Page 29 of Grayson’s Challenge

“Hey,” Grayson said, then pointed to Monique. “This is Monique, Cain’s daughter. Monique, meet Thomas and Eddie. Our IT geniuses.”

“Hey, guys.”

“Hey,” Thomas said. “Sorry about Cain and Samson.” He motioned to Eddie. “We’re already poring over the surveillance footage.”

“Anything yet?” Grayson asked eagerly.

Eddie turned his head to look at them. “There were indeed five vans. Identical down to the license plates.”

“You’re serious?” Grayson stared at the two full-blooded vampires.

“Eddie’s right,” Thomas confirmed. “All five vans had the same license plates. Somebody went through a lot of trouble to make it almost impossible for anybody to trace the getaway vehicles.”

“Stolen plates?” Grayson asked.

“No, totally made up,” Thomas replied.

“So where are they now?” Monique asked. “Have they left the city?”

“We’re not sure yet,” Eddie said in Thomas’s stead and pointed to a large monitor showing various different videos. “These are all roads and bridges leading out of San Francisco. We went back as far as the point at which the vans left Russian Hill, and from what we could see, they didn’t pass any of these points. And by now, the police have put roadblocks at all roads leading out of the city.”

“So you think they’re still in the city?” Monique asked.

“Looks that way,” Thomas said.

“So, they’re trapped?” Grayson asked.

“If you wanna call it that. They had plenty of time to leave the city, but they didn’t. Makes me wonder why.”

Grayson wondered about that too. Why stay in the city where they were at a disadvantage?

Thomas sighed. “But we need a lot more manpower to go through all traffic cams in the city to trace all five vans, since we don’t know with which one they transported Cain and Samson.”

“Call in more staff,” Grayson ordered.

“They’re already on their way,” Thomas confirmed. “We might also need security footage from businesses and hotels the vans might have driven past. So, there’ll be a lot of legwork involved, since we can’t hack into everything.”

“But you’ll find them,” Monique said firmly.

Before Thomas could answer, Grayson took her arm and squeezed it. “Thomas and Eddie are the best. And their IT team knows what they’re doing. Right, guys?”

“We’ll do everything in our power,” Eddie said with a look at Thomas, who nodded in agreement.

“Thank you,” Monique said.

“What about the vampire database?” Grayson looked at Thomas. “Did you already send the data over to the house?”

Thomas nodded. “I spoke to Isabelle already and gave her access to the database. She’s already accessed it, and Faye, Delilah, and Faye’s bodyguard are going through the photos.” He pointed to one of the monitors on his desk. “If they recognize anyone, Isabelle will mark the file, and it’ll ping me instantly, so we can distribute the picture and see if we know the suspect’s whereabouts.”

“I appreciate it,” Grayson said.

“You can count on us,” Thomas replied.

He knew that. Thomas was one of Samson’s oldest friends, and they’d been through a lot together. Everybody at Scanguards respected Samson, and they would do everything they could to get him back.

“Grayson?”

Grayson turned at Gabriel’s voice coming from the open door. Gabriel’s gaze swept to Monique.