Page 40 of Hacker Identified

"What is your plan?" I asked as I took the seat near him. Antonio had his phone pressed to his ear and Sebastian typed away on a computer.

Zane and I could go weeks without speaking to each other and connect like we talked every day. I had the utmost respect for my brother and his years of service. I never felt like I needed to pull the big brother card. I could set my ego aside and take orders from him. What I loved about my brother was how he could do the same. And in this situation, I knew I would follow whatever Zane decided.

"Antonio is on the phone with the Black brothers getting us satellite imaging. I'm not sending anyone on that property without all our protections in place. Something doesn't feel one hundred percent right. Watson has to know you will fuck him over with the pardon. I knew you had already calculated a plan when you agreed to do this for him. So, what is his end game? No way he decided overnight to be a decent human being."

Sebastian cleared his throat. "People change. Circumstances make us all do things we might think we never would." He paused for a moment. "My contact in D.C. just confirmed with the coordinates Watson gave us on Ash. They have him in the crosshairs as we speak. I'm guessing he will be on his way back to the Black Hole in a matter of minutes."

Zane ran a hand over his face. "He's trying to make it seem like he's on our side now. We must figure out his scheme fast. The man struggled to show emotion to his daughter he hadn't seen in fifteen years."

Antonio grinned as he placed his phone on the table. "Satellite imaging is up and running. Jacob got excited about some new technology allowing for better imagery. He went on and on about shit I don't understand. The tech people we employ around us do amazing shit, but I don't need to understand the inner workings of how they do their job."

Sophie glanced up from her laptop. "And tech people don't care about the latest gun or ammo you acquire, but I've sat through tons of your so-called exciting lectures about a new bullet."

"So, are we heading to Ft. Lauderdale or staying here?" I asked shifting the conversation back to the current issue.

"Hannah, you and a few others are heading to Florida in a few hours. The rest of us will stay back and search the compound. I highly doubt we will find anything, or he will try to cover up what he’s done and thinks we aren't smart enough to figure it out. We can all meet at Sanctorum tomorrow night. It would be best if you stayed at the apartments connected to Blackwood Mercenaries. Your penthouse has too many logistic nightmares until we fully understand what Watson has planned."

Antonio had lectured me a while back about everything wrong with my beachfront apartment when he came over to watch football.

I nodded. "Do you need me for anything else, or can I tell Hannah to get ready? I assume you already told Texan, and he's arranging all my stuff."

"Yes," Zane replied and glanced at Sophie. "You want to tell him?"

"I've spent the last week combing through Donna Creed's case. I'm positive I can get her released very soon, but I don't want to say anything to Hannah until it’s definite."

The idea of keeping a secret from Hannah didn't sit well with me, but I nodded. I planned to think about what she said more later. Now I had to hold up my end of the deal and call the current president and ask him for a favor. I knew he wouldn't want to do the pardon. These were the type of situations I hated most, when I had to make conversational calls because the opposing party’s line would use my decision against me. I had to make sure when everything came to a close, Watson ended up behind bars.

Chapter13

Hannah

As I heard my phone chime, I groggily opened my eyes to read a message from Willy. I'd met him eight years ago at a protest in Virginia. A big cooperation had tried to remove a landmark tree after they gave some politicians a ton of money.

Willy: I saw you in the tabloids. Does this mean you're no longer going to do protests?

I didn't want to wake Zack up, so I slid out of bed and headed to the living room. The apartments at Blackwood Mercenaries were extremely nice. I sat on the plush white couch and tapped out my reply.

Me: What does a picture of me in tabloids have to do with me protesting? My beliefs never changed.

Willy: I thought maybe you were too big for us now.

Me: Never. Let me know when the next event is.

Willy: A bunch of us landed in Miami last night. I'm en route to a place near the Everglades.

I glanced at the clock. It was eight o'clock in the morning. Zack and I had gone to bed only a few hours ago. We'd stayed up and talked to Sophie and Zane when they arrived last night. The search took longer than they’d expected. They couldn't find any signs of my sister's body or other people who might've died on the land. The network was scrubbed clean. The current president pulled the pardon together, and my father was absolved of his crimes. Before bed, Sophie checked the Dark Web, and the bounty on my life had disappeared. With Ash back in prison, the threat to my life was gone.

Me: Send me a pin location. I might come.

A plan formulated quickly in my mind. All I had to do was escape this high-security office and call an Uber. With the amount of wine the group drank, nobody would be up. Brock, the building owner, had put my fingerprints in the system so I could move around. I planned to leave Zack a note, so he wouldn't worry.

I grabbed a pair of jeans and a t-shirt, and changed in the guest bedroom. I threw my hair up in a ponytail and grabbed my phone. I reached the front door and sighed with relief when an alarm didn't sound as I pulled it open.

Guilt washed over me as I headed down the hall, but it didn't stop me as I opened the stairwell door. I remembered Kat had said it led to a back entrance. I jogged down the first flight of stairs and turned on the landing when the door flew open. Kat stepped in front of me and blocked my path.

"What did he do?" Kat asked. Her hand propped on her side.

"I was just…"

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