Almost everyone at the Harding farm was scurrying about the grounds checking everywhere when she arrived. They were all calling for Saleha. Near the office, Craig, Barbara, Doug, Nigel and Zemar were talking together. Barbara, Doug and Nigel soon left to join the other staff. Zemar left to join the search as she parked the Suburban.
“What’s going on?”
“Saleha is missing.”
The animals growled and paced about in their enclosures.
“They’ve been like that since before dawn.”
“Do you think her disappearance has anything to do with the tiger and whatever else you found out about Colter?”
“I don’t know. If the information is correct, and I can’t be sure it is, then Colter and his men are up to something very nasty, which could include taking hostages.”
“Hostages? What is this information? Would Saleha know anything about it?”
He stopped watching his colleagues searching areas others had already searched, and finally looked at her. “Only Zemar and I know about it.”
“And why is that?”
“Can we do this later?”
“Saleha and Zemar are here illegally.”
“Yes, they’re here illegally, but if you’re going to arrest them, shouldn’t we find her first?”
“What information do you have on Colter?”
“Now you’re interested in what I have to say about Colter?”
“I have my reasons.”
“What reasons would those be?”
“Just tell me what you have.”
“Zemar hacked into Colter’s website. We were trying to get evidence that would prove he was behind the trapping and hunting. Zemar did it without my permission, but once I knew, I had him continue. All we got was a list of farm supplies.”
“And that’s supposed to be proof of what?”
“It looked like nothing, but someone else also hacked into his website. They call themselves Tarot and they claimed to have decoded Colter’s list. When we applied the cypher they sent us, the list of all that farm stuff became weapons and ammunition and components for bombs.”
“But you don’t know who this Tarot is. You don’t know if they just sent you their made-up list rather than an actual decryption of Colter’s so-called code.”
“Billy and Bobby are explosives specialists.”
“Tarot told you that, too, I suppose. And I’m also supposed to believe a man who was part of the Taliban when he was a teenager and the man who smuggled him into this country. Why? Because we danced once?”
“I was hoping to trade on a little more than just that.”
“And what would that be?”
He stepped forward and kissed her.
She kissed him back only to push him away a moment later. “What kind of answer is that?”
He threw up his hands. “I don’t know what kind of answer to give you. Whatever I say could sound self-serving. Zemar and Saleha have been with us for over five years. Except for being here illegally, they have been model citizens. Saleha is one of the gentlest people you could ever meet. She loves animals and this country. Zemar is one of the most fiercely loyal people you could ever meet. He loves Saleha and this country. And both of them know they can’t stay here. We failed to get them legal status, but we have plans to get them—”
Shana screamed from the hills to the north.
She reached for her Beretta and tried to locate where the scream came from.
“There!” Zemar was running back to them while pointing toward the wooded hills behind the barn.
Shana was running downhill between the trees. She cradled something black in her right arm as if it were a football.
“He got them.” Breathless, she said, “Donny was snagged by a trap. Colter’s men took him and Lily.”
Colter had the children of the two men he’d probably had murdered.
“What are you talking about? What were you doing?”
Caesar scampered over to Shana and fell on his side at her feet. Kneeling down to rub his belly seemed to calm her. She started taking normal breaths.
“We were getting evidence.” She held up the camera. “Mom, you have to watch this.” She stood up, opened the view screen and started the playback.
She, Craig and Zemar watched too many vehicles drive into a building that was too small to hold them. Mounds of dirt were piled high near it.
Zemar said, “I made a similar recording.”
A unit of men in militia gear and carrying automatic rifles marched into that same building. Three units carrying portable rocket launchers followed them. Those men suddenly stopped, looked up directly at the camera and pointed. A loud buzzing noise crackled through the tiny speaker in the camcorder before the recording stopped.
“There’s more.”
Another video started that showed a unit of men and dogs escorting Lily and Donny along a clearing near the top of a hill. Both Lily and Donny had their wrists bound. Donny was limping. Lily struggled to support him. Just before the unit was about to enter the woods, the video zoomed in on the lead man and the dog he was holding. The dog seemed to have caught the scent of something. It started barking and tugging hard on its leash. The recording stopped.
“That’s when I just started running. Donny told me to get this to you.”
“Show me that second part again.”
Shana fumbled with the controls.
Zemar took the Canon away from her and replayed the recording.
“Stop.”
He stopped the playback at the close-up of the unit.
“Those two men in the lead were part of the crew who installed the network upgrade in my office.” They had worn those gloves to hide their tattoos.
Harry had good reason to be looking for hidden cameras. If they had spliced any of their malware into the network, they could have been spying on her and tapping into all the other security and law enforcement departments that were connected to it: Operation Gangrene.
A buzzing noise like the one on the camcorder but louder and fuller came from the hills Shana had just raced down.
“They’re here,” Shana said.
Caesar bounced up beside her.
Two rectangular contraptions, one with four propellers at its corners, another with three larger propellers, exited the woods, took positions above the farm and rose up until they were only dots in the sky.
A whining noise followed the surveillance drones out of the woods and roared past. It headed due south over the farm, gained altitude and circled back. A puff of smoke came out of the back of it, followed by a smoky contrail and a painful screeching sound heading for the main grounds.