Chapter Two

The meeting ended fairly quickly afterwards and everyone dispersed. As I left the room to hurry back to my office, Joe emailed the list of the twenty members to me. He also sent me the file containing Brett's notes. I was glad that I would be able to get started right away.

Cal caught up to me as I waited for the elevator. "Hey, Steph. Do you want to come with me to visit Todd?"

"I would love to, but I think I'd better let you fly solo on that one and concentrate instead on doing the research on the Death Dogs' members. Not only would Ranger have a coronary, but I think it would probably be the most expedient use of our time. You can, however, tell Todd that I might call him if we have more questions. I was talking to him last week, and he said that things are going really well at work. He has been enjoying helping people, and he comes home from work enthused about his day."

"Okay", said Cal as the elevator arrived. "I'll say hi to him for you."

He got on the elevator after me, and Hector followed us. "What do I need to know about this group?" Hector said.

"It's funny – I've been tracking them over the last few months since they've been worrying me. I don't know if it is because I know they follow Richard Cook or because I thought they were bad news, but I just ran their report the other day and had sent it to Ranger and Joe with a warning. Most of the information Ranger gave during the meeting came from that report, and I will send it to you as soon as I brief my team. Basically, they are just breaking off from the larger group and are trying to find their place within Trenton", I said. "They have decided they want to be the most dangerous, the most vicious, gang in the city. Unfortunately, they have teeth and they are learning how to use them. They traditionally have been involved in drug importation and distribution and prostitution, but are now getting into illegal gun sales. They are trying to take over from all the other gangs and clubs in town, including the mob, and are becoming the go-to people for any illegal goods. I will ask my research analysts to send you the overviews on each person as they are done. If there is anyone in particular that you want looked into more intensely, let me know." There were two types of reports that we could do on people. The first took about half an hour to do, and was a snapshot of the person. While quite comprehensive, it was largely a document that was filled by our in-house designed computer search engine and detailed the person's criminal, social, professional, financial, medical and academic history. If that was found to be interesting, we could do an in-depth report. That took about five hours and pushed the results of the overview report further to find out more information. This was largely done by the analyst. Through that work, insights were often found and instinctual connections were identified. This work had been helpful to a lot of people. The other type of research we specialized in was the development of capture plans. In this work, we researched individuals and identified patterns in their daily behaviors. By identifying patterns, we were able to suggest places that would be appropriate to pick up the people to arrest them or return them to the courts. It was a popular service with police departments and bail bonds offices, and we had a vast number on our client list. The work that we would be doing for this assignment would involve a lot of overview and detailed research, with a bit of capture plan expertise thrown in. "As soon as you talk to Todd, please send me the info so that I can add it to our research."

"When do you think you'll get the research done on this?" said Cal.

"I know that we have to put the afterburners on for this one. I suspect that today will be taken up doing research. With help from my team, I'll be able to get overviews done on all of the club members before the end of the day, and I'll try to get the three in-depths done. That will be a push, since that will take about fifteen hours and it is already eleven o'clock. There will also be the in-depths that are identified as needing to be done through doing the overviews today. Again, I will get my elite team to help me on those."

The elevator doors opened. Both Investigative Services and Research were on the fifth floor. We used to have Investigative Services on the third floor and Cybersecurity sharing the fifth floor with Research, but we found that Research needed more floor space than Cybersecurity could afford to lose, and more and more work was being done jointly between Investigative Services and Research anyway. It just made sense to keep both functions close together.

I hurried to my office and pulled my superstar team together and told them that I was meeting them in the boardroom in five minutes. I poured myself a coffee and returned to the boardroom. Miguel and Dirk, my two Research Managers, and Nick, Gwynne and Lauren, my team leads, had already arrived. I closed the door and sat down. "You look frazzled", said Dirk.

I sighed. "I just had a big project come in. I wanted to warn you that, not only will I not be doing any departmental work for the next few days, but I'm hoping you have the time to help me." I told them what was going on, and Dirk and Miguel and Nick immediately looked concerned. Former Special Forces, they were well aware of what a hostage rescue entailed. There was also some concern on Gwynne's and Lauren's faces, but they didn't have any clue as to the extensive ramifications of what was going on. They didn't understand that, like a kidnapping case, every minute counted.

"Gwynne, Lauren, I need you to run the department so that Dirk and Miguel and Nick and I can concentrate on this research. I need immediate and full attention to this, guys", I said. "We are working against the clock. I am going to divide the list into three, and give you each seven people to do an overview on. I will do the three in-depths. Pay attention and mark those people that you think deserve further inspection. When you are finished your work, come and find me to see what you can do next and we'll talk about the in-depths that you want to perform. Send your overview reports to me and I'll send them on to the team. We are feeding the information through as we complete each report rather than waiting until we have a complete package."

I took the email from Joe, divided it and sent off a portion to each member of my team. After I thanked them, they left for their offices and I settled at my desk. I sent a note to Ranger telling him that I wouldn't be meeting him at lunch or going for a swim with him, as was our usual practice. Instead, I would get a snack from the break room and continue researching. Minutes later, Ranger said that he would bring a sandwich down to me, and that he'd be there in twenty minutes.

I sent the report on the Death Dogs to each member of the command team, and seconds later I was deep in my research. When Ranger showed up, I barely noticed. He had to call my name twice before I looked up, and he smiled as my eyes cleared and I said hello with surprise. He had selected a chicken and lettuce sandwich, a cup of fruit salad and a yogurt parfait for my lunch. He kissed me lightly. "I'll sit with you as you eat", he said. "I know you and you will forget the food is there otherwise, and will only remember when you have a headache."

I smiled. "Thanks for lunch. Lauren and Gwynne are covering the department, and Dirk, Miguel and Nick and I are working on this. I'm doing the in-depths whereas the guys are doing the overviews. I'll be working late on this tonight."

"I figured. I can look after the girls while you do your work, and perhaps we can make a picnic and come down with dinner. The girls would like that, and it would allow you to work as long as you can on the project. The kids would be able to give you a kiss goodnight that way, and after dinner you could stay in your office and continue to work with your team. Your elite team should be finished their overviews by the end of the day but hopefully they will be able to complete some of the in-depth research as well after they have finished the overviews. I anticipate that you'll have to go deep on many if not all of them." Ranger smiled again as my eyes slid over to my computer, and he shook his head. "Eat first, babe. Otherwise your brain will get foggy and you won't be able to make the connections that you are known for."

I sighed, but I knew that he was right. I also knew that he wouldn't leave me alone until he saw every mouthful consumed. I opened the packaging for the sandwich and started to eat, but to tell you the truth, my mind had returned to my researching and I didn't taste a single bite.

I finished my sandwich and yogurt and looked at Ranger. "I'll keep the fruit for a snack midway through the afternoon. I suspect that I will need a top-up on energy then, and if I remember correctly, you said fruit was a good food to top up energy."

Ranger smiled. "I didn't know that you were listening."

I laughed. "Periodically I do. Not often, but sometimes."

Ranger chuckled. "I'll leave you to your research before you blow your brains out. Let me know if I am making dinner for all four of you – the guys plus you – or if it will be just for you."

I smiled. "Thanks."

He bent down and gave me a kiss, and as he left the office again, he ran into Dirk and Miguel. They put their heads into my office and told me that they had cleared their plans for the evening and were available to work into the night. Nick put his head into my office and apologized. "I can't stay past five-thirty", he said. As a single father of three, he didn't have the babysitting coverage that other people had. "However, I can work from home tonight after seven-thirty. I just have to get the monsters to bed first."

"Are you up for that?" said Ranger. He looked at Nick worriedly. Nick was a good friend of Ranger's and had been a member of his team when he was in the field. About three years ago, Nick had been convicted of a crime that he didn't commit, and his severe PTSD was blamed for the murder. We helped Nick prove that his mother-in-law was the one that had committed the crime. We had her put in jail, and restored his children to him. Since then, Nick had been hired by Rangeman and was working part-time as he recovered from his PTSD. He had been doing extremely well though and was now working eighty percent of his day. I knew that he was looking forward to working full-time again and, in another couple of weeks, he would try working full-time hours to see how he did.

"I am. Like Dirk and Miguel, I probably have a better sense of what this mission means, and it is important to me to help it end quickly. Honestly? I think it would be worse for me not to be involved than it will be to be part of the solution."

"Then, if you want, you can bring your kids over to our house and they can have a sleepover", said Ranger. "You'll be nice and close that way, but still able to work with the team. And Ethan and Evan and Edie get along so well with my kids that they will have a ball tonight. I don't mind looking after them."

Nick looked a bit worried. "Are you sure?"

"Yeah, we'll have fun. We'll play soldiers. I'll have them doing army crawls around the room, and doing calisthenics to tire them out. And I can teach them that hooah is the right battle cry."

Nick laughed. "They'd probably like it."

Ranger smiled. "Just kidding. I'll actually read them some books. I picked up a great book the other day about how snowflakes are formed, and I thought I'd get the kids to make some paper snowflakes to tape to the windows. I could even get them to decorate the snowflakes as well. We'll have a good time." He turned to all the men. "I'm making a picnic dinner and bringing the kids down for it so that they can say goodnight to their parents. You are, of course, invited to that." The men smiled and thanked Ranger. "Any allergies that I should be aware of? I know that Ethan is allergic to eggs."

"It still burns me that his grandmother used to make him eat them every morning", said Nick, "despite having severe stomach cramps afterwards. She didn't believe that he was allergic to eggs even though we had discovered that when he was still a baby."

"I am incredibly glad that you put her in jail", I said, "and took over the care of your kids. They are far better off with you."

"They are very happy as well", said Ranger. He turned to Dirk and Miguel. "You should have seen them when we first picked them up. They were terrified of making a mistake and our kids had to teach them how to have fun. But as we spent time in the chalet in Vermont, the kids relaxed and started to laugh and play. They started to rely on Nick as their father and to trust that he wouldn't abuse them or yell at them. And now? They are incredibly close and have rediscovered the supportive relationship that they had before everything happened. They smile and laugh and are silly at times, just like children should be. They love their dad deeply and Nick loves them deeply, and it shows. You'll see that over dinner tonight." He turned to Nick. "We'll eat around six, so if you could have the kids here by then?"

Nick said thank you as Ranger received a text. He looked down, read it and smiled, sent a quick reply, and read the response seconds later. He looked up. "I'm not capable of doing the research that you can do", he said, "but I would like to read the results. I want to get in their heads and help find Brett. I just received a note from Tracy saying that she is able to stay at our house and look after the kids tonight so that I can work in my office. She said that Joe will probably also come into the office after dinner and work here with our team. When I told her that your kids will be here too, Nick, she said the more the merrier and your kids are good kids. I told her that, if she and Joe want to stay overnight, they can sleep in Julie's room. She said she'd talk to Joe but that she'd probably be taking us up on our offer." He smiled at me. "I think we'll be ordering in Thai or something for dinner. As much as I love cooking for a crowd, I don't want to take the time out to do it tonight."

I smiled. I knew that was the truth. Ranger loved to cook and did it extensively. He would cook anything and he did it all from scratch. He loved even more having big get-togethers of good friends and family and cooking for many, many people. His parents owned a restaurant, an establishment that was now owned by his sister and brother-in-law. Everybody in the family said that Ranger would make a good chef if the security business didn't work out for him. Like the vast majority of people, they didn't know how well the security business was doing for Ranger. They didn't understand that his company earned over a billion in annual net profits, nor did they understand that Ranger was a billionaire several times over. Sure, most of that money came from an inheritance from a friend of Ranger's. However, that money would have slowly been eaten away if he hadn't worked hard to maintain the balance and grow it over time. When Ranger inherited the money, he was worth forty-seven billion. Over the last two years, he had inched that number up despite his generosity with charities and was now getting close to adding on another billion. Of course, a significant part of that was corporate value. When Ranger had merged the two companies, he had played on synergies and cut certain programs and built on others and, through it all, had been able to significantly increase profits. He was very happy with how well the company was doing.

He had also inherited money managers that worked for him. They were brilliant at what they did and had been able to increase the value of his portfolio exponentially. Since money management was something that Ranger could do but wasn't his specialty, he was glad that Tucker had set up the management of his company so well. Tucker had a business degree and was much more comfortable with financial planning issues.

Tucker hadn't really died. However, he had changed his name and disappeared, got a new Social Security Number, and abandoned his life, his company and his billions. Ranger talked to him regularly. Tucker had moved down to the Caribbean, married a local girl and now had a son. Things were going well for him and, for the first time in a long time, he was happy. Even better, he was thrilled with everything that Ranger had done with his company and with his donations. While Ranger was ecstatic with how things were going, I think Tucker was even more so. He had told me that he was at a standstill with his company, and he no longer knew what he should do to make it grow sustainably. Furthermore, he didn't want to own a large company. He wanted to be a private eye, someone who had a small life that focused on family and work-life balance. Ranger and the kids and I had gone down to the Caribbean for a weekend last winter to meet his wife and son, and it was nice to see Tucker so relaxed and happy. He said that he had never been as happy, ever, in his life before. It was good for Ranger to see. Despite Tucker's assurances that he didn't want his company, Ranger was a little concerned that Tucker would regret his gift. But after seeing Tucker, and his relaxed and quiet joy, he knew that Tucker truly was achieving his dream – and with Tucker's gift, so was Ranger.