I’ll confirm the model so Wally can select the right Trojan software. There are enough twenty-four-hour places that sell burner phones, so you should still be able to get them at this hour.”
Mike nodded and scurried off to his laptop.
“You’ll need to carefully open the packaging on the phones so we can repackage them,” I continued. “When you’re ready for the repackaging, give them to Frankie to make it look seamless, okay?”
The guys nodded, so I turned to Wally. “Can you handle the Trojan phone? I need to do some research.”
“Sure. What kind of research are you doing?” Wally asked.
I rolled my neck, trying to work out the tension knots. “Remington said something on the phone that caught my attention. He said Candace was interfering with him, stonewalling him. When I talked to my dad, he mentioned that he was trying to work with someone named Candace Kim, who worked at the NSA. Someone he hoped he could trust. I need to research her deeply, if you get my meaning.”
“I get your meaning, and I’ll help you while the guys go get the phones.”
“Thanks. I need to know if she has any connection at all to Remington, other than being a colleague. Since Slash isn’t here, we may need someone trustworthy at the NSA, and, if my dad feels like he might be able to trust her, maybe we can, too.”
“Jax, Mike, and Wally, once you get the phones set up, catch some shut-eye. We all need to be awake and ready to roll by seven a.m.”
“Are you going to sleep?” Frankie asked me pointedly.
“If there’s time,” I said. “Also, once we get to Target, I’ll need a few of you inside to keep the real electronics associate busy while Kira takes care of Remington. Bo, Hala, and Frankie, do you think you can handle that?”
“Of course,” Frankie said beaming. “Chatting up people is my specialty.”
“What about ringing up Remington’s purchase?” Kira said. “Won’t I need an employee code or something to do that?”
“You’re going to fake ring up Remington. Just scan the phones and tap some buttons and pretend it’s working. We’ll give you some small bills and a cloth envelope to slip any money into and return change to him as needed. If he has a credit card, you pretend to run it. Frankie will print you a ready-made receipt to give him either way. You can do that, right, Frankie?”
“It’s insulting that you even have to ask,” she replied.
“Got it,” said Kira. “Fake name tag and a fake ring-up. I guess I can handle that. Just keep the real employees away from me while I’m with him.”
“We’ll have you covered,” Bo said firmly. “I’ll take Frankie and Hala in my car, as long as I get to drive.”
“You can drive,” I agreed, hiding a smile. “Jax, you’ll take Kira, then. Frankie, you must stay away from Remington at all costs. He might recognize you. Actually, he might recognize any one of us, especially me, which is why I’ll be staying safely in the car with Mike and Wally, overseeing communications and the tracker and listening device on Remington’s car. The rest of you take measures to look at least a little different.”
I glanced around the group. “So, who’s ready to get started?”
Chapter Thirty-Six
ANGEL SINCLAIR
Operation Burner Phone was underway.
Fortunately, Remington had generic tastes in burner phones. This was one of the first true breaks we had gotten. Jax bought two burner phones from an all-night Quick Mart. Mike disabled one while Wally loaded the Trojan software into the other one. They’d run several tests before assuring me it was working. I sent them to sleep and woke Frankie, who carefully repackaged the phones, using a special glue and markers to make sure the phones appeared unopened.
Kira had also awakened and started to get ready. She’d altered her look using makeup and fake tattoos. Frankie gave her a red T-shirt and a passable Target name badge she’d created using her laptop and portable color printer.
Wally and I dug deep on Candace Kim before Wally caught some shut-eye. While he slept, I reviewed the information we’d gleaned on her.
Fourteen years ago, when my dad had gone missing, Candace Kim had been a midlevel agent. Now she was the director of the NSA’s National Operations Security Center, or NSOC for short. She was a director like Isaac Remington, but of a different directorate. Did that make them friends or rivals?
It was hard to say, except I’d heard the disgust in Remington’s