“Yosef Tamar.”
“Israeli extremist.Sometimes works for good, sometimes works for evil.Which side is he on this week?” asked Luke.
“Maybe ours,” said Sly.“Ace found this message as he was trying to find Marilyn’s location.It seems he was the buyer of her hacking efforts.”
“Shit, no.Did he buy it?” asked Hex.
“No.She said she could only give him half of what he was asking for,” said Ace.He looked at the screen and grinned.“Looks like whatever you boys did, it’s preventing her from delivering all of it.He refused and said their relationship was done.Aftershe asked for help with us.At least he knows not to fuck with us.”
“Wait.If you saw all that, you know where she is,” said AJ.His father smiled at him and nodded.
“I knew you’d catch up quickly.I’m sending her address now.You can approach from water or land, but approach carefully.She’s going to be desperate at this point.”The others smirked at Ace.“Oh, and she saw the message posted on her mother’s manifesto.No telling how she reacted to that but I have to believe it’s not good.Sending you the laptop location now.You should be able to track it from there.”
Keeping an eye on the laptop while Wyatt drove, AJ watched to ensure that Marilyn didn’t move from her location.The drive to the Nags Head area was direct, but actually getting to her location would be slower.She was staying in a small home on the beach, which was part of the Outer Banks area.
“We just got a message from Billings,” said Hiro.“Whatever information she has is now obsolete.They’ve changed everything.Codes, locations, missile numbers, defense protocols, all of it.Anything she has, if it were released, would be met with minimal damage.She has nothing now.”
“That will only infuriate her more,” said Tanner.“She prided herself on being intelligent and capable of fooling anyone with her charm and skill.The manifesto written by her mother had to have thrown her for a loop.”
“I would think it would throw her for a loop simply because it was written so well.I mean, Ellen Sanders was a GED graduate.She didn’t attend college and didn’t have any formal education.She was obviously very smart.That has to hurt to see that in writing, knowing her mother understood the world even better than she believed,” said Ben.
“Cain holds so much blame in all of this.We may not be able to prove it but he damn sure killed Ellen, we all know it,” said Kiel.
“Yes but I don’t think we can prove it.At this point he’s using his age as part of his defense, claiming he can’t remember things and he’s old and frail.Hopefully the courts won’t buy his bullshit,” said Ben.
“What about his wife?Where is she in all of this?” asked Hiro.
“That’s a good question,” said Ben.“Where do they live?”
“They have a massive horse farm about twenty miles from here.It’s an easy detour if we want to see if we can speak with her,” said Tanner.
“Do it,” said Ben nodding at Wyatt.“If she’s there, we’ll try to get her to speak with us.If she’s not, we’ve only wasted twenty minutes.”
They took the next turn off and looped around to the two-lane road leading to the farm.Virginia was beautiful this time of year.Lush, green, and everything in bloom.
It didn’t surprise them that Hampton had a farm with horses.Being from Kentucky he was probably raised around animals and possibly even race horses.
“You should see the sign soon.Hampton Stables.It’s on the right,” said Tanner.Wyatt nodded, seeing the sign up ahead.He turned down the long drive, noticing that the security gate was left wide open.All of the men became worried, until they saw the elderly woman sitting on the front porch in her rocker.
The men slowly, casually got out of the SUV, checking the surroundings.She never moved from her perch.
“Mrs. Hampton?” called Ben.She nodded and waved him over.“Mrs. Hampton, my name is Ben and I’d like to speak with you about your husband.”
“Are you with the Times or the Post?” she asked.
“Neither, ma’am.I’m with a security company and we were protecting the Pentagon from potential hackers, one of which your husband was involved with.”
“I see.The Sanders woman,” she said calmly.
“You know about Marilyn?” frowned Kiel.
“I’ve known for years about all his dalliances.Her mother babysat for us.She was a sweet girl and I almost didn’t hire her knowing that Cain would find her attractive.He always went for the tiny little young ones that couldn’t fight back very well.She wasn’t the first one and she wasn’t the last one.”
“You knew but you kept hiring these young girls.Why?” frowned Tanner.
“I needed help with the children and the house and Cain insisted that they be young and energetic.It kept him away from me and I was able to raise my horses and travel to the horse shows.I was rewarded well for looking away.
“I didn’t find out about all the pregnancies until later.I’m not sure why he allowed that one to keep her daughter.I’ll never understand that,” she said shaking her head.
