Page 66
Story: The Payback (Team Zulu 2)
We shifted to her screens and watched as four identical silver sedans exited through the fortified electronic gates. Two peeled off left, the others, right. The pitch-black tint gave no clue whether Dante and the Russian were within any of the vehicles.
“They all have the same license plates,” said Sage, pointing at the screen.
“This is it. We’re on.” I returned to my computer and hacked the Philly traffic camera network. “Can you scan Dante’s house and make sure he’s actually left the premises? This could be a diversion.”
“On it.” Sage’s mouse clicked away. “Unless he’s hiding in a closet, he’s not here.”
I nodded but kept my eyes focused on my screen. I didn’t want to lose sight of these assholes for a second.
“Can you track four identical cars at once?” Sage asked.
“I’m not sure, but I’ll damn well try.” My fingers flew across the keyboard as I initiated preprepared code to commandeer traffic cameras using license plate recognition. “Come on. Come on.” This was taking longer than I’d hoped. A moment later, an image from a camera at a set of traffic lights in Newtown Square appeared in one quadrant of my screen. “Bingo!”
Shortly after, the other identical cars showed up in the remaining sectors of the screen. Each time a vehicle disappeared from view, the feed switched to the next traffic camera to pick them up.
I updated Sage with what I saw. “We’ve got one on West Chester Pike, another exiting onto Springfield Road, one heading toward Upper Providence, and the fourth looks to have arrived at…a fancy-ass golf club?”
“Could he be meeting someone there?” she asked.
“Maybe.”
“I don’t know. Dante’s been so careful to lie low these last two days. I doubt he’d go somewhere as public as a golf club.”
“Agreed. I think it’s a decoy.”
We monitored the remaining three vehicles as they traveled in different directions. Occasionally, they went through blind spots only to be picked up by a camera farther down the road.
I tensed in my seat when one quadrant remained blacked out for longer than the others. “We have a problem.” I used a diagnostic program to check for faults. There was something more sinister at play. “Shit.”
Sage shifted on her feet beside me. “What’s going on?”
“We’ve lost vehicle two.” I turned to face her. “The cameras in the city are down.”
She scoffed. “That can’t be a coincidence.”
“Unlikely.”
“Dante can do that? How?”
“He’s a man who’s used to getting what he wants. Got to admit, I’m impressed with the sway he has.” I shook my head. “I guess we know which car we should’ve been following. Dante is heading for the city, but who is he meeting? And where?”
“It could be a hundred different people. And the possible locations are limitless.” Sage groaned. “We’ve lost him, haven’t we?”
“For now. I’ll try to get the city’s cameras back online.” I opened a new window to run diagnostics, but it would waste time we didn’t have.
This was our biggest lead so far, and Dante had slipped through our fingers.
In the back of my mind was another, more troubling thought. Dante had gone to a lot of effort to remain incognito in the city. If he’d somehow learned of our location, he could be on his way to our hotel right now.
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