Chapter 6 - The Telemetry Hunt
By 9:00 A.M., the news cycle in Chicago was ablaze with panic.
Every television screen in the country was showing the press conference Nathaniel Reed had delivered outside The Velvet Wire. The handsome DA stood before a wall of microphones, his voice cracking with emotional strain, a small white bandage applied to his forehead.
"Last night, my fiancée, Vivien Hayes, was snatched from my arms by cowardly enforcers acting on behalf of organized crime," Reed declared passionately to the sea of cameras. "I was struck down while trying to protect her. I promise the citizens of Chicago, and I promise the Hayes family, that I will not sleep, I will not rest, until Gabriel Rossi is brought to justice and Vivien is returned home!"
In the study of the Oak Brook estate, Gabriel sat at his massive glass desk, watching the broadcast on a wall-mounted monitor with the sound muted.
Vivien stood beside him, holding a cup of hot tea, her gray eyes staring at her fiancé’s performance on the screen with pure disgust.
"He's good," she said, her voice bitter. "He rehearsed that tone in front of our bathroom mirror for months whenever he had a major trial coming up."
"He's an actor," Gabriel agreed, leaning back in his leather chair. "But actors make mistakes when they think nobody is reviewing their script."
Marco knocked on the study door and stepped inside, holding a thick manila folder.
"We traced the Expedition," Marco reported, setting the folder on Gabriel’s desk. "After Reed left the press conference at Huron Street, he drove the SUV directly to the city motor pool on 26th Street. He had it parked in a private, locked bay reserved for the State's Attorney's office."
"Is it guarded?" Gabriel asked.
"Two uniformed city cops posted at the bay doors," Marco said. "And Reed ordered a complete forensic sweep of the vehicle scheduled for two o'clock this afternoon. He wants his own forensic team to find 'evidence' of a struggle inside the cab to support his abduction story."
"He’s going to plant evidence," Vivien said, her hands tightening on her tea cup. "He’ll plant blood or ripped fabric from my gown."
"He will try," Gabriel said, standing up and pulling his dark coat from the coat rack. "Which means we have four hours to retrieve the internal telemetry drive before his forensic team touches that vehicle."
"You're going to break into a secure city motor pool?" Vivien asked, staring at him in disbelief. "Gabriel, that's a federal offense! If you're caught—"
"I won't be caught," Gabriel interrupted calmly, buttoning his sleeve cuffs. "Because I'm not breaking into anything. I own thirty percent of the private contractor that maintains the electronic diagnostic systems for the city's fleet."
Vivien blinked, stunned by the sheer depth of his influence across the city's infrastructure.
"Marco," Gabriel commanded, turning to his lieutenant. "Get Leo and the van. We leave in ten minutes. I want the drive, the cabin camera logs, and the seat-weight sensor telemetry from that Expedition."
"Wait," Vivien spoke up, stepping forward, her face set with sudden, fierce determination. "Take me with you."
Gabriel stopped, looking down at her in surprise. "Absolutely not. It's too dangerous. If anyone sees you—"
"If anyone sees me, the entire story collapses instantly," she countered, her voice rising with an authority that matched her high-society lineage. "I know where the hidden dash-cam backup storage is in Nathaniel's specific model, Gabriel. He had a secondary private camera installed six months ago near the rearview mirror after he received death threats. He thinks nobody knows about it, but I watched him program the access key on his phone."
Gabriel stared at her, reassessing the woman before him. Beneath the silk, the pearls, and the bruised skin, Vivien Hayes possessed a sharp, lethal intelligence that refused to be a passive victim.
Gabriel looked at Marco, then back to Vivien's clear gray eyes.
May you like
"Get her a dark jacket and a cap," Gabriel ordered Marco softly. "She stays in the back of the van with me. If anything goes wrong, she doesn't step a foot on the concrete."
Vivien offered a small, sharp nod. "Understood."
