Page 188 of Somebody's Watching Me
Liam met his gaze. They had one shot, and neither wanted it wasted. “I’m ready.”
Izzy straightened in her chair, hands on the keyboard. “Ready.”
Pulling out the walkie-talkie he had been provided, Klausen gave a nod. “Ready.”
“Uh, Row?” Annabeth’s brows furrowed. “What are you guys doing?”
“I told you,” he said as Dr. Cohen shut down the jammer. “Your man is about to fuck shit up.”
The jammer powered off, and Rowan dropped all defenses on their system, allowing anyone attempting to infiltrate full access. It was a risk, but seeing the mass of people flowing in, he knew it was going to be well worth it.
Immediately, he broke down their details and transferred what he was seeing to Liam and Izzy for them to relay to Klausen, and onward. No cellphones could be used as their scheme played out, and the four of them proceeded to play the most bizarre game of telephone in the Bureau’s history.
“Holy shit.” Izzy sucked in a sharp breath. “They’re everywhere.”
Signals of transmission from dozens of grounding points danced across the screen, making Rowan damn near giddy. Sinclair couldn’t stand not to have his eyes on Evie but take away his ability to see or hear Jamison, and the man sent every dog he had chasing after her.
Not leaving Liam’s side, Jamison tried to decipher what was on his screen. “Explain?”
“Yesterday, Rowan tested Sinclair’s willingness to engage by shutting off the power and disconnecting his access to you.” Liam snagged another laptop as Rowan pinned down location after location. “There was a steady flow of participants, but today with the jammer, we expected more. Our military uses this equipment all the time, and Sinclair will recognize the distortion coming through. We’re banking on his curiosity over why we’re using it to net a hefty sweep of his tech people.”
Izzy started firing off addresses to Klausen, who repeated them into the walkie-talkie.
“You can see where they are?” Annabeth snuck in close, her face directly next to his as he worked. Simone was on his other side, grunting every time Rowan pinned a target. “And maybe catch them?”
Not taking his eyes off what he was doing, Rowan nodded. “I don’t think we’ll get Sinclair, but we’re going to make him hurt.”
“Taking power away from an egomaniac so he’ll make a mistake is the oldest trick in the book,” Liam said, his focus just as unwavering as Rowan’s. “Well done, old man.”
“Nah, not me. A well done to Mr. McIntyre.” Dr. Cohen adjusted his glasses to look at Liam’s computer. “How many StingRays are you working with?”
“Four each,” Rowan replied while Klausen grunted in disapproval from somewhere behind them. “Including the one at Samuel’s place.”
“Stingray?” Annabeth whispered. “As in a fish?”
“Fake cell phone tower.” Rowan lost one of the signals he was after and hissed. “Easy way to track people.”
Izzy continued to read aloud to Klausen, and Bernie hustled around the room, gathering pens and paper. She and Abe took notes so Klausen wouldn’t make a mistake as he spoke to his team.
Annabeth remained at Rowan’s side while he pushed himself. The staggering amount of data was enough to fry the average person’s brain, so it was a good thing he wasn’t average. Plowing his way through, he didn’t stop until the signals blinked out completely.
“Twenty-three.” Rowan dropped his hands from the keyboard. Eight minutes. He’d gained twenty-three addresses in under eight minutes, with some of them coming from spots a little too close for comfort. “Ball is in your court, Klausen. We’re ready to help your team with phase two and catch these bastards.”
Dr. Cohen chuckled. “Run, run, run as fast as you can, motherfuckers.”
Chapter 42
Two days.
Liam and Rowan had been gone for two whole days.
They disappeared with Klausen, prepared to chase down the information gained, and the lack of communication made her nervous.
Tasked to stay behind and watch over the house, Izzy would let them know everything was fine whenever she had the slightest contact. “I would be upfront with you if it wasn’t.”
Unable to do anything except feel helpless, Jamison relieved her frustrations with Annabeth and a good workout.
“This is torture.” Annabeth’s gloved fist punched the pad secured against Jamison’s palm. “I’m going to use these on Rowan’s face for leaving me worried.”
