Hamm addressed the room. "Okay, what's our next move? Ideas? Anyone?"
"Did we get anything from the cameras?" Taylor asked.
"No. I saw a vehicle on one of the street cams, but it was too dark to determine color or make, let alone a license plate."
"And there's no other usable intel from the laptop?"
"Not yet. The data I haven't yet deciphered consists of strings of numbers that could be anything — bank account numbers, client identifiers, transfer locations, transaction amounts. I only found the holding sites because I was able to search for the coordinates of the first house and the warehouse in the data strings. So, unless we can find something else to cross-reference, I'm at a loss. I can keeplooking, but without a specific pattern to scan for in the sequences, it's a shot in the dark."
No one spoke for a few moments.
"And this buzz on the dark web, the unhappy customers and a hit on the Handler, nothing gives any clue where the Handler is?" Young asked, breaking the silence.
"I think he's still in the country, but chatter suggests he's about to leave. I'm assuming he's still fairly close based on where Tristan was taken and the timing of his message, but I've got no real intel."
"Could we try to get in on the action? Pretend we want to run the hit and see if we can narrow down a location on the target?" Sullivan proposed.
"That could work."
"Annabeth could send out feelers, pretend to be a hitman looking for a payoff, see if she can get a lead."
"Do it. Anything else?" Hamm prompted.
"We're sure the driver doesn't know anything?"
"I'm sure," Hamm answered. "I questioned him after Taylor and Rodriguez did the first pass. He's never seen the Handler and has never been anywhere except the warehouse and the house where Natalie was held. I'm pretty sure he's not holding back. He seemed scared shitless."
Silence.
A string of silent curses paraded through Cade's thoughts. They had nothing to go on, no one to interrogate, no vehicle or location to track, no physical description, no bank account, nothing.
The Handler was just a name in pixels on a screen.
"What else?" Hamm asked.
"Do we have any intel about where the Gem Collector is located? Maybe we can get Tristan back after the Handler transfers him, I mean, if he wants him."
"I've been searching, but no luck yet," Annabeth answered. "I'll keep trying."
"Any other ideas?" When no one spoke for several tense seconds, Hamm said, "We'll break for now. Annabeth, start inquiring about the hit on the Handler, and continue looking for a location for the Gem Collector. If anyone has any idea to pursue, no matter how stupid it might sound, come to me immediately. Understood?"
The group stood and dispersed, except for Cade, who dropped his head to the table and considered another round with Hamm's heavy bag. He should think of some possibilities to pursue, use logic to identify steps and alternatives, but his thoughts were jumbled and scattered.
Without a lead, he had no way to save the man who had somehow, in the last week, become the center of his universe.
The touch of a delicate hand on top of his drew Cade's attention. With one cheek pressed to the table, he opened his eyes to find Natalie studying him, tears welling in her eyes, her mouth quivering, and he felt the overwhelming need to comfort her.
He flipped his hand so their palms fit together, and she slotted her fingers between his as silent tears began to stream down her cheeks. He wanted to do something to help her, but he didn't know what. Hold her? Tell her it was going to be fine when he wasn't sure it would be? God, why was he so fucking bad at this stuff?
"Cade... " Natalie began before the dam finally broke. Hanging her head, she began sobbing, and he didn’t even think, just drew her into his arms. She cried on his shoulder, no longer holdingback, and part of him was jealous that she could let go when he couldn't.
After a few minutes, some concerned gazes from his colleagues, and a wet patch on his shirt, Natalie leaned back, apparently spent for now. She wiped the dampness from her cheeks and hiccupped softly.
"Are you okay?" he asked softly.
"No."
"Yeah, me neither."
