Page 35 of Harry

“I need to finish work. I’ll be back in about an hour.”

“Sure. And Harrison, we’ll figure out what happened.”

Harry nodded. “I hope it’s soon because I fear for her life.”

Orin nodded as Harry turned and walked out. His head and his heart hurt. There was so much wrong with what had happened. That Rory had found information about a trafficking ring and then been taken by that ring was horrible. Why hadn’t she gone to anyone? Maybe she had, and they’d ignored her. She shouldn’t have been left out in the cold on this, but he knew it happened. He’d heard about those men in Fort Bragg who’d set up a drug operation and then killed some of their customers. Then, there was the possible serial killer at Fort Hood and the potential hiding of evidence. Just because many people in the military operated with integrity didn’t mean everyone did. He’d known sailors on ships who set up gambling rings, and then there was the drug trade and other clubs that participated in illegal activities. Of course, many of them were caught, but not enough that sailors didn’t think taking chances with illegal activities was worth it.

Harry believed laws should be followed. His life was based on always doing the right thing, which he knew meant breaking some laws, but not big ones and not habitually. He hated that someone in the Navy had been doing something so bad, so heinous, that it destroyed people’s lives.

After work, they piled into two cars and drove to Orin’s office. The area had emptied out, and it was just the six men on his team, Orin and Lucia. They set up with computers and read over the information Orin had available. After a few hours, pizza was delivered, and they talked while they ate.

“I don’t know,” Lucia said after swallowing a bite of pizza. “What if the numbers are letters?”

“Like a cipher?” Andy said.

“Maybe.”

Wild and Bear turned to their computers and studied the screen. “Any idea what the cipher is?”

Peach moved back to his computer and stared at it while finishing his pizza slice. “There was something in files that could be a cipher.”

“Where?” Orin asked.

Peach shook his head. “I don’t remember. Let me go back through and look.”

Harry opened up the document and started looking again. He needed to figure this out so he could find out what happened to Rory. The longer it took, the worse he thought the outcome would be.

Neither Toovey nor Laelyn were talking, which meant Rory was in a fifty-gallon drum at the bottom of the ocean, or they’d shipped her off somewhere terrible after selling her. Either option was bad, but the idea of the drum at the bottom of the ocean made him want to kill them.

Peach jumped up, making the rest of them flinch. They all turned to Peach.

“I found it,” Peach said. “The cipher. Let me write it on the whiteboard.”

Peach wrote out the cipher, and the other guys began working to translate the document. It was late, closer to ten that evening, when Bear called them over.

“I think I found it. I may be wrong. Someone needs to check me on this.” Bear moved to the whiteboard and wrote out what he’d found. The rest of the guys and Lucia began working out what Bear’s findings meant.

“I’m checking your findings. They look solid,” Andy said.

“Do you think this is it?” Peach asked.

Orin stood and moved to the board. His eyebrows bunched as he looked at the board and then turned to Harry. “I think this is it.”

“I want in on the team that goes in to get her back,” Harry said.

“We need more intel before we even get to that stage,” Orin said.

Harry felt anger rising. “Come on, Orin. We have to go in and get her.”

Wild stood and moved behind Harry, placing his hand on Harry’s shoulder. “There are probably more women than just Rory at that compound. Surely, there has to be something to move this along.”

Harry blew out a breath, knowing he needed to keep calm. He couldn’t take out his anger here on Orin. The man had done nothing but help them.

“Something, Orin. Give us something,” Harry begged.

Orin nodded. “We’ll figure out something. It is overseas, not here. It may take some time.”

More anger fired inside of Harry. “Dammit!” Wild squeezed Harry’s shoulder, and he blew out a breath, trying to calm down. “She may not have time.”

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