AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“You had left for Estonia,” Thorn said, “so you missed this part. Amanda decided that since Helsinki was so close, she’d pop over to Russia to visit her grandmother.”
“But Moscow?” Nutsbe shook his head. “In this atmosphere?”
“We strenuously discouraged her from going. Free will,” Titus said.
Nutsbe turned to Thorn. “The university didn’t weigh in?”
“They didn’t offer guidance. Bradshaw seemed to think that only Americans with high name recognition were getting picked up. She was a student. I pointed out that other students came to some very bad ends at the hands of governments where America had little to no diplomatic presence.”
“Let me guess,” Nutsbe frowned, “she said they were foreigners, and she had family.”
“Grandmother, to be exact. And that’s where they arrested her, at her grandmother’s apartment.”
“That’s what’s in the paper?” Nutsbe asked. “When was the arrest?”
“Two weeks ago,” Titus said. “It looks like she spent one night with Grandma and the second night at the prison. Word is just now getting out to the public.”
Nutsbe leaned back and focused on the ceiling. “Well, shit. Kennedy is probably right, then.”
“What did you land on?” Titus asked.
“When I was in Tallinn, Estonia, Amanda Bradshaw contacted me via the switchboard. She asked me if I could check a website to see if it was safe for her to open on her computer. Bradshaw mentioned something about research for the university. She said she didn’t want to mess up her new security clearance. And since we do that for her university’s contract, I followed through, no big deal.”
“You opened it and decided it was fine?” Thorn said.
“I did because it was.”
“But you swiped through while she was on the phone with you?” Titus said.
“I did.”
Titus’s nod was grave. “You have that information in a report?”
“I logged it and reported on it. We can hand the info to our cyber team and get them to take a look.”
“I’ll bring it up with Command first,” Titus said. “See how they want to handle this. Off the top of your head, this was in the last two weeks, so after her arrest?”
“It fits Kennedy’s timeline. I flew back to D.C. from Estonia for a few days to attend meetings and pick up K9 Max for Halo. And that’s why I can pinpoint this exactly. It was the day I came back to join the team in Estonia. It was the night of the Tallinn fire. You all were downstairs having dinner, and I was doing reports in my room.”
“What was on the site?” Thorn asked.
“A nothing burger site. I remember thinking that it wasn’t worth her while.” Nutsbe shook his head. “Russian prison. That’s no damned joke. This situation with Amanda is out of our hands, right?” Nutsbe turned back to Titus. “The State Department is negotiating her release?”
“She’s on their radar. We warned her about this very situation.” Titus didn’t look up from his phone, where he was searching through a file. “State Department wants us to butt out. They have the Special Presidential Envoy for Hostage Affairs involved.”
“Honey?” Nutsbe knew that Honey Honig had been rerouted and hadn’t returned with the rest of Panther Force. He often worked alone when he was negotiating a hostage release. And Nutsbe hadn’t had time since the Panther Force wheels landed to move through the roster and account for everyone’s workload.
“At this point, there’s nothing we can do. There’s no way to get in and grab her out. If she was sent to her grandmother’s to await trial, that would be one thing. This … Nothing to be done except stick our nose in and complicate the situation.” Titus seemed to have found what he needed and sent it on to the person who needed it. His focus returned to Nutsbe. “But based on other Americans being held on trumped-up espionage charges, she’s never coming home.”
“I think I have the photo that Kennedy told us about.” Nutsbe opened his phone. “Our protectee took it and sent a copy to both of us because it isn’t every day that a Russian president walks through the room.” Nutsbe held his phone out. “Do you think that guy with the black case carries the Russian equivalent of the nuclear football?”
Titus looked at the picture, and his face brightened with a rare grin. “That, my friend, is paranoia in action. When the Russian president takes a shit, this poor guy,” Titus tapped the screen, “has to fish the turd out of the pot and carry it in that case.”
“It’s a shitcase?” Nutsbe pulled his chin back, pulling his lips thin with disgust. “Are you pulling my leg?”
“I shit you not,” Titus said. “He’s afraid that a foreign government could get his fecal matter and test it to gain his DNA and other information about his health.”
“Disgusting.” Nutsbe put his phone back in his pocket.
