Page 37 of One Knight Stand

“When my dad called me today while I was at my mom’s apartment, he told me she’d been taken by the same people who tried to kidnap me.”

“But why?” Kira asked. “And why did they try to kidnap you?”

“For the same reason. They’re using us to get to my dad.”

Bo studied me for a long moment. “What the heck did your dad do, Red?”

“I don’t think hedidanything. Just like I don’t think J. P. did anything. I think they saw, discovered or created something that put a target on their backs. I’m hoping my dad will tell me more when I see him.”

“Won’t it be dangerous to draw your dad out if he’s what they want?” Bo asked.

“Yes. It will be really dangerous. That’s why he didn’t tell me where he wants to meet over the phone. He sent me a riddle instead. I have twenty-four hours to solve it and figure out how to safely meet him. That’s my most pressing task at the moment.”

“You’ve got this riddle?” Jax asked.

“I do. It came to an account I don’t use much. It was heavily encrypted, but it’s not unbreakable. He gave me a clue as to how to crack the encryption using a favorite baby name of mine as a clue. If the NSA sees it, I’m sure they can break it, too, given enough time. But he set a time limit and said he’d connected it to something he’s sure only I’ll understand.”

“What if it’s a trap?” Mike asked. “And that’s a legit question after your near kidnapping.” He drummed his fingers against his thigh, which he sometimes did when he was anxious. A piece of dark hair fell across his forehead.

“I know, Mike. It could be a trap, but since I believe it’s my father who sent the riddle, I’m going to take the risk.”

Wally stood up. “Well, then, it’s decided. You solve the riddle, and we’ll get you to the meeting place without being followed.”

“How are we going to do that?” Kira asked.

I held up a hand. “One problem at a time. Let me figure out the riddle first. Without that, we don’t have to worry about the other.”

“I disagree,” Jax said. “We can work on this in tandem. It will go faster if we break down the pieces. For example, Frankie and Wally, you know Angel best, so you help her with the riddle. Kira and Bo and I will figure out how we’re going to get Angel to her dad once she figures out when and where the meeting will be. Mike and Hala, you see if you can run down some more research on Angel’s dad and this J. P. Lando guy, as well as their project.”

“That’s a good plan, Jax,” I said. “I’ll shoot you the data I’ve collected so far, and you can share it with the others. I’ve got scans of newspaper articles, including J. P.’s death and funeral, the official police report into J. P.’s death and the disappearance of my father, the notes of my conversation with J. P.’s wife, and the files and data I found and downloaded at King’s Security.”

“What kind of data?” Jax asked.

I rubbed my temples. “Before I came to UTOP, when I was looking for my dad, I was able to hack into King’s Security, which is where he worked. That’s how I discovered the company was a front for the NSA.”

“Wait. You hacked into an NSA cover company?” Jax looked at me as if this activity somehow put me in a different category of hacker.

Maybe it did.

“Don’t even go down that road,” Wally said, shaking his head at Jax. “We’ve had a lot of discussions about how dangerous that was.”

I held up a hand to stave off any further discussions on how wise, or not, a move that had been on my part. “Anyway I found some files, and in one of them was a directory of staff at the NSA. I’ll need to spend some more time going through that more carefully to see if I missed anything.”

Jax whistled. “Looks like you’ve already done most of the work.”

“The puzzle pieces are there,” I agreed. “We just have to put it together.”

“Did I happen to mention I like puzzles?” he said with a smile. There was something intimate about his smile, even though we were in a room full of people. It was as if we couldn’t see anyone else, just each other. My heart gave a couple of hard thumps.

“I do, too,” I agreed, breaking eye contact and hoping no one had noticed my reaction to him. “I just prefer the ones where people’s lives aren’t at stake.”

I glanced out the window of the farmhouse. We were all exhausted. We needed sleep, fuel, and clear heads.

“Time for bed,” I said abruptly.

Everyone looked at me in surprise, so I lifted my hands in exasperation. “Don’t look at me like that. We need to sleep or we’re going to start making mistakes. Frankie has sorted out our sleeping arrangements, so she’ll tell you where your spot is. Sorry, there aren’t any comfy sheets or blankets to supplement our sleeping situation. We’ll have to make do with our coats, clothes, and a couple of throw pillows from the couch.”

It was telling that no one objected, and everyone gathered their stuff without complaint. We headed to our respective sleeping locations after Frankie told us where we’d be.

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