“He’s an unusual person, to say the least,” Hargrave responded after a moment’s thought. “Reclusive. Competitive. Secretive.”
“All traits that landed him in the top tier of tech entrepreneurs in the world,” Patel said. “He pioneered some of the most innovative software out there. I’ve read that he’s described as driven and intense.”
“Sounds ruthless,” Flint said.
“Tech development is a bare-knuckled sport,” Patel said. “You don’t get to Brinkley’s level without sharp elbows.”
Wu glanced at Hargrave. “We already have enough to interview him, but I don’t think that’s our best move.”
He had been considering the problem during their discussion. Now convinced that Brinkley was behind the game, he laid out his strategy.
“Brinkley is a billionaire,” he began. “How would he travel from Santa Clara, California, to a remote location outside of Tucson, Arizona?”
“He’d fly in his private helicopter,” Flint said without hesitation. “There wouldn’t be a landing strip for his private jet.”
“Exactly,” Wu said, then turned to Johnson. “Can you check the FAA for any flight plans filed in the past week that match those criteria?” She bent to her keyboard, and another thought occurred to him. “While you’re at it, check to see if any private aircraft belonging to Brinkley flew from New Jersey to Arizona since Vega and Toro disappeared. They might have driven across the country, but air travel would be faster.”
“They could have flown under the radar,” Flint said. “Literally.”
“How?” Wu asked.
“My brother is a pilot,” Flint said. “I consulted with him about a smuggling operation a few years ago. He said you don’t have to file a flight plan if you fly under 250 knots while you’re below ten thousand feet. If you keep the plane beneath a ceiling of eighteen thousand feet the whole trip, you could fly using visual flight rules, so air traffic control wouldn’t monitor you.”
Wu struggled to keep up. “But there would be some record of the flight, right?”
“Yeah, but in the case we were investigating, the pilot dropped below the radar threshold, then changed directions before landing. We had no idea where he went for quite a while.”
This was going to be more difficult than Wu had anticipated. “If we manage to get confirmation that Brinkley or one of his aircraft went anywhere near Tucson, we’ll have enough for a search warrant.”
“We already have enough to try,” Hargrave said. “Let’s see if we can get paper for all his properties.”
Wu was glad the assistant director was on board, because he was about to make a big ask.
“I propose we call out our HRT and fly out there immediately,” he said. “It will take hours to write the affidavit and get a judge to sign the warrant, but it will also take hours to fly from here to Tucson.”
“What if we can’t get a judge to sign?” Hargrave said. “You want to fly clear across the country and back for nothing?”
“If we’re successful, we’ll have boots on the ground at the premises without any delay,” he countered, then held up his hand to forestall Hargrave’s next objection. “I know the Phoenix field office has their own on-site HRT, but Director Franklin ordered us to keep this investigation to the absolute minimum number of people possible. Besides, we’ve been in on this from the beginning, and we know every detail of the case. In the time it takes to get the search warrants, we can be at the scene.”
Hargrave steepled his fingers, regarding him for a long moment before he spoke. “Agreed. You can make the arrangements with HRT and oversee the paperwork.”
The assistant director expected him to remain in his office in a supervisory capacity. He reflected on his position as a special agent in charge. He had loved being a field agent when he first joined the FBI. The thrill of the chase, going after bad guys, and rushing into danger had driven him.
Nowadays he sat in his comfy chair in the corner office and sent others into harm’s way. He’d learned that it was exponentially harder to order someone else into a deadly situation than to go in himself.
He felt the full weight of responsibility for Vega’s current predicament. He’d come up with the idea to send her in undercover because he suspected Toro had feelings for her, which he had believed would give her an edge. Technically she had agreed to go, but he had known someone with her background would never refuse a call to action. It was not in her DNA, and he had taken advantage of that. She was every bit the goddess of war and wisdom her avatar represented, and he would never forgive himself if he could not get her back safely.
And then it hit him all at once. He was done following protocol. Done sitting behind a desk. Done sending others into danger. From now on, he wasn’t just in charge of the investigation, he was running point.
“I’m going to get Agent Vega back,” he said to Hargrave. “Personally.”
CHAPTER 52
Dani folded Toro’s lifeless hands across his chest and got to her feet. She pushed down her emotions and oriented herself to the mission at hand. This was war, and she had transitioned her mindset fully from federal agent to military mode. Her objective was no longer arrest and apprehension. It was search and destroy. Whoever Nemesis was, he was about to learn the consequences of fucking with an Army Ranger. The final words of the Ranger’s creed came to her. Readily will I display the intestinal fortitude required to fight on to the Ranger objective and complete the mission, though I be the lone survivor.
“Game’s over,” she called out into the silence surrounding her. “I’m the last one standing. According to your rules of engagement, I go free.”
She expected no response but made the declaration anyway. She was supposed to die but had had the audacity to survive, ruining her captor’s carefully laid plans. He’d better get ready, because she was about to ruin a hell of a lot more than his plans. Now that she didn’t have a pack of killers on her heels and Toro’s safety to worry about, she was free to take any risks she chose. And that meant going on the offensive.
Circling back, she bent to search the Colonel and his two men. As she had hoped, the Colonel was carrying a clue tucked in his boot.
She unfolded the paper and laid it beside the one they had pulled from Chopper’s boot. Another section of the map was revealed. Enough for her to see that the only way up was through another hatch at the end of the corridor to her left.
She paused, studying the hand-drawn diagram and pinpointing her location on the fourth level down from the top. Why would the underground structure they were in have seven levels going straight into the earth and nothing on the surface? This section of the diagram also showed a tube-shaped passageway at a ninety-degree angle to the main structure two levels above her current position. It seemed to lead to a completely separate room. Was that the control area where Nemesis sat at a bank of computers, tormenting them all?
Before they entered the facility, she had seen nothing but featureless terrain on the surface, stretching out for miles around. It looked like the Desert Southwest, but she couldn’t tell what state she was in.
If the seven-level structure was vertical, and the horizontal tube leading to the separate control room was attached to the second level down, that would indicate that the whole complex was subterranean. Why make all parts of the facility—even the control center—underground?
The FBI would not be able to locate her using satellites. The tracking devices she and Toro had received had been rendered useless by an EMP device. The plane they had flown in had taken off from a repair hangar rather than a standard airfield with a control tower, so there would be no record of the flight. No one was coming. She had to find a way out or die down here like the others, because Nemesis would never set her free.
Her best chance of escape was determining what kind of structure she was trapped in. The place looked old but freshly renovated. Perhaps the original infrastructure could provide a way to strike at the unseen enemy. Nemesis would be watching, but he could not read her thoughts.
As long as he was secured in his control room, she could not put a stop to his game. She would have to draw him out, but how? On the battlefield, the most common strategy called for surrounding the enemy, cutting off their supplies, and waiting them out. This was not an option for her.