The phone went silent.
Tristan sat on the side of the bed in the hotel room, scratching his scruff of beard. Colleen had mentioned she’d like to see what it looked like if he grew it out. Perhaps he’d just clean the edges up that morning.
A woman’s dulcet alto voice emerged from his phone. “Tristan, I hear you have a problem.”
“Yes, Dr. Bell. It appears that two of our associates have been kidnapped by the Butorin organization. We have proof of life as of fifteen minutes ago.”
“We wouldn’t like to get involved with the Butorins’ problems.”
“We know where the two hostages are being held, right down to the room number.”
“It’s in a hotel?”
“The Boulders Resort in Tempe, Arizona.”
“Hotels make for difficult extractions, and that’s out of our usual territory.”
This was going exceptionally badly.
Tristan said, “During our last conversation, it seemed like you were eager to get the stock we mentioned. I can get that for you at the close of the market on Wednesday, or maybe a few hours afterward to gather it up and make the transfer.”
“While that’s tempting, Friday would be adequate for our purposes.”
Dammit.“Okay, how about this: calling you back on your phone was far too easy. It would take me a couple of weeks, but I could write you an app that scrambles your phone number and the GPS location of your phone to enhance your privacy.”
During her long pause that seemed to crackle over the phone’s cellular signal, and Tristan held his breath.
She finally said, “I’m listening.”
“Everyone is concerned about privacy these days. Wouldn’t it be a great benefit to yourself and your organization to be able to scramble both your phone numbers and GPS location?”
“Hold on.” Some other talking was muffled as if she’d put her hand over the phone. “Yes, we would be interested in such an app. For our involvement, you will produce the stock soon after the close of Wall Street on Wednesday, and you will deliver this app within two weeks.”
“A month,” Tristan said. “If I was just making it for myself, I could do it in two weeks, but you and your organization will need an interface that non-programmers can use. Coding the dashboard will take two weeks at least.”
“Done. Expect a phone call within a few hours with details of the extraction.”
“Thank you, Dr. Bell.”
“I’m glad I could do youa favor,Tristan, and it’s always nice to have people with useful skill sets in our organization. I hope you’ll think about a long-term offer.”
“I’m not in the market for that.”
“I can be very convincing. We’ll talk.”
They hung up.
If Jian and Anjali would be safe, it would be worth it.
Colleen emerged from the bathroom, fluffing her hair with a towel. Although her face was washed, her eyes were puffy like she’d been crying again.
Dammit.
If he told Colleen that a rescue operation was being launched, she would demand to be a part of it. She was an active person whodidthings, not the type who would sit back and wait for a video of the results.
And so was he.
Tristan told her, “I’m just about to call the Butorins to negotiate how to deliver the Anonymity program. We’ll get them out. I promise.”
