Plum To The Rescue

by ewal32

What happens when our hero Ranger finds himself in an impossible situation? Stephanie is used to Ranger coming to her rescue and now it's her turn to help. Will Stephanie find him before it's too late? Ideas are mine but all characters, names, & places belong to the fabulous Janet Evanovich. **NOTE FOR THE READERS - THERE ARE SPOILERS IN THE REVIEWS SO READ THEM AT YOUR OWN RISK**

7. Chapter 7 - Ranger

02/09/2019

**Note for the readers: my timeline has been bothering me so until I can clear it up without having to explain it, I'll just explain it. Chapter 1 is the only chapter that is in the "present." We'll pick back up on that story soon. Two storylines are happening here and eventually they will blend together. Ranger's story starts when the break-in happens – 5 days prior to present. Stephanie's story starts when Ranger leaves town – 2 days prior to present. This chapter is catching us up between Ranger and Stephanie's timeline so now they are both synched up and are within 2 days of shock and awe. Enjoy!

"Talk to me," Ranger said. Ranger and Tank were in Ranger's office and Sylvio had been conferenced in. Sylvio was Ranger's top IT guy and he could make some magic happen with nothing but his fingers and a computer. "I've been going through all of the targeted computers' log files and as you can imagine the files have all been destroyed or corrupted," Sylvio said. At least I thought all of them had been destroyed. We weren't even sure they electronically transmitted anything since they were physically in the building when the attack occurred. I was running another system scan and came across a file that must have gotten hung in the deletion process. It wasn't all readable, but I was able to reconstruct it enough to see that there was a lot of data transmitted to a remote sever." That got a groan out of Ranger.

"Although this may seem like bad news," Sylvio said, "it's actually good because now I have something to trace. This guy is good – he must have re-routed the data 100 times." "But you're better," Ranger said. "So tell me you found a termination point." "Yes," said Sylvio, "but here's where it gets strange. The data was sent to an IP address registered to SE Corp in Arlington. "Now I'm lost," Ranger said. Someone stole data from SE Corp and transmitted it to SE Corp? Or at least they wanted it to look like this. Why would someone do that?" "Not sure," Sylvio said. Maybe the boss's kid was playing around and wanted to see if he could do it or maybe someone on the inside wants to send a message?"

"Oh I'll send a message when I get my hands on this guy," Ranger thought to himself. "Send me the address of the Arlington office and let them know we are on the way down," Ranger said to Tank. "We are conducting interrogations tomorrow and need every employee available to us, no exceptions. Tell Hal, Raul, and Ice to pack up and meet me in the garage in an hour. Sylvio, I want you to keep researching this, we are missing something and I think it's someone connected to SE Corp. My gut says this is an inside job and it goes deep," Ranger said. "10-4," Sylvio said.

Ranger rode the elevator to the 7th floor and stepped into his apartment. He quickly packed a bag with extra clothes and a flak vest. He grabbed his utility belt with cuffs, stun gun, pepper spray, and extra ammo. He packed extra guns and strapped his knife to his leg. If this was going to get ugly, Ranger was going to be prepared.

Ranger met up with his crew in the garage and discussed the game plan. Hal and Ice would ride up in the transport van incase they needed to bring any prisoners back to Trenton, and Ranger would follow in the Cayenne. Ranger had rooms booked in a hotel just outside of Arlington where they would re-convene later this evening to discuss logistics. Hal and Ice left the garage and Ranger headed in the opposite direction. He had one last thing to check off his list before he left town.

Stephanie's car was being monitored so Ranger knew where he could find her. Stephanie didn't always appreciate the finer qualities of free security, but deep down she knew it was for her own good. "She gets herself into more trouble than I could ever imagine, but I still love her all the same," Ranger thought to himself. He tracked her to an industrial park on the other side of the city, no doubt she was trying to bring in an FTA.

Ranger pulled into the lot and saw Stephanie trying to wipe something off herself – was that Jello? Shaking his head, he walked over to her. What he wouldn't give to run his tongue all over her, but Ranger settled for touching his tongue to her neck. It had the desired effect. Ranger had no real reason to see Stephanie before he left town, but if anything went south with this mission, he wanted her last thoughts of him to be good ones.

They said their "goodbyes" and "be carefuls" and then Ranger was on the road. He had a long drive ahead and it gave him time to think about the turn of events. There were too many question marks, and Ranger was not used to having more questions than answers. What information was stolen and why was it stolen? Who was the intended audience? Most importantly, how long before he had a trail of assassins on his back for allowing the breach of data in the first place?

All of this thinking and his lack of sleep over the last few days was giving Ranger a headache. He massaged his temples with his fingers. If he had to put his money on one culprit, it would be someone close to the company, someone who would have all of the access they needed. Someone like – no it can't be? The hairs on the back of his neck prickled. Can it?