Page 42 of CJ

“I think we have a very good idea of what we’re about to unleash,” said Jalen. “Where is she?”

Still, Irena stood strong, not saying a word. Jalen just shook his head.

“Hiro, you read?”

“Got you.”

“Tiger just downloaded everything onto his phone. Find me the location of Mikella Zacharov.”

“Roger that.”

“Let’s go,” said Jalen, yanking her arm.

“Where am I going? You can’t just take me out of here and not tell me where I’m going. You’re obviously not law enforcement. I have rights. I’ll just make bail,” she scoffed.

“Honey, you’re not going to jail. You’re going to a federal prison. Private lock-up just for you where no one will see you unless we allow it.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

“Do we have her location yet?” asked Hex.

“No. But we know why,” said AJ. “She’s actually using one of our phones, and someone told her how to turn the tracking systems off. We’re going through the backdoor to reverse it, but it takes a minute.”

“Someone told her what?” frowned Luke. “That means someone who understands our technology and knows the system. Do we have a leak?”

“I don’t think so,” said Hiro. “In all likelihood, knowing what we know about the Ranger commander, he gave them that information. The phone she’s using is an older model. The serial number indicates that it was part of a stolen shipment a few years ago.

“We did what we always do, which is disable the bells and whistles of our systems and make them untraceable. To us. She obviously found someone capable of turning the system on from their end, attaching it to one of their own. It’s actually quite genius.”

“You admire this shit?” growled Cam.

“I admire that they figured out a way to use it. I don’t admire that they stole the tech. Listen, we joke with you about not understanding how difficult some of this is, but it’s the truth. Whoever she has as a tech person is good. Maybe as good as we are.”

“That’s a problem,” said Luke. “If Mikella has someone working for her that can get around our stop gaps, she could conceivably steal these shipments and use the technology that we own.”

“Yes and no,” said Hiro. “We still have the fail-safes that will trip the equipment and ensure that it can’t be used. Some of the newer stuff has self-destruct mechanisms, but the older stuff didn’t have that. They only had the fail-safes to shut down.”

“So, are you telling me they can’t use our newer things?” asked Luke.

“I’m telling you that it’s not impossible, but it’s improbable.” Luke just stared at him, wondering what the hell that actually meant.

“What about our locators on the products? They’re all still operable, right?” asked Eric.

“They are. Everything is in the DOD warehouses as they should be. There have been no approved contracts that would allow them to be shipped at this time. That’s what she was trying to get to with Leo. If she knew who the contracts were going to be with, she would be able to try and reroute them to her or change the shipping addresses.”

“Maybe we let her do that,” said Hex.

“Are you out of your fucking mind?” said Cam. “We cannot let that woman get her hands on any of this.”

“Listen to me. We can give her what she wants and still find her at the same time. In fact, we might get more than we bargained for and find when they open the containers that her partners are standing there as well.”

Luke stared at his teammates, then back at AJ, Hiro, and Tanner. It was more than risky. It could be him sending men on a suicide mission. But if it worked, they could potentially be stopping the outbreak of the largest war in the Middle East.

“Let’s walk this through.”

“Hi,” smiled CJ, walking up to Jill.

“Hi there. Done with your meetings?” she asked.

---