Page 78 of Wild Temple
“Ihacked into the hospital system and gained access to the security cameras,” Talia said. “Two men walked Isabella out of the hospital. I’m guessing one of them had a gun under his jacket. It’s too hot for a jacket in Tanjung Sur. It’s suspicious.”
“You’re sure it’s her?”
“Positive. I’ll send you the clip.”
“Any idea who they are?”
“I’m working on that, but I have my suspicions. With the timestamp on the video footage, I was able to match two burner phones. Those phones traveled to the harbor, then to Raksaka Island. It’s less than an hour by boat off the coast.”
“Raksaka Island is home to an old Soviet-era submarine base,” I said.
“That’s exactly where the phones ping the tower from.”
In the ’50s, Tanjung Sur remained neutral but cozied up to the Soviets. In return, they supplied military aid in the form of MiG fighter jets, submarines, and training. In ’62 the top secret base was completed at Raksaka as a support hub for Soviet submarines. It technically didn’t exist and sits empty today. But the Russian signs on the walls tell another story. After a regime change, Tanjung Sur shifted toward the west, and the Soviets vacated.
“Keep an eye on those devices and let me know if they move,” I said.
“Will do.”
“I need a way out to the island.”
“I’m working on that.”
I ended the call, then Talia texted me the video clip of Isabella being abducted. We must have just missed her.
I filled the others in on the situation.
"Who the hell do you think took her?" JD asked.
"I don't know. At this point, it could be anybody," I said.
Jack's face wrinkled. "How the hell did they find her?"
"Jane Doe in the hospital. Her picture gets circulated. Ends up in a database and online. Wouldn't take long for a crawler to pick up the image, then it gets ID’d with facial recognition.”
“Then why the hell couldn’t we find her?”
I shrugged. “Talia doesn’t have those kinds of resources. Maybe the hospital took a while to update their database. They had her listed as Bella, not Isabella.”
"Sounds like a foreign intel agency to me.”
I cringed.
"Anyone come to mind?" Jack said, thinking the same thing I was.
"I can name a few.”
JD and I had made our fair share of enemies, and I had my suspicions about who was behind this.
It wasn't hard to rent a boat in Tanjung Sur. There were plenty of options. We still had the weapons we had taken from Caspian and his crew but were running low on ammunition. Certainly not enough to assault a covert intel agency at a black site. The first order of business was to resupply. That meant another trip to see Duke. Without Rex, I wasn’t sure if he’d still be willing to deal with us. But money talks. And Duke didn't strike me as the kind of guy that turned down easy money.
48
The twin outboards howled as we cut through the inky water. The moon glowed overhead, reflecting the obsidian swells. A few lazy clouds drifted in the sky.
The wind swirled around the bow, tousling JD's long blond hair as he manned the helm. Duke had set us up with a bunch of goodies, and we had found a local to rent us a boat. Poor guy didn't know the boat might not come back in one piece, but it was insured. Our luck with watercraft hadn't been the best, as of late.
The seas were relatively calm, and the boat skipped across the water, slicing through the swells. It took about 45 minutes to get out to the island.
