Cold Silence Read online

  The HRT operator shifted again, clearly uncomfortable with what was happening onscreen.

  Join the club.

  “What happened to your arm?” she murmured, unable to stop herself even as she kept one eye firmly on the code.

  He held it up. “Snapped my ulna and radius helping someone down some stairs. Boss wouldn’t pass me for active duty even though I’m as good with my right hand as I am with my left.”

  “You’re the breacher, Livingstone. You can’t handle the breacher if you have a broken arm,” the HRT team leader replied with practiced patience.

  “I could have used the shotgun and no one would have known the difference,” he assured her with a quirked brow and cocky grin.

  Maybe it was a defense mechanism or maybe that innate confidence was why he was an HRT operator. The banter lightened the mood for all of two seconds before the next poll went up.

  * * *

  Option 2: Hot Candle Wax. A) Eyes, B) Nipples, C) Mouth.

  * * *

  Yael’s stomach gave a hard lurch.

  “Shit,” the man beside her said between clenched teeth.

  Alex looked across the desk, clearly reading the appalled expression on her face. “Don’t watch.”

  He’d warned her about what she was getting into and she’d thought she’d been prepared, but how did any sane individual prepare themselves for something this monstrous? It was impossible to prepare for the unimaginably cruel. She should know that by now.

  Yael swung her monitor with the live feed away so she couldn’t see what Evi1Geni-us was doing to the poor woman—as long as she didn’t look up at the big screen on the wall. There was no way she could concentrate if she watched, not even if she tried to pretend it was a game.

  “What’s taking so long?” the man beside her whispered impatiently.

  Long? They were making incredible progress. “He’s running a VPN and bouncing off a second proxy server.” Her fingers raced over the keyboard.

  “I have a tentative geolocation based on triangulated cellular data of an area near this high school earlier today, but there’s no cell transmitting right now.” Alex pointed to a map he put on another monitor.

  Yael didn’t let Alex’s words distract her because proxy servers could be anywhere in the world and they might tell them a different story. She also knew Alex had developed the ability to fake geolocations—be it cellular or computer. They used it when the people they were guarding truly needed to disappear. That software was a closely guarded secret and accessed by only a few trusted employees. However nice her boss was, no one wanted to cross him. But if Alex had managed it, others might too.

  She followed the streaming information as closely as she was able. Given the sheer volume, it was impossible for the human brain to keep up, but she’d written a program to assist and the laptop she used to run it on was specially designed to handle massive amounts of data without crashing. She’d built it herself.

  “Come on. Come on.” Her new friend spoke between gritted teeth.

  “You really need to stop talking,” Yael muttered.

  His mouth tightened but the anguish and frustration in his eyes made her regret her words and her loss of focus. She zeroed in on a small piece of code. “Huh.”

  “What?” asked Alex, still typing on his laptop.

  “He’s using a cheap off-the-shelf VPN.” She clicked open another screen. “Linked to a credit card in the name of Greg Wallander.” She did a quick search. “Card was part of a batch stolen a few days ago.”

  He might have left a trail. She exchanged a look with her boss.

  “Can you find him?” Alex asked grimly.

  Evi1Geni-us. Not Greg Wallander. Because the former was currently doing something so heinous to the woman he held in his possession that the man seated beside her had gone pale and looked like he might throw up.

  Yael drew in a deep breath and ignored the way the HRT operator’s eyes latched onto her so intently.

  “I’m trying,” she said.

  There was something weird about the data but she couldn’t figure out exactly what without stopping and going through every line of code and she didn’t have time right now.

  Excitement surged through her. “I found an IP address.” She sent the 32-bit number to a work group chat that allowed all the other analysts at Cramer, Parker & Gray to start doing their own things with the info.

  “That tells you his exact location, right?” the HRT guy asked.

  “It’s a unique identifier that tells us about his online activities and…okay. Found the ISP.” She typed it into the chat box and explained. “Internet Service Provider. Which gives us another handle on the approximate geolocation.”

  “The info matches what I have for location,” Alex told her.

  Good.

  Maybe Evi1Geni-us wasn’t as smart as he thought he was.

  “We have a ZIP code.” Alex reeled it off and the FBI agents started huddling around the map.

  Yael opened another window and zeroed in on a map of the ZIP code area. Could they really be this close to catching the guy after all the months and years he’d been leading Alex in circles?

  The operator’s breath was so close to her cheek now she could feel the minty warmth brushing her skin. She pushed aside her hyperawareness of his proximity.

  “Looks like a bunch of warehouses,” he said.

  “Yeah. And a school over there.” She pointed to a building on the right-hand side.

  “We are checking for the most likely locations within that area,” Agent Chen stated.

  “Let’s hurry it up.” The HRT guy’s eyes went back to the live screen even as Chen nodded.

  Both of their expressions were bleak.

  “What’s he doing now?” Yael asked quietly, meaning Evi1Geni-us.

  “You don’t wanna know,” her new friend said grimly.

  “Is she still alive?”

  “Unfortunately.”

  Yael closed her eyes briefly then went back to the earlier code. What was in there that had bothered her? A quick scan told her nothing. She scrolled back to the start of the session even though the feed was still streaming.

  “We have a possible address,” Ashley Chen shouted over the general din. “A warehouse off Eastman and Grove. It’s been empty for two years but the electricity use surged over the last three days.”

  “Help me find any nearby security cameras,” Alex urged her.

  “I want to check the code—”

  “Grab a couple of surveillance camera feeds first. Then examine the code.”

  She nodded, zeroing in on a couple of nearby premises that likely had cameras.

  “If your gut is telling you to look at the code, you should be looking at the code.” The operator leaned forward resting his elbows on his thighs. He’d rolled up the sleeves of his long-sleeved T and she got a peek at corded muscles and sun-bleached hairs on his forearms. It shouldn’t give her a little quiver. Not under the circumstances.

  “Alex is my boss.” She sounded prim, which was a first for her. She glared at him to cover the fact that she was knocked off balance by everything that was going on, including him.

  She pulled up a camera from a nearby factory that was obviously closed for the holidays. It pointed to the main entrance of its own building. She tried another. A drive-thru coffeeshop but again, it didn’t show the warehouse.

  “I bet Alex Parker hired you for your computer skills, not your ability to follow orders,” the operator murmured softly.

  She glanced at him sharply and he leaned back. His dark green gaze didn’t leave hers. “I’m assuming.”

  Another feed was added to the main screen. This showed footage from a helmet cam of one of the HRT operators in the field. They’d reached the parking lot of the warehouse and were climbing out and immediately arranging themselves around the front door of the building.

  Yael’s heart slammed against her ribs. Maybe they could save Anya. Maybe she could help catch this ba
stard. With a quick look at her boss, she went back to the code.

  “I don’t see any vehicles at the warehouse,” the HRT operator stated.

  Yael looked to yet another screen and it showed the overhead view of the building, presumably from a drone.

  She realized the third HRT operator in the room was flying that drone.

  “What’s wrong with the code?” Her current shadow prompted her again.

  “I don’t know.” She blinked and checked the time on her computer. “Hey, what time did the auction go live?”

  “Twelve oh three,” Alex said. “Why?”

  “How long has it been running?”

  “Twenty-five minutes. He usually spends at least an hour with each victim,” Alex replied.

  Sweat ran down the side of her face as Yael grimaced. It felt like only a few seconds to her, but to Anya Baker it probably seemed like three lifetimes.

  “What’s bothering you?” The HRT guy who’d latched onto her pushed again.

  A shiver crawled up her spine. Reluctantly she said, “The timing is off. The running time of the code and the start time don’t match. It’s all out of whack somehow.”

  The HRT operators on screen were following a dog now.

  “The dog was given Anya’s scent,” the guy explained. “He’s great at finding people.”

  Which was also her job although she didn’t use her nose.

  She frowned. “I think the feed is delayed. I don’t think it’s live,” she burst out even though that didn’t make sense.

  Alex frowned at her. “How do you explain the live voting?”

  “Maybe he’s rigging the system?” Yael pressed her lips together. She didn’t know but something felt off.

  They all turned their attention back to the black-clad operators on screen.

  Yael glanced at the feed of Evi1Geni-us. Her stomach heaved as she saw what he was doing to Anya with a drill. From the way the woman’s body jerked and recoiled from the pain suggested she was conscious and totally aware of everything the bastard was doing to her.

  “We’ve got him now.” The man beside her touched her upper arm. “I’m Shane, by the way.”

  She glanced at him. She didn’t need to know his name. She’d hopefully never see him again after today.

  She frowned at the data. She could hear the other HRT guys through the microphone, the slight huff of their breath, the muffled movement of their gear, but she couldn’t hear the sound of a woman being tortured in the background. Evi1Geni-us’s feed was still playing in silence but presumably Anya was actually making a lot of noise. Maybe Evi1Geni-us worried the victim might scream out clues as to his identity or somehow miraculously rip off his mask. Maybe that’s what the weird delay was all about. He could run over and stop the filming and edit out the bits that might give away clues to his identity. Like a super dark version of the Oscar bloopers.

  But the silence coming through the HRT mic was puzzling unless Evi1Geni-us had somehow soundproofed the room.

  The operators lined up three either side of the door. A guy with a breacher stepped forward.

  Shane muttered something that sounded suspiciously like “that’s my job, motherfucker” under his breath.

  “Can they hear her?” Yael blurted out.

  “Do they hear anything?” Shane spoke up so his voice carried to his boss.

  The team leader looked back at them and shook his head. “All quiet.”

  Her HRT shadow frowned. “That’s weird.”

  One guy used his fingers to count down. The guy with the breacher started to swing.

  “Boss, tell them to wait—” Shane began.

  “Alex, I—” Yael said.

  An enormous explosion caused the live feed from the HRT operator’s helmet to turn the whole screen white and the noise to roar, then fall abruptly silent.

  There was a split second of stunned quiet before Shane jumped to his feet and joined his teammates across the room. “What the fuck just happened? Scotty! Cowboy, report!”

  Chaos erupted around her as everyone tried to figure out what had gone wrong. Had anyone been hurt? Was Anya alive? Had they caught Evi1Geni-us or was he still on the loose?

  Ambulances were already on the way. She could hear the frantic shouting of someone telling “Scotty” to stay with them over the HRT’s feed.

  The HRT operators were scrambling.

  “We need eyes. What the fuck is going on over there? I need a vehicle,” Shane shouted. He dragged his right hand over his features, clearly struggling to rein in his emotions.

  A local agent ran toward Shane and they rushed out of the room. Tim left, looking as if he were about to throw up.

  Alex exchanged a look with Yael. His expression was calmly furious. “Is it the right place, or did we get played?”

  She had no idea. The feed on the right-hand side continued to show Evi1Geni-us doing his gruesome worst with a box cutter as if nothing had disturbed him.

  “What’s the status of the HRT operators?” Alex called out to the tactical team leader.

  The man’s expression was stony. “We have several casualties. One serious.”

  Yael’s fingers clenched. This was her fault. She’d missed something.

  “Can they see inside the room?” Alex’s voice was rough. “Is this the right place? Did they arrest this bastard or is he in the wind?”

  Yael shot Alex a look. She wanted answers too but the people on the other end were dealing with what sounded like severe injuries.

  She watched the images now coming online from several of the operators’ helmet cams. One black-clad man was on the ground being treated by another man. It was the guy who’d held the breacher. The guy who’d taken Shane’s place because Shane had broken his arm.

  It looked bad.

  Tears blurred her vision but she blinked them away.

  She needed to figure out what the hell had happened.

  Someone wearing a camera looked inside the room and sure enough, a gurney sat there complete with the dripping remains of what had surely been Anya Baker. But no UNSUB. No Evi1Geni-us.

  “He’s not here. There’s a laptop here playing a video of him torturing the girl. But the UNSUB is not here. Repeat, UNSUB is not here.” The words crackled over the comms.

  “Dammit.” Alex ground his teeth together. “You were right. The bastard recorded it. He makes everyone think it’s live and that they have a say in what happens during the auction but they are being conned. He’s already made up his mind what to do and what the polls will say. The ‘live’ aspect of the auction is nothing but a fake poll.”

  That was the least of the man’s crimes.

  Yael fought nausea. Anya Baker had likely been dead before they’d even had the chance to save her. Even so, Yael felt as if her guts had been ripped out. She’d failed.

  “He’s never boobytrapped the crime scene before,” Ashley Chen pointed out sharply.

  Yael banded her arms across her stomach and leaned back in her chair. Sweat formed on her skin and she started to shake as if she’d run a marathon. “I think it was different this time,” she gritted out. “I think he knew we were coming.”

  Suddenly the camera light on her laptop turned green and she found herself staring directly at the masked face of the so-called Evi1Geni-us.

  Ice flashed in a cold wave over her skin. He’d somehow gotten into her system and taken control of her camera. He wasn’t in that room with Anya Baker anymore. He was somewhere else entirely. Somewhere he felt safe.

  This bastard, who everyone else could see as her screen was being fed to another large monitor, was staring straight at her. He could see her face.

  And she couldn’t breathe…

  2

  “Hello, Sphinx.” His voice echoed with distortion. “Such a pretty thing—thought you were clever, too, didn’t you? Tut tut. You’ll never be as clever as me.”

  Her pulse pounded as if someone had plugged her into the mains socket.

  Alex was typing
frantically.

  “Anya was pretty too—in the beginning. I wonder what you’ll sound like when you beg for mercy? Or perhaps you like pain…”

  Alex stuck his thumb over her camera as the rush of blood to her ears deafened her.

  Pulling herself together, she launched herself onto her keyboard and tried to follow Evi1Geni-us’s tracks as he fled back along the system. She hit a brick wall. Then he vanished.

  She could find him. She simply needed a little time.

  “Turn it off,” Chen snapped.

  Yael’s stomach flipped as she stared at the agent, her fingers still typing commands. “I can track him.”

  “I said turn it off.” Chen’s eyes were hard as they assessed her.

  Yael’s hands hesitated as they hovered over the keyboard. Given the opportunity she could find him and the likelihood was he wasn’t physically that distant from where they all sat stunned and defeated. Alex watched her with a fierce expression.

  This was the best chance they had of finding this monster…

  “Now!” Chen started walking toward her.

  “Do as Agent Chen says, Yael,” Alex said finally. “Let’s figure out how he snuck inside your machine before we race after him and risk compromising ourselves if he set another trap.”

  Yael blew out a shaky breath. Reluctantly she shut down her laptop and removed the battery to make doubly sure the bastard couldn’t do any damage if he’d planted some Trojan or worm.

  “Let’s establish what he saw and whether or not he got into any of the other systems,” Chen said.

  “He didn’t,” Alex assured the FBI analyst.

  “As much as I trust your skills, Alex.” Chen sent him a look that Yael couldn’t decipher. “I want you to check and double check and then triple check. He got into your employee’s machine and I want to know how and for how long, and exactly what he saw and heard.”

  The implication was Yael wasn’t as good as Evi1Geni-us was, and she hated that Agent Chen might be right.

  Alex nodded stiffly.

  Yael stood, feeling dizzy and defeated. She quickly left the room, heading for the washroom. She lifted the seat and threw up in the toilet, her stomach recoiling from the horror of what she’d witnessed, the finality of death, and the fact she’d failed Anya Baker and Evi1Geni-us had beaten her at her own game. When she came out of the cubicle she paused. Her friend Laura stood there, looking pale and shaken.