hiding in the wall, waiting inside an air return grille that he pulled the senator through.” Reed slowly shook his head. “He stuffed Keller inside a crate and walked right out and killed two of our guys in the process. I’m gonna get this son of a bitch.”
“Blake, they told you to stay out of it.” I put my hand up to stop him midsentence.
“I’m getting him back, Chris. And I need your support.” Reed thought for a second.
“I don’t support this. I thought you were a by-the-book kind of guy. I’ve never seen you break protocol. What’s wrong with you?”
“This happened on my watch. I screwed up. Two of my men are dead. You’re telling me you wouldn’t do the same?” Reed looked out onto the floor and for a moment, watched the crew answering phone calls and clicking away at their computers.
“You realize we could lose our jobs, don’t you?”
“I’m betting I’ll lose my job anyway. Base is probably sending someone here this very minute to look into what happened tonight.”
“I’ll be in my office,” Reed said and left. I stood there for a second before walking over to Morgan’s workstation to join Jami and find out how much progress he had made so far.
Chapter 22
At the abandoned warehouse somewhere on the south side of Chicago, Victor Perez was also monitoring the news. He flipped his TV between FOX News and CNN to understand how much the media knew, if anything. He knew firsthand that government agencies withheld information and sometimes even leaked misinformation whenever they were closing in on a suspect.
He kept the TV on mute and turned on a police scanner. The Chicago Police Department would need to be involved to help set up a perimeter should one of the other agencies find his location. He knew that if he heard a 10-97, the police code for arrived at scene anywhere near his location, he’d have to move fast.
Perez saw that CNN had a scrolling banner at the bottom of the screen that read, Senator Jim Keller kidnapped, authorities look for getaway van .
Getaway van? How did they know that? he wondered and turned up the volume on the TV. An anchorman mentioned a Website, The Mitchell Wire , as the source. That hadn’t been one of the Websites he was monitoring. Perez went to the site and read the headline, Senator Jim Keller Kidnapped in Chicago – Developing . He clicked on the link and read the short article, which explained that the senator hadn’t been delayed by traffic but rather had been kidnapped.
It described his van perfectly. Just as he finished reading, the Webpage auto-refreshed and read, Update: Jim Keller’s kidnapper is a man in his late thirties, the driver of the black Ford van that took the senator. He’s wearing all black and was last seen at Wood and Monroe, heading south. This story is developing, additional updates will be added here as we get them.
Perez wondered where the Website was getting the information.
How could the person who wrote this story know so many details? Who was the Website’s informant – or had he been seen by the author of the article? He clicked on the About Me link above the story and thought to himself, Who is David Mitchell?
He finally recognized Mitchell, who was becoming somewhat of a local celebrity in the windy city. He had never read David Mitchell’s articles in the Tribune but now remembered the uproar created when he was ultimately fired for exaggerating his stories. The ordeal was covered by all of the local news stations as they jumped on the story and fed on one of their own. Perez stared at the picture of Mitchell on his Website and thought about his next move.
Perez pulled up a new tab in his browser and accessed a WHOIS lookup database to try to find Mitchell’s address. Perez typed in Mitchell’s domain name and clicked on search . David Mitchell was more tech-savvy than he thought as the domain name’s registrant contact information was noted as WHOISGUARD PROTECTED, which meant that the
“Blake, they told you to stay out of it.” I put my hand up to stop him midsentence.
“I’m getting him back, Chris. And I need your support.” Reed thought for a second.
“I don’t support this. I thought you were a by-the-book kind of guy. I’ve never seen you break protocol. What’s wrong with you?”
“This happened on my watch. I screwed up. Two of my men are dead. You’re telling me you wouldn’t do the same?” Reed looked out onto the floor and for a moment, watched the crew answering phone calls and clicking away at their computers.
“You realize we could lose our jobs, don’t you?”
“I’m betting I’ll lose my job anyway. Base is probably sending someone here this very minute to look into what happened tonight.”
“I’ll be in my office,” Reed said and left. I stood there for a second before walking over to Morgan’s workstation to join Jami and find out how much progress he had made so far.
Chapter 22
At the abandoned warehouse somewhere on the south side of Chicago, Victor Perez was also monitoring the news. He flipped his TV between FOX News and CNN to understand how much the media knew, if anything. He knew firsthand that government agencies withheld information and sometimes even leaked misinformation whenever they were closing in on a suspect.
He kept the TV on mute and turned on a police scanner. The Chicago Police Department would need to be involved to help set up a perimeter should one of the other agencies find his location. He knew that if he heard a 10-97, the police code for arrived at scene anywhere near his location, he’d have to move fast.
Perez saw that CNN had a scrolling banner at the bottom of the screen that read, Senator Jim Keller kidnapped, authorities look for getaway van .
Getaway van? How did they know that? he wondered and turned up the volume on the TV. An anchorman mentioned a Website, The Mitchell Wire , as the source. That hadn’t been one of the Websites he was monitoring. Perez went to the site and read the headline, Senator Jim Keller Kidnapped in Chicago – Developing . He clicked on the link and read the short article, which explained that the senator hadn’t been delayed by traffic but rather had been kidnapped.
It described his van perfectly. Just as he finished reading, the Webpage auto-refreshed and read, Update: Jim Keller’s kidnapper is a man in his late thirties, the driver of the black Ford van that took the senator. He’s wearing all black and was last seen at Wood and Monroe, heading south. This story is developing, additional updates will be added here as we get them.
Perez wondered where the Website was getting the information.
How could the person who wrote this story know so many details? Who was the Website’s informant – or had he been seen by the author of the article? He clicked on the About Me link above the story and thought to himself, Who is David Mitchell?
He finally recognized Mitchell, who was becoming somewhat of a local celebrity in the windy city. He had never read David Mitchell’s articles in the Tribune but now remembered the uproar created when he was ultimately fired for exaggerating his stories. The ordeal was covered by all of the local news stations as they jumped on the story and fed on one of their own. Perez stared at the picture of Mitchell on his Website and thought about his next move.
Perez pulled up a new tab in his browser and accessed a WHOIS lookup database to try to find Mitchell’s address. Perez typed in Mitchell’s domain name and clicked on search . David Mitchell was more tech-savvy than he thought as the domain name’s registrant contact information was noted as WHOISGUARD PROTECTED, which meant that the
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