12. Saranac

He had liked her the moment they'd met, with her brevity and no-nonsense style. She radiated competence, a woman who had obviously been tested and proven herself. But at the moment he struggled to figure out where she was going. "You're saying that someone put out a video containing a deliberate clue about Cam's disappearance."

"That's exactly what I'm saying, Mr. Black."

"And this video was designed to attract our – your – attention."

"It seems likely. The video was uploaded to a popular site where it would start trending quickly. And the individual who did it made little effort to obscure a connection between that cyber intrusion and a Dark Web site with your brother's photo on it."

"So Kay and Agent Mike have taken a road trip upstate to sniff out more clues."

"Yes."

Jonathan studied the woman, allowing the silence to stretch out. She didn't seem phased. "Are you sure someone isn't just screwing with you, Agent Deakins?"

That got a faint twitch of her lips – almost a smile. Huffing a sigh, Jonathan studied the door. A little voice was shouting at him. Had Cam been sold while he sat inside….

Agent Deakins seemed to be doing the studying now. Jonathan shifted in his chair, wondering if he should ask. Hell with it. "Why are you telling me any of this?"

"You don't think someone should tell you this?" Deakins' face betrayed only a hint of curiosity.

"I think," Jonathan replied, "I've gotten used to being in the dark."

The nod was curt but accompanied by a shift in posture – the agent leaning forward to rest her crossed arms on the table. "I can understand why it might seem that you've not been privy to much information. But there hasn't been much to share."

He sighed again. "I get it. Kay did her whole song and dance about how the FBI was pouring everything it had into searching for Cam, but really. He's – he was – a magician who helped you guys out with a few cases. It's not like he was one of you."

Something flickered across her face, then Agent Deakins seemed to come to a decision, nodding to herself more than to him. "Your brother absolutely was one of us," she said. "That's why his partners are not going to rest until they have answers to bring home. And it's why I'm getting you out of here so that you can be there when they do."

….

"How many is that?" Mike asked, checking the map.

Kay flipped through her notes. "Fourteen." The number seemed impossibly low – there were too many to cover. They had spent the morning driving scenic roads around Upper Saranac Lake. Armed with property information and the Bureau profile, they knocked on doors, knocked potential suspects off the list. The summer cottage crowd, those who with autumn's first chill flew back to their normal lives, were off the list. The retirees were off the list. The tiny, homey B&Bs were off the list, as were families with children. They drove slowly past isolated estates, knocked on those doors, spoke to those residents who answered. A few invited them in; most were at least genial and forthcoming as they looked at Cameron's photo, shook their heads. Not around here. Never seen him. Very sad, very sad.

"There's one more house here and then nothing but development lots for a couple of miles." Mike surveyed the rough path ahead of them. "Is this supposed to be a driveway?"

They reached the building, a single story post and beam home that had seen better days. As Kay raised her hand to knock, the door opened suddenly and a man greeted them. Yes, he lived there alone, doing communications consulting out of his home office. No, he couldn't put his finger on any strangeness in the area, except perhaps the FBI agents currently at his stoop. Word of the visiting feds was getting around the small community; it was quite exciting. No, he didn't recognize Cameron's photo. Never seen him, very sad.

….

Dina gently set the tray of sandwiches down on the table. Ivy, fingers dancing over the laptop keys, looked up with a smile. "Thanks," she whispered, then tipped her head toward the couch where Jordan slept.

"I think we could parade a brass band through here without waking him," Dina said, but she too kept her voice low. It was good to see him at least getting some rest, after 48 hours of near constant work. She studied Ivy for a moment. "You look tired yourself."

Ivy nodded. "I got some sleep last night. Jordan and I spelled each other."

"What are you doing now?"

"I've been monitoring the website's communications," Ivy replied, eyes still on the screen. She stopped and turned to Dina. "Basically, I'm using a type of traffic analysis to look at data coming into and leaving the website. Now that we've managed to identify some of the network nodes that were in use a year ago, I'm hoping to build on that to deanonymize users."

Dina blinked. "That's what you did before, to find the courier…right?"

"To find the courier's likely location, yes."

"Ah."

Ivy grinned and reached for a sandwich. "I know it's technical and slow, and it doesn't seem to yield the kind of results we want to see, but that's the nature of the beast." She jerked her chin at the laptop. "They're always trying to stay hidden, and cyber-investigators and law enforcement are always playing catch-up."

"You see a lot of this," Dina commented, sitting down and brushing a few crumbs from the table.

"Not my usual area, but…yeah. Even one case is too much. These…people rely on the dark to get away with it. They want to stay anonymous; their "clients" are anonymous; most of their victims are anonymous too." Her voice had taken on a harder edge.

"Cameron isn't anonymous," Dina said.

"No he isn't."

The new voice startled them and they both turned to the doorway to see Jonathan, with Agent Deakins at his side.

…..

They continued on to the cottages encircling Middle Saranac Lake, updating their map and records after each stop. Kay gripped her notebook, feeling it grow heavy with useless information. More friendly people pulled themselves away from long-weekend grilling on their decks to look at the old photo, hear the recycled summary of the case, and confirm that it was all news to them. A few, remembering the Master of Deception from one TV special or another, asked questions. The agents tried to answer without wasting too much time, but more than once they would find themselves smiling as they recounted a fond memory to some curious local.

Kay led their way back to the car. Drawing a deep breath, she leaned on the hood.

"You alright?" Mike asked as he circled around to the driver's side.

"Yeah. Just frustrated." The engine's heat burned her palms but she didn't move. "Are we even going to know it if we find something relevant here?"

Mike stopped. "Good question. Will we?"

"Could I have been wrong about what the video means? What if it really is just some bastard playing with us, planting false trails for us to chase?" The idea that they'd come up here for nothing, that there was nothing to find in this place, shook her. "How is it, after almost a year, I'm still so unwilling to accept it?"

"You can't move on without answers," Mike said quietly. He was next to her now, studying her with dark eyes. "That's why we're here."

Kay nodded, straightened and stalked around to the passenger door. "You're right. We're here; we're not stopping until we know there's nothing to find."

….

"Jon!" Dina exclaimed. "How—"

Jonathan bridged the distance between them and swept Dina into a warm hug, breathing in her warm, slightly floral scent and wondering yet again how he'd managed to screw things up so well. He stepped back and briefly lifted his pant leg to show off the ankle monitor. "Agent Deakins came to see me, and was kind enough to let me be here for this. Whatever 'this' is."

"Johnny!" came Gunter's booming voice and at once Jordan was also awake and scrambling off the couch and he was surrounded. They hugged and greeted each other, Gunter's hands warm on his shoulders and their voices filling the Archive, and for a moment it seemed so right.

And then his eyes settled on the petite young woman at the laptop. Their cyber-whiz, who Agent Deakins credited with much of what they'd found so far. She looked him up and down for a moment as if curious. "I'm Jonathan Black," he greeted, extending his hand.

She reciprocated with a firm shake. "Ivy Yiu. It's a pleasure."

"So," he said, eyeing lines of text on the screen, "I hear that you're a miracle worker."

That brought a blink and a quick furrow of her brows. She segued right into a quirky smile that probably dazzled a good many boys. "Unfortunately," she replied, "there aren't a lot of miracles on offer. I spend a lot of time sifting through digital minutiae and maybe I get somewhere."

"She's modest," Jordan put in, sidestepping them for a better look at the data. "Ivy's been doing the heavy lifting here." When Ivy responded with a playful shove, he grinned. "No, really. She found the website and the courier."

Ivy's expression sobered. "We're still hunting. I'm monitoring website traffic now."

"What do you expect to find?" Deakins asked, and Jonathan turned.

"Ideally, I'd like to use the incoming and outgoing site traffic to uncover more network relays. I'm not sure if I'll be able to uncloak any other buyers, but the more information we have the better."

Deakins nodded as she moved to have her own look at the screen. A subtle lift of her brow and she nodded to Ivy and Jordan. "I'll leave you both to it. Keep me informed. And let me know if you need any additional resources."

Jonathan watched her straighten her suit jacket, acknowledge the group with a brief nod and head for the door. After it had closed behind her he remembered that he hadn't thanked her yet. Oh well – he could take care of that on the return trip.

"So," Dina began, drawing his attention again. "She didn't bring you here to aid in the search?"

"Search? Is that what this is?"

"Of course." Jordan's voice was low but distinct, his eyes focussed on whatever it was they could see in all that information.

Gunter patted him on the shoulder and crossed over to park himself on a chair. "Kay and Mike are up there now," he said. "They're not going to stop until they have all the answers."

Jonathan looked from one to the next. Gunter and Dina wore bright expressions, expectant, but something was off. Gunter's face was etched with lines he couldn't recall seeing before; his eyes seemed to have sunk and darkened. Well, they were all a year older. Even Jordan's face seemed harder. As Dina nodded approvingly at Gunter's words, her smile looked like it could shatter with the slightest touch.

He lowered himself to the couch beside Dina, unsure what exactly came next.

"What just happened?" Jordan's voice made them all turn.

Ivy was staring at the screen, shaking her head. "The site went dark," she said. Then, "Call your agents – let them know they just got someone's attention."

….

To be continued

Note: We're getting close to the action…sorry for any update delays on this one (longer chapters are taking longer to write!). And thanks to all who are still reading…double thanks to those who also review.

So that petition to renew Deception now has over 15,300 signatures and is still growing (there's also a new petition I found there, started just recently). I've read the comments and they all say BRING IT BACK! Best thing on TV. One thing I'd like to do is write/email the show's creator, Chris Fedak. There are a lot of us who would like to see him shop the show around if possible rather than (I don't know) just go home. Honestly, I'm not sure what show creators do after they've poured in the work of envisioning the show, choosing the perfect cast and getting it aired only to have it cancelled.

So does anyone happen to have contact info for him and/or know what he would do, if anything, moving forward? Someone on the petition already suggested getting in touch with him but I don't know if anyone had his info.

Appreciate it! Cheers,

Bunny