Page 71 of One Knight Stand

I rolled my eyes but smiled. “We catch some sleep in shifts, but we have to get a plan in place before seven thirty a.m., since that’s when the Target opens. Our recent surveillance indicates that Remington heads into work around eight thirty a.m. If we presume that Remington will stop into Target, he may leave as early as eight a.m. to buy the phones in order to get to work on time.”

“Fair enough,” Jax said. “So, how do you want to break it down from here?”

I leaned back against the couch cushion from my spot on the floor and considered. “Kira, Frankie, Bo, and Hala, you guys take the first sleep shift. Determine how much time you’ll need to get your things done and set alarms accordingly. Kira, you’re going to be our Target employee. I don’t think Remington will recognize you, but just in case, try to disguise yourself or make yourself look different, okay?”

“Of course,” she said. “No problem.”

“Does anyone have a red T-shirt?” I asked. “We need Kira to look like she’s part of the Target team.”

Frankie raised her hand. “I do.”

“Perfect. Frankie, I’ll also need you to make a Target name tag for Kira.” She nodded in the affirmative, so I continued. “Mike and Jax, you two are handling the electronics piece of this plan. Purchase two burner phones. Plant a listening device in one of the burner phones, and disable the other one.”

“Why?” Jax asked.

“We want to limit Remington to one phone for the time being. But we’re offering him a deal—two phones for the price of one—to make an offer too sweet to pass up. This will give us full control of the communications and ensure he doesn’t use a different phone until we’re ready.”

“Okay. Buy two phones, kill one of them, and you or Wally will load up the software to monitor and control his phone?” Mike repeated. “Do you know if he favors Android or iOS phones?”

I froze. Such a simple question, but I hadn’t considered the complications of having to prepare for either possibility. We just didn’t have time to do both. I’d have to guess, and if I guessed wrong, we’d lose the opportunity, and perhaps my mom. What type of phone did he use?

As I tried to picture him with a phone, I suddenly had a visual image of the burner phone sitting on his desk in his office as I was retrieving my backpack from the kneehole under the desk. It was a very cheap, flip phone style with little more capabilities than phone, text, and GPS.

I turned back to Mike. “Get on the Target website and look for the most basic burner phones that they sell. There isn’t a big market for them. The style he was using looks like an open flip phone. I’ll confirm the model so Wally can select the right Trojan software. There are enough twenty-four-hour places that sell burner phones, so you should still be able to get them at this hour.”

Mike nodded and scurried off to his laptop.

“You’ll need to carefully open the packaging on the phones so we can repackage them,” I continued. “When you’re ready for the repackaging, give them to Frankie to make it look seamless, okay?”

The guys nodded, so I turned to Wally. “Can you handle the Trojan phone? I need to do some research.”

“Sure. What kind of research are you doing?” Wally asked.

I rolled my neck, trying to work out the tension knots. “Remington said something on the phone that caught my attention. He said Candace was interfering with him, stonewalling him. When I talked to my dad, he mentioned that he was trying to work with someone named Candace Kim, who worked at the NSA. Someone he hoped he could trust. I need to research her deeply, if you get my meaning.”

“I get your meaning, and I’ll help you while the guys go get the phones.”

“Thanks. I need to know if she has any connection at all to Remington, other than being a colleague. Since Slash isn’t here, we may need someone trustworthy at the NSA, and, if my dad feels like he might be able to trust her, maybe we can, too.”

“Jax, Mike, and Wally, once you get the phones set up, catch some shut-eye. We all need to be awake and ready to roll by seven a.m.”

“Are you going to sleep?” Frankie asked me pointedly.

“If there’s time,” I said. “Also, once we get to Target, I’ll need a few of you inside to keep therealelectronics associate busy while Kira takes care of Remington. Bo, Hala, and Frankie, do you think you can handle that?”

“Of course,” Frankie said beaming. “Chatting up people is my specialty.”

“What about ringing up Remington’s purchase?” Kira said. “Won’t I need an employee code or something to do that?”

“You’re going tofakering up Remington. Just scan the phones and tap some buttons and pretend it’s working. We’ll give you some small bills and a cloth envelope to slip any money into and return change to him as needed. If he has a credit card, you pretend to run it. Frankie will print you a ready-made receipt to give him either way. You can do that, right, Frankie?”

“It’s insulting that you even have to ask,” she replied.

“Got it,” said Kira. “Fake name tag and a fake ring-up. I guess I can handle that. Just keep the real employees away from me while I’m with him.”

“We’ll have you covered,” Bo said firmly. “I’ll take Frankie and Hala in my car, as long as I get to drive.”

“You can drive,” I agreed, hiding a smile. “Jax, you’ll take Kira, then. Frankie, youmuststay away from Remington at all costs. He might recognize you. Actually, he might recognize any one of us, especially me, which is why I’ll be staying safely in the car with Mike and Wally, overseeing communications and the tracker and listening device on Remington’s car. The rest of you take measures to look at least a little different.”

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