He waited because, of course, if the local cops were looking into this, even in a secondary capacity, why was he called in? And? he finally texted in exasperation when there was no answer. He looked around outside the cab’s windows to see that they were maybe ten minutes away from the airport.
His phone beeped again, and the text read, She’s the sister of somebody high up in our government who is undercover at the moment.
“So then I’m sure the Australian government and their police authorities will be happy to cooperate,” he muttered to himself.
But the answer came back. And it’s top secret.
Shit. So I can’t ask for help?
Not from the regular channels. The American government has already expressed their concerns with the Australian government, and everybody is open and cooperating … but …
But this undercover element is specialized?
Very. They have their own black-op operatives working that end. You will be working the kidnapping end.
Ransom demand?
Not yet. We have very little information on our own.
Do we have any clue as to where she’s being kept and why her?
Hope to have a better idea about where she’s at when you land. Possibly taken because of her highly public outburst against the treatment of the indigenous people in Australia.
Oh, yeah. That could do it.
Possibly, but then she’s been fairly outspoken for a long time, Ryker texted. She’s an anthropologist working around the world to promote better treatment for the original people of every country. And she just happens to be in Australia now.
Is she the activist author who’s been in the news a lot? Nico asked.
Yes, that’s her. What we’re really concerned about is that our undercover man’s been compromised and that she’s been taken to control him.
“Shit,” Nico said as he picked up his bag and the file and exited the cab, and the driver drove away without even allowing him to pay. He headed to the counter. There, he quickly checked in and ended up in the boarding area, where he had only five minutes before moving onto the flight itself. He had just enough time to pick up the package awaiting him and to stuff it into his carry-on bag. He pulled out his first burner phone and called Ryker again. “I need more information on her and on him,” he said.
“You can have more information on her,” Ryker said, “but you already know what it’s like trying to get any information on him. It’s top secret.”
“Top secret, my ass. His sister’s been taken. Is nobody even considering that maybe it’s not so top secret anymore? That the bad guys know more than I do about it right now?”
“That’s exactly what they’re considering,” Ryker said. “But they’re not letting out any more information just because of that. She’s also caused quite a stir herself with her books anyway.”
“She’s young, isn’t she?”
“She’s thirty-three,” Ryker said. “Old enough to have caused a lot of people to rethink their treatment of the needs of the people in their lands.”
“Or to say that they’re rethinking it,” Nico said drily.
“Exactly.”
“When did she last check into her room via her key card usage?”
“Eleven-thirty last night.”
“And when did anybody find out she wasn’t there?”
“Eight o’clock this morning, her time. One of her coworkers knocked on the door to meet up for breakfast and to go to the rally.”
“And her key wasn’t used in the meantime or any master key?”
“Apparently not.”
“You and I both know how easy it is to make it appear that way, when it wasn’t.”
“It’s possible, but we don’t know anything yet for sure, which is why you’re on your way over there.”
“By the time I arrive …”
“You’re on the fastest flight. We’ll get you there,” Ryker said.
“As our Mavericks team grows, we need a man in each of the main continents.”
“Working on it.”
“We’ve already got Kerrick in France, Beau in NYC on the opposite coast, Asher in Geneva, Miles in London. I presume the rest of the guys and their women are open to moving as long as they are together.”
Ryker laughed. “That’s what I understand too. Miles will be your Mavericks contact once you land in Sydney.” And, at that, Ryker hung up. The military plane took off not long afterward. With his laptop, Nico did as much research as he could on the long flight, finding out more about the missing woman.
What really interested him was all the online information which said she was an only child.
Yet according to the information he’d gotten from Ryker, this top secret man working undercover was her brother. So, somehow that information had been erased from the records. It always amazed Nico how people thought that would work because, once it was fact, it was somewhere. Still there. Even now.
He just had to find it. He kept digging down, going as far back as into her elementary school years. And there, he found a sibling. But it wasn’t at the regular elementary school. She’d gone to another one for just a few months. A casual mention of her and her brother noted them as new members of a chess club, and Nico sat here and stared at that. Wasn’t Kerrick’s partner, Amanda, the cancer researcher, also a chess player? Something to do with being ultrasmart?
He shook his head, not sure if this had anything to do with that. Our missing activist, Charlotte, had been in grade four at that time, for God’s sake. What could genius kids in grade four even do? Apparently they played chess.
Nico kept working his way through the rest of the information available online. She’d been married for five years to Rowe Browning from Arizona. He had been a long-time supporter of Native American rights, and she was halfway through her degree to become an anthropologist. After this marriage, she’d become an ardent protester of the treatment of all the Native people, then her husband had died, six years ago now, and she’d continued the cause afterward and had reverted to her maiden name of
