Page 70 of Cyn
“Thanks,” she said. “We’ll call our FBI contact and let her know.”
After a few more minutes of discussing law enforcement—and one more entreaty to give him a call if they needed another hand—they ended the session, and Cyn immediately picked up the phone to call Beni. While Cyn updated her on Fawkes’ impressions, Nora, Six, and Devil returned to the images, and Joe headed downstairs to make more coffee.
“We need something more,” Six said once Cyn had ended her call with Beni. “Bartlett uploaded what appears to be thousands of images from the suspects’ phones, but from the hours we’ve spent reviewing them, most look like variations of the same theme.”
“What about the files from McElroy’s phone?” Nora asked.
Cyn hadn’t forgotten that Lucy was still decrypting those files, but she’d gotten sucked in by the contents of Bartlett’s USB. She’d figured Lucy would call if she had anything, but it was probably time for her to check in with the tech genius. They were getting to the point when they could really use a “Hail Mary,” and if anyone could deliver, it was probably Lucy.
“I’ll give Lucy a call to see where she’s at with the decryption,” Cyn replied as she sent a quick text to Lucy to let her know she’d be calling. She was nearly sure the woman would be awake, but it was nearing four in the morning, and Cyn didn’t want the unexpected ringing of a phone to startle her.
“Good timing, call when you can,”Lucy texted back.
Hitting the audio button, Cyn connected the call. “Please, tell me you have something for me.”
“McElroy had files documenting the recruiting practices of Al-Shabaab. I’m sure it has something to do with this, but I doubt it’s relevant right now, and you can fill me in later. Other than that, there are photos of buildings in Boston and a list of events being held tomorrow—or, I suppose I should say, later today. It’s not a complete list of events since there are only seventeen, but maybe it’s a short list of places they are looking to target?”
Lucy’s tone sounded cautiously hopeful that the list might prove useful, and with everything inside her, Cyn hoped she was right.
“The list of events decrypted about ten minutes ago along with a few other files. Want me to look into them and see if we can get any likely or obvious targets?” Lucy asked.
“Please,” Cyn said, not hesitating to take the woman up on her offer. Unlike Fawkes, Lucy could do her work from the safety of her own home. “We’re still compiling a list of all the events and researching each as we add it, but we’ll leave those seventeen for you to look into. Are all the files on McElroy’s computer decrypted now?”
“They are. There were six different types of encryption on that one phone and many of the files were hidden,” Lucy said.
“Hidden?” Cyn asked.
“Yes, it’s probably why the Army didn’t bother digging into it too much. There were some obvious saved files and images, but about ten times more data was hidden. Usually masquerading as an app.”
“Did McElroy learn how to do that from Bartlett? Honestly, he didn’t strike me as the most intelligent kid,” Cyn said.
“Bartlett probably set it up, and from there, it would have been easy to operate so long as McElroy remembered which apps to use and how to decrypt the data once he saved it in the encrypted form. Anyway, this is neither here nor there. While I’m looking into the list of events, I can also run the files through a language recognition program to see what pops up.”
Cyn had considered that and, now that they had all the files from the phone, agreed it was a good idea. “I have a program here, and I can go ahead and do that. Can you send me all the files?” Cyn asked. “If you could focus on those seventeen events and either help us scratch them off the list or, even better, find the likely target, that would be incredibly helpful. You should probably get some sleep after that.”
Lucy snorted and, in the background, Cyn heard Brian mumble something as well. “Yeah, that’s not happening,” Lucy replied. “Not only are Brian and I wide-awake and focused on this but he also has about every DeMarco in a fifty-mile radius who’s law enforcement—or military—on stand-by. When we find the target, I can assure you, you will have backup whether you want it or not. Like I told you, Boston is our town, and the DeMarcos practically bleed Boston red. We’re not going anywhere until we know the city is safe. At least from this known threat.”
Cyn wasn’t entirely sure what to say to that, so she simply thanked her, then promised to stay in touch before ending the call. Once her phone was silent, she sent the list of the seventeen events to Devil and Nora so that they didn’t double up with Lucy. Cyn was starting the language recognition program when Joe arrived with coffee.
Everyone muttered thank yous as he delivered the mugs, except for Six, who proposed marriage to him when he set a café au lait in front of her. His bark of laughter elicited a glare from her Italian friend, which of course, made the rest of them laugh.
Two hours later, though, no one was laughing. They had narrowed the list of potential targets down to eight, but without a better schematic or blueprints, they couldn’t confirm or remove any more.
Cyn let out a frustrated grunt as she rose from her seat. With the exception of Joe, who’d done the coffee and food runs all night, and the occasional bathroom break, they’d all been sitting for more hours than Cyn wanted to count.
“I think we’ve done what we can do with the computers and the files,” Cyn said. Nora’s, Six’s, and Devil’s gazes all came up. “Nora, I know you probably need to check on the puppies, but ladies—and Joe,” she added with a rueful grin at nearly forgetting him, “I think it’s boots-on-the-ground time.”
“Boston road trip?” Devil asked, rising from her seat.
“I’ll drive,” Six said.
Nora shook her head. “Devilwill drive with me, and Cyn can drive with the rest of you. That way, we can hit more places. And as for the puppies, I already called Kayla to come stay with them last night, and she said she’d be available all day today if needed.” Kayla was a retired FBI agent who occasionally helped out with the animals at Nora’s farm. She was sixty-five years old, never married, never had any kids, and was firm in her belief that animals were the only thing in life that brought joy—well, animals and a good whiskey. Other than that, people were merely to be tolerated. Nora was the only one amongst them who actually seemed to get on with her.
“Fine,” Cyn said. “I’ll drive, or Joe will. Can you divide the list?” she asked Devil. In response, Devil leaned over her laptop and hit a few buttons. In seconds, the printer started whirring and two pages printed. Cyn walked over and grabbed them, handing one to Nora as she crossed back to Joe’s side. Six joined them while Devil joined Nora.
“The first, second, fifth, and seventh are in a reasonable proximity to each other. The other four are a bit more scattered,” Cyn said, starting toward the door. She had a mental map in her head now and didn’t need to look at the printout to decide the next steps. “Since there are only two of you, Devil and Nora, why don’t you take the four that are close together, and Six, Joe, and I can take the other four?”
Everyone murmured their assent and when they hit the ground floor, they paused in the mudroom to grab their winter gear. “Everyone kitted up?” Cyn asked, and she wasn’t referring to their clothing. Their focus might be on defusing several bombs, but that didn’t mean they intended to go anywhere unarmed.
