***
KNOX HOVERED OVER THEIT team as they scrolled through the passenger data from San Franciso International Airport.TSA used biometrics to ID passengers, scanning their faces to compare to their driver’s licenses or passports.Shadow Security had ID’d Quinn’s kidnapper as Adam Thomas, age 25, originally from Omaha, Nebraska.He’d moved to the L.A.area several years ago and became radicalized after rooming with several young men who’d become disenfranchised with the U.S.
Somehow, Adam Thomas’s fake identification hadn’t tripped TSA’s system.It was as if his prior identity had simply been erased.He was traveling under the alias Adam Qureshi, using a falsified passport.It was interesting that he’d kept his first name, Knox noted to himself.That was a worry for another day.
There was no record of Quinn being in the airport.No match to the passenger photo IDs that Shadow Security had combed through.While he didn’t expect the terror cell to use her driver’s license to get her through security and onboard a plane, there were no fake IDs with her photograph either.IT staffers were currently running facial recognition software on the airport surveillance system footage in an attempt to locate Quinn that way.No dice.
Knox had no idea how she’d been smuggled onboard a plane.They were working under the assumption she was still with Qureshi, but what if that wasn’t the case?Frankly, he couldn’t imagine that her kidnapper would fly to SFO and leave her there.
He was taking her with him, and come hell or high water, Knox would locate them.
“He had to have taken Quinn out of that oversized suitcase,” Knox murmured, mostly to himself.
All suitcases were scanned by security before being loaded into the cargo hold of departing planes.If she’d never gone through TSA on foot, which was seeming the case, given the lack of any photo ID with her picture, had Adam Qureshi somehow bypassed TSA altogether?Did he get a suitcase onto the tarmac and move Quinn onboard, unnoticed?
None of it made sense.
Anxiety churned through him as he watched the IT staff work.Knox was used to remaining level-headed, but he was finding that damn hard to do where Quinn was concerned.Imagining her scared and helpless—hurt—gutted him.She was strong as hell, but if she’d been drugged or otherwise subdued, did she stand a fighting chance?
He feared the answer was no.
“Any updates?”Gage asked, hustling into the room.
“Negative,” Knox said, glancing at his teammate.“Boone and Radley flew down to San Francisco to question people themselves.Xaden and Coop are at the smaller airport here in Seattle.I wanted to stay with them but—” He cut off, shaking his head.“I’m better off here with IT.I keep hoping to spot some sign of Quinn on the surveillance footage.Not knowing if she’s okay is killing me.”
Gage studied him a beat, his eyes assessing.“If Qureshi is as good with tech as we think he is, what with the falsified passport and disappearing former identity, he probably recognized Quinn is highly skilled, too.She’s no good to him incapacitated or dead.”
Knox froze.
Gage clapped him on the shoulder.“It’s true and you know it.She was on to Adam Qureshi in Seattle.She followed him.Possibly confronted him.Who knows what shit went down after that, but we’re working under the assumption that he was the one texting us from Quinn’s phone.He has her and kept her for his own purposes.”
“You’re not making me feel any better.”
“Her phone might not contain classified data,” Gage continued, “but Qureshi had to see what she was capable of.Sure, Quinn’s a beautiful woman, but I have a feeling he wanted to make use of her technical skills, too.There’s no reason to go through the trouble of smuggling her out of the country otherwise.There are plenty of women he could’ve found overseas to meet his baser needs.Assuming he’s traveling to the Middle East, a woman from there would be a lot more subservient than an American, especially a woman as badass as Quinn.He took her, yes, but he needs her alive and functioning.”
Knox ran his hands through his hair.“You think?It makes sense, but shit.Imagining all the horrific things that could be happening to her is killing me.”
“I’m positive,” Gage said.“If he was looking for a quick fuck, he’d have raped her and left her in that damn alley.”
“Son of a bitch!”Knox cried out.“He could’ve still attacked her.Hurt her.”
Gage clenched his jaw.“She’s smart.”
“Sure, but if she was drugged or restrained, she can’t fight him off.”
“We have to work under the assumption that she’s okay—that he needs her alive and well for a reason.He was in a hurry to carry out the terror plot.Even someone as evil as him didn’t have time to attack Quinn in the alley.He took her with him.”
Knox bristled.“And we have no idea what happened after that.”
The IT staff were looking at them.Emily swallowed but nodded.“Gage is right.Plenty of women are raped or harmed, then killed.This wasn’t some random sex assault in the dark of night.He took her.All signs point to him leaving the country.”
“No signs point to that yet,” Knox argued.
Emily muttered under her breath.“You think a homegrown terrorist plotted an attack and then disappeared to vacation in Florida or something?He’s freaking joining the jihadists overseas.I guarantee once we track his movements, that’s exactly what we’ll unearth.”
“Emily’s right,” Gage said.“The pattern checks out given the path others have taken before him.”
“I’ll believe that when we have the flight manifests,” Knox retorted.
