Page 26 of Russian Rescue

I typed as fast as my fingers would move, locating the cameras inside the apartment and breaking through their security in record time. When I got a live feed streaming across my screen and saw Amanda with wrists bound sitting on a couch in an apartment, I pressed a hand to my mouth.

“She’s still there. Oh my God. We found her.”

Her hand tightened around my shoulder. “Nice work, Wes. Now we know her location. Send the info to Marcus, including the specs of the building and all the info he needs to plan an extraction.”

“On it.” I copied the info and sent it his way, as well as the building plans I stole from the city department. “How long until we can extract her?”

Piper shrugged. “Two or three days if we want to ensure we get her out alive and don’t jump the gun. We need equipment and a foolproof plan.”

A couple days. My baby sister would be stuck with those people for at least a couple more days. I pressed on the keypad and zoomed the camera down at her face. She looked scared but unharmed. A bottle of water rested on the coffee table in front of her with an empty plate of food beside it. At least they were feeding her and seemed to be treating her well.

“Are you sure we can’t go today? Just kick down the door and grab her?”

Piper shook her head. “You know how easily that could go wrong. Without a proper plan, we have a fifty-fifty shot at best at getting her out without her, or one of us, going down. We let Marcus make his plan. That’s what he does, and he has never failed in an extraction. She’ll be okay, Wes. Once you let them know you’re still here, they won’t harm her. They’ll keep her alive to use as leverage against you. We just have to be patient.”

With a sigh, I agreed. Getting her out safely trumped speed.

“You got everything you need?” Piper asked as I finished copying and forwarding everything to Marcus.

“Yeah. I think so. And I planted a backdoor so I can get back into these cameras again without needing a huge system. Now I can get on with just a laptop to check on her.”

“Smart thinking. And now is when you pull down the curtain and let them see that you’re still in Moscow. Don’t let on that we know that they have your sister, though. We don’t want them to move her.”

“Good point.” I logged out of their security feed and moved over to the data I’d been searching through before. “I’ll just poke around in here again, and I’m going to drop my protection, so they know I’m here. If their hacker is even a fraction as good as me, he’ll be able to pinpoint my location relatively quickly.”

“We need to make sure we stay on long enough that they get it. Make sure they know you’re still here.”

My fingers went to work doing their thing while I stomped around loudly in their system. It only took a minute for my screen to flicker, and I knew their person was onto me. I took off my baseball hat so they could get a good look at me on the security cameras they’d soon be hacking. It was imperative they knew I was alive and still in Moscow.

“He’s got me.”

“Or she.” Piper arched an eyebrow. “Chicks can be kickass hackers too.”

“Or she,” I agreed.

I lost control of my computer screen, and I knew they had my location.

“That’s it. They’ve got us.”

“They’ll have people here quickly. We need to move. Now.”

Piper grabbed me by the hand and pulled me up, then spoke into her comms. “Marcus, Knox. We’ve got contact. We’re making a break now and heading to the cabin to lay low. Go through the intel Wes sent you and make contact when you have a plan.”

Piper and I bolted through the building and back outside. As we hauled ass across the campus toward the street, we saw several men walking our way. I didn’t recognize any faces, but they didn’t look like college kids one would expect to see here. One of them caught sight of me and reached into his waistband, drawing out a gun.

She slid to a stop. “Fuck. They must have been nearby because they’re already here.”

“Yep. That’s them.”

“Run!” Piper said, turning around and yanking me behind her.

I waited for gunshots but then remembered they wouldn’t fire on me. They needed me. That gave me some sense of relief as we tore across the grounds with the five men chasing after us.

“We need a car.” I puffed out. “They’re between us and ours.”

“We’ll grab one from the street. I can hotwire it. But we have to get enough distance because I need a few seconds to do it. So, run faster.”

She took off at an impressive speed, and I pumped my arms and caught back up to her. We ducked and wove our way through the campus until we popped back out on a busy street. Cars whizzed past as Piper scanned our surroundings.