Janie Crouch - Protector's Instinct

“What’s going on?”

“Can you get to your email right now?” Jon asked.

“Let me go inside.” Zane grabbed the nearest dish towel from the kitchen and wiped as much sweat and dirt off his face and arms as he could before heading into his office.

“All right, I’m at my computer.”

“I’m sending a picture of a Damien Freihof.”

“I’ve never heard of him.”

“He went to jail five years ago because he was about to blow up a bank full of people in Phoenix.”

“Okay.” Zane had no idea what this had to do with him.

“He escaped last year. Nearly killed Brandon Han and his fiancée, Andrea.”

Zane knew Brandon; the man had helped figure out who the rapist was. But he didn’t know about this Freihof guy or that he almost killed Brandon.

“That time—” it would’ve been right after Caroline’s rape “—it’s pretty fuzzy for me, Jon.”

“Sure, man, I understand and don’t expect you to know any of this.”

“Okay.”

“Freihof went to ground after he attacked Brandon and Andrea. He was injured in his own explosion. He resurfaced last week.”

Zane still had no idea what this had to do with him. “Okay.”

“I just sent you a picture of him.”

Zane opened his email. “Okay, I got it.” He studied the mug shot of Damien Freihof from five years ago. “I don’t recognize him at all.”

“I’m sending you another picture.”

The second picture was a totally different man, roughly the same height and build but different jaw, eyes, hair.

“Okay, who’s that?”

“That is also Damien Freihof.”

“Damn.” Zane whistled through his teeth. “He’s good.”

“Yeah, he is.” Jon’s tone held grudging respect. “Good enough to beat all our facial scanning software and to avoid the statewide warrant for his arrest.”

“Do you think he’s moved on to Texas?” If he had, it wasn’t like Zane could do anything about it.

“Two days ago, Freihof masterminded a pretty elaborate plan. A bomb that killed one of our junior agents and put another agent in a coma. Looks like Freihof wants to make Omega Sector pay for putting him in prison. Plus, he nearly killed a mother and her toddler daughter in the process.”

Zane’s expletive wasn’t pretty. “Sounds like this bastard doesn’t care about collateral damage.”

“Exactly. He wants as much collateral damage as possible. We’ve already been given that message. He’s coming after people with ties to Omega. He’s trying to hurt civilians we care about in order to split Omega’s focus. I’m sending you one more picture.”

The picture Zane received was of some sort of wall with a staggering amount of information on it: newspaper clippings, photos, drawings, police reports, Google search printouts, fingerprints.

“What the hell is that?” Zane couldn’t make any sense of it at all.

“That’s the wall of clues Freihof left for us. A very complicated puzzle that points out Freihof’s next intended victims.”

“How the hell were you able to make any sense of it?”

“It took us a long time, believe me.” Jon paused for a second. “It looks like you and Caroline are on his intended victims’ list, Zane.”

“What?”

“There were very specific clues referring to you by name on the wall of clues. We think he might be coming after you soon, if he’s not there already.”

Zane’s expletive this time was even uglier. “Caroline’s off on her own.”

“What?”

“She’s on some damfool hiking trip in Big Bend State Park. Alone. Do you think this Freihof character might be aware of this?”

“Honestly, Jon, the man is a genius. I wouldn’t put anything past him.”

“Thanks for the heads-up, Jon. I’ve got to go. I’ll keep you posted.” Zane disconnected the call and was running for his bedroom, grabbing his go-bag. He would call Captain Harris on the way to the airport and get him to contact the park rangers at Big Bend and find out Caroline’s exact GPS location.

He would file his flight plan and be in the air in less than an hour. He’d be with Caroline in under two. A madman genius had gotten to her once. There was no way in hell he was letting another.

So much for keeping his distance.

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