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“It’s about time you called. She’s not answering her cell phone. Can I talk to her?” CiCi asked before he had a chance to get a word in edgewise.

“The doctor suggested no tablet or phone time for the next couple of days. So, she turned them off. I fed her chicken pot pie, and she stayed awake until just now. I put her to bed, and now I’m calling you. See what a thoughtful big brother I am?”

“Can she not talk on her phone, or just not do things on her phone?”

“She needs rest right now. She can call you in a few days. She’s still hurting.”

“I feel like it’s my fault. If I hadn’t gone to the library, I would have been walking with her to the coffee shop, and this wouldn’t have happened.”

“Ceese, you’re not to blame. If this was purposeful, they would have found some other time to get to her.”

“You think someone did this on purpose?”

Brax winced. He hadn’t wanted to tell his sister that; she was going to worry herself sick.

“Why would someone want to hurt Jenny? That doesn’t make any sense.”

“I said if. Trust me, we’re looking into this.”

“Are you going to keep her safe?”

“Damn right I will.”

“Thank God. Okay. Tell her I said hello.”

“I will. I love you, CiCi.”

“I love you more.”

He ended the call smiling. Now for a call that wouldn’t leave him smiling, unless Gideon had found some answers.

“Hey, Brax. I’m surprised you didn’t call sooner,” Gideon said in lieu of ‘hello’.

“Just put Jenny to bed. She finally took a pain pill, and I got some food in her. She’s probably down for the night. Were you able to find out anything?”

“I know that New Era Cyber Tech has been frantically trying to track down Jenny so that they can have a discussion with her. Your friend Meyer has done a fantastic job of keeping her whereabouts confidential and stonewalling them.”

“So, what does Cyber Tech want?” Brax asked.

“Their current VP of PR, guy named Roy Jeckel, has been trying to put out a wildfire with one fire extinguisher. Cyber Tech is bleeding money as their customers are leaving them. Turns out a lot of people aren’t impressed with a company that will abandon their employee when they’re kidnapped.”

“I haven’t been keeping up with every little bit of things, but isn’t this going on a little long?” Brax asked.

“You’d think, but two things are making this a big story. One, this is a multi-billion-dollar company with over one hundred thousand employees worldwide. They’ve been acquiring companies left and right for the last ten years, so they’re always big news. Second, is that one of the two high-ranking employees that they pulled out of Bangladesh two weeks before Jenny’s kidnapping gave an interview to the Washington Post.”

“He did?”

“Yeah. His name is Henry Roberts and he explained how he and Virginia Tyree had strongly suggested that the Bangladesh satellite office be shut down for a while because of the instability in the region. He went on to explain how the two of them were hustled back to Virginia two weeks later with promotions, leaving Jenny as the highest-ranking employee in the Bangladesh office. In other words, Henry felt that Jenny was left with a target on her back.”

Brax whistled. “That guy either has quite a set of ethics, or an ax to grind.”

“From what I’ve been able to gather, it’s ethics. The guy’s been a straight arrow all his life, even made Eagle Scout, and when his kids were little, he was always the coach of his daughter’s soccer team. He’s already left New Era Cyber Tech and went back to his old company at his old rate of pay. Basically, thumbing his nose at the promotion.”

“I think I like this guy.” Brax smiled. “When did the article come out?”

“Six days ago.”

“Let’s play this out. Which would make this problem worse for Cyber Tech?” Brax asked his brainy friend. “Jenny dying, or Jenny filing a lawsuit?”