She would have climbed in with her but was afraid that their captors would object to that—in ways that made Katelyn tremble with fear.

  As it was she kept an eye on the door as she ministered to the Japanese girl knowing that she had no way of telling when—or with what—these men would decide to punish her or, more horribly, the beaten and half-mad girl she was tending.

  This can’t go on, she told herself. This just can’t go on!

  CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR

  “I hear you got arrested again.” Flame grinned as he started his nightly talk with Dana. “Good thing you’re no longer in the NSA—they’d toss you now that you have a rap sheet!”

  “Very funny.” His partner’s voice was a bit garbled—the connection wasn’t a great one. “But thanks for calling Bremby—he saved my life for sure.”

  “He was happy for the opportunity to ply his old trade.” Flame settled into the chair in the little living room. “He was a hell of a sniper back in the day.”

  “Is he still around here somewhere?” Dana had looked out of her window, searching the roof across the street and the dark windows of the buildings with a line of sight to hers as soon as she got home. “Do I have to keep my drapes closed all the time?”

  “Might be a good idea—whether he’s around or not.” Flame leaned forward. “We still don’t know who’s behind all this—and they seem to have decided that you’re a danger to them.”

  “We do know who they are.” Dana took a few moments to fill the big ex-SEAL in with the information the admiral had passed to her.

  “The White Mice, eh?” Flame nodded slowly. “I think I heard someone talking about them when I was in BUDS—something about a suspicious friendly-fire incident…”

  “The admiral didn’t mention that!” Dana shook her head. “But I suppose that there’s a lot that even he doesn’t know about these guys—Bivens says the army has really buried their records deep in the shit pile.”

  “Are you sure it’s them?” Flame had quickly done the math. “I mean, they’d have to be in their mid-forties at least.” He shook his head. “The one I kakked outside the girl’s room was barely twenty.”

  “The admiral thinks that some of the original Mice have children who have been brought into the family business—under the auspices of a renegade Saudi—Al-Waleed bin Talal.”

  “I’ve heard that name too,” Flame searched for the connection. “Really rich—invests for a lot of the Saudi big shots.” He nodded at a memory. “He’s got a yacht—sails to Trieste for the film festival every year.” Flame grinned. “I swam under it during a training exercise a couple of years ago.”

  “It appears he’s into more than investments. We think he’s behind the kidnappings.”

  “So where do I find him?”

  “Not yet.” Dana’s voice was firm. “We get the girls out first.”

  “And where are they?”

  “We think they’re somewhere in Canada.” Dana paused for a moment to let that sink in. “Should have more info soon.”

  “Hurry up,” Flame looked out the window toward the big house. “I might get to like the easy life.”

  “Never happen, Flame.” He heard the chuckle in her voice. “Not you.”

  “Yeah, well—don’t tempt me.”

  “I should have more tomorrow. Same time?”

  “Make it an hour later,” Flame sighed. “I have to make a hospital visit first.”

  “Okay.” Dana knew about the wounded deputy. “Until then.”

  The line went dead.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE

  It was cold in the long dormitory. Katelyn was shivering—and so, she saw, was the Japanese girl. She’ll catch a fever if she isn’t kept warm, Katelyn told herself.She might die!

  Katelyn couldn’t let that happen. As quietly as she could, she crept out of her own bunk and tiptoed to the bunk next door. She pulled her own blanket over the shivering form—then climbed in alongside her, hugging the other woman in an attempt to share her own body heat.

  It took some time but eventually both women stopped shivering and fell asleep, Katelyn spooning her companion…

  CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX

  Both Dana and Flame also had got a good night’s sleep. No one attempted to kidnap, knife or shoot them or their charges.

  Flame got up at five a.m., pulled on his running gear and headed for the door. As usual, Kimberly was waiting for him—watched carefully by Aesop.

  The two stretched and did their best to warm up—it was a cold morning. Finally, though, they were off, jogging down the long driveway on their way to the golf course and a nice long run.

  Dana, four hundred miles away, woke before they got back to the house. She didn’t go for a run—rather, she took a long shower, carefully cleaning herself and her various wounds. Her bruises had become, if anything, more spectacular—but they didn’t hurt as much and Dana knew that they would fade before too much time passed.

  She could only hope that these damn White Mice would follow suit.

  Today she was alert as she exited her apartment—and her pistol was loaded and ready in a holster at the small of her back. She brushed her hand against it as she came out of the apartment door and headed down the stairs and out into the Virginia morning.

  Her car was where she left it and Dana, after a careful look around, climbed in and headed for her office.

  Bivens was there before her.

  “There’s another video,” he announced as she came in. “And you’re not going to like it.”

  “Pass it to my computer.” Dana hung up her jacket and turned on her desktop. “Let’s have a look.”

  Moments later she stared, slack-jawed, as the masked man of the previous videos beat the Japanese girl with a length of split bamboo.

  “It gets worse.” Bivens paused the image. “Do you want to watch it all?”

  “Not really,” Dana shook her head. “But I have to, don’t I?” She gestured and the video restarted. She forced herself to watch, unblinking, as the bamboo cut deep into porcelain skin, drawing blood, leaving marks that would certainly become scars. “This went to her father?”

  “I pulled it off his server—but all the parents got a copy.”

  “Did he pay them anything?”

  Bivens shook his head. “Not a dime.”

  “How can he watch this?” Dana shook her head. “How can he let it continue?” She turned to Bivens, moisture in her eyes. “Is money that important to him?”

  “Not money, at least I don’t think his refusal is entirely about money.” Bivens turned to his own screen. “Masahiro Kano is from a very old family.” He glanced at Dana. “A Samurai family.” He passed the data to her. “He takes the Bushido code very seriously.”

  “He won’t pay.” Dana scanned the man’s history. “And he doesn’t have anyone who might be able to track her down.” She shook her head. “The girl is on her own.”

  “We’ve got to figure out where they are.” Bivens put the video back on his screen. “I’ll check the audio and see if there’s anything useable…”

  “Wait!” Dana leaned forward, eyes intent. “Back up a couple of frames.”

  Bivens did as she asked.

  “See that ray of sunlight?”

  “Yeah,” he isolated it, zoomed in. “There’s a tiny crack where they taped over a window.” He shrugged. “We can’t see anything through it—we don’t have the resolution.”

  “Not the window.” Dana leaned on his shoulder. “What’s the angle of the sunbeam—there’s enough dust in the air to show us that much.”

  “I see what you mean.” Bivens did a frame grab, and then highlighted the beam of sunlight. “I know what time this was taken through the metadata encoded on the video, if I work out the angle of the sun…” He did things with his hands, calling up a computational guide, then…

  “Seventy-six degrees.” He opened an internet browser, found an app. “This should give me a LOP.” He grinned. “A line of position.” He called up a map of Canada and superimposed the line over it. “Still covers a lot of ground.”

  “Check airline flight data—figure out where those two flights passed overhead on the first video. That should cut the search area down considerably.”

  “Right.” He opened the FAA site, entered the parameters of her search, and hit enter. “It’s a government site—this could take a while.”

  “We can wait.” Dana glanced at the agonized figure on her own screen. “I’m not sure she can.”

  ***

  It took all day but, finally, the FAA site disgorged a list of six flight paths that fit the search parameters. Bivens integrated them onto the map he’d created and discovered that four of them crossed his LOP. He used that data to refine his target area, trimming it to less than twenty square miles.

  “Still too big to send Flame in.” Dana shook her head. “There’s got to be a way to cut it down some more.”

  “Satellites!” Bivens returned to his keyboard, checked NSA data. “We have two satellites over Canada and one over the Arctic Circle right now. One of them is only a couple of hundred miles away from the search area…”

  “Can you redirect it?”

  “Already on it.” He typed in a series of commands. “I hope they don’t get too pissed about this.”

  “I’ll let the admiral know what we’re doing,” Dana reached for her phone. “He might be able to cover for us if there’s a problem.”

  “Okay.” Bivens sat back. “That should do it.” He turned to Dana. “If I read this correctly, it’ll take about three hours to get into position. I’ll see if I can find a way to get some quality surveillance before Flame has to go into action.”

  “When will that be?”

  “Bivens glanced at the screen. “About eight tomorrow morning our time.”

  “Good.” Dana stood and stretched. “I’ll meet you here at seven thirty.” She glared at Bivens. “And don’t you dare be even a minute early!”

  “I won’t, ma’am.” He made a surrendering gesture with his hands. “I’ll get here right on time.”

  “See that you do.” She tossed his jacket toward him. “Now, let’s go and get some dinner.” She smiled. “I think we both did some good work today.”

  They walked out the door together, Dana brushing the butt of her S&W with the heel of her hand as she reached for the door.

  ***

  “That video is disgusting.” Dana had copied Flame on all the data she and Bivens were accumulating. “Men like that don’t deserve to live.”

  “Well,” Dana said, her voice reflecting her determination. “Maybe they won’t be living a lot longer.”

  “You have a line on where they are?”

  “Maybe,” Dana didn’t want to raise his hopes too quickly. “There’s a map in the drop I sent you—you’ll note a small circle marked over a very remote area in northeast Canada…”

  “Got it.”

  “If you look at that video closely—and I apologize for asking you to do that—you’ll see that they didn’t quite cover the window. A beam of sunlight is coming in through a crack.” She waited for him to catch up. “We were able to do a position shot from that and, combined with the aircraft sounds we caught earlier…”

  “You got a search area.” He looked at the map. “That’s gotta be ten square miles of rough territory…”

  “We’ve re-tasked a satellite—it’ll be in position in a couple of hours. We’ll get infra-red imagery overnight and real-time photos in the morning.”

  “Good.” Flame nodded. “Very good.”

  “If it pans out we’ll put together a full briefing package—should have it to you within the next two days.” She paused. “Can you safely leave the girl?”

  “Aesop can take care of her.” Flame nodded. “Besides, how many men can they have left? Do these White Mice all have harems full of women to churn out new recruits?”

  “Point taken.” Dana smiled at the thought. “Then I’ll either see you or drop you a text to let you know that there’s a problem.”

  “Don’t come straight up,” Flame’s brow furrowed as he thought about the logistics of the mission. “I’m gonna need some things.”

  “Can I get them?”

  “I’ll have Bremby put everything together—get with him, he’ll let you know if there’s anything he can’t get.”

  “Will do.”

  “I think that covers it.” He smiled. “I’m glad we’re finally taking the fight to these bastards,” Flame smiled his predator’s smile. “I’m really looking forward to having the opportunity to reach out and touch them.” Teeth showed. “In a meaningful kind of way.”

  He talked to Bremby right after Dana hung up, then, for the first time in over a week, Flame slept the sleep of the just—with no dreams of any kind disturbing his slumber.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN

  Katelyn woke at the sound of the door opening. It was time for the guards to bring in food and water.

  Shit! she thought. There’s no time for me to get to my own bed. She hesitated for a moment, near panic, than made herself as small as she could, shrinking down behind the sleeping Japanese girl. Maybe they won’t see me…

  But they did…

  CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT

  “There.” Bivens, true to his word, had opened the door to the office at precisely seven thirty a.m. Dana, it transpired, had beaten him there by nearly fifteen minutes.

  “See the infra-red signal?” He enlarged the image, enhanced the multi-colored targets. “Those are living things—by their size, human beings.”

  “How many?”

  “Six clustered together here in what looks like a big room of some kind,” he said, and pointed to the long end of the barely warmer than the surrounding area structure. “One in the big room on the other end of the building, two in rooms along this corridor, another two here,” he spoke while his fingers pointed to a tiny building to the north. “Guard room or gatehouse I figure.”

  “So, five guards?”

  “At least five.” Bivens nodded. “There may be another guard shack under these trees on the south side.” He shook his head. “I can’t really tell.”

  “When do we get photo images?”

  “Soon,” Bivens glanced at the clock on his computer. “Sixty seconds or so.” He looked at Dana. “Have you told Flame about this?”

  “Talked to him last night.” She smiled at the memory. “He’s ready to go whenever we give him a target.”

  “And the girl he’s guarding?”

  “Safe enough with Aesop.” She raised an eyebrow. “Why do you ask?”

  “I did a little more digging into the White Mice that stayed in the Gulf after the Blackwater thing fell apart.” He kept his eye on the screen, waiting for the first photo to begin downloading. “Ten of the twelve married and, as far as I can tell, have about thirty-five children between them.”

  “So?”

  “So Flame’s killed what, five of them? And the admiral and Bremby got three more, right?” He glanced at Dana’s face. “Means there are about twenty-seven of them left.”

  “Assuming that none were girls and all were born within five years.” Dana counted the points off on her fingers. “And all were trained to be fighters like their dads.”

  “It could happen.”

  “Okay, say you’re right. Eight are dead, another five or so are in that building in Canada—that’s thirteen.” She looked at him. “Do you think all of them are working on this one project? And who did the actual kidnapping in France and Japan? If they move around that much, there should be records.”

  “I took a quick run at the airline data.” Bivens shrugged. “There’s just too much information for me to assimilate without names or ID of some kind.”

  “We can’t worry about how many are around. We just worry about the bunch in Canada—for now, at least.”

  “Okay, if you say so.”

  “I do.” Dana leaned forward. “And if I’m not mistaken, the first photo is coming in now.”

  They both leaned in as close to the screen as they could manage.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE

  That afternoon, as the guards met for their shared meal, the one tasked with feeding the prisoners spoke to his superior. He told him that one of the girls had been sharing a bed with one of the others—something that was clearly forbidden in the book.

  The older nodded—and promised to look into the situation. He did so after everyone had finished and scattered to their assigned posts. The big dormitory had security cameras carefully hidden in the eaves and camouflaged by the thick wooden beams that had been used to give the place a ‘rustic’ look.

  The junior guard—for only such a man would be given so menial a job—was correct. One of the girls had crept from her bed to another’s in the middle of the night.I wager it is the same one who bathed the Japanese girl. He nodded slowly. Perhaps she was just trying to keep the injured one warm. He knew it had been quite cold overnight, particularly in the dormitory where they kept the heat lowered as far as they could—it would not do for these infidel women to be too active around his men, many of whom were very young and on their first mission for the Anointed One.

  I will watch this woman carefully, he promised himself. If she repeats the transaction, I will take action. He nodded to himself. God would want me to do so.

  CHAPTER FORTY

  Flame picked the midpoint of their morning run to tell Kimberly that it was nearly time for him to leave. Something he knew she had been dreading.

  “My partner thinks she’s found the home base of the men who have been coming after you,” he told her. “They have six other girls held as prisoners there.”

  “Six?” Kimberly looked at Flame. “Didn’t their fathers pay the ransom? I’m sure my dad would have done so.”