“Wow,” Catie said as she joined her. “They got that out quick.”
“No news spreads like bad news,” Maj replied. She glanced around the lobby, carefully avoiding the press of dozens of passengers who’d just off-loaded. Megan stood by the gate window, peering up at the sky as they waited for Leif, Matt, and Andy’s flight to arrive.
“After the rumors about the faked kidnapping started circulating,” Veronica continued on HoloNet, “I asked the lead detective on the case about it.”
The view cut away suddenly to a gray-haired man with a hound-dog face and gravelly voice. A tag appeared briefly beneath him: BRUCE TOLLIVER, CAPTAIN OF DETECTIVES, LAPD. “Yes, we’re aware of the rumors, and we’re looking into them. Since this might be a kidnapping, we have to assume a life may be in jeopardy.”
“Have any ransom demands been made yet, Captain Tolliver?” Veronica asked.
“Not yet.”
“Isn’t that unusual?” the reporter asked.
“Actually, that’s not exceptional,” Tolliver replied.
“Do you believe there was a kidnapping today?” Veronica asked.
“I can’t comment on that.”
The scene cut back to the split view of anchor and reporter. “We’ve had other reactions to today’s bizarre events,” Veronica went on. A series of sound and vid bytes followed.
“He looked sad,” a young woman said. The shot had evidently been taken inside the convention room right after the kidnapping. “Really sad. But I don’t think he kidnapped himself. I mean, who would do that? You’d have to be kind of sick, right?”
“This business is all about attention,” a guy in his thirties said. A tag under him read, MIKE SIMON, GAME DESIGNER.
“I just want to play that game,” a teenage boy said enthusiastically. “It’s going to be so cool.”
“Now, there’s sympathy for you,” Catie commented.
Maj nodded.
“We also interviewed Griffen’s lawyers,” Veronica went on. The scene cut to an older man in an Italian suit.
“The whole idea that Eisenhower Productions or Peter had a hand in engineering something like this is totally ludicrous,” Brett Harper, attorney-at-law, said. “First off, a fiasco like this is highly irresponsible. The law enforcement agencies involved are not going to be amused, and Peter would never think of potentially alienating his fans in this manner.”
The scene cut back to the reporter. “What we have so far, Frank, is a mystery that only Peter Griffen or the people responsible for his disappearance can solve.”
“Hey, they’re here,” Megan called from the gate.
Maj and Catie joined her as the first passengers came through. Surprisingly, Matt, Andy, and Leif were among them.
“First class,” Catie teased. “Somebody’s moving up in the world.”
“It was the only way to get three seats together,” Leif said. He looked at Maj with concern as they walked through the terminal. “You look like you could use some rest.”
“Thanks. That does my confidence a world of good.”
Leif glanced around the lobby. “Okay, it’s been awhile since I was in LAX. Where are the baggage claim areas?”
Maj pointed to the signs. As she did, her attention was caught by the HoloNet presentation again. A holo image of Peter from the convention occupied center stage with images of the great dragon hanging high overhead. Her mind flashed on the image of Peter when she’d first seen him, dressed in armor and on Sahfrell’s back. Then she noticed the rest of the group was waiting on her.
“Sorry,” she apologized. “I’m a little preoccupied.”
“Hey,” Leif said softly, “it’s okay.”
Maj shook her head. “I don’t think so. According to the police, there hasn’t been a ransom demand yet.”
“That doesn’t necessarily mean anything bad,” Megan said. “Kidnappers wait a day or so just to let the family get worried before they make their move.”
“That’s the way your dad wrote it in his novel,” Maj pointed out. One of R. F. O’Malley’s best-sellers had involved the kidnapping of an operating room nurse from Walter Reed, and the story got even more complicated from there. “In real life kidnappers have a tendency to kill their victims. No witness equals no crime. More often than not, kidnap victims don’t come home to their families.”
No one had anything to say about that, and when the holo of Peter Griffen disappeared from the media broadcast, everything seemed awkward.
Matt walked over and put his arm around Maj’s shoulders. “Don’t sell us out so early. We’re just getting on the ground with this thing. We’ve always made a difference before.”
“We’re not above failing, and you know that.” Maj remembered Julio Cortez. The Net Force Explorers had tried to help him escape the situation he had been in. They’d gotten his family out, but not Julio.
“We’re not going to fail,” Matt said, his eyes still showing hurt from that mission. “That’s not going to happen.”
“It’s not about failing, Matt. I’m just afraid we’re already too late.”
Gaspar Latke sat in the corner of the room that had become his prison and watched Heavener standing in front of one of the blacked-out polarized windows. She talked over an encrypted foilpack in a verbal shorthand he couldn’t keep track of. She made things even more complicated by speaking in Russian. It was her habit to change languages on a regular basis.
Heavener was obviously unhappy. The emotion showed in the stiff way she held herself and the clipped tone she used. When she was finished, she snapped the foilpack closed and turned on him with catlike quickness.
Instead, she said, “I’ll be back.”
“Su-sure.” He wrapped his arms around himself, trying to stay warm.
A small smile dusted Heavener’s lips, and he knew she was enjoying his fear.
Gaspar peered through the doorway after she left, knowing he’d never open it on his own. It let out into a hallway filled with shadows and blank doors. Heavener faded into the darkness before the door closed.
He forced himself into motion, dropping into one of the implant chairs and onto the Net. Jumping free of the warehouse location on the Net, knowing he didn’t have much time, he boosted himself through a sat-link and headed for Alexandria, Virginia. The reports Heavener had gotten included Madeline Green’s home address as well as her Net location.
On the Net, he hovered above her house and quickly sorted through the virtual connections she had to the Net. Most visitors to veeyar never noticed them, but Gaspar had programming that allowed him to make the connections visible. A lot of crackers did.
He blinked, then studied the electronic circuitry that stemmed from Madeline Green’s room. All of it was protected behind firewalls that looked like glassy-blue force fields. Knowing Heavener might return at any moment, he hurried when he should have hesitated. He spun a fiberoptic cable from his chest and shot it toward the system’s mail utility link. Since he wasn’t breaking in to destroy anything or to try to leave an archived virus bombpack, he knew leaving the message would be easy. But as soon as the fiberoptic cable touched the e-mail utility link, a hand stabbed out of the cable, coated in the same black plastic as the cable. It made a fist around the fiberoptic cable.
“You’re not going anywhere,” a triumphant voice announced.
15
