Read Online Got the Look by James Grippando - Free Book Online

on the pulse. It's up to you.
    Andie studied his expression. Behind the dark, piercing eyes surged a controlled sense of anger - barely controlled. Mr. Salazar, just how disappointed would you be if something did go wrong with Swyteck's delivery?
    I would never wish any harm on anyone.
    Why do I doubt that? thought Andie.
    The telephone rang. Immediately, the tech agent sprang from the sofa and checked the monitor in front of him. Could be him. It's a voice over Internet Protocol.
    Andie wasn't expecting that from a conventional phone, but she was conversant enough in techspeak to understand that the digitized signal was being compressed into an IP packet that moved between gateways from the caller's computer to a telephone. Can you trace it back to him?
    The phone continued to ring as they spoke, a reminder that there was no time to think.
    I'll try, the tech agent said. But he'll be long gone before we even get beyond the servers. They stood mute through a fourth and fifth ring. Somebody needs to answer, the tech agent said as he pulled on his headphones.
    Salazar shot Andie a look and said, My rules.
    Andie could only watch in silence as he answered on the seventh ring. His clipped hello was met by a stretch of dead air that seemed much longer than it actually was. Andie listened through her own set of headphones, waiting. Finally, a response came.
    You alone? The voice was distorted by a mechanical device. It sounded as if the caller were talking underwater - an eerie coincidence in light of what had happened to Mrs. Thornton.
    Is this who I think it is? said Salazar.
    Another delay, but Andie figured that this one was due to the Internet transmission. Yeah. Your wife's new best friend. That's what you were thinking, right?
    Salazar paused, seemingly mindful of the key point Andie had repeated over and over again in their hour-long coaching lesson: Don't get agitated; think before you speak. I was hoping you'd call, said Salazar.
    Hey, I aim to please.
    What do you want?
    Andie grimaced: a little too quick to the bottom line. Her tech agent was communicating by keyboard with the tracers in the field, trying furiously to narrow down the origin of the voice transmission. Andie caught Salazar's eye and made the stretch gesture.
    You know what I want, said the caller.
    What she's worth? said Salazar.
    Not a penny less.
    That's fine, said Salazar. I have a very exact number in mind.
    Good. Then we can get down to business straightaway.
    Not so fast. I want to know if my wife's still with us.
    All you need to know is that if you don't pay, she's dead.
    We have to do better than that. I want proof that she's alive.
    The threesome waited, but the response was slow in coming. The tech agent adjusted his volume control, and for a moment Andie feared that the connection had been lost.
    Salazar said, I'll pay you for it.
    Now you're talking, the caller responded.
    Five thousand dollars, said Salazar.
    Ten.
    Salazar paused, as if he had to think about it. All right. Ten. My attorney will handle the money. His name is Jack Swyteck. S-w-y-t-e-c-k.
    Andie wanted to stuff a sock in his mouth. It was so gratuitous, so unnecessary to inject Swyteck's name at this juncture.
    Tell Swyteck he can expect to hear from me.
    When? asked Salazar.
    When I feel like it. Now, what proof do you want? Pictures?
    Pictures don't prove anything in a digital world. I want the answer to a question. A question that only Mia would know how to answer.
    Okay, name it.
    Andie glanced at the tech agent, who shook his head, as if to say that the FBI's trace effort was going nowhere.
    Salazar said, I want to know
    The pause made Andie nervous. They'd rehearsed this part a dozen times. Mia was a horse lover, and the first one she'd ever owned was a mare named AzAocar. Andie waited for Salazar to ask the question, but it was as if he'd frozen stiff, the way actors sometimes forgot lines they'd uttered a hundred times before.
    Andie grabbed a pencil and scribbled a