Harrington’s team cleared Paul’s house. The help was hovering overhead, waiting to launch a pursuit should Walker start up the Cuda.
But they needn’t have worried.
Walker, Monica and Paul had gone.
Harrington stood outside on the street, where the rappelling ropes were discarded from the chopper. Kent and his team’s junior soldier, a tall lanky guy named Angelo, joined him.
“What now?” Kent asked.
“Get the ropes,” Harrington said, and pointed down the road where it widened at an intersection. “Have the help pick us up there. They can’t be far.”
•
“You thought that too, right?” Paul said. He was looking at Walker in the rearview mirror, waiting for a response.
Monica looked at Walker. “What’s he mean? That they’ll kill him once all this is done?”
“Maybe,” Walker said. He held her eye. “Or that Jasper could already be dead.”
“But he’s still broadcasting,” Monica replied.
“They may have pre-taped it all,” Walker said. “We can’t rule that out.”
There was silence as Paul drove on. A mile. Two. Five.
“I think he’s alive,” Monica said finally. “I think he’d have been smart enough to play this out on the technical side—make it so that they think they can’t carry out the cyber attacks without him alive. Paul?”
“He might have done that,” Paul said.
“I think he did,” Monica said, more firmly this time. “So, he’s alive. So, we have to find him. And stop him. Will you help us, Paul?”
Paul glanced out his side window. When he spoke, it was monosyllabic. Unfiltered. Unemotional.
“I’ll try.”