“While you guys were house hunting, we’ve been doing some background work on Argus Kanelos,” Joe said.
“Find anything interesting?” Bridge asked.
“Plenty. And we may have figured out what’s going on here. Or at least part of it.”
“What do you got?”
“We’ve uncovered several communications between Kanelos and another email address that we have still yet to figure out who is behind it.”
“What did they say?”
“Well, first of all, we’re assuming the email account he’s conversing with belongs to either Dalton or Kenny.”
“Why?”
“The emails were opened through an IP address that registers to a location in Ukraine.”
“At the time they were both there, I take it?”
“You guessed it.”
“Is it possible they were using a VPN to disguise their real location and maybe just incriminating one of those people?” Nicole asked.
“No, that’s a good call, though. Best as we can determine, the location is as legit as it gets.”
“But we can’t pinpoint who it was exactly?” Bridge asked.
“Negative. At least not as yet. We’re still working on it, though. We’ll get there.”
“How long ago were these emails?”
“The first ones we’ve got are from last year. We’ve got a few spread out since then, the latest of which we have is from last month.”
“You said you thought you knew what this was about?”
“In the exchange of emails, they go into several different topics, one is nailing down some type of housing situation for whoever Kanelos is talking to.”
“Housing?”
“Yes. We’ll send a few of the emails over to you so you can examine them, but the gist of it is they wanted Kanelos to find suitable housing for them for a period of one to three days.”
“We’ve checked every house the Kanelos family owns. There’s no sign of any of them being there. If they were in one of the empty ones, they left no clues behind that they were there, and if they were in one of the ones being rented, there was nothing to suggest they were being hidden.”
“That’s because they didn’t use any of those,” Joe said. “In the emails, Kanelos was explicitly told not to use any house that can be traced back to the family.”
Steve stepped up to ask a question. “Then what sense does it make to use Kanelos at all if they’re not using his family connections? I mean, he’s definitely no angel, but he’s definitely not up to the caliber of the rest of the people he’s hobnobbing with either. It doesn’t make sense.”
“It makes a little more sense if you come to the realization that they’re probably just using Kanelos to find an adequate house, help with whatever they need with Abbott, and in getting the money.”
“Money?” Bridge asked. “What money?”
“In several of the emails they reference a place called The Brick.”
“The Brick?” Bridge looked at the others to see if they knew the reference. Nicole shook her head, but by the look on Steve’s face, he understood it. “What’s The Brick?”
“Steve can probably fill you in a little better after we’re finished here, but for now, you need to know that The Brick is a large building, basically referenced to as a bank, designed for criminals, run by criminals, and used by criminals of all nationalities. Every government intelligence agency knows it exists.”
Bridge put his hands up. “If everyone knows about it, how’s it allowed to operate?”
“There may be a few people in either the police or government agencies that have a hand in the cookie jar, so to speak. We don’t need to debate the hows and whys right now. At this moment, the only thing we need to concern ourselves with, is whether that’s the target that Dalton and Kenny have. And since they’ve mentioned the name, which is basically forbidden unless you have business with it, we believe that it is.”
“What about a date and a time? How’s this system work?”
“A date and time we don’t know. But considering they’re there, which is where The Brick is located, we’ve got to believe that it’s happening soon.”
“Is that why they need Abbott?”
“We still don’t know. The inner workings of it are still somewhat of a mystery, but it’s a good guess that they need him for something.”
“It’s gotta have something to do with it,” Nicole said. “There’s no other reason for it.”
“Where’s this place at?” Bridge asked.
“Steve will fill you in on the details,” Joe said. “But it’s in a remote area, and it’s surrounded by guards. And plenty of them.”
Bridge smiled, already knowing the answer to his next question. “By guards, I assume you mean heavily armed mercenaries who shoot anyone who’s not authorized to come near the place?”
“That about covers it.”
“I take it that means we’re gonna have to stake this place out to see if our friends show up?”
“That’s about the size of it.”
“What about the alternate housing they directed Kanelos to find?” Nicole asked. “How ‘bout zeroing in on that and see if we can find out where they are?”
“We’ve been trying, but we haven’t been able to lock anything down yet. The theory we’re going with is that we believe they used Kanelos to find an appropriate spot, probably away from the hustle and bustle of a big city, a place they could settle into without any prying eyes while they wait for whatever it is they’re waiting for. They probably also directed him to do it under the radar.”
“So nothing that we’re going to be able to attach with his name on it,” Bridge said.
“Most likely not. We’re still checking, but like I said, it’s unlikely we’re going to be able to lock anything down definitively.”
“Seems like a lot of loose pieces on this,” Steve said. “Sounds like they’ve got two extra parts they don’t need.”
“No, don’t discount anything. They need them for a reason. Maybe to get
