BooksBarbecue
Back The Short Drop
Chapters (61)
  1. Title Page
  2. Copyright Page
  3. Dedication
  4. CONTENTS
  5. START READING
  6. PART ONE
  7. CHAPTER ONE
  8. CHAPTER TWO
  9. CHAPTER THREE
  10. CHAPTER FOUR
  11. CHAPTER FIVE
  12. CHAPTER SIX
  13. CHAPTER SEVEN
  14. CHAPTER EIGHT
  15. CHAPTER NINE
  16. CHAPTER TEN
  17. CHAPTER ELEVEN
  18. CHAPTER TWELVE
  19. CHAPTER THIRTEEN
  20. CHAPTER FOURTEEN
  21. CHAPTER FIFTEEN
  22. PART TWO
  23. CHAPTER SIXTEEN
  24. CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
  25. CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
  26. CHAPTER NINETEEN
  27. CHAPTER TWENTY
  28. CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
  29. CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
  30. CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
  31. CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
  32. CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
  33. CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
  34. CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
  35. CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
  36. CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
  37. CHAPTER THIRTY
  38. CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
  39. CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
  40. CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
  41. CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
  42. CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
  43. CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
  44. CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN
  45. CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT
  46. CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE
  47. CHAPTER FORTY
  48. CHAPTER FORTY-ONE
  49. PART THREE
  50. CHAPTER FORTY-TWO
  51. CHAPTER FORTY-THREE
  52. CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR
  53. CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE
  54. CHAPTER FORTY-SIX
  55. CHAPTER FORTY-SEVEN
  56. CHAPTER FORTY-EIGHT
  57. CHAPTER FORTY-NINE
  58. CHAPTER FIFTY
  59. EPILOGUE
  60. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
  61. ABOUT THE AUTHOR

“No, that’s pretty much the plan,” she said.

“So long as I’m clear.”

“But in case he does change up his schedule, we’ll sleep in shifts,” Jenn said. “We need to be ready to go at all hours, but something tells me he’ll stick to his schedule.”

Gibson nodded his agreement. He’d gone back and sifted through ACG’s network history looking for traces of WR8TH’s footprints in the ACG servers. Every instance that he’d identified was at the end of the week, on a Friday afternoon.

“Which gives us all of four days to game-plan.”

“I did a little research,” Gibson said. “A few years ago, there were a slew of pedophiles using the Wi-Fi at Virginia public libraries. They would literally park in front of the library in the middle of the night and download child porn. So it’s not a new or unique strategy.”

“What are our options?” Jenn asked.

“We could do what they did and add a log-in. They also shut down their Wi-Fi after business hours, but . . .”

“Any change to the system would spook our boy.”

“Right, which also means I can’t interfere with the Wi-Fi’s range or the bandwidth. He’s shown himself to be cautious and smart. If we mess with it, he’ll be in the wind.”

“We could call in the cavalry. More bodies, more eyes,” Hendricks said.

“Running a gargantuan surveillance operation that would almost certainly be spotted is not the answer,” Jenn said. “We need a solution that doesn’t depend on deploying the 101st Airborne.”

“Let me work on it tonight. I may have an idea,” said Gibson.

She thought about pressing him on the details but elected to heed her boss’s advice and give Gibson the benefit of the doubt. When he’d finished his meat loaf, Hendricks excused himself to go scout the library. Gibson ordered a slice of blackberry pie and a scoop of vanilla ice cream. He offered her a spoon, but she declined, studying him over her coffee.

“CIA,” she said.

He looked at her, not understanding.

“You asked where I served.”

“Really? The way you moved on me. At the Nighthawk. Would have pegged you for military.”

She felt his eyes search her face as if he were studying an equation that had produced the wrong answer.

“Parents were,” she said. “Dad was a marine. Mom was Navy.”

“Who was your dad with?”

“The One Eight.”

“Where?”

“Lebanon.”

Gibson put down his spoon. “Was he there?”

“Yeah, he was there.”