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Chapter 10

Goverment Leak?

Elise was sitting in the sand away from the prints when Ranger arrived. Her back was to him. She was hunched over, head hanging down. The sound of several doors opening and closing caught her attention. Standing she turned and faced her parents.

"What do you have?" Ranger asked when he got to her.

"There are two sets of prints coming from the house." Elise motioned. "One set are mine, the other are Cami's from what I can tell. At this point," She indicated the area where there were several prints, "I have to assume is where she was caught. I don't see anything showing a struggle, but you know Cami."

Ranger's mouth was set in a grim line as he studied the area Elise showed him. Sure enough everything was the way Elise described it, if the theory was correct. He would have come to the same conclusions she had.

Stephanie was shaking with fury. She was terrified that her youngest daughter was being hurt, but she was channeling that worry into her anger and determination to find Cami and make the people who took her pay with their lives.

"Mom, I—"

"Not now, Elise." She snapped. "Just go back to work."

Elise looked like she'd been slapped. Before anyone could see the look she nodded her head. "I'll head to RangeMan." And quickly she got into one of the SUV's that had been brought out for her. There was a team there to help Ranger and Stephanie.

When she drove she blinked back tears and swallowed hard against the lump in her throat. "Come on, soldier. You don't have time for this." She took a shuddering breath. "You have to a job. Emotions will hinder you."

By the time she reached RangeMan she had calmed down and locked her emotions behind her. As she walked into the building she knew she had to distance herself from her family a bit. Picking up her cell phone she called Alan who was at the house with another team trying to find anything to indicate some sort of surveillance on their family. When he answered she said, "I need you to bring my clothes and essentials from the house. I won't be staying there until we get a hold of Cortez." She hung up before he could answer.

Entering the conference room she found her team waiting for her. They had been compiling their reports on the events with Cortez for her. Billy looked at her expectantly. "Is Cami alive and well?"

"No." She said. "It seems that Cami has been taken."

"Shit." Kyle looked at her. "Do you think Cortez has anything to do with it?"

"I don't know." Elise admitted. "Honestly. Dad did a pretty good job on helping me bury information on myself so I wouldn't be subjected to expectations from his rep. All of you know you really have to do some digging to find out who my father is."

"Then it's possible one of your father's old enemies is coming out to play." Victor said.

"Possibly." Elise sat down and closed her eyes.

"What makes you think Cortez has Trevor?" Randy asked switching subjects. He knew there was going to be an added stress on Elise's shoulders with Cami's abduction. Knowing that the soldier had to trump the sister and lover inside her he did what he could think of and directed it to the current mission at hand.

"I received sketches from Trevor." Elise sighed opening her eyes again. "They were addressed to me as Donahue rather than Manoso. It might not seem odd, but Trev would send them to me under my actual last name, not my birth name."

"Makes sense." Randy nodded. These men, himself included would send things to her as Manoso if they were sending personal things. Things of other natures were sent to a PO Box that was under Donahue.

"Where's the map?" Elise said. Darren stood and tacked a map up on the wall. It was a large map of Colombia. Over the morning while Elise and Randy had been in the gym working out, the rest of them had mapped out their mission. The Colombian government had asked for aid against Marcus Cortez, a very powerful drug cartel. Diggory had jumped at the chance to put Elise and her team into the field. Diggory barely tolerated Elise so she was forced to wonder, yet again, if he had done it in hopes that none of them would come out of it alive.

The door to the conference room opened and Lester, Bobby and Tank walked in. Elise was mildly surprised to see them. They were either here to be kept apprised of the situation with Cortez or to babysit her on the chance that she wouldn't get kidnapped either. They took their seats at the conference table and watched expectantly.

"Alright, so here's what we know." Vic said typing away on his computer. "Cortez is mid-thirties, extremely successful, or was until we got to him. We neutralized him in the drug capacity."

"Made a lot of things go boom." Billy grinned wickedly. Elise rolled her eyes affectionately. Billy really enjoyed exploding things.

"What we don't know is where he went." Darren said. "That's where things get tricky. I've been on the phone all morning talking to some of our contacts in Colombia, but they all say the same thing. He disappeared two years ago after things went up shit creek."

"Remind me again why he wasn't killed?" Elise asked.

"I was the only one who was able to get to you." Randy replied. "It was either go after Cortez and kill him or leave you there bleeding to death." She gave a grim nod.

"The rest of us were still in position to get the hell out of there." Kyle said. He rubbed his eyes. "Shit. The look on Trevor's face when you guys got to us and we saw how badly you were injured…"

"So what we know now is that he's in Miami." Elise said, focusing on the folder in front of her. "Or that's the theory our guys are running with."

"That's the theory." Kyle agreed.

"Our government and the Colombian government want him arrested." She leaned back and looked at all the men, including her uncles. "Although I get the impression the Colombian higher ups would be more inclined to let us kill him. The only one I think wants him alive is our government."

"What's the starting point?" Tank asked watching her.

"I'm not sure yet." Elise admitted. "I'd like to check out all the places he'd be likely to frequent, but in Cortez's case it can go from high society to the slums. He's good like that. He likes to keep options available to him in all walks of life."

"We're more likely to find something going around the slums." Randy put in. "At least, we men are. You'd be better going through the higher up."

"Unless you want to go slumming and we'll go higher up." Billy said cheekily. "I can pull of a tux really well."

"You're thinking with the wrong brain again." Elise sighed. "But me going through the higher up end of society, while usually would work, is tougher right now given CJ's attack and Cami's abduction."

"But you can get into things without being noticed." Billy pointed out.

"Yes, but she's been to a lot of events as Carlos Manoso's daughter." Lester put in. "Which means someone will recognize her and things will really be fucked then."

"And you're absolutely sure he couldn't figure out who you are?" Darren asked her. "We did it."

"You did it because you looked at my emergency contact." Elise pointed out. "Cortez would have to have connections inside the government to find that information out."

"Which might not be impossible." Bobby pointed out.

"No that's true." She agreed.

"You think Diggory might be his link?" Victor asked.

"Tough to say."

"I would doubt it." Tank said. "Even when we were in service, Diggory was all about the good ole U.S. of A. It's unlikely his view point has changed. If anything he would simply become more of a fanatic about it."

"Yeah, but he's not fond of Elise at all." Billy said. "Half the time it's like he's gunning for her to fail."

Her uncles looked at each other and shifted. Elise narrowed her eyes at them. "What aren't you telling me?"

"It's really not our place." Tank said. "You'll have to talk to your father."

"I'm not asking him. I'm asking you."

"It was a long time ago, Elise."

"And clearly whatever it was, Diggory hasn't let it go."

"I'm just saying you should—"

"Cheer Bear!" Elise snapped. Tank met her eyes and held them. He could see the turmoil running rampant through them. She was having a tough time not remembering the whole situation with Cortez and with Cami's disappearance. Most people knew she had spent several years calling him Cheer Bear, that didn't faze him. It was the utter despair that was creeping around the edges of her eyes that startled him, but his years of military training kept his face in place.

Finally he said quietly. "Ranger has to tell you."

She stared at him for a long moment then nodded.

…

Ranger arrived back at RangeMan several hours later. A glance toward the conference room showed him Elise sitting on the table, one leg folded under her, the other propping up an arm that held papers. She was studying everything intently.

He was furious with the lack of results they'd had toward Cami. No one had seen anything. His security monitors had only picked up that she had indeed gone running. But she was out of sight of the cameras quickly. All his girls liked to run so he knew that she would have run for a couple hours before arriving back at home. But the cameras never showed her arrival.

Stephanie was just as frustrated as he was. She was pulling out all the stops with her own contacts, trying to see what anyone knew. He had heard her snap at Elise earlier and knew she felt guilty about it. Ranger knew when Elise got home Stephanie would apologize for her attitude.

"Boss." Ranger turned from observing his daughter to seeing Tank leaning against the wall.

"Report."

Tank shook his head. "Nothing to report so far. Silvio has been looking at several of your old enemies and it looks like several of them have croaked. RJ and Seth have been looking into Steph's enemies and even John Tresdale's enemies. They have the thought that if someone found out Bombshell inherited all of Tresdale's money, then they might target her to try getting some of it."

"And Cortez?"

"Ahh. Yeah." Tank grinned. "Your girl is fierce and pissed as hell right now. So far there's nothing in regards to Cortez. Right now the only thing all of us agree on is that Cortez would have to have a connection inside the government to find out who Elise is. Her team is looking at Diggory."

"Diggory wouldn't do that. He's too arrogant to give anyone anything in regards to the country." Ranger said without thought.

"That's what we said." Tank nodded. "Except, funny thing is Diggory seems to be gunning for Elise. Billy said it seems like he's always waiting for her to fail. You should probably tell her what happened."

"It's not relevant."

"To her it is. Dude, she Cheer Beared me." Tank sighed. "Plus, you need to take a good look at her. I think she's getting ready to snap."

Ranger nodded and walked to the conference room. Elise didn't even look up at him as he entered and shut the door. "Munchkin."

"Hm?"

"How long have you been staring at those papers?"

"Not long enough." She answered, still not looking at him and moving from one set of papers to the next, muttering softly to herself. Something just didn't sit right. They had no actual pictures of Cortez. They had to have some pictures of him somewhere. It would help if they had them.

Elise let off a startled shriek when Ranger picked her up off the table and planted her in a chair. He took the papers from her and sat in front of her. She glared at him, folding her arms over her chest. Ranger searched her eyes. Tank was right; she looked close to snapping.

"Diggory, his brother and I went through basic together." Ranger finally said. "We were sent on several missions in the Rangers together as well. During one of those missions his brother was killed. We were ambushed and we lost a few men. I was able to help get Diggory out before the enemy killed him, but I couldn't get to his brother. Once we got stateside he was adamant that I hadn't tried to get his brother. None of us could get to him. All of us would have died trying. Diggory doesn't see it that way. As a general he'd have access to those reports. I imagine he's looked at them all pretty intensely trying to find a flaw or two. Despite that belief, Diggory is very firm in his attitude about the USA. I truly don't believe he's your leak."

"Then why is he gunning for me?"

"Perhaps to make me feel the same loss he felt." Ranger replied. He leaned forward and took Elise's hands in hers. "Elise, you need to go home and rest. You're not going to be any good to your men like this."

"I'm not staying at home." She replied. "I'm staying on four."

"When was this decided?"

"When I got here this afternoon." Elise stood up. "It's safer to keep me away from the house isn't it?"

Ranger rose. "Do you know something about your sister's disappearance?"

"No." Elise admitted. "But my gut tells me that staying at the house is a bad idea."