Page 41 of Wild Temple
I had shut my cell phone off during the drive to his house. I didn’t want to turn it back on until I had returned to town and had dumped the car. I didn't want anything connecting me to any of these incidents. I had made a mental note of the route on the drive here. I just hoped I remembered it on the way back.
23
Iditched the car just outside of town on a small dirt road. I let the car idle, hopped out, and pushed it down a slope. It plowed through the underbrush and crashed into a tree. At this rate, nobody would find the car for a while.
I hiked back up to the main road, then jogged into town. By the time I got back to the hotel, I was tired and slick with sweat.
Jack looked after the patient. Brooke paced around, blowing off nervous energy. My entrance drew concerned gazes from the two.
"How's everything going?" I asked.
"The girl is stable," Jack said. "But we've got other problems. I tried to call, but I couldn’t get in touch with you."
"What's up?"
"Brooke got a call from the kidnappers.”
"What do they want?”
"They want the map," Brooke said. "They're pissed off. They said they're going to kill Hannah if they don't get it.”
"Did you get proof of life?"
Brooke nodded.
She pulled up a video clip on her phone and showed it to me. I examined the brutal footage. Hannah was alive for the time being. Tears streaked her cheeks. Her mouth was covered with duct tape, and her wrists and ankles were tied. The camera kept a close frame on her, but it looked like she was atop a mattress somewhere. There were no other identifying details.
I looked at the info on the clip to see if there was any identifying metadata or GPS information, but none were present.
Brooke sent the clip to my phone. I forwarded it to Talia. I didn’t know how good she was at this kind of thing, but I hoped she could provide additional insight. I told her to track the incoming calls to Brooke’s phone and look at the call history to see if she could locate the kidnappers.
"Did you talk to Bayu or Putu?" I asked.
Brooke shook her head. "No. It was someone else. I'm pretty sure of that.” She paused. “Do you think the kidnappers are connected to the Black Opal?”
"That's a safe bet," I said. "I don't think this town is big enough for two major trafficking rings. I think Caspian Vorn is running the whole show.”
“Who’s Caspian Vorn?" Brooke asked.
I gave her and JD the short version.
“They probably got your number from Hannah’s phone,” I said. “If they are sophisticated enough to track your phone, they know where we are. But I don’t know if they have that kind of ability.”
It would take a pretty sophisticated organization with expert hacking skills.
“You think they might come here?” Brooke asked with worried eyes.
“I think our little stunt at Black Opal pissed off some heavy hitters," I said.
"Your little stunt," JD clarified.
I sneered at him. “When do they want to make the exchange?”
Brooke shrugged. “They’re going to call back with more details.”
“How long has it been since they called?”
Brooke shared a glance with Jack. “Maybe half an hour.”
