Adam
My heart is racing even though I know Vladimir has to give me my sister and Abel back. I still don’t like that their lives are on the line. He could go crazy and kill them, although if he does, he’ll be responsible for losing the money and destroying all of the family’s computer systems. Vlad is dangerous, but he’s not stupid.
We’re all sitting in Ian’s car, waiting for my phone to ring. The Tylenol is barely taking the edge off the pain but I’m holding on to the discomfort. It’s keeping my mind sharp. I can get something stronger once this is all over and my sister and Abel are safe.
An hour that feels more like an eternity goes by and I start to wonder if Vladimir did kill them and is now planning to ambush me and take the drive since he wouldn’t have any bargaining chips left. Pure dread starts to creep from my stomach out to my extremities. Just when I think I’m about to burst, my phone rings.
Vladimir.
“You’re brilliant. I did not see this coming,” he says in a much thicker Russian accent. His facade is crumbling, and he’s nervous.
“All you have to do is give them back unharmed, and my associate will shut down the program that’s eating your computers alive right now,” I hiss into the phone.
“I have many connections. What if I just shoot your little Omega and I find someone else to shut it down. Just give me the drive, Savior.”
“If you could find someone to do that, you wouldn’t be calling me right now. My guess is that you hooked that drive into your computer twenty minutes after you left, and you’ve spent the last…” I look at my watch, “forty-five minutes trying to figure out how to stop it. You’ve had the best hackers the family knows contacted, and they’ve all told you there’s nothing they can do. That’s because the best hackers the family knows aren’t the best. I’ve got the best, and you’ve got one move. Give my sister and Abel back or you lose.”
“We’ll meet at the dam again in one hour,” Vladimir says, but some of the confidence I thought was unshakable is gone from his voice.
“No. We meet where I say and when I say. And don’t try anything stupid this time, Vlad. Becks can turn that virus back on at any time for any reason. We will meet in an hour, but at the Grove.”
“Fine,” Vladimir growls. He hangs up before I can say anything else.
“Can we get your men there in an hour?” I ask when I hang up.
“They’re already on their way. Good choice, by the way. That old orchard is perfect for the extraction,” Ian says, and then pulls his ringing phone out of his pocket.
He takes the call, and Becks and I just wait. There are a lot of “uh-huh” and “I understand” before he gets to “Thank you, sir. Thank you very much.”
“What is it?” I ask when he hangs up.
“There’s an asset inside of Vladimir’s operation that even I didn’t know about. He’s been in deep cover for years. The people higher up the food chain have decided he’s coming out after this bust. He’s going to help us make sure we get Vladimir.”
That’s when I remember the man taking care of my sister. He’s FBI. I feel much better knowing we have a real ally on the inside.