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“You realize you arebargainingwith our daughter’s life,” she flung back.
“I’m doing what I can to save her life, Sandra. Getting the gold is the smartest course of action. You must see the benefit.”
She could imagine Jennings getting cold feet and wanting more than a dot on the map before releasing Olivia. Surely at some point he’d have to realize the location would be put under surveillance, and he’d be arrested if he showed his face. “I do.”
“Then?”
“Well, I also see a million ways it can go sideways.”
“Name one.”
“He might not buy the FBI will just hand over the gold.”
He shrugged. “You convince him.”
As if there were nothing to it…
“Think of it this way, Jennings is a risk taker,” Nolan said. “From what I’ve gathered, he’s shown that from the start. It just shows how desperate he is.”
Having Jennings’s desperation pointed out wasn’t soothing her nerves.
Nolan continued stating his case. He didn’t realize she was already convinced. “This guy isn’t going to give us Olivia back just because you tell him where the gold is. Surely even you must see that he’ll want it in his hands first. I say we save him the trouble, get it, and show up with it, make the exchange. Simple and done.”
That’s how Nolan always saw life, an effortless flow where everything worked out. She’d like to argue that wasn’t the real world, but for him, it seemed to come together that way. “Just like that?” She smiled and added, “It could work, but we only have an hour.”
If Nolan was stunned by her agreement, he recovered quickly. “Then we better get to work.”
“And nothing could possibly go wrong.”
“I never said that, but let’s not think that way.” Nolan got the door for her, and they headed back to the warren of desks.
Nolan quickly started chatting to several agents, telling them they were headed out to search for gold bars.
“Agent Copeland, a word?” she said to him, drawing him into a quiet corner. “I’m not sure how it works in your unit, but here it’s the boss who assigns the agents.”
“I saw Assistant Director Rowe when I first got here and he said it was all hands on deck to get Olivia back, so I assumed…”
“I’ll go have a talk with him.” Before she left the area, she did ask Brice, “You in?”
“You couldn’t stop me.”
“Glad to hear you say that.” She smiled at him and left to inform Elwood about the intended plan of action.
FORTY-THREE
“Maybe we rushed ahead with this. What’s to say this guy didn’t just send us on a wild goose chase?” Nolan vented to Sandra as they hiked down the trail toward the cabin. Brice was in tow, along with a few other agents, but they were farther behind.
“Nothing, but I don’t think he did.” If Nolan had seen Patton’s face while he’d watched the deepfake, he’d be confident in that fact too. Patton went stark, clearly in fear for his daughter’s welfare.Hisdaughter’s, though that wasn’t exactly the truth… Poor Olivia must be so terrified. And what if they messed up by assuming they were making the smart move retrieving the gold first? “The only thing I’m second-guessing is us coming here.”
“You’ve lost your mind then,” Nolan said.
She shot him a glare. “Did you really just say that to me?”
Nolan didn’t respond, and she caught Brice’s eye. She read from his look that he was impressed by her restraint. “You realize that I have been here dealing with this the entire time?”
“Maybe that’s why you’ve lost your nerve.”
“Lost my nerve? What I do for a living involves brushing against the wire all the time, toeing that line between working things out with words and guys like you pressuring me to moveout of the way so you can rush in guns blazing. You can’t put a deadline on things.”