Avenged (Hostage Rescue Team Series) (Volume 5) by Kaylea Cross

useful part of what he’d learned during his sessions with Darwish.
    He took out another magazine, examined it to ensure it was fully loaded before slipping it into his pocket. “Someone was able to follow her partway from the airport. He lost her vehicle in traffic once they got into the city but he was able to narrow the hotel she’s staying at down to four possibilities. He saw the SUV stopped at an intersection and then someone took a suitcase into one of the hotels on the east side of the street. But now that some witnesses have gone missing the FBI will move her soon, if they haven’t already.” So now his and Jaleel’s task would be even harder.
    Jaleel frowned in concern. “So what now? How will we find her?”
    Finding the American whore was their responsibility. Locating her, tracking her, was all up to him and Jaleel. She was their target and the currency that guaranteed their survival. “You need to find us a reliable starting point.”
    “They won’t let her use credit cards or an unencrypted phone. I’d have to hack into the hotel’s security itself.”
    “Perfect.”
    Jaleel blew out a breath and ran a hand over his closely shorn hair, clearly agitated. “They’ll be able to find us, no matter how carefully I cover my tracks. Maybe not right away, but eventually if anyone gets suspicious and starts looking into the hacks. We’ll have to plan out emergency actions.”
    Ayman’s heart thudded. “But you can find her, right?”
    “Yeah.” He looked away, appearing deep in thought for a moment. “Once I gain access to the right hotel’s registries and security footage, I can find her.”
    “I’ve got the names for you,” Ayman said, pulling out his phone.
    “I’ll get my laptop.” Jaleel headed toward his room.
    “No, you can’t use it.”
    Jaleel stopped at his sharp tone and looked back at him. “Why not? It’s encrypted.”
    “It’s not safe anymore. We’ll have to go elsewhere.”
    Jaleel frowned at him, as though unconvinced. “So what do you expect me to use, then? The libraries are closed, and the internet cafés won’t be open until morning. We can’t wait that long. If the FBI is moving her, we need to find her now .”
    Ayman straightened. “What about the computer system at the office building where my father works? Would that work?”
    Jaleel frowned. “How new is the system?”
    “Just got upgraded a few months ago.” Ayman shrugged, not seeing any other viable option at the moment. “We won’t even have to break in, my father will let us inside. We’ll tell him it’s for an assignment you’re working on for your master’s thesis. That your computer’s busted and you have a deadline coming up. He’ll let us if he thinks it’s for school.”
    Jaleel hesitated. “We shouldn’t involve your father in this. Not even in such a small way. He’s smart, Ayman, he might figure out what we’re doing. And as soon as I hack in, it’s only a matter of time before the FBI finds out as well. I can cover my tracks well enough, but I can only buy us time. And probably not much of it.”
    They didn’t have any other choice, so they’d have to risk it. “He won’t, because he’ll be too busy doing his job.” Cleaning an entire nine story building before business hours tomorrow morning.
    It was one of the things that made Ayman most angry about coming here. In Syria his father had been a respected government official in their city. Now he was reduced to menial labor as a janitor, working graveyard shifts six days a week just to pay the rent and put food on the table for the rest of the family.
    Ayman wanted more, wanted to strike back at the country he blamed for Syria’s woes. The money offered to him only sweetened the deal. “And we’ll go on the move as soon as we’re done. We’ll have a good head start from the FBI.”
    “What kind of security do they have there?”
    He blew out a breath. “A few guards, but my father knows them all. Their system’s