135 KILL DORIN PLEASE
Lander Strong's phone buzzed. He froze at the screen.
"Dorin's life depends on your cooperation. Call us or she dies."
The words hit like ice.
Lander's mind spun. "Who would snatch Dorin to force him into cooperating? A subject from one of his recent investigations? A rival contractor?" he thought.
His mind raced.
But nothing fit — nobody should care about him this much to kidnap Dorin.
Then a na snapped into mind: Ethen Lace.
He was the fugitive quantum mind that almost everyone wanted—SIA, the conglorates, anyone who wants the perfect hacker.
In the basent of the agency, he kept a stack of things he'd sworn he'd never need again: old SIA-surplus rigs, jerry-built signal scramblers, a handful of tracking toys—his secret arsenal from the days he'd been running investigations in the SIA.
He hadn't had cause to use them since opening Strong & West, but tonight they looked like the only chance he had.
Once the machines thrumd to life, he dialed the number.
"Who took Dorin?" he demanded when soone answered in scrambled voice.
"You don't need to know," the voice said, clipped and void of pity. "Deliver Ethen Lace, or Dorin West dies."
The line went dead.
Lander swallowed with despair.
"How do you turn over a person you've never even found?"
He tried to trace the call, but he found nothing. This was beyond him.
He paced the agency like a trapped animal. He couldn't go to the police because they were useless, and the SIA was worse; they were looking for Ethan Lace themselves.
There was only one person he could call.
He pushed another button and waited.
When Dan Dark answered, Lander didn't waste the breath to sugarcoat it. "Dan, I've got a problem. Soone took Dorin hostage. They want Ethen Lace."
There was a long beat on the other end.
Then Dan's voice, asured, razor-calm said, "Stay put. Don't move. I'll pull in professional hackers to trace Dorin. Don't do anything reckless by yourself."
"Isn't there sothing I can do?" Lander asked.
It was the first ti Dan saw hopelessness in him- not even when he was about to be executed by the SIA, was he in this state.
He was genuinely afraid now.
"No, the best you can do now is nothing. Don't sound too eager to cooperate with the kidnappers. Just leave the rescue to us this ti
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