Chapter 30

SPOV

The printout of the search on Gannon was fascinating, even if it was so short. I had a resumé of his life until he'd apparently left the army after serving only six years, which was strange really because I thought you had to do eight. The problem I was having now was that there was absolutely nothing after he'd left the army. Or maybe he didn't actually leave. It had his last posting at Ft Belvoir at the rank of Captain, so I was pretty sure he'd probably stayed on in the army and if he was at Ft Belvoir then it probably involved his expertise in computers and intelligence.

Did that meant that he'd come to Rangeman as a spy with the intention of finding something out through their systems, or there was always the possibility that he'd gone rogue? I needed to clarify what I thought we already knew so picked up a pen from the table and began to write names across one of the boards. Buckley, he was a genius with the possibility of designing a futuristic robot. Hasting a company that was now into research and development. Safenet was a company that manufactured electronic parts. I didn't think Joules had anything to do with this other than being caught up in the faulty detectors. Underneath and between the two companies I wrote down the name Gauge. Then added the Herichlon company to one side.

What if Herichlon was a ghost company who was trying to get to Buckley, to get from him whatever it was that he had designed, and Hastings was also trying to do the same? Could Gannon actually be part of Herichlon or maybe it was something army intelligence was interested in? Was it possibly that whatever Buckley had developed was a national security issue? Did that make Gannon more dangerous? I mean Buckley had said that in the wrong hands whatever it was he had designed would be too powerful. I went back to the search on Gannon and did what I always do, looked at where he was born and where his family had come from.

He was born in Philadelphia, an only child, to parents who had lived and worked there most of their lives. So I went back a generation and looked at Gannon's maternal grandparents. They'd had two daughters, Gannon's mother and a daughter who'd married and changed her name to Dolby. That meant that maybe Dolby who ran Safenet was his uncle through marriage. Shit that was way too much of a coincidence for me. I ran a search on the maternal grandmother and there it was, she'd been born and raised near the village of Asbury, her husband had repaired farmyard machinery for neighboring farms. I put their address into Google maps trying to work out if that was the place where Buckley had found me, it could have been, it wasn't that far from where his parents had lived. But Buckley had said he'd found it through Herichlon so what was the connection, how did he tie the house and the company together? Someone had to be paying the bills but how the hell did I find that out, I mean there were no records for Herichlon, so it was impossible to trace any payments. The only explanation I could come up with is that maybe someone from that company had approached Buckley and given him a name which he then backtracked to the house and the only name I could come up with was Gannon or Dolby. Hell did Buckley's parents know the Dolby's, that was too weird. Thinking about that hadn't Ranger said that Dolby had been almost threatening in the meeting he'd had?

I looked up as I realized there was a lot of noise coming from outside on the corridor, surely there weren't a spate of alarms going off again. At the door I saw some men rushing for the stairs and others heading for the control room, so that's where I headed for. There was a lot of talking with Tank giving out orders and men leaving the room.

"You take the alert here and here, Miguel and Cal are here checking these out. Binkie you and Junior go here and then report back in as soon as you're sorted for further instructions"

As he looked up, I could see that he was worried, but it was the way he looked at me that I knew there was something else wrong.

"Little Girl there's been an accident"

He didn't need to say any more, for some reason I just knew it had something to do with Ranger.

"How bad, where is he?"

"I don't know, he and Ash weren't in the car"

"They're at the hospital?"

"Not that we know of, Santos and Brown are there now. Steph there's no sign of them"

"How can that be possible?"

"When the police and EMTs arrived there was no one there, hell the SUV looked as though it had been hit badly but there were no other vehicles there either"

I went very still, my mind trying to work out what could have happened to them, I felt an arm supporting me around my waist and turned to see Zeph.

"There was evidence of a gas canister in the car Steph"

Oh god, someone had got to them, taken them, but why, what would anyone think they could achieve from that? They didn't know any more than anyone else.

"Come on let's go get a coffee, Tank you'll let us know as soon you have anything?"

As Tank nodded, I let myself be guided from the room into the break room sitting down at the table with my head in my hands while Zeph rummaged around for mugs. He held my hands around the hot mug and then sat down beside me.

"We'll find them Steph"

All I could do was nod my head as I tried not to think the worst, hell we'd only just reconnected to each other I couldn't lose him now. I was aware of the sound of the phone but knew that Zeph was answering it, when he finished the call, he turned to me, a strange look on his face.

"There's a Detective Morelli downstairs demanding to see you"

Shit, what the hell did he want now. I stood up and made my way to the elevator surprised when Zeph was beside me.

"I'm with you girl"

"He's my ex"

As if that made anything clear, but maybe Zeph would understand if Morelli started to get annoyed, no way was I leaving here until I knew that Ranger was safe. As we came out into the reception area I was shocked by Morelli's appearance, he had a splint across his nose with bruises forming around his eyes, what the hell had he gotten himself into, maybe it was from his new job in New York?

"Cupcake what the hell are you doing here?"

"What's it to do with you?"

"You need to come home with me"

"I don't think so"

"You think I'll let you stay here and be used by these thugs?"

"It's nothing to do with you Joe"

As he approached me, I felt Zeph stand closer behind me and the look that Morelli was giving him, I really couldn't cope with him being here, not now.

"You need to leave Joe"

"Not without you"

"Look you made your choice and moved to New York and I made mine by staying here"

"You were supposed to come with me"

"No Joe, I was never going to go with you"

"But you always come back to me"

"Not this time Joe"

As I turned, he made a grab for my wrist pulling me forward but at the same time Zeph stepped to my side.

"You need to let go of her, you heard her, you need to leave"

I felt his hand release my wrist but also how it bunched up into a fist and as he spoke he started to swing it toward Zeph.

"Another fucking thug that you're screwing around with Cupcake?"

I don't what came over me, well maybe I was pissed off, but my hand just formed a fist and landed on his nose. He growled as the pain shot through him but at least he backed away. I knew I hadn't hit him that hard, but I suppose the fact that it landed on his nose that already looked broken was an advantage.

As he backed away holding his nose the entrance door suddenly opened and two men walked through into the reception area eyeing up the scene in front of them. I saw the Rangeman who was behind the desk stand up and start to move around, ready to intersect their route.

"We're here to see Miss Plum"

"Who the hell are you?"

It seemed Morelli wasn't about to concede his time or space with me.

"Police, we need to speak with her with regard to an accident that happened this morning"

Oh god, were they here to tell me they had bad news about Ranger?

Morelli got right in their faces, hands on hips glowering at them while Zeph was now stood behind me with his hands on my shoulders.

"Who the hell are you, I don't recognize you from Trenton, let's see your badges"

I saw the new comers nod toward each other and then all hell broke loose. Morelli ended up on the floor and suddenly there was one of them stood right in front of me, but with a gun pointing at Zeph. The second one came forward, another man who thought he could just grab hold of my wrist.

"Unless you want to see your boyfriend here with a hole in his head, I suggest you come with us"

I didn't know what to do, but I couldn't be responsible for Zeph being hurt, so started to walk as the man pulled me toward the door, waiting as the other man slowly backed away from Zeph. I watched as Zeph sprang forward, hearing a gun being fired, and men suddenly appearing behind him coming from the elevator and stairs, but as shots rang out I was dragged outside and pushed into the back of a really big vehicle. As we started to move I heard a loud umph, that sounded like an explosion, but then all I felt was the touch of metal on my wrist, the sound of a zing that could only mean one thing, the bastard had used his stun gun on me as well.