Page 68

REN

Bishop Security Headquarters

D espite the ache in his ribs, Ren took the stairs three at a time with Steady, Calvin, and Newton on his heels.

In the second-floor conference room, the team sat around the long table.

Ren took the seat across from Twitch, who was set up with two laptops.

Finn sat beside her with his arm on the back of her chair.

Nathan Bishop sat at the head of the table, speaking on his phone.

Cam, Tox, and Calliope were huddled at the opposite end, talking among themselves.

This was the Bishop Security Team. These people were his family. If he wanted to find Stella, he would need their help.

When he noticed Calvin hovering by the door, Ren kicked out the chair next to him. “You can sit here, Calvin.”

The kid puffed up like a parade balloon and tugged Newton away from the plate of pastries on the sideboard. “Come on, Pluto.”

Ren furrowed his brow as Nathan spoke, “Twitch, what have you got?”

“Stella texted me right before she was taken. She wanted me to compare Casper Capelli’s travel schedules with the men who were present at her White House briefing, where she mentioned her suspicions about a government official being involved in the spying.”

Twitch typed on her keyboard. “Her idea paid off. Casper Capelli traveled to New York the week before his death. One man in that briefing was also in New York at the same time.”

Ren stared at the screen at the front of the room, displaying a headshot of a man in a sharp suit and red tie with his name in bold type below—Stella’s handler, Theo Stritch.

Ren stared at the name. “Of course!”

“What?” Nathan asked.

“Theo Stritch. There’s no ostrich; it’s Theo Stritch.

In the text Milton mistakenly sent me, he referred to the man he saw in the video as “The Ostrich.” Move the ‘o’ to the left, and it’s one letter away from Theo Stritch.

Milton meant to write Theo Stritch, but autocorrect must have changed it.

Stella has known all along who it was. No way she missed that. ”

“She didn’t,” Twitch looked at Ren over the laptop screen. “Stella asked me to include her handler in my digging.”

Ren asked, “Capelli and Stritch were both in New York. What else did you find?”

“Casper Capelli spent two days in New York the week before he died. There are a bunch of taxi and restaurant charges.”

Nathan said, “Doubt Capelli witnessed a live drop at a restaurant. It would be in a place with a constant flow of people.”

Twitch lifted her index finger. “And one purchase at Bergdorf Goodman.”

Ren leaned forward.

Twitch typed a command into her keyboard, and the store’s security footage appeared. “Not enough to convict someone in a court of law, but look. There’s Capelli, and look who comes into the department.”

Ren smacked the table. “Theo Stritch.”

“That’s not all. Look who also happens to be shopping that day.”

Ren squinted at the screen. “Who is that?”

Nathan answered, “Zao. He’s a diplomat with a reputation for stealing intel.”

“Why didn’t she say?” Ren circled the room and looked out the window.

Twitch said, “She didn’t know. I haven’t had a chance to tell her what I found.”

“She could have mentioned her suspicions,” Ren grumbled.

“Ren,” Twitch asked, “Do you trust Stella?”

“Of course I do,” he snapped.

“Have you told her that?”

“Not in so many words, but we’ve been together under the same roof for weeks. We’ve shared a lot of information.”

Tox banged the table. “You old dog!”

Steady passed Finn a twenty-dollar bill. “Lost that bet.”

Nathan shook his head and got them back on track. “Ren, Theo Stritch is a father figure to Stella. She probably didn’t want to believe it or didn’t want to accuse him without proof.”

Steady chimed in, “Plus, she’s a solo act. I’m guessing she doesn’t do a lot of information sharing.”

Ren felt the realization like a kick in the gut. He wondered if Stella would ever trust him completely.

Steady must have sensed his mood shift. “Come on, brother. Teamwork is new to Stella. Let’s focus on finding her.”

Twitch projected the aerial satellite image on the screen at the front of the room. “Thanks to Calvin, I was able to locate the truck. The license plate pinged on a crime report. It was burned in a strip mall parking lot in Roanoke, Virginia.”

“Shit,” Ren muttered. “She could be anywhere.”

Steady rubbed his palms together. “Dollars to doughnuts, she’s in that neck of the woods. Why take her all the way there just to move her?”

Ren ran his hand down his face. “The problem is, that ‘neck of the woods’ is hundreds of square miles of National Forest. It’s a needle in a haystack.”

Twitch typed on her keyboard. “Maybe not. The fact that there are three National Forests around Roanoke works to our advantage. You can’t build a house in a National Forest; only certain areas permit restricted-use seasonal structures. That should narrow it down.”

Ren leapt to his feet. “Narrow it down to what? Taking it from a million acres to a hundred thousand? It’s an impossible search!”

Everyone at the table stared up at Ren in shock. He had never had an outburst like that in his life.

“Sorry. I’m sorry.”

Nathan walked around the table and placed his hand on Ren’s shoulder. “Don’t apologize. Everyone at this table knows how you feel. We’ll find her.”

At Ren’s distress, Newton came around Calvin’s chair and leaned against Ren’s legs. Calvin tugged the dog back. “Pluto, no.”

Ren stopped. Slowly, he turned to Calvin. “Why do you keep calling the dog Pluto?”

Calvin looked puzzled. “Isn’t that his name? That’s what The Priest called him. I was conscious on the floor for a minute after he hit me. He told Sofria—sorry, Stella—to lock Pluto up.”

Nathan gave Newton a pat. “Why would The Priest think the dog’s name is Pluto?”

Ren paced around the table. “Pluto is Milton Abernathy’s nickname for the drone. It was our private joke. They must have been monitoring Abernathy’s texts and assumed when he mentioned Pluto, he was talking about his dog.”

Nathan said, “Abernathy unwittingly maintained an additional layer of secrecy about his research.”

“Or he was a lot savvier than I thought.” Suddenly, Ren remembered. “Hold on.” He withdrew his phone and checked the last texts from Milton.

Milton: Can you come down for a visit? Say, day after tomorrow, mid-morning? Pluto learned a new trick.

Ren had been so caught up in the errant text that followed and Milton’s murder that he hadn’t considered why Milton would summon him to Princeton to see the drone in the first place. Suddenly, it all made sense. Ren’s suggested design modification must have worked. The drone was operational.

“I need to go to Princeton.”

Nathan understood without further explanation. “Steady and Ren, take the jet. Twitch and Finn can monitor tech from here—the signal in those woods will be shit. Tox, Calliope, and Cam take the helo to Twitch’s recommended infil, and you can rendezvous there.”

Each team member stood. Calvin cleared his throat. “I want to help.”

Ren looked to Nathan, who said, “You’ve got good instincts, Calvin. You stay here, watch Newton, and do whatever Finn and Twitch tell you.”

“Yes, sir.”

Ren nodded a silent thank you to his boss and sprinted for the door.