by Beth Abbott
Hannah could see Sacha biting the inside of her cheek to stop herself laughing.
Abbey’s face was frozen in a half smirk, but her cheeks were becoming redder by the second.
“Y’all know you two can be super-bitches, doncha?” Hannah growled.
“Oh, yeah!” Sacha burst out laughing.
“Learned it from an expert.” Abbey nodded, wiping the tears of laughter from her eyes. “Oh, hey…! I think Junior’s finally moved his foot, bless him!”
“Do you even know if you’re having a boy, again?” Hannah scowled at Abbey’s huge baby bump. “And please tell me you’re not planning on going into labour anytime soon. I need your photographic memory in good form this week.”
“First of all, apart from Aisha, who’s not due until March, all the Alpha-Stalwart babies are due in early December. Bella, Sara, and I are due the first week, and Suzy is due the week after. Secondly, there’s nothing to say she can’t be an Abbey Junior, rather than a Jordan Junior. So, I use the term Junior in a purely non-gender-specific way.” Abbey smiled. “Plus, it keeps Jordan happy, as he thinks it’s another boy and that I agree with him.”
“Jeez, you have got to be the most non-confrontational person I ever met.” Hannah shook her head. “If it was me having that conversation with Danny? I’d deliberately tell him I thought it was a girl, just to yank his chain. Life is so much more fun when I get my man wound up!”
“And I’m sure that works for you, sister.” Abbey laughed. “But, my man is the sweetest, most loving guy you can imagine. So, why would I want to rile him up, when keeping him sweet means I get all that man-candy to myself, loving up on me, and spoiling me like crazy?”
“She’s got a point. Sweet and loving has its place, too. Although, with Zach, I get the best of both worlds.” Sacha noted smugly, glancing at Hannah. “During the day, he’s the serious, sexy as sin, hard-working executive, giving the job his full attention, and pretending we’re just business associates. Then he comes home and winds down, playing with Rocco for a few hours before his bedtime. So, by the time Rocco is finally asleep, and we’re ready for a little ‘alone time,’ Zach’s all mellow and romantic, and happy to give me his undivided attention.”
Hannah stared at her friends.
“Danny can be mellow and romantic, too!” She insisted, noting the doubtful looks on the women’s faces. “He can!”
After a few seconds, both Sacha and Abbey burst out laughing, and Hannah broke into a grin.
“Ok, he’s mostly just randy!” She snorted. “But he’s romantically randy, too!”
The three women giggled until Abbey groaned that ‘the foot was back’, and they finally settled down to concentrate on the task at hand.
“Ok, sisters, here comes the serious shit.” Hannah groaned. “We have an idea of the timeline for the woman who was murdered in LA, and then we have a log of all the flights coming out of LAX and smaller airfields within four hours of that. Anything that flew out heading for an airfield within a hundred-mile radius of Philly.”
“That’s gonna be a pretty big number, right?” Sacha guessed.
“Yeah, big enough.” Hannah admitted. “So, we’re looking to crossmatch data from all different sources, to see if we can find any matches. Hotel bookings, car rental, flight passenger lists, cell-phone data, ATM’s, even credit card usage. Anything we can find that will come up with multiple matches.”
“I’m guessing we’re not searching for Lucky Vega’s name? Too easy, right?” Abbey winced, as Junior obviously adjusted him/herself.
“Considering she’s not even supposed to be in the country, and her name would be known to all the law enforcement agencies, she’s not going to be using her own passport as ID, no.” Hannah agreed. “We’ve also red-flagged all her known associates, and no surprise we haven’t had any hits there, either.”
“So, the idea is to come up with a list of possible names that have hits in LA and the east coast, and that may have appeared on a flight log, sometime since last night?” Sacha clarified.
“Don’t get too hung up on the flight logs. Private planes won’t necessarily have passenger details, and if they do, they won’t always be correct.” Hannah clarified. “No, I think we need to find some other way of connecting the dots between individuals who were in LA last night, and are close to Philly this morning.”
“And how exactly are we supposed to do that?” Abbey grimaced in discomfort.
Hannah reached across the table and grabbed a laptop.
“Meet my new baby!” She smiled, clicking on an icon on the screen. “This programme will crunch the data faster than you can enter it, and start spitting out results before you’ve finished typing.”
Sacha looked at the screen, which, she suspected, despite being decorated around the edges with pretty scrolling, had some seriously complicated coding behind it. She glanced at the top bar to see the programme name.
“Forensic Analytical Research Tool?” She read out. “Seriously Hannah? You called your new system FART?”
Hannah grinned even as she shrugged.
“The kids picked it out.” She snorted. “Gotta love them Munchkins and their poo humour. They’re their daddy’s kids after all.”
“Oh, my goodness, that means every time we find anything on the system, we have to say… ‘According to FART…!” Abbey grinned.
“Yeah, that’s never gonna get old!” Hannah chuckled. “Now come on… I’ll show you what data you need to add, and how to link the various systems, and then you just let the FART do its job.”
“Is what it’s doing even legal?” Abbey asked.
“Not for the general public, no.” Hannah admitted. “But I have everything licensed for government use, with full permissions, which includes my own personal use whenever I want to use it, as long as I don’t share my findings with other governments.”
“Which government gave you the license?” Sacha wondered.
Hannah snorted.
“Now that would be breaking the ‘confidentiality agreement’ I signed with them, if I told you.” She said, cagily. “And I keep my sources and secrets to myself.”
Abbey chuckled.
“I bet Danny can get your secrets out of you.” She muttered.
“Danny can get me to tell him anything he wants to know.” Hannah smiled. “But then again, he’s got a very powerful secret weapon, which you ladies do not possess. So, get to work!”
Sacha groaned and turned to Abbey.
“How do they say, ‘bossy bitch’ in Britain?” She mused.
“Bossy bitch!” Abbey replied, her face deadpan. “It’s just the accent that gives it that extra something when it’s said by a Brit.”
“Would you tell her for me, then? Make it good!” Sacha smiled.
Abbey turned to pass on the message only to find Hannah had moved right into her personal space. All five-feet-nothing of her.
“Oh, hey Hannah.” Abbey grinned. “Sacha wanted me to tell you we’re just gonna get started now, and if you want one, she’ll send out for a coffee and a bagel for you from downstairs.”
Sacha burst out laughing.
“You pussy!” She gasped.
Abbey chuckled.
“What can I say? You wouldn’t call Yoda a bossy bitch, would you?” She asked. “Hanna’s my Yoda.”
Sacha snorted, laughing louder.
“The first one of you that references the similarity in height between Yoda and myself will find their face photoshopped onto every porn video I can find on the web!” Hannah warned. “That ‘Deepfake’ shit will be nothing to what I can and will do to you!”
Abbey and Sacha sat straighter and stopped laughing so hard, instantly.
“You wouldn’t, would you?” Abbey whispered.
When Hannah just grinned at them, Sacha leaned forward and grabbed the other two laptops, sliding one over to Abbey.
“I think it’s her time of the month!” She whispered loudly to Abbey.
Abbey nodded i
n agreement.
“Bossy bitch!” She grinned, giving her baby bump another rub.
Hannah rolled her eyes.
She didn’t really mind being called a bossy bitch. It actually made a nice change from being the Queen of Badass!
Chapter 24 – Gregor
Gregor stood in front of the large windows in Tuck’s sitting room, admiring the view of the garden.
“Sophia would love it here.” He murmured, his breath causing enough of a breeze to ruffle a few of Tulli’s soft curls.
She turned her body slightly, so she could look up at him, but he refused to let go of her, holding her snugly against his body, her back to his front.
“Why do you say that?” She smiled up at him.
“Look!” He pointed out at the garden. “Rabbits!”
Tulli followed the line of his arm, until she found what he was pointing at. Three young rabbits were making a mess of one of Tuck’s lawns.
“I thought it was just my house they seem to like. Good to know that Tuck has the same problem” He chuckled.
“Do you think he has to threaten his gardeners as well, to make sure they don’t harm the rabbits?” She asked innocently.
“How do you know about my gardeners?” He asked, wondering where she was getting her intel from.
“Marcy told me about them, that first morning when I brought you your coffee.” Tulli admitted. “Why? Do you think it ruins your macho image?”
Tulli turned again, and this time Gregor had to loosen his grip, so she could face him properly.
Gregor gazed down at her reddened lips, and wished their time together wasn’t about to be cut short.
“I think you must have the wrong man, lady.” He shook his head. “I’m not the sort of guy any woman describes as macho. Especially not while standing in the home of a former Marine and CIA operative.”
“But that’s where you’re wrong, Gregor. You don’t have to have worn a uniform or carried a badge or a gun to be macho.” Tulli disagreed. “Nor do they have to be packed with muscles and built like a WWE wrestler.”
“I’m so relieved to hear that.” Gregor grinned. “Some of those WWE women are fierce!”
Tulli shook her head.
“You can make fun, Gregor, but you’re just one of many men who have a very strange view of what women look for in a man.” She said sternly. “You don’t have to be ripped with muscles, or look like you bench three hundred pounds before breakfast.”
“Oh? So, what do you look for in a man?” Gregor was curious now, and a little intrigued.
“I want a man who’ll make me feel safe.” Tulli said quietly. “One who’ll listen to my opinions, and not ignore them. Someone who’ll eat my cooking, and appreciate the effort I put in, even when, on occasions, it doesn’t taste so good. I want someone who’ll tell me bad jokes, just because they know I need cheering up. I want someone who, when the memories get too much for me, won’t shush me and tell me everything is going to be alright. Because sometimes I just need to cry, and get it out of my system.”
Gregor stared into Tulli’s cloudy grey eyes, awash with emotion, and let her finish speaking.
“And I want someone who cares about rabbits because they matter to his daughter.” Tulli finished with a shy smile.
Gregor couldn’t help but smile back.
“Aah Tulli…” He sighed. “You had me at ‘make me feel safe’.”
He leaned forward and kissed the top of her head.
“Of course, it would have been nice if you’d said that you were looking for someone who was drop-dead gorgeous, and that’s why you were standing here with me… but hey, whatever!”
Tulli’s head shot up and she stared at him as though he might be serious for a second.
His wink probably shocked her as much as his statement.
“You did say you wanted bad jokes to cheer you up!” He pointed out. “Not bad enough?”
Tulli snorted a laugh and snuggled into his chest.
“You’re so not like the average Russian billionaire.” She chuckled into his shirt. “Not that I know any other Russian billionaires, but if I had to guess, I’d say none of them were like you.”
“I’m not sure if that’s good or bad.” Gregor frowned over her head.
Tulli leaned back and stared at him.
“Good. Very good.” She smiled. “And for the record, you’re totally drop-dead gorgeous, and sexy as hell, in my humble opinion. Does that make you feel better?”
Gregor leaned down and placed a gentle kiss on her already slightly pink lips.
“That is so much better.” He admitted. “At least, it reassures me that I may actually be worthy of pursuing you.”
Tulli looked at him strangely, a deep red blush creeping up her cheeks.
“You do know that you have a very weird view of the world, don’t you?” She murmured. “I’m the one who’s a nobody with nothing, and you’re… well you’re you! And you’re worried you’re not worthy of me? That’s certifiably crazy!”
“Only in your opinion, my beautiful Ms Mazur.” He argued. “To me, it seems perfectly sane.”
Before Tulli could argue her case, there was a knock on the open door, and Gregor turned to see Tuck waiting to speak to them.
“Could you both spare us a minute in my office?” He smiled.
“Sure.” Gregor took Tulli’s hand and they followed Tuck down the hallway to where Hannah, Tuck’s personal assistant, Sacha, and another Stalwart wife whose name escaped him, were sitting around the desk.
“Take a seat, please.” Tuck pointed towards the large sofa. “Hannah, Sacha and Abbey have been trawling the internet, trying to track down Lucky Vega. I thought you’d like to hear what they’ve found so far.”
Hannah turned her chair around, so she was facing them.
“Hey guys.” She smiled. “So, what we’ve been doing is trying to get a match between people who were on the west coast last night, and on the east coast this morning. As you can imagine, those numbers are probably in the thousands, when you consider how many regular flights there are between the two coasts. However, the vast majority of the passengers could be ruled out quite quickly as being legitimate US citizens.”
She paused to make sure Gregor and Tulli were keeping up.
“When we finished our preliminary checks of those flights, we discovered we were down to around ninety passengers who could be of interest. Abbey worked on checking them against the ID’s they provided, and we narrowed down to single digits the number of people whose ID’s either didn’t match or were fake.” Hannah explained. “Unfortunately, none of them was Mrs Vega, or any of her known associates.”
“That’s not good news.” Gregor acknowledged.
“It’s extremely bad news, actually.” Tuck agreed. “Each and every one of those individuals could have been potential terrorists, so we’ve passed on their details to the agencies, so they can investigate further how these people managed to board those planes.”
“Anyway, we’ve been tracking other flights and individuals, including flights from private airfields, and we think we’ve identified half a dozen groups of people we can only describe as being ‘of interest’ at the moment.” Hannah explained. “Several of the groups are more than a dozen strong and include at least one female. Unfortunately, because they’re private flights, we can’t always get passenger details, and let’s face it, even if we could, it’s doubtful that Vega and her men would be listed under their own names. What we’re waiting for is someone to hit one of the systems we’re monitoring, either by using an ATM, or by simply paying for something like car hire or a hotel room with a credit card.”
“If they’re using an ATM or a credit card, how will that help?” Gregor asked. “If, as you say, they’re using false identities, it won’t flag up Luciana Vega, or her known associates, will it?”
“Most ATM’s have cameras built into them.” Abbey explained. “Hannah’s software can extract the images taken when a withdrawal is ma
de. It can also look at any CCTV footage that’s connected to the internet, if a credit card that we’ve flagged is used on the east coast. It will then do an automatic comparison with images from when the card was last used on the west coast.”
Gregor stared at Abbey.
“How does that help us identify Lucky Vega without a genuine name?” He asked.
“That’s another feature of the software.” Hannah explained. “It links up to social media sites, and a whole bunch of other sites where you have to use photo ID to register, and then uses facial recognition software to identify people. It may not find our girl by her Twitter page, but it will rule out virtually everyone else.”
“So, you hope to track her down by process of elimination?” Tulli murmured. “That’s really smart.”
Hannah grinned.
“I like to think so.”
“Where did you get that kind of software from?” Gregor shook his head. “It sounds like something Nasa would develop.”
“Pfft! Nasa wishes they had someone like Hannah to develop their software for them!” Sacha scoffed. “They’re still in the dark ages compared to some of the things she can do. Do you know…?”
“No, I’m sure they don’t, and they don’t want to know!” Hannah jumped in. “Anyway, to get back on track, here… we’re narrowing down the number of groups by the hour, but the balance of probabilities is telling me that one of the groups we’re looking at is definitely our psycho-girl and her pals. So, we need to be on the alert. They could be on the ground already.”
“Gregor, are you sure you want to play this out from your home?” Tuck leaned forward, his elbows resting on his knees. “You could use a decoy, and stay out of sight until this is all over. No risks, and you’d be able to follow the whole thing from a distance.”
“You mean have a lookalike stay at my house, pretending to be me?” Gregor asked, frowning. “No, thanks, Tuck. If this is going to happen, I’m not going to allow anyone else to act as a target for me. And anyway, as soon as I surfaced again, they would know they’d failed to kill me, and it would start all over again.”
“I hate to say it, but I think Gregor’s right.” Danny stood in the doorway with JT. “Better to draw the woman onto Gregor’s turf, where his team can call the shots, rather than leave it until who knows when, who knows where, when Vega has total control.”
