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Nick, Ronnie and Lamont were in the operations room. Nick looked at his watch for the third time. It wasn't like Selena to be late for a meeting.
"I thought Selena was going to sit in on this," Ronnie said.
"She had a dental appointment in the city. Maybe it ran over," Nick said.
"Give the dentist a call," Lamont said. "Find out when she left. There's no rush. We can wait until she gets here."
Nick took out his phone and dialed the number. They both used the same dentist. The receptionist picked up after two rings.
"Doctor Hyde's office."
"Hi, Corinne. This is Nick Carter. Is Selena still there?"
"No, Mister Carter, she left about an hour and a half ago."
"Okay, thanks."
He turned to the others. "She left an hour and a half ago."
Lamont and Ronnie looked at each other.
"Ought to have been here by now," Ronnie said.
"Maybe she got caught in traffic," Lamont said.
"Yeah, maybe," Nick said.
He reached up and scratched his ear.
"Please tell me it's only an itch," Ronnie said.
Nick said, "You know how she drives. She should have been here more than half an hour ago."
He called Selena's number and listened to it ring. The voicemail came on. He hung up.
"It went to voicemail."
"Could be a problem on the Beltway," Lamont said. "Construction. An accident."
"Yeah, but at this time of day it shouldn't be much of a problem."
He reached up again to tug on his ear.
"Something's wrong," Nick said. "I can feel it. If she were hung up in traffic, she'd call and let us know she was going to be late."
Stephanie came into the room carrying her laptop. She saw the look of concern on Nick's face.
"Something wrong, Nick?"
"Selena should have been here by now."
"Did she have her phone with her?"
"Sure. She always has it with her."
"Let me pull up her GPS. It will only take a minute."
Stephanie entered the commands. A moment later a map of Washington came up on the screen. A flashing green dot indicated Selena's phone. It wasn't moving. Nick looked at the map.
"That's where the dentist has his office. She's still there, according to this. The receptionist said she left an hour and a half ago."
"You want to go look for her?" Ronnie said.
"Yep."
"Let's go," Ronnie said. "We'll take the Hummer."
"I'll tell Harker," Nick said.
"You go ahead, Nick," Stephanie said. "I'll let Elizabeth know."
Outside headquarters, they piled into Ronnie's black Hummer. The car was like Nick's Suburban on steroids. Ronnie's car guru had turned the vehicle into a civilian tank. Armored, bulletproofed and carrying enough weapons in a compartment in the back to start a small war, the Hummer was almost unstoppable. It was also fast, courtesy of a turbocharged engine capable of putting out seven hundred horsepower. Ronnie climbed in behind the wheel.
"Where to, Kemo Sabe?"
"The dentist."
Nick gave him the address. It took them less than an hour to reach the building. They drove into the underground garage.
"Go along the rows." Nick pointed. "Let's see if her car is here."
They spotted Selena's Mercedes and Ronnie pulled to a stop. Nick got out, walked over to the car, and tried the driver's door. It was unlocked. Selena would never have left it that way. He stepped back and saw Selena's key on the ground. He bent down to pick it up and glanced under the car. One of her shoes lay on the concrete floor. Her purse lay next to it. He reached under the car and pulled out the purse and the key. Selena's phone was inside the purse.
He stood up. "Someone grabbed her."
"Any surveillance cameras down here?" Lamont said. "Maybe they caught it."
Nick looked. "There's one by the elevator. Ronnie, park the Hummer. Call Harker and let her know what's happening. Lamont, let's go talk to security."
They took the elevator to the ground floor. A security counter was positioned where the guard could see the elevators and the front entrance. The man on duty looked to be about sixty years old. He was reading a magazine and looked up as they approached. A bank of monitors to the side of the counter showed images from cameras positioned in the front and back of the building, the lobby, and the garage.
"Excuse me," Nick said.
"Something I can help you with?"
The guard's name tag said Henry. His voice was edged with suspicion. People tended to get like that when they saw the scar on Lamont's face.
"Have you been on duty the last few hours?"
"Who's asking?"
Nick sighed. He took out his wallet and showed the guard his badge.
"I never heard of that outfit," the guard said.
"You have now," Nick said. "Trust me, you don't want to hear more about it. Now, were you on duty or not?"
"Yeah, I was here."
"You have cameras in the garage. You keep an eye on everything?"
"That's what the monitors are for."
Lamont made a movement. Nick put his hand on his arm.
"That's not what I asked you. Do you watch the monitors?"
"Of course I do. That's what they hire me for."
"You see anything happen in the garage about two hours ago, Henry?"
"No."
"Have you been here the whole time?"
"Yeah, except when I had to use the toilet. I ate something last night that didn't sit so good."
"So you weren't here all the time."
"Except for maybe ten minutes."
"You have recordings from the cameras?"
"If they're working right, yeah. They record over themselves every twenty-four hours."
"I need to see the recordings from the garage. Say, from noon to one o'clock. Can you put that up on the monitor?"
"I don't know," Henry said. "You guys need a warrant for that."
"Henry," Lamont said.
His voice was quiet, full of menace.
"What?"
"Put the recording up on the monitor, or you're going to find yourself in so much shit you won't believe it."
"You'd better do what he says," Nick said. "I can't always control him. It was the war, you know?"
Lamont scowled at the guard. It was what Nick called Lamont's boogyman look. Anyone seeing that look knew he was in trouble.
"Put the recording up," Nick said. "We'll watch it and leave. Then you can go back to reading your magazine."
The guard looked from Nick to Lamont and back again. He registered the shoulder holster under Nick's jacket. Lamont cracked his knuckles.
"Yeah, okay, give me a minute," Henry said.
The guard turned to the console in front of the monitors and entered commands.
"You want the garage inside or outside?"
"Inside first," Nick said. "Then the outside."
A moment later, the recording began to play on one of the monitors. A timestamp on the bottom began reading off minutes and seconds.
"This is the camera by the elevator," Henry said.
The view was a fisheye picture looking out over rows of parked cars. The video was grainy, mediocre in quality, but Nick could see Selena's car down one of the rows to the left. Nothing happened for a few minutes, then a couple came out of the elevator and walked to a car, got in and drove away.
"Speed it up a little," Nick said.
The recording shifted to double time. Another person exited the elevator, walking down a row to his car, the movements jerky with the speeded up tape. At twenty minutes after noon, Selena came out of the elevator.
"That's her," Lamont said.
"Stop," Nick said. "Go back to regular speed."
They watched Selena start for her car. Nick saw her reach into her bag for her keys and turn toward the door of the Mercedes. A large man appeared from between the cars and grabbed her from behind. He clamped a hand over her face A van pulled up next to them while Selena struggled. Then she went limp. The man picked her up, opened the door of the van, and tossed her inside. He got in and closed the door. The van drove away.
"Damn," Henry said.
"Yeah. Roll it back and freeze it on the back of that van."
"You can see part of the license plate," Lamont said.
Nick copied down the digits.
"Let's see the camera in the front of the garage. It might've caught a better picture of the plate."
Henry entered the commands. He moved the recording forward to match the time of the abduction. Thirty seconds later, the van emerged from the garage. This time they could make out the entire plate. They could see a chisel faced man behind the wheel for a second or two before the van turned off into traffic.
"I need those recordings," Nick said.
"I'm supposed to keep them."
"Henry," Lamont said.
"Yeah, yeah, okay. We have to go down to the garage."
Fifteen minutes later they had the cassettes in hand. Lamont filled Ronnie in while Nick called Harker.
"Give me those numbers again," Elizabeth said. "I'll have Stephanie run a check on them. We'll find her, Nick."
"Yes, we will," Nick said.
And the bastards who grabbed her.