But the tingle at the base of his spine was singing something wasnotright.
Atall.
Correction, not singing—screaming.
There was nothing in her work or personal computer activity suggesting she was going on another trip.In fact, all the business meetings on her personal calendar, which she synced with her work calendar account from the cloud, had disappeared.
Justgone.
He logged into the corporate server again, taking the risk to track her activity, and realized her information in the system was now gone, too.
Not dormant, not changed to another username and password—completely wiped from the system.
In fact, when he looked up things like her login key, her business email account, all of that—they weregone.She’d disappeared from the HR records, wiped as if she’d never been there.
Ken called Peyton.“We have a problem.”
“What now?”Peyton groaned.
“Miranda Segura has completely dropped off the radar.As in there isnothing.”
“What?When did that happen?”
“I just noticed it,” Ken said.“I’m not seeing any indications she’s logged into her work or personal computers, or accessed her corporate email from her phone, for days.That is highly irregular.”Ken leaned back in his chair as he told Peyton what he’d discovered.“I consider all of that suspicious.”
Peyton hesitated.“Hmm.You’re right.That is suspicious.”
“Remind me why we didn’t install cameras or bugs in her apartment when they broke in to hack the laptop?”Ken asked.
“Too risky,” Peyton said.“It’s likely she—or her father—orders regular sweeps for bugs and cameras.I would be shocked if they didn’t.What about those poison pills she talked about?”Peyton asked.
“I have no idea,” Ken said.“I guess we wait and see.She said two weeks, right?”
“If she really even had any.”
“Well, there is that.I haven’t found any evidence that they exist.They could’ve been a bluff, or something happened to her before she set them up.How long do we wait?”
Peyton didn’t respond immediately.“Let me figure out a legit-sounding excuse for a cold call, and I’ll work with Alvarez to implement it.I’d rather it come from a native-sounding Spanish speaker.Less suspicious.”
“Let me know.”Ken hung up and stared at the data.She’d obviously thought the bogus data on the thumb drive she’d received was legit.She was too savvy to believe she could snow the Bratva with fake information.Especially if she was trying to offload the cartel to them and work with them in other areas.They would turn around, see that the data was fake, and kill her.No way was she naive enough not to understand that.
But where’d she get the fake data?That’s what he wanted to know, because whoever it was, they were at least one step ahead of her.And who would want to put her at risk by giving her fake data to pass on?He wasn’t an expert in organized crime, but he’d seen enough TV shows to know that Russian mobsters were on a whole different level than American crime organizations.
Twenty minutes later, Peyton called back.“Well, she’s completely off the grid.”
“What?”Ken asked.
“I had Alvarez call and ask for her, pretending to be a real estate agent who received a query from her the day before we saw her.Apparently, she no longer works at the office.The receptionist he talked to sounded a little… nervous.”
“Nervous how?”
“Like she was under orders not to say or imply anything other than Miranda no longer worked there.And when he asked if there was an alternate number he could contact her at, the receptionist said no, and basically hung up on him.”
“Shiiiit.”
“Exactly.Are we still receiving data from the cartel computers?”
“Yep.And the corporate computers.”
