Page 246 of The Texas Sterling Collection
“Where?” Glenn asked.
After a long pause, Wyl said, “I can’t tell you.”
“Sterling,” Glenn’s voice shot out loud and clear. “You need us. Fill me in!”
“If anything happens to Rod, my life is over. Figure it out.” Wyl disconnected the call.
“Feck!” Glenn said, tossing the phone onto the bed. “Wyl is doing this on his own, and we’ve got to figure out how to help them.”
“What did he say?” James asked.
“Ailbe used Rod’s phone to call Wyl, and told Wyl to make himself available. He wouldn’t give me more details but said his life is over if something happens to Rod.”
“Then we’re up shite creek. Feck! How do we help them?” James asked.
“We call O’Brien,” Glenn picked up his phone.
CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
After a harrowing wrong-side-of-the-road drive back to Galway, Wyl walked along Old Dublin Road near Bon Secours Hospital, near the GMIT campus. The exact route Keenan Moynihan walked the day he disappeared, according to reports. Ailbe instructed him to stroll along this route on Sunday, around 3:00 a.m., the wee hours of the morning after Rod’s abduction. He’d spent a restless evening worrying about his husband and hoping the various entities involved in this case could figure out where they were and how to rescue them. Until he knew Rod was alive and safe, nothing else mattered.
Only an occasional vehicle traveled the route. Headlights approached from behind, and a black van stopped beyond where he walked. The side door opened, and a voice from inside commanded, “Get in.”
Wyl climbed inside and was immediately hooded and shoved into a seat.
“Stay!”
Wyl did as instructed.
Hands frisked him for weapons and tracking devices. The toughs took his cell phone and watch. Wyl hoped his government cell phone detected unusual activity that triggered an alert, but he wasn’t sure that was possible. They must be headed for a covert outpost of some kind. He lost count after fifteen stops and twenty turns. The van finally stopped, and the door slid open. Someone grabbed his right arm and tugged him out. Another hand grabbed his left arm and led him forward. The van pulled away.
They walked about twenty steps. A gruff voice said, “Step down.” Stairs. Twelve steps down. A door creaked open. Inside, noisy machinery ran somewhere. Another door creaked open. Wyl stumbled into the next room from a hard shove. The aroma of industrial cleaning solvents assaulted his nose. The door creaked closed behind him, muting the noise. Something clicked before someone lifted the hood. Bright fluorescent lights temporarily blinded him. His vision gradually cleared.
* * *
“Do you have them?” Glenn asked. He and James were in O’Brien’s office, watching a monitor. It was 3:30 in the morning, but the case had taken an urgent turn with the abduction of Rod and Wyl’s refusal to share information.
“Aye,” O’Brien said. “We have the signal from Wyl’s phone. We tracked the phone to the GMIT campus, but now we show the phone following a route to Waterford.”
“Waterford? What the feck?” Glenn said. “Is that where Rod’s phone is?”
“We don’t have a signal from Rod’s phone,” O’Brien said. “I asked Commissioner Kane to ask General Sternberg if he can provide us with a history of the tracking. We may have a lead if we can determine where Rod’s signal ended.”
“First, let’s track down that vehicle. If they took Wyl and he’s headed for Waterford, we’re running out of time.” James huffed. “If Ailbe is in Waterford and he gets the information he needs from Wyl, we may have two more murders on our hands.”
“Waterford would be out of character for MacGowan,” O’Brien said. “Our prior surveillance of his patterns includes no trips to Waterford. But you’re right, we need to pick up that vehicle. If Wyl or Rod is inside, they’ll need our help.”
“We don’t even know what the vehicle looks like,” Glenn said.
“No, but we know the route and approximately where it is. It’s around a three-hour drive from Galway to Waterford, so I’ll ask Waterford Gardaí to set up a roadblock, stopping motorists looking for drunk drivers. We can come close to the exact location and home in on the geo-signal.”
“Do it,” James said. “Let’s not waste time.”
O’Brien picked up the phone and called his counterpart in Waterford.
* * *
As Wyl’s vision cleared, he saw Rod staring at him from a chair across the room. Rod didn’t appear to be harmed and wasn’t bound or gagged. Wyl tried to run to him, but a hand grabbed his shirt collar. The shirt tugged against his throat.
