Payback

128

“Town police in Wellington, Pennsylvania, are asking for a license plate ID on a Forester. A Subaru Forester!”

The shout from one of the people at the back of the Art Room was like a bolt of lightning. Everyone stopped what they were doing.

“New York plate,” added the young man, instantly depressed. An assistant computer scientist, he had been pressed into work as a monitor, using a computer tool that watched queries on the various state motor vehicle departments to see if any matched the Deep Black watch lists. He punched the keys to capture the plate number, then thumbed through a menu of state registrations for a search through a Department of Transportation connection arranged when the crisis began.

“Oh my God! This is something! The plate comes from a Nissan Maxima, not a Subaru. This is something.”

Telach walked over to the young man and put her hand on his shoulder. The Forester was a small SUV, with an interior capacity that could just squeeze the weapon inside.

“Easy, Peter. Let’s do this together.” She knelt down next to him and hit one of the function keys, bringing up ID data on the local police agency. “Call the dispatcher on the Homeland Security line and ask for the vehicle ID. Then check it against the stolen vehicles.”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah,” said Peter, pounding on a numeric keypad.

Telach tapped a large red button that sent the data to a window on Rockman’s console.

“They already have the number,” said Peter. He punched it into the computer. A second after he hit the enter key, the screen blinked back with a long list; one line in the middle was highlighted.

The vehicle was registered to a man in Texas, who lived a few miles from where the abandoned truck had been found.

“Jeff, get Charlie down to look at this car right away,” said Telach.

She glanced down at her belt and hit the key on her communications set to alert Rubens that she needed him.