I hope you're still interested. Now we're back in Washington. Enjoy.

Lester's POV

I just got a call from George. He's on his way back to the hotel and he also mentioned that he thought he was being followed. I paced around my room for a few minutes and then went down to the lobby. I wanted to see if anyone followed George into the hotel. I resume my pacing position and walk back and forth across the lobby until I saw George walk in looking over his shoulder. He sees me and motions for me to walk quickly towards the elevators. I look behind us as we walk and see three very large men walk into the hotel lobby and look around.

George and I slip around the corner and press the button for the elevator without being seen. We climb into the car and go to the 13th floor and walk down one flight, just in case somebody saw us get on the elevator and took note of our destination floor.

Once we are safely in the suite, George puts his briefcase down, takes off his jacket and pulls a bottle of water out of the mini bar. He then looks at me, takes a deep breath and says, "I have no idea where Ranger and Miss LeBlanc are or where they were taken.

"There is no record of their arrest. There are no formal charges and they were not taken anywhere associated with the military or any federal agency. The only thing I can think of is that General Matthews pretended to arrest them because he was paranoid that they would cause trouble for him."

"What is the General thinking? He must have known that I'd look into this. He's obviously not thinking clearly, this is even more proof."

"I agree. I'm pretty sure I was followed to the hotel, so he knows somebody is searching for them. I don't know what kind or resources the General has at his disposal, but considering how classified some of the missions are that he coordinates, I'd assume he has plenty of options."

I am thinking about our options and have no idea where to go from here. I can get Tank to run a bunch of searches on the General and his staff, but we don't have any way to know which operatives he has working for him. He may even still have some military resources that we would be clueless about. I look at George, who is also looking a bit dejected.

We make eye contact and he said, "I suggest that you contact Tank and get him working on this. You might also luck out tracking Ranger's phone. I'm sure it's turned off by now, but it would have transmitted for a time after they were first taken."

I nodded and said, "I'll go back to my room now and contact Tank. I'll see if he can come up with something. You might as well rest up a little, maybe get some lunch on room service. We need some more information before we can proceed. I'll come back in 2 hours and we can have a conference call with the core team and a few others to decide what to do next."

I shook George's hand and quickly walked across the hall to my room, looking to see if anyone who didn't belong was hovering in the halls. When I was satisfied that nobody was there, I went into my room and called Tank.

"What's your news Les?"

"George says that there's no record of an arrest warrant or any formal charges against Ranger or Fiona. I think the General has done something with them to get them out of the way. We should run some searches to find out if the General or his department have any properties that could be used as a makeshift prison.

"See if Silvio or Hector can locate some surveillance from around the building where they were taken. Maybe there are some local stores or street CCTV cameras available. We're running completely blind and we need a lead.

"We should also try and track Williams and Polanski. Maybe they can give us some information. Lastly, George suggested that we trace Ranger's phone. He figures it will be powered off, but we should still be able to track it's GPS up until it was turned off."

I could hear Tank furiously writing down my suggestions, for which I was glad. I'm not sure I could repeat them if Tank asked me. My brain seems to be flying a mile a minute. I'm worried about Ranger and Fiona. I'm furious with the General, but most of all, I'm exhausted. Both physically and emotionally exhausted.

After a few seconds of silence Tank said, "I just paged Hector. I'll have him run Ranger's phone as soon as he gets here. I'm also sending a few of the guys down to you so you have backup if you need it. Do you have any preferences on who I send?"

"I'd like a sniper, a security expert, and two guys with a lot of hand to hand combat skills. How about Ram, Hal, Woody and Vince."

"OK. None of them are on shift but they're all in the building. I put the plane on standby as soon as you called last time. The guys will be on their way momentarily. I just paged them and they'll be there soon. I will call you back as soon as Hector arrives."

We hung up and I took a bottle of water from the mini bar. I looked at some of the other small bottles in the fridge, but decided a clear head was best in the current situation, no matter how much I wanted something a little stronger. I drank from the water bottle and flipped through the channels on the TV as I waited for Tank to call back. Luckily it didn't take too long.

"Hey Les. Hector just arrived. I'll put you on speaker phone."

I listened as Tank explained that we needed to find out where Ranger's phone is or was before it was turned off last. I wasn't expecting anything useful to come of this because anyone with a brain would know to take the battery out of the phone as soon as they kidnapped their target. If they did not, the phone could be traced, just like we were hoping we could do now. I sat down on the bed and listened to the guys talk in Trenton and sort of zoned out.

Hector was silent for a moment and I could hear him typing on his computer. He was silent for a few moments and then he said that Ranger's phone is currently powered on but the GPS signal isn't working for some reason. He thinks he can triangulate a general location for the phone but he needs an active call."

I said, "I'll call from my phone. I have a pretty distinctive ring tone on Ranger's phone, so he'll know it's me calling. If he can't get to the phone at least he'll know we're on our way. I'll call you guys back in a few."

I hung up on Tank and dialled Ranger's phone. I let it ring and after 6 rings, I got his voice mail. I didn't bother leaving a message and dialled the phone again. I wanted to give Hector plenty to work with. After I hung up the second time, I tried to call Tank again, but I got his voicemail.

Hmm... why is Tank's phone busy? Why is Ranger's phone active? More to come.

Also, I really enjoy reading your reviews and encouragement. Keep them coming!