his life.
“We don’t need to bother Tris,” Lou said as the program narrowedit down to three different possible locations where the picture itself had beentaken. She took those results and started another, more detailed search beforeloading the pic into a program she’d designed to find even the best ofphotographic manipulations. “I can take this thing apart in a couple ofminutes. And don’t call Tasha. She’s with Dare and her mom looking at condos.”
“I’m going to miss my sister, but I will not miss how loudthose two are. They go at it hard.” Kala stood and walked around to move innext to Lou.
She’d lived with Tasha, Kala, and Kenzie in a four-bedroomhouse they rented in the suburbs not too far from Ian and Charlotte Taggartsince she’d left her job in Austin. They also had a small apartment in DC theyshared when they were called into the office, so to speak. She would miss Tash,but it would be nice to have more space.
And they were loud.
“What have you got?” Kala asked.
A notice popped up, and Lou had her answer. “It’s been manipulated.It’s not even Germany. Look. The program found the original photograph on asocial media site. It’s from someone named Annie Jackson. She posted it fouryears ago while she was on her honeymoon in Aspen with her husband, who isroughly the same size and body shape and skin tone of one Theodore Taggart Jr.”
Her tone was even. Like she was working any case. But herheart was beating in her chest. Someone had TJ. Someone had taken TJ, and theywere doing a halfway decent job of covering their tracks.
“Yes, I need to activate a tracker.” Kenzie had her phone toher ear. “My ID number is…” Her voice trailed off as she walked out of theconference room.
“If they’re good at all they’ll have pulled his tracker. Ifthey know he’s Special Forces, they’ll look for one,” Zach said, sitting back.“All right. So they’ve tried to cover his kidnapping. That means they want timewith him. What would TJ know?”
“He’s been on over sixty highly classified missions. Itcould be anything,” Cooper said. “He’s worked with a bunch of different agentsover six continents. I can go over his mission briefs if you get me theclearance.”
“I’ll call Drake.” Zach pulled his cell. “Coop, I want youto reply to him. Something douchey like get in there, brother. I don’tknow. Whatever a frat bro would text, that’s what you should do. I’ll do thesame after I talk to Drake.”
Drake Radcliffe was their Agency liaison, and he could getthem into any files they needed.
“Hey, we’re going to find him.” Kala put a hand on her arm.
Who would want TJ? Yes, he’d worked on a lot of covert ops,but he wouldn’t have the information his Agency handlers did. Of course, ifthey knew his friends were Agency, they wouldn’t have tried to throw them offwith simple texts and pictures.
Kenzie walked back in, a grim look telling them what theyalready knew. “The tracker is in a landfill in Germany. They threw it out. Thelast location they show is a bar a couple of miles outside of Ramstein. I wouldbet that’s where they picked him up. It’s been a little over twenty-four hours,so I think it’s still early.”
It wouldn’t feel like twenty-four hours to TJ.
What were they doing to him? Was he hurt? Was he beingtortured somewhere out there?
