Page 41 of Craving Sin (Touch of Evil 13)

“Bit, I’m going to have the chopper lower us down some supplies—additional coats, headlamps, and some safety gear. After that, I’m sending the pilot to fly over the coordinates that Theo and Sylvie gave you earlier. In the meantime, tell Nathaniel that I’ll have Justin and one of the other agents from the chopper escort Mitch down the mountain.”

“And Nanuq?” Bit asked with full confidence in her decision. Russell, on the other hand, had a rather disappointed expression on his face. “What if he’s headed your way?”

“That’s why I’m keeping the other two agents within a safe distance to cover the nearby area. Nanuq has no idea that we have this terrain so closely surveilled with other agents. I do need a favor, though.”

“Name it, Boss.”

While Brook could drag out the afternoon hours to force Jacob into believing he stood a chance to enter the hidden tunnels, she had no intention of doing so after considering the disadvantages.

No one else was going to die.

“Radio us in about fifteen minutes,” Brook advised as she met Russell’s stare. She had his full attention now. “When you do, I want you to tell me that an earthquake in the region sometime last year caused part of the ice cave to collapse in on itself. And I need you to say it with the utmost confidence, Bit.”

20

Bobby ‘Bit’ Nowacki

June 2025

Wednesday — 2:12 pm

Bit shifted in the driver's seat of the rental SUV, stretching his legs into the footwell with the seat pushed all the way back. He had rolled down the window in case anyone needed him. A few minutes earlier, the supervisory special agent of the Anchorage field office had arrived on the scene, allowing Bit some time to gather vital intel that could be useful to Brook.

Seven minutes remained before Bit was scheduled to radio her with false information regarding the ice cave.

He squinted at the screen in concentration while Mitch's burner phone lay connected by a thin black cable. The extraction program he had written was running in parallel—one reconstructing the deleted call history, another recovering text messages, and a third scanning for location data cached by various apps. Burner phones were becoming more sophisticated, and this one—which was relatively basic—still contained enough older components to leave behind evidence.

The screen was currently filled with strings of code as his program parsed through the physical memory addresses, rebuilding the digital traces that would provide him with cell phone tower locations.

Bit entered a new set of commands to circumvent another security layer just as a shadow appeared over the dashboard. Nathaniel had been glued to his phone since getting off the radio with Brook, but it seemed he was done. His mood was clearly still sour.

“I requested two agents take some ATVs up to where the incline gets too steep,” Nathaniel informed him as he came to a stop near the window. “That will cut the time it takes to get Norona down here and on his way to being officially charged for his involvement in Special Agent Kate Lin’s murder.”

“Before you make any type of deal, give me a few days.” Bit wasn’t used to making such requests. Brook or the other team members were usually in such positions of negotiation, which meant that he had to step up to the plate. “I can give you something to work with by then.”

It was obvious that Nathaniel’s first instinct was to defend his position, but he thought through his choices before responding.

“Fine. We’ll reassess if Norona will give us the name of his accomplice, though.”

Nathaniel could reassess as much as he wanted, but there was a chance he could charge both men. Bit didn’t want to get ahead of himself, just in case his theory didn’t pan out. He would keep his suspicions to himself until he received confirmation.

“The chopper dropped the requested items near their position. The pilot is now headed around the mountain to search for Theo and Sylvie.”

Bit appreciated the update, but he had heard the transmissions himself.

One of the federal agents had given Nathaniel another satellite radio, leaving Bit with one to follow through with Brook’s request. That meant Nathaniel had only made his way to the vehicle to determine how much progress Bit had made extracting information from Mitch’s burner.

A phone rang—not the burner he was dissecting, but Bit’s own. He glanced at the screen, recognizing the Alaska area code. He answered without hesitation.

“Mr. Nowacki? This is Natalie, returning your call regarding the vehicle rented by Mr. Norona back in 2014.”

“Thank you for getting back to me so quickly,” Bit replied as he maintained his focus on his laptop. The program he was running on the burner was finally producing reliable intel. “I realize that the rental was over eleven years ago. As I mentioned in our earlier call, we have a federal warrant for the information, and the forms have already been forwarded to you in an email.”

“You are in luck, Mr. Nowacki. We usually only keep records for seven years, but those with damage tend to stay in our system longer.”

“Damage?” Bit shifted in his seat, mindful of his laptop.

“Yes, there was slight damage to the front bumper on the right side. Nothing major—a small dent and some scratched paint. Mr. Norona had purchased our additional insurance coverage, so it wasn't a financial issue. We noted it in our system and processed the return normally.”

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