Khalil said, “No. I’d rather not be seen inside that building with you. I’m sure it’s full of cameras, and I don’t want them hunting me once you’re gone. I’ll find a place to wait. Give me a call when you’re done.”
Omar nodded and Khalil said, “In fact, give me a call right now. I swapped SIM cards and want to make sure it works.”
Omar did, and Khalil waited until his phone rang. He ended the call without answering, saying, “We’re good. See you soon.”
Omar nodded and closed the door.
Chapter 53
Jennifer and I made it back into our suite in record time, speedwalking down the alleys like we were about to miss our bus, my hunger now forgotten. I saw Veep behind the laptop and said, “What’s up?”
“Creed’s got some kind of traction here. He hasn’t told me because he just got called away. He’ll be back in a second.”
He stood up and I took his seat, saying, “Get the team ready. Kit up, low-vis only.”
He nodded and started to leave when I stopped him and said, “Don’t forget Aaron and Shoshana. This might be nothing, but if it’s something, I want to roll with the entire force.”
He left the room and I sat behind the computer, waiting. Eventually, Creed appeared on the screen, looking winded.
He said, “We got more on that unsub in Tucson. I accessed the databases of every local police department that feeds into an ALPR database—you wouldn’t believe how many there are—and I got a hit.”
Confused, I said, “What’s an ALPR?”
“Automated license plate reader. Big Brother is out there collecting all the time. All I had to do was type in the rental agency license plate, and bing, it appeared like magic, all the way across the United States. Well, almost all the way. The car left Tucson and I tracked it to Nashville. From there, it disappeared again.”
“So this is about the unknown guy in the United States? Why are you telling me? Can you do that here, to locate the van?”
Creed was a little ADHD when it came to focusing on something, and in this case, he was excited about the next shiny object, but I didn’t see the connection to my problem set.
He seemed to just now realize who he was talking to and did a little head shake, like he was reordering his brain cells. He said, “Sorry, no. That’s why I was called away just now, but not why I called. Buenos Aires might use ALPRs but I don’t have any way to access that data.”
Growing irritated, I said, “Okay, then, why?”
“I did a deep dive on that van that was in the video. It’s a Mercedes Sprinter van, and I tracked the license plate to a VIN. It was built there in Argentina, and it has fleet capabilities with Mercedes PRO installed, something similar to OnStar.”
“So you can find it right now? Give me a GPS location?”
“No, I can’t. While it has the hardware installed, it wasn’t activated because it’s not a fleet vehicle. Somebody has to pay for the service, and whoever bought that van isn’t doing so, but it has the hardware on board for future service if a new owner wants to do it.”
“So how does that help us?”
“Well, I think I can turn it on with an over-the-air command, getting it to talk to a tower.”
Growing more irritated by the second, I said, “So youcanlocate it?”
“Not like Mercedes PRO. I can’t get the GPS running and all that. All I can do is get it to talk to the cell network, but depending on where it’s located, that could get you within a city block—especially if it’s in a dense cellular network.”
That was better than nothing. I said, “Well, what are you waiting for? Why don’t you already have the city block for me to search?”
“Two things: one, the van has to be running, which means someone has to be behind the wheel, and two, when I do this there’s a fifty-fifty shot that something will pop up on the infotainment screen. Some warning about it being turned on. May not matter at all, but if they’re paranoid and they know what they’re looking at, they’ll know someone’s screwing with their van.”
Hmmmm... I could see now why he waited for me to pull the trigger.
“You can’t do it with the vehicle off? You’re sure?”
“Yeah. It’s got to have power running to the unit. I mean, the engine doesn’t have to be running, but the ignition at least must be turned on.”
Risks versus reward. This was a tough one, because even if we were successful, we’d only get a general location, the size of a city block. If we could get an actual, real time GPS grid down to the meter, the decision would be a lot easier, as even if they suspected something, I’d be converging faster than they could react. A city block didn’t really give us much to work with, as I’d be searching the areawhilethey were reacting, using sight alone.
