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“In most situations, that’s true But the special co you with is enhanced in ways that will allow us to monitor your activity and also penetrate so red flags In short, we have the tools and skills of the NSA The kidnappers have no clue who they’re dealing with”
“How—”
“We’re losing precious time” Aidan cut off Vance’s next question “Explanations on how you’re going to acco can wait until I fly up to Tahoe tonight Right noe need to worry about contacting the kidnappers and orchestrating your first videoconference with Lauren So grab a taxi and get to Starbucks Call me when you’re in front of a computer”
Aidan disconnected the call and pressed Terri’s number
“Yes”
“It’s me,” Aidan replied
“One sec” She said a muffled “Make it ten” into as obviously another phone call and then ended it “Sorry,” she said to Aidan
“Was that Ryan?”
“He’s on his way here with his gizmo”
“Good” Aidan gave Terri a three-sentence update on where things stood at his end “Did the two of you program the computer?”
“It’s done,” she replied “Ryan did most of the work He really is quite brilliant He prepared the laptop specifically for Vance’s needs He started with a standard HP laptop and then replaced the entire operating systehly secure and customized version of Linux The user—in this case Vance—will be presented with a Windows login, but behind the scenes, every keystroke will be logged and forwarded to nals will be mirrored and streamed to the Zermatt servers”
“So for all intents and purposes our tea Vance does with that laptop in real time He can concentrate on his communications with the kidnappers and we can pick up on any pertinent data he e, visual surroundings, nearby voices—the works If there are any clues to lead us to Lauren, we’ll get them”
“Precisely Our courier service will be arriving here right on Ryan’s heels I’ll have everything airborne within two hours—including a few other electronic iteht come in handy at some point”
Aidan e will arrive here after we’ve held our teaht Have it delivered toVance and keeping all the Penningtons in check I’ll break for the teae arrives, I’ll talk to Vance alone—no wife, no kids I’ll give him a bare-bones explanation of the coet back to the Four Seasons so I can pass along the ring to Simone”
“Siht that Vance…”