Page 86 of Soaring Free
Sophia huffs. “Location doesn’t matter, boys, only access to systems matter. This is not the 1960s, if it can get online, then it can be hacked, tracked, and wrecked. And no, we don’t know who he is, and yes, I suspect he is a guy due to his clunky backdoor coding. Prior to this though, I’ve never cared to unmask him previously.”
“That was before he messed with my family. He won’t be able to hide behind a moniker or mask anymore. He’s about to lose his privacy, along with anything and everything he holds dear. He’ll be decimated,” Liam growls.
“Boo. Well, this is kind of lame. I wondered why he chose The Federalist as his moniker and this is not even creative,” Sophia says under her breath. “I have his identity, John Jay Jacobson, a.k.a. J.J. Jacobson, a.k.a. The Federalist. He was born and raised in some Podunk tiny town in Georgia, raised by his dad. Looks like his mother split when he was five years old, sadly she overdosed a few years later. According to these court records, John Jay’s daddy also had custody of his sister’s child after … she and her husband both also died from an overdose. That’s a lot of tragedy from addiction in one family. Looks like the nephew was eight years old when he came to live with J.J. and his dad. The two cousins grew up together, looks like they are just six months apart in age.”
“What was the cousin’s name?” Walker asks.
“Hold on, the court records on that are sealed … were sealed. Here we go, it looks like J.J.’s cousin is a Kyle Clark. Does that name mean anything to anyone?” Sophia asks and my head is about to explode.
“Wait, isn’t that…” Jack starts as he turns to me.
“Kyle Clark is the name of a junior partner at Shane’s law firm. He was Shane’s representation in their divorce proceedings,” I grit out.
“Which also means he would have physical access to Shane and his office,” Liam adds.
“That can’t be a coincidence,” Ryan says.
“No, it’s fucking not,” Liam barks out as his fingers fly over his keyboard, likely updating whatever team he has working remotely.
“Shouldn’t we check his house?” I ask Walker.
“I already texted Eddie, he’s going over there right now, but my gut says if he took her, he took her to a different location that he wouldn’t expect us to find,” Walker says with a grimace.
“Well, it’s a good news and bad news situation, boys. The good news is that this motherfucker underestimated me, and the bad news, for him, is that I’m about to find exactly what crevice he’s hiding under. Here fishy, fishy, come take a bite of this tasty bait,” Sophia says.
“My team found a trust that he tried to bury that purchased a couple hundred acres of land less than forty-five minutes from Forrest Falls,” Liam reads off a text on his phone. I walk over to look at what he’s pulling up on his laptop, and there are satellite images and a bunch of code running across his screen. “We need to find a way to narrow down this search, but I bet he is somewhere on this land. The imagery isn’t showing anything abnormal, but I don’t trust that these images are accurate. If Kyle didn’t want to be found, The Federalist could have somehow hidden his physical location.”
“Give me five minutes. I’m going to gift The Federalist with what I usually call an ice bucket, but I think this time around it feels more appropriate to call it a cup of tea.” Sophia laughs at her own joke, but she’s the only one.
“Boys, do I really have to give you a history lessonandsave the day? Typical.” Sophia continues typing away while also explaining what the hell she is talking about. “Okay, the reason The Federalist is a lame moniker is because John Jay Jacobson shares his first and middle name with the first and last name of a founding father of our country. John Jay, who despite not having a musical named after him, was a key person involved in the process of writing both the Constitution and the FederalistPapers. He was also our country’s first Chief Justice of the Supreme Court.”
“So, you’re calling it a cup of tea as a nod to the Boston Tea Party,” Liam chimes in.
“You know I like a bit of tongue in cheek, or in his case, a big ol’ boot up his ass.”
“What does an ice bucket usually contain?” Ryan asks.
“This specific ice bucket, a.k.a. cup of tea, is a worm specifically designed to infiltrate his system. Once it makes its beautiful way through his network, it’s going to detonate and freeze him out likely from anywhere between three to eight seconds, depending on how good his security is. I’m going to force his system to not only freeze him out, but I am going to knock out his entire network and system for the same time frame.”
“So, it will force him to go dark, essentially?” Walker asks.
“Yes, and I believe that it should be enough time to allow Savannah’s necklace to come back online, giving us her location, give or take a few meters. If we suspect she is somewhere on that land Liam identified, it will give us a much better idea of what area to send the troops in to search.”
“I have a strike team standing by and ready,” Liam says.
“Is it the Sheriff’s department?” I ask.
“Uh, no. I called in a favor. This team is a group of highly trained individuals that technically don’t exist, so let’s just leave it at that. Think of them as a supersized SEAL team.”
Who the hell is Liam Callahan that he can call in a personal favor and have a team of highly trained operatives dropping by to help him out?
Sophia laughs at Liam’s comment. “I’m telling Ace you called him supersized.”
“You can say whatever you want to whomever you want if you help us find my sister, Soph,” Liam stoically replies. “I’ll owe you the rest of our lives.”
“Don’t go soft on me now, Callahan. Alright boys, when I deliver this beautiful little worm to The Federalist, our window is tight.Liam, get your tracking system up and ready to go. When you tell me you’re in place, I’ll lob this bad boy at this asshole.”
Liam sets up a second laptop, and a moment later, he nods to Sophia. “Alright boys, once the worm works through his system, we only have a few seconds, but knowing what device Liam put on that necklace, that should be three times what we need to get a signal.”
