Page 67 of Bastard

“How the fuck did they get in the building?” Georgia asked.

I showed her the video. A service entrance left open, along with the two doors that stood between them and the elevator. They stopped just after entering the building while, it appears, their tech person hacked into the security room to loop the footage they were monitoring and recall the elevators.

“The police?”

“Are here. Everyone’s here. Even the FBI.” Dombrowski shook his head as he spoke.

I rubbed my forehead even thinking about Agent Steel. “Because of where we’re at on the case, Samantha remains an important figure. The possibility that this is motivated by revenge is also a possible factor.”

Georgia got in my face, as she was prone to do. “I told you to keep my daughter safe. Get to work.”

Dombrowski handled coordinating the different law enforcement agencies while Storm and I went over every possible way they could leave the building. “There will be a ransom demand, I’m guessing.” Somebody wanted a lot of money, a lot of attention, or both.

“But what if they don’t? What if this is something else?”

“I can’t figure any other way they come into this building and expect to be able to leave alive, with or without the hostages.” The building was surrounded. A five-block radius cleared until, at the very least, we knew what was going on.

“Holy shit!” Someone shot up holding a cell phone. “They’re broadcasting.”

“Put it on a screen I can actually see!” Georgia demanded.

“This is fucking bad,” Storm murmured.

I cracked my neck. “Don’t I know it.” Broadcasting meant attention. And people who want attention are willing to do very stupid things for it.

They got the feed up on one of the large screens. In the background a row of people sat with their backs against a wall. The camera zoomed in and panned over them.

“Fuck.” Storm went even whiter as they passed over Adriana and Jasmine both sitting with their heads cocked to their left.

Then the camera panned past an office and back out to Sam. She was tied down to a chair. A masked man explained that he was going to prove she was a fake, live on the air, by drawing her blood and analyzing it right here and now.

“He’s lost his fucking mind!” Georgia threw her hands in the air. “Did he bring a portable lab with him?”

“Don’t need to.” My stomach dropped. “There’s one on that floor. The one Adriana works out of.”

While they drew Sam’s blood, Adriana and Jasmine twitched in the background. Their heads bobbed the same way on the same side. “You’re recording all of this?” I asked the security tech.

“Every second on two different computers.”

Something felt off but I didn’t know what.

“I can’t just stand here,” Storm said.

“And what are you going to do?” I didn’t like this any more than he did but doing something now was worse than doing nothing.

“I don’t know. Punch a hole through the ceiling, drop in like a ninja, and kill them?”

They grabbed Sam so hard she winced and dragged her down the hallway. Another pair grabbed Adriana and brought her along. She glared at the camera and cocked her head to the side one more time before they shoved her after Sam.

“Wait. Can you back that up?” The hair on my arm rose up.

The tech slid to his right and got on a different computer. The screen above froze and rewound.

“There. That. I need to see that.” Just inside the office a computer monitor was on and turned toward the window.

The tech moved the footage backward and forward until he found the cleanest shot, then zoomed it in until it started distorting. “That’s the best I can do with this equipment.”

“It’s enough.” On the screen were two words that made no sense.

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