Nathan continued without denial or confirmation. “In any event, Leonard is perfect for certain odd jobs. Nobody suspects a seventy-five-year-old operative. Leonard bought the book. Teddy handled the electronic transfer.”
“Teddy?” Twitch’s voice was laced with irritation.
Teddy was Twitch’s protégé of sorts. She had beaten him in some sort of legitimate hacking competition, and as payback, Teddy had done some rather nasty things, not the least of which was have ConEd cut off her electricity for lack of payment. Rather than her normal scorched earth approach, Twitch simply showed up at his door. When she discovered with amused shock that Teddy, hacker name the uninventive “Doom,” lived with his aunt and uncle in a room that was basically under a staircase, she simply looked at him and said the only thing she could: you’re a wizard, Teddy. From then on, Teddy had become like a little brother to her. He wasn’t privy to her work at K-B, not yet anyway, but Twitch had an equally impressive set up in her Brooklyn brownstone, complete with a gaming system, and she and Teddy spent nearly all their free time there. Teddy had dangerous skills. Twitch shouldered the responsibility of keeping Teddy on the straight and narrow, or straight and broadband as the case may be.
“He was ready for a job, don’t you think?”
“He should have told me.”
“I was testing him. He tends to run his mouth. I wanted to see what he did.”
“Looks like he passed.”
“He did, but it’s about to get tricky. He’s following the money transfer, but Dario Sava is not some two-bit drug courier. Even with our virtual explosive dye pack, he’s going to need your help.”
Twitch nodded. “I’ll have him meet me at the office. We headed to NYC?”
Nathan nodded as the group moved to pack up. “I’m going to accompany Charlie back to South Carolina and fetch Emily.”
Charlie retrieved his phone from an interior coat pocket. “Four missed calls from Maggie. Something’s not right.” Charlie returned the call and had to listen twice to Maggie’s frantic explanation before he finally got the gist. Nathan stared at him, straining to hear Maggie’s words. Charlie ended the call.
“Emily’s been taken. Maggie caught sight of her leaving the beach with two men. One tall, one short. Hercules clocked a black Escalade driving away. Tinted windows, SC plates, rental car sticker on the back tailgate.”
Nathan went into battle mode without pause. “Twitch, get on it. Find out where they’re going. We need the CIA’s help with this. See if they know any holdings Sava has in the U.S. I need to contact Cerberus.”
“Let me see what I can do.” Charlie was already scrolling through contacts. Nathan stared for a moment as realization dawned. The computer set up in Charlie’s cozy cottage, his intricate web of connections and channels of information. His three dogs. Always three.
“Cerberus.” It wasn’t a question. Charlie Bishop was Nathan’s covert government contact. Charlie had, no doubt, chosen the code name—the mythological three-headed dog that guards the gates of hell—himself.
Charlie looked up and hit Nathan with a took-you-long-enough smile.
“Sofria Kirk should be able to help.”
Twitch didn’t look up from her ever-present laptop. “On it.”
“In the meantime,” Charlie continued, “let’s head back to Royal. I work best from the home office, and you can get more detailed information from Mags. You also may want to bring Hercules along with you when you leave.”
“Why’s that?”
“He didn’t elaborate on his military record. He never does, but he may be the best long-distance sniper the Marines have ever seen. If you need someone on overwatch, he’s your guy.”
Charlie followed the group out of the Naval Research Lab. His decision to withhold Maggie’s other news about Emily not sitting quite right. A man had a right to know these things. Nevertheless, after quickly weighing his options, he determined that Nathan was already so emotionally impacted by yet another attempt to harm Emily, he’d never be able to hold it together if he knew Emily was pregnant. Still, Charlie had decided a long time ago he was through playing God. He lacked certain qualifications for the job.
Twitch, Ren, Chat, and Tox opted to drive back to New York. Twitch had heard back from CIA analyst Sofria Kirk almost immediately and needed to stop in Arlington to pick up the information Sofria hadn’t wanted to transmit electronically. Tox wanted to pick up Finn, who was back at his mother’s house in Philly. Chat gave a sharp nod of agreement, and Ren simply headed to the car.
Charlie and Nathan peeled off and climbed into the back of the other Suburban one of Charlie’s contacts had kindly arranged. The Master at Arms naval officer at the wheel would return the car after dropping them at the private airfield where the K-B jet was fueled and ready. Nathan was already pulled tighter than a tripwire when Charlie turned to him.
“There’s something else you need to know.”
Nathan turned to him stone-faced.
“Maggie noticed Emily wasn’t feeling quite right. Emily realized when her captors had removed her tracking implant, they also removed her birth control implant. They must have mistaken it for a backup.”
Nathan continued to listen, but Charlie could see he wasn’t connecting the dots.
“Nathan, son, Emily’s pregnant.”
Nathan’s eyes were wide as saucers, and an enormous smile split his face. In an instant he composed himself. He took a deep breath, blew it out, and with a mastery of understatement deeply ingrained by his British mother, he calmly replied, “Well, we had better get her back then, hadn’t we?”