insisting he'll open fire if anyone tries to stop him."
"Swatting," Jason growled under his breath. "Please tell me you've heard of it?"
"Shit," the man breathed. "You sure this is fake?"
Alex answered first. "We have the leader of an online terrorist group in this building. Just found where he was, and this? It probably was his getaway. Call came from an area code in the area he's known to frequent: California."
"We still have his rig," Bradley pointed out.
Jason laughed once, because that was exactly what Dez had said. It seemed like his partner was learning a few more things every day. That didn't help his friends, though. Forty, maybe fifty feet away, the SWAT team was going through each person in the Deviant booth, patting them down and securing them. When they lifted Amy off the ground, she spotted him.
"Braden warned us," she yelled. "Had enough time to get on the ground. We're all good. Find him!"
The man talking to Alex turned, spotted her, and then followed her eyes back to Jason. "You know what she's talking about?"
"Yeah," Jason said. "Their coworker was helping us in the gaming hall when you broke in. He sent a text, and they know what swatting is. She's the organizer for the company. The redheaded man is the owner. Big guy in the corner and the woman with the scar on her face are employees running the booth. They'll point out the others." Then he looked at Alex. "We need to find him, because this was a distraction. He knows we're onto him."
Bradley clasped Jason's shoulder. "Want me to have Adam clear the building?"
"No, that will help him vanish. If we can keep him inside..." He paused. "We need everyone in their rooms, actually. Or in some room. Can we lock down this building?"
"No," Alex told him. "We don't have the manpower."
"Fuck!" Jason hissed. "What is he doing? Where is he going? How the fuck is he trying to get out of here?" Desperate for an idea, he pulled out his phone and whipped off a message to Dez.
Jason: SR's in the wind. Where would be the safe place to run? Can you get a hit on anything in the area? Call in Ruin.
The message sent, but there was no sign that it was read. Desperate, he copied it all and sent it to her hangouts, knowing that was on her computer and tablet. No matter what she was using, Dez would see it, and he didn't have time to waste.
Still, nothing. Her icon didn't pop up. There were no dots in either one. With a snarl, he pushed the phone back in his pocket, knowing he only had one option left. Hopefully, by now, they would've figured out which computer matched the IP address Jason had tagged.
"I need his PC," Jason told Alex and Bradley, then just turned and walked away.
"You, with him," Alex ordered. "I'll deal with this."
Jason barely made it ten feet before Bradley was at his side. "What are you thinking?"
"We need to know who this man is so we can work both ways. His name will get us a number. That number will be to a phone that will either have GPS active or we can triangulate. The girls are upstairs, so they can help Dez..."
His feet stopped just as he walked into the gaming hall. The girls were upstairs. They were behind a secure card reader - just like Rhaven had been in Denver. They were all in one place, alone, with no one watching over them. Dez wasn't answering her messages. Dez always answered.
"Guys," Jason said, hurrying to the high table. "Has anyone talked to the girls?"
"Yeah, I told them to stay up there," Dread said. "Riley won't like it, but she'll stay. Braden and Psyc are helping with the computers, and -"
Adam's phone went off, interrupting. Dread opened his mouth to continue, but Adam shoved to his feet, his eyes locked on his screen. The man was breathing too hard and his fingers were clenched around the phone.
"It's Kate," he breathed, turning the screen to Jason. "Panic alert from her watch." Then he began to type.
"Where?" Jason asked.
Bradley just turned him toward where the guys were leaned over a computer in the middle of the gaming hall. "You deal with them. I'll handle this." Then he turned to Adam. "Where?"
Dread, Adam, and Bradley left the gaming hall going one way. Jason went the other, knowing that Bradley would be able to get them through the security and