“And doing a pretty good job of it,” Shane said in frustration.
“Maybe that’s part of the test too,” she said.
“If it is, I’m damn tired of being tested,” he snapped.
As he glared at her, she held up her hands, palms out. “I get it,” she said. “Maybe, just maybe, they want something to do with you.”
“Maybe,” he said. “I just don’t understand what.”
“And, if that were the case,” Diesel said, “they would contact you.”
“Maybe,” she said. “The question is, in what way?”
“I didn’t even get contacted over the kidnapping,” Shane said suddenly. “The Mavericks did.” He quickly sent a message to Gavin. Any other communication regarding this scenario? Specifically, have the kidnappers contacted you?
Not yet, Gavin said. What are you thinking? Shane quickly filled in Gavin on the other possibility they had been kicking around.
It’s possible, but I don’t like the idea in the least. To even think that we were being tested for something like this is a bit much.
But we’ve seen things like that before.
Well, we all have job interviews but hardly in this way.
Gavin, do you know of any sensitive cases worldwide that might need somebody for a job like that?
Now that you mention it, yes. There was silence on the chat for a moment and then a link was posted. The missing daughter of one of the international oil tycoons.
He’s got his own team though. He’d get his daughter out on his own, Shane wrote, as Shelly and Diesel looked on over his shoulder.
“Not to mention that she’s a female,” Shelly said. Frowning, the guys looked at her, and she shrugged. “I know that, in some cultures, women have value, but, in others, they don’t. I’m not sure on this one.”
Wait.
Shane sat back. “Gavin’s got something.” Moments later another message popped up in the chat.
Check out the email I just forwarded to you.
It was a message addressed to the head of the Mavericks Department, which he didn’t even know existed. It was written in code, and it was a message to Gavin, saying Shane was needed for a specialized job.
“Hang on a minute. What the hell are they talking about?” he asked, trying to understand the missive. His phone rang just then, a call from Gavin. Shane put it on Speaker.
“Shane, this is a telecommunication missive encode that just came through our system,” he said. “And you’re right. They do want you for a job. But take a deep breath. You won’t like the price.”
“What’s the price?” he asked, his stomach churning.
“They are holding your sister and her family.”
“What are you talking about?” he cried out, bolting to his feet.
“It says, they will hold your family, until you get the tycoon’s daughter back.”
“So what’s all this about Shelly then?”
“A test run.”
“What the hell? A test run where they killed eleven people,” he said in the harsh voice. “Why me?”
“The story for the Mavericks is that he was somehow associated with one of your black ops years ago,” Gavin said. “He had a contact, supposedly in a unit that handled the communications for one of your SEAL teams,” he said. “So, when his family ran into trouble, he decided he needed you guys. That last part may be true, but the guy is probably the international oil tycoon. Everybody else has refused to help him, and he’s tried several others but with no luck. He wondered if you had the skills.”
“How long has the daughter been missing?”
“Five months.”
“Jesus. How many has he tested?”
“Unfortunately he’s not responding to that question,” he said, “but I’m looking it up.”
“I don’t have a good feeling about this. So he’s up against somebody, and he’s looking for people capable of getting her back. So he’s already tested and tried several, and what? I’m the next one on the list?”
“Possibly,” Gavin said. “You were also out of the loop for a long time and may have been harder to get a hold of.”
“Maybe so but this is all bullshit.”
“Not to mention the fact that a lot of people have already died from whatever game he’s playing,” she said.
“I hear you there,” Shane said. He looked at Diesel, who just stared at him in shock.
“Are you serious?” Diesel asked. “They killed eleven innocent people in a communications office trying to get some help?”
“Looks like it,” Gavin said.
“Well, that’s complete bullshit, and I’m not doing it,” Shane said.
“Well, you may want to take a look at this.” Gavin sent through a link on the chat.
Shane turned back to his laptop and clicked the link. Sure enough, there was his sister, her two kids, and her husband, all sitting at the dining room table, with frozen smiles on their faces, a gunman on either side of the room. “Jesus Christ,” he said, pinching the bridge of his nose.
“Sorry, Shane,” Gavin said.
“You know what? You don’t really think about jobs that you work on. We don’t even know when we crossed paths with an oil sheikh or if he was a second-tier casualty in some way,” he said. “For all I know, he learned of me from a job years ago.”
“It may well have been,” Gavin said. “I’m still trying to get information.”
“And obviously this isn’t somebody we’d want to work for, if he has to use this kind of leverage.”
“I’m assuming that’s exactly why he’s using this kind of leverage. It’s the only thing he can do to get help.”
“Which means, he has friends in high places, plus money and other connections, to get what he needs from people like him. Just not from people like us.”
“That’s my take too,” Diesel said. “Hell, I don’t want to deal with him either.”
“No,” Shane said, “not the way he’s operated.” He said to Gavin, “I won’t deal while he’s got my family,” he said. “I was tested and apparently passed, but no way I’ll be held accountable for what’ll happen when I get a hold of him if he hurts my sister.”
“I hear you,” Gavin said, “and you know we don’t cooperate with blackmailers,” he said, “which means that now it becomes an operation to rescue your sister.”
“That is the only thing I’m prepared to do,” he said. “Then I’ll take this asshole out in an alleyway and make sure he never pulls a stunt like this with my family again.”
She couldn’t believe what she heard, as she stared at the link on the laptop and shuddered. “They look so scared.”
It hurt to look at his sister and see the terror in her eyes. Shane had to save them. He couldn’t live with anything else. “Gavin, have you got anybody close to San Diego, who can go over there to check out my sister’s house?”
“Yeah, they’ve been on the move, while we’ve been talking,” he said. “They’ve set up a perimeter on the house. Can you confirm the location, just to be safe?” He then read off the address.