Chapter 1 - The Silver Tracker
Victor froze at the sound of the little girl’s voice.
He looked down at Poppy.
The child was shivering in her damp pajamas.
“She has your lucky coin?” Victor asked, his voice dangerously quiet.
Poppy nodded slowly.
“Mama said she found it on the rug and put it in her pocket to give back to you.”
Marcus stared at Victor from across the room.
Only three people in the world knew the truth about that heavy silver coin.
It was not a token of luck.
It was a military-grade GPS tracker encrypted to Victor’s personal mainframe.
Victor had carried it for years as a failsafe against abduction.
“Get the tablet,” Victor ordered.
Marcus rushed to the mahogany desk and pulled a black screen from the drawer.
His fingers flew across the digital keyboard.
A map of Baltimore illuminated the dark study.
A single red dot blinked on the screen, moving rapidly east toward the harbor.
“They are on Interstate 89,” Marcus reported.
Victor strapped a leather shoulder holster over his dark shirt.
He checked the magazine of his pistol before sliding it into place.
“Keep the estate locked down.”
“No one gets in or out.”
Victor knelt down to meet Poppy’s terrified eyes.
“I am going to bring your mother back,” he promised again.
He turned and sprinted out into the freezing rain.
The tires of his armored SUV spun on the wet gravel before gripping the asphalt.
He pushed the engine to its absolute limit.
The red dot on his dashboard screen suddenly stopped moving.
It was pinging from an abandoned industrial warehouse near the shipping docks.
Victor killed his headlights and rolled the vehicle to a silent stop.
He stepped out into the storm with his weapon drawn.
The warehouse door was slightly ajar.
He kicked it open, his gun sweeping the dark room.
He saw a black car parked in the center of the concrete floor.
Victor approached cautiously.
He ripped the driver’s side door open.
The car was completely empty.
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Resting on the driver’s seat was his silver coin, pinned beneath a burner phone.
The phone began to ring.
