Page 76 of Billion-Dollar Ransom
SIX: It’s too late, Mr. One. We’re both in the wind. I just wanted to give you fair warning. I’m giving the others fair warning too.
ONE: You’re a dead woman, Ms. Parker.
[Call ends.]
CHAPTER 85
Friday, 12:02 a.m.
“I HAVE…THEM… on line one,” Hope Alonso said.
Here it was, at long last. The first direct communication between Nicky’s task force and their adversaries. Seven minutes before, the kidnappers had again hijacked the FBI’s internal messaging service with instructions to call a WhatsApp number at exactly midnight. Using WhatsApp meant the communication would be encrypted and untraceable, even for the FBI.
Nicky scanned the faces of the people in the Sandbox.Which one of you knew this call would be happening right now? And how do you plan on helping from the inside?
“Okay, gather everyone who’s awake.”
Ross Lindbergh immediately patched in the team from Capital; a younger operative had been standing by the phone all night. Virgil Tighe was temporarily unavailable, so his boss,James Haller, was pulled away from a dinner party to listen in. The slightly tipsy lawyer insisted on conferencing in Randolph Schraeder as well.
“I know he’ll want to be on this call,” James insisted. “This simply isn’t happening without him.”
“Cool, but can you keep your client muzzled?” Mike asked. “We don’t need him antagonizing these guys.”
“Hardy, this is abillion fucking dollars,” James Haller practically snarled. “My client can antagonize whomever he wants whenever he wants.”
“Well, I don’t know,Jimmy.Does your client understand that his entitled mouth could get his own children killed?”
At this point, Nicky had had enough. “You two want to keep trading punches or are you ready for this call?”
“The mayor’s office is on the line,” Hope said. She had spent the past few minutes struggling to reach the mayor’s chief of staff so that he could keep his boss updated, but he was unreachable. Hope diligently worked down the line until she roused the director of LA’s Chamber of Commerce from a dead sleep. Not ideal, but it would cover their asses politically.
“Are we all here?” Nicky asked.
James Haller confirmed that yes, his client Randolph Schraeder had joined the call. They saw Schraeder’s face on a screen, but the man did not speak. Perhaps Haller had been smart enough to preemptively mute him.
“Everyone who’s awake is on the line,” Mike replied.
“Okay,” Nicky said. “Let’s hear what they have to say.”
CHAPTER 86
“THIS IS AGENT Gordon,” Nicky said. “To whom am I speaking?”
“Who I am is not important,” a modulated voice said. It sounded similar to the voice on the cassette tapes, only this version was crystal clear and obviously spoken live.
“What should I call you, then?”
“You may call me One.”
“Thank you, One. Are you prepared to guarantee the safe return of the Schraeder family?”
“First, we need to discuss the money. Do you have it gathered as per our specifications?”
“We were waiting for yourfinaldelivery instructions,” Nicky said. “Are you ready to share them?”
There was silence on the line. The wordfinal,of course, was pointed. Nicky knew One was playing games. One knew thathe was playing games. It was time to end the games and get down to business.
“Yes,” One finally said. “We will be sending coordinates once we know the payment is ready for delivery. But first we will require visual proof of the ransom and accountant-verified documentation.”
