Chapter 10

CHAPTER 10

J ake Carlisle looked up to see his youngest brother-in-law Luke and his wife Abby walk into his office. He paused the surveillance video he'd been studying for one of their clients.

"What do I owe the pleasure of you two in the office today?"

The pair usually worked from home, clicking away on their computers and communicating with other members of their team via the internet or through phones. It was rare for them to come to the office, unless it was a monthly meeting or one he'd insisted they come in for.

"We have a problem," Luke said, waiting for Abby to elegantly sit in one of the padded chairs across the desk from him before slouching into the other.

Jake considered all their open cases. Luke and Abby were involved in three of them. "Smithers?" A case of embezzlement from a construction firm in Cleveland.

Luke shook his head. "Nope. We've found the trail of the offshore accounts where he's sent the money. Going to hand that over to Treasury tomorrow. This is worse."

"Sutcliff and Wong?" Two men involved in sex trafficking.

"No," Abby said. "Our online sting operation was able to trace them down. Castello and Ben are headed there with the local Leos."

"That leaves the CP&R company."

"Nope. That one checks out. The forensic accounting cleared them for investments by Senator Compton," Luke said.

Jake leaned back in his chair and studied the pair. "Okay, that's all your open cases. What's this problem?"

"Zoe," they said simultaneously.

"Your cousin?" he asked Luke, whose jaw tightened at the question, and he nodded. "What's she done now?"

Their last involvement with the Edgars' wayward cousin, had led them to a cell of terrorists who'd come in across the border. She'd wanted to keep her undercover identity intact, so hadn't wanted to bring in the Feds or whoever she was working for. Instead, she'd sent the EIS team the address of the cell with a warning that a known bomb making expert was embedded in the group. Luckily, they'd taken out the five men and two women before anyone or anything was blown up.

Luke exchanged a look with his wife, who gave him a little shrug. Then he turned back to Jake with a frustrated shake of his head. "We don't know."

"Okay. Tell me what you do know."

"I got a call Sunday night saying she wanted to talk to us."

"To you and Abby?"

"No. All of us. EIS."

Jake digested this information. "She has a case she wants us to help her with."

"I'd assume that's what she wanted, but she wouldn't tell me anything over the phone," Luke said. "She said it was something she needed to tell us in private. And that it was important."

"Cryptic as always." Jake muttered. He'd only met Zoe a few times, each time she'd been in and out before the team could pin her down for details. However, he'd heard stories from his wife and her brothers about their cousin's antics. Live wire and loose cannon were two cliches he'd affixed to the file he'd made on her—a habit from his bureau days. "What happened after the phone call?"

"Nothing. When she called, she said she was driving to Columbus and would see me soon. She never showed up."

"Any clue where she called from?"

"The last time her phone was active was in the Appalachia Mountains of western Virginia," Abby said.

"Do I want to know how you two traced her phone?" he asked with a half closed-mouth smile. These two were a pair. A female walking filing cabinet of images she could recall at a moment's notice and a man who could hack any computer on earth and a few floating around overhead.

"We used our special skills," Luke said with a grin.

The pair proceeded to fill him in on what information they'd obtained as to her movements. He jotted down notes and considered what he knew of Zoe's work. So far, she'd been the lynch pin in taking down two international arms dealers and then the terrorist cell. The woman worked so deep undercover, her family didn't know her whereabouts for months or even years, only poking her head out of the murky muck she moved in to point his team onto an op that needed handling, usually the dangerous and important taking down of bad guys.

"So, we lose contact with her in the mountains the night of a rainstorm that proceeded a snowstorm. We have no idea what she needed us for this time, but we can all assume it was something she couldn't trust to her own people, and important enough to bring her out of her dark undercover world."

"I wouldn't say it so poetically," Luke said. "But yeah, that's about it."

"First priority is to find your cousin," he said, opening a screen on his computer. "Weather in that area is still below freezing, so depending on the road crews working those roads, it could be a few days before everything is passable. We'll have to take our team as close to the area by vehicles as we can and then hike in to find her."

"That's a lot of terrain to cover." Luke sat forward. "I can see if I can find the GPS for whatever car she was driving. Knowing her, she rented it under an alias. It's hard enough to find someone in that remote area, harder still someone who never wants to be found."

"It would help if we knew what she was working on this time," Abby said. "Or even who she is working for. I'll scan the internet for images and run facial software, maybe it will pick something up I can use."

"I'll put out some feelers back in DC and see if we can get a bead on which three-letter agency she's with this time." Jake paused. "Whatever we do, do it quietly. If your cousin was coming to us and wanted to talk in person, then we have to assume there's someone or some group in Washington she doesn't want getting wind of this."

Luke shook his head. "What the hell has Zoe gotten herself into this time?"