Dane

It turned out Dane's little trip down to the bottom levels of the building with Felix had only given him the most casual brush against the "bunker" as his father called it. Two hallways beyond the safe room they'd visited earlier, there was an entire basement level that looked like something out of a sci-fi movie with a massive, black center table, an aisle surrounding it where three men could walk abreast, all of it surrounded by banks of desks, huge monitors, and digital equipment.

​​

Dane struggled not to let his jaw drop when they walked in. A lot of it was clearly on the cutting edge of surveillance—some of it even further ahead than his own.

Dane swallowed, but kept his face blank as he followed his father through the room. They were trailed by Felix, and two or three goons that his father was going to have working on the operation.

His father hadn't turned to watch him, but he knew he was being measured and evaluated at every moment, so he walked through, allowing himself to show interest in the technology, but not so much that he looked impressed, or overwhelmed.

When they reached the back of the circle there was a smaller bubble of space where five different men were seated with a variety of equipment, obviously in the course of actually tracking someone. Or something.

His father stopped in the space where the larger space gave way to the small area and folded his arms, waiting until the other men caught up. Dane stood next to him in a near identical pose, which he knew his father loved. And he tried not to stare, because the two largest monitors very clearly showed two different angles on a Police briefing room.

His father hadn't been joking when he said they were inside the Police.

One of the men at the monitors had a headset on and was making notes, while the other had a laptop open in front of him which showed some kind of archiving website. Dane couldn't see clearly, but he suspected the man was accessing the legal and law enforcement records the men on the screen were referencing.

Dane's mouth went very dry.

"Don't be fooled, Dane," his father said quietly. "This is a tiny corner of what we do."

"I'm aware," he replied.

His father huffed. "You think you are, son. But technology has come a long way in the last ten years, I'm sure you're aware, and there's new stuff being developed all the time. I have the contacts. I'm willing to bet I've got gadgets you don't have."

"I'm sure you do too. We did our best to say on the legal side of the digital age."

He hadn't meant to be funny, but his father chuckled and clapped him on the back. "That's right, I forgot. Well, today will be your reintroduction to… the dark realm," he said with another chuckle.

Doug got distracted then by a question from Felix, so Dane had the opportunity to scan the monitors more closely. He could see interiors of both the Police station and a police car, along with what appeared to be either body-cams, or someone wearing a hidden camera, though there wasn't anything interesting on the screen at the moment.

The scary part was that all the staff had headsets too—even the guy apparently monitoring static security cameras in the station, which meant they were receiving sound as well.

Which meant that Dane's worst nightmares about the infiltration of his own company, his home, or the homes of the staff were realized.

If his father had found a way into their systems, he knew everything—or at least, had access to everything.

He almost asked, but he knew his father would be waiting for him to do it. He would try to find his way in himself later. Who knew, if he had, maybe he'd even catch sight of Lila…

His stomach twisted at that thought—half-pained-ache to see her, half-recoil from knowing the pain she must be in and selfishly not wanting to see it. His breath stopped for a moment and he had to take a second to make sure his face stayed straight.

"Let me show you what we're working with today, Dane," his father said, leading him to one of the monitors on the side where he proceeded to show Dane their access to Police records, phone logs, and other information that was, in theory, only available through a search warrant. As officers referred to certain documents, or pieces of evidence, the guy monitoring the feed was able to pass on the relevant details to the man who was data mining. Between them they had whatever was needed within seconds.

The only small relief was to see that his father's team was working off the masked phone records—not the deeper records John had shown him. But that didn't mean his dad didn't have access to those. Only that they didn't use them in real time.

There was an entire computer dedicated to the maps system, showing city streets, the location of various vehicles and central businesses, where one man was centralizing the mobile surveillance, which was only positioning itself now. They didn't' expect to be actually following anyone until that night, or the next day, but they were prepared. And practiced. Some of the call between the dispatcher and the men in the vehicles was audible to Dane.

His father's team was professional and practical. They knew what they were there for, and they didn't clutter up the lines with chat or idiocy.

When they moved to the video monitors, his father pointed out the officers in the room that were under his thumb—which was more than half of them. "…and from what we've been able to arrange, there will only be two officers on this project that aren't taking my orders, compared to the eight who are. So we're in good shape except for the fucking Magpie."

Dane was about to ask when his father tapped on the keyboard over the man's shoulder and said, "Take a look at this."

Suddenly, the screen was full of Lila's face.

*****

IMPORTANT NOTICE: If you are considering buying advance chapters through privilege, WAIT UNTIL 1 MAY (30 April for US Readers) Each privilege subscription resets (which means it has to be re-purchased) on the first of each calendar month. Waiting until 1 May/30 April (USA) will allow you a full month to enjoy advance chapters AND READ THE END OF THE BOOK! Cant' wait to see you there! Enjoy!