Page 45 of Cyn
Cyn laughed. “Of course, I just wasn’t aware the police vehicles were so modern. When I first moved here, Joe—Old Joe—was still driving around in a Crown Vic. How he managed to do that in the snow and ice, I haven’t a clue.”
Joe chuckled, then asked, “How was your day? Are you back home?”
She walked in, then set the alarm behind her. She considered telling Joe about her foray into the apartment, what she’d found, and her subsequent encounter with the knife but decided that was probably a story best told in person when he could see for himself that she was relatively unharmed. That thought gave her pause, mostly because she’d never really had to think about what other people might feel about her being hurt. Despite having gone to the school she’d attended, her family had no clue what she did. Her uncle cared for her but was, first and foremost, a man committed to Queen and country and no sacrifice was too big or small. And her friends were all in the same boat. It was, perhaps, the first time in her life she was considering someone else’s feelings about her job.
But that was only a part of it. The other revelation that struck her in the three seconds between when he asked the question and when she answered was that she didn’t want to tell him over the phone because if the roles had been reversed, and he’d been injured, she’d be in a panic until she could see him and assure herself that he was, in fact, okay. It wouldn’t matter what he told her. If the words “I had a knife thrown at me as I was leaping between buildings, and it struck me in the arm,” ever came from his mouth when he wasn’t standing in front of her so that she could see with her own eyes that he’d survived, well, it wouldn’t be pretty.
She cleared her throat. “It was an interesting day,” she said, finally answering his question.
“In what way?” She heard the concern creeping into his voice.
“How about I tell you about it when you get here? I think Dan was going to leave pizza today. We can throw that in the oven, have a salad and some wine?”
“You’re okay?”
She hesitated, not because she wasn’t okay, but because of the sincere concern in his voice. She let out a deep breath. “I am. I won’t hide the fact it was a little touch and go there for a bit, but I’m fine now. I’m home and headed up to the office to do a little more research. I’ll tell you all about it when you get here tonight. If you can come?”
“I get off at five. I need to stop by my house and do a few chores, but I’ll be over by six. Need anything?”
Instinct had her shaking her head, then she answered. “No, I think I have everything. But I’ll text you if I think of anything.”
They ended the call as she walked into her bathroom. After digging through her medicine cabinet, which was mostly filled with face creams because the weather in New England wasn’t exactly gentle, she found what she’d been looking for—prescription-strength ibuprofen. It was the same stuff as over the counter but a higher dose. Popping two of those into her mouth, she took a big sip of water and washed them down, barely gagging this time. Of all the crazy-ass things she was capable of, swallowing pills was not high on that list, and her friends teased her about it mercilessly.
After changing out of her work clothes and into a pair of yoga pants, a thick sweater, and wool socks, she slid her feet into her fuzzy wool house slippers and trekked up to her office. Passing by her gym on the way, she made a mental note that she needed to get a good training session in with Michaela, her gardener-trainer, although today was not that day.
Logging in toSerrated Serpent, she hunkered down for a long session. About an hour later, the four names that both she and Six had identified joined her. She knew they were neither Persons nor Harrow since they’d been in her class when Six had been online, but it was possible one of them was Waters. She played up another level and went through the motions of pretending she liked the game, though she tried to keep her comments to a minimum. She had an app that changed her voice to that of a man, so she wasn’t worried about anyone identifying her, but she felt no compunction to join in the rowdy commentary.
After another level, she bagged out, wanting to spend time investigating the four names rather than playing the game. Starting with a basic internet search, she discovered that two of them—WaterforlifeandDOAaxe—were members of several other message boards and groups. It was possible the people behind the avatars weren’t the same, but judging by the groups and boards that popped up, she wasn’t going to bet on it.
The first five hits were sites dedicated to the survivalist ideology, guns, promotion for militarizing the police, and the need for citizen militias. She considered creating an identity and checking the boards and groups out, but she doubted anything of interest would be said or shared in such a public place.
Leaning back in her chair, she stared at her computer and considered her options. She had enough security on the device to dive into the dark web, but she didn’t know where to start. In seconds, she could pull up information on some of the darkest, most evil extremists groups on the international playing field, but since tracking homegrown groups in the US who were focused only on the US wasn’t on her priority list—or even in her scope—she didn’t know where to start.
But she knew someone who would.
Bringing up a number on her phone that she hadn’t used since last summer, she placed the call. After two rings, the woman she wanted answered.
“Ms. Steele, how are you today?”
Cyn chuckled at Lucy James’ faux formality. When she and Nora had met the woman on a joint job in the Caribbean the summer before—the same op where they’d met Beni and her fiancé—the tech genius and super hacker had teased Cyn about her accent, saying it made everything sound so formal. Even when she was swearing.
“Hiya, Lucy. I could use some help. But first, how are you and the family?”
“Happy to help. Everyone is doing well. Naomi and Jay are still running around after the twins who are both crawling now, and Brian is sitting back and laughing at them.” Brian was Lucy’s husband, and Naomi was his twin sister. Jay was Naomi’s husband, and their twins were nearly a year old. “What can I do for you?”
Cyn took a few minutes to fill Lucy in on the past several days, then asked for her help on where she should look when diving into the dark web for people like John Waters and the other two young men. “After spending some time playingSerrated Serpent,then checking out the chat boards, I realized that when it comes to horrible people, I know a lot about the international stage, but I really don’t know what is going on here,” Cyn finished.
Lucy made a disgusted noise. “I’m familiar withSerrated Serpent. I actually can’t believe it’s still around. Then again, the reason it’s still around isn’t because it’s a high-caliber game, but more because it’s a recruiting ground for extremists. But as to your question, yeah, I have a few sites you should check out, but you’ll need a backstory and special access rights. They aren’t the kind of sites you can just drop in on. If you give me a few hours, I can get that all set up for you. Did you say you think somewhere in Boston is the target? Do you know when?” she asked, not bothering to wait for Cyn to agree or thank her for the help.
“Based on what I heard the suspects talking about, we think Boston is the target, but we don’t know when. Hence the somewhat urgent nature of the request,” Cyn answered. “Joe Harris, the new chief of police here in town, knows Beni Ricci and has reached out to her. She’s looking into the chatter, but we don’t have any updates from her yet.”
Lucy chuckled. “It’s a small fucking world of those of us out to protect it from itself.”
Cyn laughed, too. The op in the Caribbean where she’d met Lucy had been run by Beni and the special FBI task force that had been stationed in that region. Not to mention the fact that Lucy had been doing tech security work for Calvin Matthews, Beni’s now fiancé, for years.
“Any updates on the wedding?” Cyn and Beni had gotten along great, but they weren’t close enough that she’d be invited to the event.
“Between you and me, I don’t think they’ll make it to the wedding,” Lucy said on a laugh. As young adults, Beni and Cal had been together for years, but they’d parted ways for reasons Cyn hadn’t asked. They’d been given a second chance, though, and it was clear that neither was interested in wasting it. So yes, she could see why, once they’d made everything official, they wouldn’t want to wait.
