Page 52 of John’s Yearning

“I still don’t understand,” Savannah interrupted.

John turned to her. “What Grayson is pointing out is that whoever kidnapped all these children, saw your photo, and for whatever reason decided to kidnap you too.”

Thomas pointed to the screen. “I can think of a few reasons why.”

Savannah spun her head to him, but Thomas didn’t elaborate.

“But…” She pointed to the picture, but didn’t finish her sentence.

John sighed. “Whoever wanted Buffy, saw you and decided he wanted you too.” And now he remembered something that would explain why the kidnapper hadn’t taken them both at the same time. “Do you remember you telling me that on the day Buffy disappeared, you were running late, and instead of picking her up from school, you had to send the babysitter?”

Savannah nodded, then pressed her hand to her mouth when she seemed to realize what this meant. “They intended to kidnap us both. Together. And when I wasn’t there, they took Buffy and came back for me later.”

John nodded. “I’m afraid so.”

“We have to find this bastard,” she pressed out through a clenched jaw.

John sighed. “Thomas, is there any way you can find the hacker?”

Thomas shook his head. “I wish I could, but unless he makes another attempt at accessing the site, I can’t trace him.”

“That’s it,” Savannah said suddenly.

“What?” John asked.

“We have to make the hacker access the site.” She looked at Thomas. “We can put a tracing code into the site and follow it to him. You know how to do that, right, Thomas? If not, I can—”

Thomas lifted his hand. “I can do it, no problem, but we have no idea how long it will take for the hacker to come back to the site to access it.”

“Then we’ll have to give him a reason,” she said.

“What do you have in mind?” Thomas asked the question that was also on John’s mind.

“We have to assume that he has a spider monitoring the site and knows when new material is uploaded.”

Thomas nodded. “Yeah, but—”

“We’ll just need to upload new photos, embed a tracing code in them, and create a new client file in the database so it looks legit,” Savannah continued undeterred.

“Brilliant,” John praised, then addressed Thomas, “Can you do that?”

“Nothing easier than that. Only thing is, we need pictures of a pretty girl aged between nine and twelve,” Thomas replied.

“Easy,” Grayson claimed. “Let’s use the aging software that Eddie purchased a couple of months back. We can use photos of one of our female staff members and age her down to about eleven.”

If it worked, this was the best idea the hybrid had ever had. John nodded at him. “Do it. Who do you think will give us permission to use their photo?”

“Permission?” Grayson asked with a frown.

John scowled at him. “Yes, permission.”

“I do,” a female voice said from two desks away.

John turned his head in her direction. “Isabelle?”

The twenty-two year old hybrid approached. “Sorry, couldn’t help but overhear you guys.”

“Savannah, this is Isabelle, Samson’s eldest. Isabelle, this is Savannah Rice, our client.”