CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

"I've had two hits tonight," said Code. "One is for the transfer of a thousand from a woman's bank account. The other is a transfer of available cash on seven different credit cards. I've moved it all into another account to be distributed back."

"Fucking great work, Code. But we still have to find them, or they're just going to get spooked and move on. We need that woman to tell us who they are and where they are," said Ghost.

"I can't help you with that, but I do think we need to continue with the avenue of the site itself. I hate to suggest this, but I think we need to ask Shelby to make her profile live again."

"Brother, you're going to make Red go fucking red," said Gaspar, shaking his head.

"Well, there is another option," said Code, staring at the room of his peers. They waited with bated breath, unsure of what he might say. "We turn her cameras back on, sit her in front of her computer, and send a message."

"Jesus, you really want to die, don't you?" said Nine.

"She won't be alone. You know that. We can give her just enough information to tempt them out of hiding. We could make it sound like she knows exactly who they are and she has evidence on them. They're not going to risk that. We saw what they did to Amber, but we won't let that happen to Shelby. We'll make sure that they meet in a public place."

"We'll use that as a last resort," said Nine. Hiro walked in, giving an apologetic nod to the team.

"Hi. I hate to break in on your meeting, but I have some information that might impact what you're doing as well."

"You don't have to apologize, Hiro. You're part of the greater team, which means you help us as well," said Ian.

"Appreciate that. We've been following some noise for a while in a chat room about a group of Syrians trying to get into the U.S. The chatter was back and forth on how they could fool people into helping them, especially here in the U.S. Then someone posted this. ‘Use a dating site – American women are stupid.' You'll never guess the site that was suggested and the one they're using."

"I think I will guess the site they're using," frowned Gaspar. "How does this connect to our thieves?"

"If the chatter is right, they sent a certain amount of money to the site administrators to guarantee that they could get a woman to sponsor them or write a letter of recommendation. So far, they've received nothing, and they're starting to get pissed off. They've sent a few threatening messages to the site, but, of course, no one is responding. The dating site administrators took their money and then blocked their profiles on the site. They may not understand what they've done, but they opened a fucking huge Pandora's box."

"Jesus, they really know how to piss off their friends, don't they?" said Ghost. "We can guess that these Syrians don't want anything good, but do we have any idea what they do want?"

"They're part of Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham."

"HTS. What a fucking nightmare," growled Nine. "And these assholes probably have no clue who they really are or what they would do once they were here. Those people have helped ISIS, Al Qaeda, and every other enemy of the U.S. I'd love to turn them over to HTS, but that would require allowing them into the country."

"We could ship them to Syria," smirked Ian. "You know, small box, small air holes. It seems fair."

"We might just do that," laughed Nine. He heard a loud crunch and jumped, gripping his chest as he turned to see the offender. "What the fuck, Trak? Seriously."

"What? It's an apple. They're good for you."

"When did you come in?" asked Ian. Trak smirked at the men.

"A while ago. I have another thought for you. If we can find these people, I look close enough to a Syrian that you could send me in. We can end this and avoid a long trial."

The men all stared at Trak, knowing exactly what he was implying. In the old days, they would have opted for that every time. Now, they were trying to be a bit more careful and a lot more out of sight.

"I like the idea, Trak, but we've got to get as much money back from these people as possible," said Nine.

"Code can do it," he said, nodding at Code with a mouthful of apple. "Or Hiro. He knows how to do it. Don't you?" Hiro stared at the man that he admired and had a healthy fear of.

"Uh, yeah, I know how to do it, but we still aren't sure how many are involved and how many victims there are."

"If you know how to re-route the banking from the router found in the warehouse, you should be able to search its history and see all the victims." He tossed his apple into the trash can as he stood up, wiping his mouth. "Let me know. I'm around."

Trak left the room, the others all watching him casually stroll away. Nine looked at Hiro and Code.

"Can you do that? What he said. Can you do it?"

"Well, yes. I mean, we can dig in and try to find the other victims. It could take a while, but if we found enough of them, we'd have a solid case that they wouldn't be able to run from. I do think we have to find out how many people we're talking about. It can't be just this woman, Brenda. There have been too many women who were victims."

"Alright, let's do this. I also want to get the person responsible for killing the girl, Amber. We all know that she didn't kill herself. If we can pin murder on them, then we're more likely to get this to really stick."

"That could be tougher, Nine," said Ian. "There have been so many people in and out of that girls' apartment, we're never going to get any prints."

"Try. See if you can get into her office at the hotel and dig through her desk. With any luck, she left something, anything behind. Also, check her banking. I can't believe she was helping them out of the goodness of her heart. She knew them, at least one of them."

"One thing that still puzzles me," said Ghost. "They never showed their faces to Shelby. They set up several dates with her, stole from her but never actually appeared, which is against their usual methods. Why?"

"That's a good point," frowned Nine.

"Maybe she did see them," said Code. They all turned to look at the other man. "Maybe she saw them with Amber and didn't even know it or remember it."

"She did say that she'd gone out with her a few times and didn't enjoy herself. I wonder if she met one of these men or women and didn't know it. I've seen photos of Amber. She didn't appear to have a lot of money. She had a lower-paying job than Shelby. When you see Shelby for the first time, what's your impression?" asked Gaspar.

"Successful. Smart. Beautiful. Put together," said Ian.

"That's it. Put together. She wears stylish clothing. Not the most expensive, but certainly well-made. She doesn't carry around the most expensive bag, but she does carry a nice leather bag. Same for her shoes. These men could have been with Amber, saw Shelby, and realized they had the wrong girl. They're looking for the women who show off their wealth and practically brag about it. They want someone who is literally flashing a big sign to them that says, ‘I have money!'. It's so damn easy."

"She saw them," said Ghost, nodding his head at the others. "She doesn't remember it, or she doesn't realize it, but she saw them. If we can find out all the locations that she went out with Amber in the last two months, we might be able to find something on camera. We just need a place to start, and then we'll find a break."

"Agreed," said Gaspar. "Code? Get a few boys over to the hotel offices and dig into Amber's office. If it hasn't been cleaned out yet, we may be able to find something on her computer, in her calendar, or something.

"It's a long shot but check her apartment as well. We'll get with Shelby to see if she can give us a list of places where she met Amber. Hopefully, they'll all have video cameras, and we can find a shot of them together."

"Let's do this. We're due for a break."