18
Zayne aka Gabriel(29 years)
Eighteen hours later, between the first flight, I could get out of Africa, no sleep, landing, and maneuvering through traffic to get here which still wasn’t long enough for my raging heart to settle, I stood in Declan’s kitchen. “What the fuck do you mean, she’s nowhere to be found?” Anger exploded through my veins, and I slammed my hands down on the counter. My arms trembled. I was on the verge of losing my shit, my entire fucking world crumbling around me.
“Jesus, Gabe.” Declan raked a hand through his hair, his eyes puffy from staring at his computer screen for too long.
My palms shot up in apology. “I’m sorry, Dec.” It wasn’t his fault. He was the last person I should be taking my anger out on. I’d put him through hell when we’d worked together but in these last couple of hours since I got that call, more than I could ask him to handle.
He nodded. “I’m telling you, bro, it’s like she never existed.”
“You’re the fucking computer freak, compute the fuck out of that shit and get me something,” I grunted then shoved my phone with Ria’s last message under his nose. “Tell me this message is from someone who doesn’t exist.”
“You think I’m making this shit up.” He fisted both sides of his head, his frustration just as evident. “Fuck, I’ve tried running every damn shit possible and I might be a serious fucking computer geek but whoever wanted this girl gone, had some serious connections. I mean there’s no fucking trace. I’ve run face checks, fingerprints, DNA. Nothing. If I didn’t know better, I’d say she’s a fucking ghost. Even satellite images picked up nothing and trust me I’ve hacked into every known satellite I can. The only logical explanation, her image is routed through a specific IP. Anyone searching will see nothing even if she’s shopping in the fucking market.”
“What about her mobile?”
“It last pinged off the airport tower. After that, nothing.” He tucked his hands beneath his armpits and shrugged. “As I said, it’s like she never existed. Honestly, for someone to achieve this in such a short space of time, even I’m fucking impressed.” I scowled at his admiration. “Do you think it’s Nathaniel?”
“Nathaniel’s dead. I should know since I double-tapped the fucker.” I’d delivered the trial and the kill shot personally, so I was confident. “If anyone, who’d be more likely to get something like this done?” I was usually the calm one, the most put-together between the two of us and losing my shit was a big no.
Declan stood with another shrug. “FBI, CIA, KGB even the fucking Indian RAW. My guess, they’ve got some serious dark net skill or serious connections. What I don’t understand is why.”
“Why what?”
“Why go through all that trouble to make a relatively unknown girl disappear. What’s the big deal.” He walked over to the coffee maker and poured himself a mug. “Coffee?”
Frustrated, I ran a hand down my face then nodded. Less than twenty-four hours and my life became a nightmare from which I wasn’t likely to wake. “I have no fucking clue what to do. Where to look.” I muttered. “The airport—”
“I’ve checked. All major flights. Scanned all the terminals including the flight plans for the private jets. Nothing. The only other possible way of checking is doing a manual counter-to-counter photo recognition, and you need some serious manpower for that. Besides, we don’t know if she was even taken via plane.” Declan handed me a mug and sipped his coffee, eyeing me over the rim of his mug.
“Did she tell you anything about her past, Gabe?”
I bit my lip trying to remember. “Nothing unusual. Typical teenage stuff.”
“What about her parents. Any news?”
