Page 65 of Guarding Truth
But she’d be beating herself up for losing Ivy. They both would.
“I failed. I didn’t see it.”
“Stop, Jules. Just stop. It’s not all on you.”
“We have to get her back.”
A car raced up to them, and Agent McGregor was out the door before the car slowed to a complete stop. Other police vehicles and an ambulance pulled up to the scene right behind him.
“Are you two hurt?” The man’s concern morphed into terror, probably because Ivy wasn’t with them. He ran a hand across his mouth. “They took her?”
Juliette nodded. The veins in Agent McGregor’s forehead throbbed like they were about to burst. “I stopped on the side of the road to wait for you, and one of the trucks drove by and shot my tire out.”
Agent McGregor put his hands on Caleb’s shoulders. “We will get Ivy back. I’ll have every agent in the department working round the clock to find her. I’m calling everyone?—”
The man’s words hissed louder in his ears than the sizzle of the agent’s crumpled radiator. Caleb shook out of the man’s grip. “I don’t want to hear all your plans. Just get out there and find her.”
But Caleb had no confidence this man would find Ivy. Juliette relayed her version of the attack while Caleb’s mind spun an intricate plan that would flush these men out of hiding. He had the skills to track them online. And if he could make himself useful to the hacker group, he would trade himself for Ivy. He’d join them if it meant Ivy could walk away from this. Of course, byjoinhe meant he’d exact his vengeance from the inside and take them down.
But he wasn’t going to involve the FBI. Or Juliette. He wouldn’t ruin Juliette’s career or reputation if things went bad. Now to find a laptop. Maybe he could salvage one from Juliette’s wrecked car.
Juliette called Alana, and Caleb heard her discuss plans to get them back to the Elite Guardians office.
The second she disconnected the call, he pounced. “I need to go back to my place. I have all the equipment I need to track these hackers. I’ll make more progress than these guys.” Police taped off the area. Agent McGregor stood off to the side, talking with other agents. Probably planning some other lame attempt to find Ivy.
No, he was Ivy’s best shot. “We need to get a car. Can Alana pick us up?”
Juliette hit the mute button on her phone. “We should head to the office to regroup. I’ll get you whatever you need to track Ivy, but we’ve got to get out of the open, and your apartment isn’t safe.”
A different FBI agent approached, his FBI blazer flapping in the breeze. “We need you to give a statement.”
Caleb counted to three, because otherwise he’d punch the man. “We just talked with Agent McGregor. And you should be out there hunting these terrorists and tracking down Ivy, not rehashing every detail we’ve told the previous agent.” He clenched his fists in his pockets to keep his hands busy, because everything within him needed to be at a keyboard, searching for Ivy.
Alana picked them up after what seemed like an eternity and drove them to the Elite Guardians office. Caleb stewed. He didn’t relish being social on a good day, and he sat in the back seat, his mind conjuring up worst-case scenarios.
“Once Ivy gives these men what they want, she’s expendable,” Caleb said. “She could fix their malware, and they could launch it against the bank. I’ve already sent out messages to the bank alerting them to not open anything suspicious, and Blake is locking their system down. We might need to take all systems offline. But all it would take is for Rushmore to have someone on the inside of the bank to open the ransomware on a bank computer.”
“What can we do to help?” Juliette asked.
“I need to call Blake, but I don’t want to think about work right now. I just need to get online and see if I can find a clue to where these hackers took Ivy. If they think she can help their cause, they may force her to work on their program. Maybe she’ll be online. We have to find her.”
At the Elite Guardians office, they offered Caleb an empty office and a computer.
Caleb sat in the swivel chair and stared at the blank screen.
Then he sucked in a deep breath and booted up the laptop. Within a minute, he’d sent a public message to the hackers with an easy code for them to break—and an offer they couldn’t resist.
He’d offered himself in exchange for Ivy.
* * *
FRIDAY, 4 P.M.
Ivy’s head pounded. The stale air made her gag.
She pushed the haze from her mind and tried to focus. The last thing she remembered was a man in a ski mask grabbing her from Juliette’s car. Whatever had been in that needle had knocked her out—for how long? The drugs must still be in her system a little, because even the slightest move made her want to vomit.
Rough carpet scratched her cheek. She reached to feel the fibers, but her hands were tied behind her.