“Do you see any sign of her?” Seven asked.
“No. I do see a windowless van speeding down the street. Hold on, let me look up the license plate… Sorry, they are stolen plates. I will continue to follow the van.”
While Chaos was tracking the van, Ivy updated Ghost, Carter, and Falcon on their latest discovery.
“That surprises me. I really thought the kid would’ve stopped,” Ghost said.
“I don’t think he had a choice,” Seven added. “Not based on the message he sent Byte.”
Chaos interrupted their conversation with an update. “The van drove to San Antonio. The last time I see the vehicle is when it pulled into Six Flags Fiesta Texas.”
“Lovely. That’s going to be impossible to track. I’m sure they dumped the van and left in another vehicle.” Seven exhaled in frustration.
“Do you want us to come home?” Ghost asked Ivy.
“No, y’all finish up there. The three of us will find her.”
“Call me the minute you know where she is.”
“I will. Justin, I’m worried about her.”
“I know, love, but she’s got you covering her six. She knows you’ll come for her. Byte knows she can rely on us.”
“You’re right. And she’s smart enough to somehow let us know where she’s at.”
“You need to think how she thinks,” Carter suggested. “Minus the snarky comments.”
Chaos had emailed them the images of the van, and an enlarged, highly pixilated shot of the driver. They could only tell it was a man, most likely Mexican or a South American based on his skin color.
“So we have a Hispanic man, unknown age, driving a stolen van, or at least the plates are, in San Antonio. Yeah, this is going to be easy,” Ivy said in jest. “Okay, let’s get started.”
CHAPTERTHIRTEEN
The van had come out of nowhere, and he never swerved to try and miss her. Instead, it seemed like he had aimed for her. The fact that she was lying on the floor of a utility van was telling enough. The question was, why? Was this man the guy Kyle had warned her against, or was it someone who wanted payback for her side jobs? Did it really matter? She was obviously in serious trouble and foolishly she’d not talked to Ivy or the team since they’d gone their own ways that morning.
“Hey, butthead, who are you?” she yelled over her shoulder. She thought there were two men, but she could only see one now.
“Nothing? Oye, idiota, ¿quién eres?”
“Shut up!”
“Ah, so you do speak English. Where are we going?” Byte asked as she struggled to sit upright. When they grabbed her, someone had laced her hands with rope and left the rest of her unrestrained.
“Be quiet.”
“Why? Don’t you want to brag about how you trapped the person no one else could? I would think that’s worth bragging about.”
The man remained quiet, so Byte continued. “Weren’t there two of you?”
He kept his mouth shut.
“Either there was or I was seeing double. I guess that could be possible. It’s just never happened to me before, well, I mean, it’s not like I’m kidnapped every day or anything.”
“Just stop talking. Please,” he finally said.
“Ah, you said please. I’m sorry, Mr. Butthead, but I can’t stop talking. If I do, I’ll completely freak out and start screaming. And trust me, I can scream loud. You’ll have a killer headache, that I can promise you.”
“I’m already getting one,” he mumbled.