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“Yeah, but if he took a call from Remington around eleven or so, he’d have still been in his condo,” Wally pointed out.

I tapped in notes on my laptop. “Good work, guys. Here’s my thought. Let’s narrow the focus to Remington and Sampson. Since Ghat is going on vacation shortly, let’s leave him out of the equation for now and move on to the next step.” I sincerely hoped it was the right move, because we didn’t have the resources or people to cover more. I had to go with my—and Frankie’s—gut feelings and hope I was right.

“And the next step is?” Hala asked.

“We plant bugs and trackers on Remington and Sampson. We intercept their communications and determine if they’re involved and what they know.”

“Bugs!” Mike pumped a fist in the air. “Excellent! Bugs are my thing.”

“What did you have in mind, Angel?” Bo asked.

“If Remington’s talking on the burner phone in his car, we need to bug his car. We should track it, as well.”

“Bugging the inside of his car won’t be easy,” Kira said. “He parks it in his garage. We’d have to break into the garage and then break into the car, if it’s locked.”

“What about breaking in while he’s out, like at Target or the grocery store?”

I shook my head. “Too risky. Stores have surveillance cameras in the parking lot. It would be better to do it at his house, a more secure location.”

“Remember, Remington has a security system at his house,” Wally reminded me. “He has a camera on the front yard, probably magnetic switch window alarms, and possibly cameras in the backyard and inside, as well. The front door camera covers the driveway.”

“I know,” I said. “But if we can sabotage the garage door, meaning stop it from opening, he’ll have to park in the driveway until the door gets fixed.”

“He could manually open it, and we’d be back to where we started,” Jax said.

“Not if we jack up the keypad he uses to open it manually,” I countered. “We only need a few minutes to get into the car, plant the bug, and get out.”

“How would we do that if the garage and the driveway are covered by security cameras?” Hala asked.

I dipped my head toward my laptop. “Leave the security systems to Wally and me. Remington has a high-end system, but it’s not the best. Wally and I can handle it.”

“And breaking into his car?” Frankie asked. “How are we going to do that?”

I held up two thin black boxes. “Remington has a keyless car—a key fob only. These are relay boxes. They can capture a key fob signal up to three hundred feet away. All we need to do is have one of us near the car with one of the relay boxes while the other scans Remington’s house. When the signal is picked up from the house, it will transmit to the other box, and the car will open. If all goes well, it should take about twenty-two seconds to open the car, and maybe another twenty to plant a bug where he can’t easily find it.”

“Wow,” said Bo. “That’s pretty ingenious.”

“That’s science,” I said. “The problem is, we can’t do that with Sampson’s car. He drives a 1971 Mustang. No key fob there. We’ll have to get into his car the old-fashioned way.”

“So Jax will do it with a wire coat hanger?” Frankie asked.

“No,” I said. “We can’t chance Sampson finding out that his car has been broken into. We need to steal his keys, plant the bug and tracker, and return them without him knowing it.”

“Steal his keys?” Jax asked curiously. “That won’t be easy.”

“Yeah, how are we going to do that, Angel?” Frankie asked.

“The old-fashioned way,” I said. “We’re going to get them out of his locker when he’s at the gym.”

Chapter Twenty-Seven

CANDACE KIM

Director, National Security Operations Center

The morning drive to the NSA headquarters at Fort Meade was always a blur, even when she wasn’t struggling with whom to share vital information and concerns.

She hadn’t been able to get over Sinclair’s final statement, and the surety in his voice, that people were going to die. It had sounded real and urgent. She considered if he might also subtly be warning her to be careful, too. The death of J. P. Lando was clearly a criminal matter, as well as a national security one. That meant she needed to get the FBI involved. However, as it was also an internal NSA threat, she should also notify her leadership. So where to turn first?