Page 84 of Acting on Instinct
“In flight over the Red Sea,” Black said.
“What about William Davidson’s plane?” White asked.
“It landed in Durham early this morning, and then immediately flew to D.C. The window of its arrival locally corresponds with events,” Lynx said.
Ty gripped the table. “What are we doing about that?”
“We’re talking to you,” Black said. “And we’re getting a plan together. The Davidson plane has already left our sovereign airspace and is heading toward Spain for refueling with a final destination to Tanzania.”
“I think it would be good to go over the events that led up to this situation,” White said. “I can’t fathom a reason why Kira was in D.C., why Nadir would scoop her up, or how your team got involved.”
“Lynx, why don’t you start laying the story out?” Black said in his hallmark bass voice.
Lynx had a calm way of unfolding stories. When Ty heard her speak, he always thought that every brain cell was assessing the situation, and it gave him some relief that she was there, finding the clue that everyone else would overlook.
Lynx walked through the ring that Lula brought as a gift from London, and how it held the warning of Nadir’s mood and intentions.
Ty watched White’s face closely, and she seemed distressed by what she was hearing. She didn’t know the ring had an emotional origin story or a secret compartment, he was certain.
Lynx went on to explain Kira’s decision to leave her house and the suspiciously timed bomb scare at the fort that turned Kira away. “We’ve reviewed Fort Bragg security tapes with footage of Kira arriving and leaving. From there, she went to a coffee shop and called Christen. Christen told her to drive to Charlotte and fly to Washington, where Gator would meet her.”
So far, Ty was on board with everything that had happened: Kira’s choice to get onto the secured fort and then reaching out for help. Christen was right to take her seriously and herd her toward support.
“This gets a little complicated. So we’re walking through step by step.” She mentioned that William Davidson was medevacked to a hospital, but she didn’t say why. “We know that William’s guests took a car to an airport where they caught a flight to meet him. We believe that included Kira’s aunt and uncle, Fatima and Nadir.”
Kira’s Aunt Fatima was the family matriarch. Surely, she’d try to intervene and help Kira, Ty reasoned.
“How did they find Kira in D.C.?” White asked.
“On the way to the hotel,” Lynx continued. “Kira took a call over speaker phone, where she was talking to the police about a break-in at her house, getting in through a broken window. The police said someone shook the house looking for something. When Gator and I got back to Iniquus after settling Kira at her hotel, we hired a Durham security team to take photos of the interior damage, hoping that would give us clues as to what they were looking for. The police said there was a broken window, and the inside was trashed as if someone was looking for something, and they suggested that if Kira needed something secured, they could take it to their station.”
“What did the security team find when they got there?” White asked.
“At Kira’s house, they checked the doors, and they were locked. There were no broken windows, and, looking through them, everything was neat as a pin. The neighbors who were supposed to have called the police and given them Kira’s number were at their river house for the last couple of days, and the neighbor across the street is cat-sitting for them. The security team checked with Durham PD, and Durham police didn’t respond to Kira’s address.”
“So that call somehow was tracing her?” White asked. “But it would lead to your car, correct? She took the call from the police as you were heading for the hotel?”
“When Kira hung up with the police, we asked her to put her phone on airplane mode, and we gave her a burner phone. This becomes important because her original phone was overlooked in the kidnapping. After Kira was taken, we found her original phone, and we had our forensic team analyze it for clues. Apparently, while in the car, Kira opened a text message to connect with whom she thought was the police,” Lynx said. “Iniquus found malware released into the phone.”
“High tech to get past airplane mode,” T-Rex said.
“People who own jets don’t have low tech,” Black said.
“But how did they get her out of the hotel?” White asked.
“That we have limited information about,” Lynx said. “However, Kira was able to trigger the emergency app on her original phone, so we have a full recording of what happened in the hotel room.”
“What kind of emergency app, White?” Ty asked.
“It sends a crisis signal to Langley. Everything is recorded, and the camera takes a video. We receive a precise GPS location.”
“There was no video because she hid the phone under a chair, but we have the audio,” Black said. “I’m playing it now.”
It was hard to listen to, but Ty was so proud of her bravery. He understood her decisions—the pull of her family had always been a centrifugal force in her life.
“When they left,” Lynx said, “the kidnappers took the burner phone along with her suitcase and backpack, so her computer is with her. They tossed the burner out the window on the highway.”
“Ty, is there anything on her computer that’s dangerous to Kira?” Gator asked.
