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Hill turned to Minh and leaned back in his chair. “Zero activity on Loren’s cell. No calls, no texts. No outgoing emails.”

Minh finished typing a sentence on his keyboard. “Not a good sign.”

“Definitely not. Makes me think—” Hill stopped and waved a hand. “Gotta stop jumping to conclusions. But things are not trending in the right direction. She hasn’t responded to any of our attempts to contact her. Sure looks like she shut her phone down to keep us from seeing where she is.”

“And there’s no good reason for that.”

Hill sat forward. “How about tracking her two-way? Have we ever done that?”

“Not sure. Check with Timo.”

Timo was Tim Gates, one of the technogeek special agents the Bureau set loose in cyber to hack, crack, and track the devices criminal enterprises employed.

“While I do that, I think it’s time to issue the amber alert.”

“On it,” Minh said.

Hill took the elevator down a floor, tapped his key card, and navigated the hallways to the large cyber room. Desktop PC towers sat at stations along both sides of the room, as well as on a central countertop.

“Timo.” Hill held out his fist. Gates looked at it a second, then touched it with his.

“Got a question you’re probably asked every day.”

Gates pushed a pair of wire-rimmed glasses up his nose. “Okay.”

“Can we track our Bu radios?”

“I’m not asked that question every day.”

Hill scratched his forehead. “No, I realize that. It was a figure of speech.”

Gates looked at him. “Oh. Right.”

“Buddy, sometimes you scare me. You need to get out of here, interact with real people.”

Timo glanced around at the computers. “Why?”

“Never mind. I don’t have time to get into that. Can we track our Bureau radios?”

“Short answer is yes. It’s possible to triangulate any radio device. But there are some things you’ve gotta keep in mind.”

“Like what?”

“Like it depends on the strength of the signal, the area of transmission, and how long the radio has been transmitting. Cell phones are a great example of this—the proximity and number of cell towers around it are key. Not very close, too few towers, and we can’t get a good fix on the location. Another problem is that Bu radio communications are all encrypted. If one is lost or stolen, the encryption codes are all changed.”

“It’s not lost or stolen. But what if she’s turned the radio off?”

“Who’s ‘she’?”

“Loren.”

Gates physically drew back. “Why would you need to find Loren? She okay?”

“Look,” Hill said, “I know you’re fond of her, but we’ve got an abducted child case. She might be AWOL. And she may be involved.”

“That doesn’t make any sense.”

“It’s her sister-in-law. She kidnapped a young girl.”

Gates scrunched his brow. He started moving the fingers of his right hand at his side, as if he were playing the piano. “And Loren’s gone off the grid?”

“Yes.”

“So you want to track her radio to find her.”

“Now you’re getting it, Timo.”

“Well.” Gates picked up a screwdriver and bent over one of the partially disassembled towers. “If she’s turned the device off, no chance. Can’t track it. If it’s not putting out a radio signal, there’s nothing to find and therefore nothing to triangulate. Is the radio off?”

“Don’t know. If she’s trying to go dark, she likely shut it down. But what if she turns the radio back on?”

“If she turns it on and leaves it on—and we see the signal—and if she’s near some towers, then yes. I should be able to locate her. But it’d have to be a pretty important reason to search for it. It’d take a lot of Bureau resources to do it.”

“Kidnapped girl. I’d say that qualifies.”

Gates looked up at him. “All our cases are important.”

“Can’t argue that, but—”

“You’ve worked with Loren for years. You really think she’s capable of aiding and abetting a fugitive?”

Hill worked his jaw. “Family’s very important to her. No idea how she’d react. I mean, not sure what I’d do if it were my sister-in-law. How would you react?”

Gates turned back to the screwdriver. “I don’t have a sister-in-law.”

Hill chuckled—but realized Gates was serious.

Gates pulled his gaze from the tower. “You think Loren’s sister-in-law is dangerous? Is she violent? Is the child in danger?”

Hill bit his lip. “Don’t know. The woman has a history of mental illness, so she’s unstable. Still gathering info to get a better picture of what we’re dealing with. More than that I can’t say. Yet.”

Gates sighed. “Okay then. Get Mountain to sign off. He does, I’ll do my best to locate her radio the second it goes live.”

“On my way to ask him right now.”

“Keep me posted,” Gates yelled after him.