Jeff Abbott - Trust Me

Snow said, ‘Was there any mention from the kidnapper about the first wave of attacks?’

‘No.’

‘Or of Hellfire?’ Her eyes were bright.

‘No. So the kidnapper is interested in the fifty million – not in stopping the attacks themselves,’ Henry said.

‘All right. They asked for a ransom of our money. What did you say?’ Mouser sat back down on the couch.

Henry returned his gun to his jacket. ‘I wasn’t willing to acknowledge that I had the money in case the conversation was being taped.’

‘So you refused to ransom your own kid. Your loyalty is an inspiration.’

‘I may have saved us all by doing so. Because I know who kidnapped Luke.’

‘Who?’

‘The banker who was in charge of setting up the financial accounts around the country for the fifty million is missing. Eric Lindoe. He hasn’t been at his job in the past three days.’

‘Who could have shut you out of the accounts?’

‘Only Eric. Only he and I had access. Mine is under a false name of course.’

‘You’re not making sense, Henry. If Eric Lindoe took the money, he has no reason to kidnap your stepson,’ Snow said in an even tone. She kept her grip on Mouser’s shoulder and he shrugged it off.

‘I think there is a simple explanation. If Eric was just a common embezzler, then he could simply steal the money and try to hide from us. There would be no reason to involve Luke. If the government – the Beast, as you so charmingly say, Mouser – has discovered us and turned Eric against us, again, there would be no need to kidnap my son. The FBI would freeze the funds, arrest Eric, and arrest me, try to force your names and those of everyone in the Night Road from me. And they would care about stopping the attacks, and then stopping Hellfire – they wouldn’t have the money as a focus. We face contradictory facts. Ergo, we must follow a third alternative: Eric wants everyone – us and our enemy – to think he doesn’t have the money, and our enemy is not the government.’

‘Ergo so who?’ Mouser asked, mocking.

‘Our enemy wants the fifty million for themselves. It might be someone in the Night Road, turning traitor against us, although no one in the group knows that Eric is our banker. Only I know him. So. I believe it’s an outsider, who has discovered the existence of the fifty million and knows we can hardly report the theft of it to the police.’

‘But why would Eric ask for a ransom that you couldn’t pay, if he knew you couldn’t access the accounts?’ Snow asked. A sharpness like a new-forged knife’s shone in her words. ‘What’s the point?’

‘The point of the ransom may have been to get me to agree to pay the money, get me on tape acknowledging that I knew about the money. Blackmail me. Maybe our enemy grabbed Eric, couldn’t get the money from him if he had changed the access codes to protect the money. He lied that he had no access to the money, and so the enemy panicked and grabbed Luke – or had Eric grab Luke – thinking I could still deliver the funds. And Eric let the enemy think he didn’t have the funds. But

… this is all theory.’

‘You mean we can’t even confirm if our money is still in the accounts?’ Mouser said in a cold whisper.

‘No. Not without knowing what the passwords are now. He took my name off and changed the access. I’m sure he’s hidden the funds. With that much money, Eric can hide forever, he can buy serious protection.’

‘How could he…?’

‘He’s an officer at the bank. He could manipulate the system to hide the money in a hundred places. I have one of our hackers trying to break into the bank’s database, so we can see if and where the money was transferred, but he’s had zero success.’

Mouser began to pace, a cold fury moving his legs. ‘Without the money, Hellfire doesn’t happen. Everything we’ve worked for doesn’t happen. Every risk we’ve taken… wasted.’

‘I want to aim you at the problem. Under one condition,’ Henry said.

‘What?’

‘No harm comes to my stepson.’

‘He can’t know about us, Henry. Not unless he joins us.’

‘I will deal with him. But you will not harm him. He could be very valuable to us.’

After a moment, Mouser nodded.

‘We need to find Eric and we need to find Luke.’

‘How?’

‘I’ve got a Night Road contact working on hacking the GPS system on Luke’s car, see where it is, see where it’s been. Then I want you to go find Luke and stash him somewhere so I can talk to him. Failing that – or if they’ve killed him – find his kidnappers. I will work on locating Eric.’

Snow said, ‘You turned down their ransom demand. They’ll have killed him.’

‘They won’t give up on fifty million just because I said no the first time. They might conclude I was worried about being taped or trapped. They’ll let me squirm, then send Luke’s finger to me, or an ear’ – Henry stopped a moment to steady his voice – ‘to prove the channels of negotiation are still open.’

‘All right.’

‘I am going to return to Washington. I’ll let you know what the hacker finds on Luke’s car. You are not to harm Luke and, if you find his kidnapper, keep him alive for questioning. Do you understand me?’

‘I’m taking an extra risk here,’ Mouser said.

‘And you’ll be rewarded with a greater share of money for your cause and glory.’

‘I need backup.’

‘I’ll go with you,’ Snow said.

Mouser made a noise in his throat, lowered his voice. ‘No offense, but you’re a tech-head, a bomb maker.’

‘I’m a soldier, same as you,’ Snow said. ‘I know how to fight and fight hard. And no one is going to derail Hellfire. No one. Not after all the work I’ve done. I risked my life, every day, for weeks to build the bombs.’

‘I would rather you stay here,’ Mouser said. ‘You’ve got more work to do for Hellfire.’

‘Let me help you. We can make quick work of finding these people together.’

Henry said. ‘I agree with Snow. I’ll call you as soon as I know something.’

‘You sure got here quick,’ Mouser said. ‘Maybe you took the money, fed us this story, and you’re walking off with it.’ He put his hand back on his gun.

‘I wouldn’t have built the Night Road if I was going to betray it,’ Henry said. ‘I have to be back in Washington immediately, I can hitch a ride back on… a friend’s plane.’ He shook Mouser’s hand, Snow’s hand. ‘We’re off to a brilliant start today. We’ll get the money back, we’ll make Hellfire happen.’ He stood, leveled a look at them both. ‘Take care of Luke. No harm to him. I have your word.’

Henry left.

‘He must be scared to death. He could have told us this over the phone.’

‘Better to tell us face to face,’ Snow said. ‘Especially since he’s asking you to save his kid.’

Mouser considered. ‘You have a point. Disappointment is always easier in person.’

‘You want something to eat? I’m hungry. Gonna make me a sandwich,’ Snow said.

Mouser shook his head. She went into the kitchen. He sat on the edge of the couch and thought how he’d sunk from the joy of the bombing to the anger of the missing money. Rescue a snot-nosed grad student who had been taught in the Beast’s tax-funded universities, where his mind had been poisoned to think the Beast’s system was good and noble. Did Henry honestly think he’d let the kid live? If the kidnappers knew about the Night Road, then they were all at risk and Luke Dantry was just an unfortunate witness. A risk.

He walked back into the living room. Snow had opened him a beer, left it for him on the coffee table. She was watching the coverage from Ripley. ‘I might have put too much oomph in the baby. Ruptured two tanks for sure, they say now, but a lot of the chlorine must’ve burned off. It’s given them time to evacuate more people.’