A quick stop at Homeland Security and she was back in the saddle there. Attending her morning meeting brought her up to speed on where they were with the missing women. Of the 327, twenty-nine had been recovered, almost two hundred of the cases had been doled out to international law-enforcement agencies secondary to being in their local jurisdictions and homeland was still tracking down the remainder. The CEO was still safely behind bars, his property had been confiscated and his wife had filed for divorce. He didn’t seem like the type of mid-level criminal with the kind of juice to pull off the abduction of a mafia Don. Marking him off her list, she turned her attention to Dragonfly.

They had a squeaky clean reputation with the federal government and had even been utilized several times for security operations in hotspots around the world. She was able to pull up files on the owner and all the other employees, though her instinct told her that they probably kept information on some employees off the books. This was verified when she didn’t find an official file on her sister. Copying the information over to a flash drive she headed back to Enzo’s place.

As she drove, the thought occurred to her that if Don Carlo was anything like his son, capturing him was the easy part. It was the keeping him that would prove difficult. She’d already realized that Don Carlo was a man of many talents. He tended to become whatever one expected of him. Smiling, she thought of him playing the pompous aging mobster card with Dragonfly. They’d buy it because they were just that dumb. Dragonfly had been built by a bunch of hard-nosed young, ex-military men. They wouldn’t see the ageing Don as any kind of threat. They’d see him as a skeevy crime lord who wasn’t used to getting his hands dirty. Having seen him up close and personal, Sarah knew better. It just might prove to be the edge they needed.

Pulling up to Enzo’s huge home, it was easy to see where the action was. The garage bay doors were open and several long table had been set up for computer experts, the guys Johnny referred to as geeks. They were lined down both sides of the tables with several computers each, soda cans and open pizza boxes laying all around.

Making a straight line for Johnny and Marge, she tossed him a flash drive. “Maxwell is a bust. He’s sitting in jail with no money, no property and no wife. I dug deep for intel on Dragonfly. It seems they only list certain employees on their official roster.”

Marge stepped closer. “Pull up their personnel files. I might be able to tell who’s missing.”

Johnny uploaded the files to their cloud. “You three, begin pulling credit cards and everything else you can get on employees. See if anyone is using a card near where my dad’s phone went black. A huge man with long dreadlocks jerked his chin and got to work. Several others followed suit.

Almost an hour passed before Margaret looked up with a huge smile on her face. “I think they’ve only got two of us who aren’t on the regular roster. I guess that explains why we’re always so busy. The other person is a Frenchman by the name of Leo Durand. I met him one time when he was injured on location and I took over for him. He’s almost three hundred pounds and looks like a freaking rock star. He’d stand out like a sore thumb. My guess is they’ve got their regular employees handling this operation.”

The hacker with the dreads spoke up. “I got a hit on one of the credit cards. It belongs to a woman by the name of Cynthia Hasbro. It was used at a convenience store two times. Once for gas and one for transactions totaling fifty dollars and seven cents.”

“Where?”

Pulling up a popular mapping program, he pinned the two shops. “They don’t look like they’re headed for the eastern seaboard. If the timestamps are correct, they are heading further inland.”

Margaret spoke up. “Dragonfly has a substation about a hundred and fifty miles west of there.”

Dropping down on the location with the 3D mapping program showed nothing but an overpass. “Want to try again? There’s nothing there.”

“It’s underneath the overpass. Dragonfly has dozens of them crisscrossing the country. We call them rabbit holes.”

“That makes no sense. In order for that to be true, they’d have to be collaborating with every municipality at the time the structures were built. That’s simply not feasible.”

Shaking her head at her sister, Margaret expanded on her original explanation. “They didn’t. Most people are not aware but every major building project of a certain size, requires a moderate amount of crawl space to repair structural damage, in case of earthquakes or other damage. Dragonfly just drops in and sets up house, ‘cause let’s face it the chances of the highway service ever needing to make repairs like that is one in a million.”

“How much crawl space are we talking here?” Johnny seemed truly fascinated by the whole idea.

“Usually there is roughly ten by twenty foot of floor space that goes straight up between two and three stories high.”

Sarah tossed her a lopsided smile. “I guess that explains why you refer to it as a rabbit hole.”

“We have crews that drop down, add steps, air purification systems and set them up as a mini bunker or listening post. There’s usually a stack of three bunk beds, a chemical toilet and a cabinet of power bars and water. We always have a generator and electronic equipment. It’s designed to be used for less than three days at a time.”

“You think they’re taking my pops to one of these rabbit holes?”

Taking a hesitant step backwards, Margaret spoke again. “This one is unique. It has hot and cold running water from a nearby lake and…”

“And what?” Johnny’s instincts were kicking into high gear.

“It’s set up for interrogations.”

“Set up?”

“Electricity and a drain in the floor for processing blood out of the unit.”

Instead of totally losing his shit like she thought he would, Johnny’s eyes narrowed. “You’re taking me there.”

Stepping forward, Sarah spoke. “Hold up, Johnny.”

“Get the fuck outta my way, Sweet Cheeks.”

“Have you asked yourself how they managed to get him in the first place?”

His head came up and his expression darkened. “What?”

“Something isn’t right here, Johnny. The men escorting your father protect him for a living. I happen to know from talking to your mother that they take different routes, and have secondary back up vehicles. There were only two of his guys found at the scene and no sign of damage to the vehicle. I didn’t want to point out the obvious, but take a goddamned minute and think about it.”

Freezing, he pulled out his cell phone. “Gino, it’s me. I want you to stop whatever in the fuck you’re doing and make rounds on all my pop’s men. I wanna know if you notice anything unusual.” Sliding the phone back into his pocket, turned to her. “You’re right. We seal up the leak then we get my pops back.”

Marge spoke up. “Any new guys in your crew?”

Nodding, Johnny’s eyes searched around. “A couple are ex-military but I don’t see them anywhere.”

“Of course not. You demanded they all hit the pavement. Still hanging around would draw suspicion.”

“Out came the cell phone again. “Hey Enzo. Do me a favor and get a few of Charlie’s men to pick up Doug and Steven. Get the jump on them, cause I’m pretty sure they’re dirty.” After listening to Lorenzo speak on the other end of the phone, he replied. “I’m being all kinds of cautious. Don’t you worry about us, just bring me the newbies.”

Sarah watched as Johnny began pacing in the huge garage. He reminded her of a wild animal, all pent-up aggression and energy, ready to explode at a moment’s notice.