Although his old friend had long since retired, the man currently sitting in his chair was his former protégé. And that protégé was now mentoring the grandson-Silas Carl, Tilda's cousin.
When Walden's call came through, the retired official immediately patched him through to his former student.
The student was now the Director of the Security Bureau. Up to his neck in high- level operations, he couldn't personally rush to Apex, so he deployed Silas Carl in his stead.
The moment Silas got the briefing, he scrambled an elite strike team and headed straight for the city.
Meanwhile, Dane had completely lost contact with Claire.
His face turned ashen.
He immediately dialed Dewitt's number.
Dewitt gave him the rundown in three swift sentences.
"Don't lose your head. Claire went into this knowing she was acting as bait."
"We initially worried this Foster guy was clean and she was overthinking it. Who knew he was actually a massive threat?"
"He wants to drag her to Sundara, but he's acting like a fugitive. I guarantee he's got a massive bounty on his head!"
Dewitt's mind was moving at lightning speed.
"I'm on my way."
Dane had no desire to chat.
He knew Claire was fishing for a target, but he never expected things to go south this fast.
After all, she had just texted him moments ago.
If she had the time to draw those sketches and hit send, it meant she was safe at that moment.
As Dane floored the gas toward the harbor, he dialed the men he had assigned to shadow her.
"Where the hell are you?" Dane snapped, furious that the security detail hadn't updated him on her movements.
If anything happened to her, there would be hell to pay.
But it wasn't really the bodyguards' fault; Claire had explicitly ordered them to hang back and not alarm Dane.
There were six highly trained operatives on her detail: two from Pandora, two from Dane, and two from The Churchill Family.
Their combined overprotectiveness had left Claire with no choice but to let them follow her around.
Normally, she had them rotate shifts so she didn't have a six-man squad trailing her every move.
Today was a special operation, so she had brought the full team.
The six operatives had divided their tasks. The two on Dane's payroll were
absolutely in awe of Claire's tactical foresight.
Their specific job was surveillance.
The moment Claire left The Royal Grand, the heavily disguised Frederick Vane had checked out as well.
Shockingly, his getaway vehicle was an ambulance.
The old man hopped into the back, swapped to a black commercial van halfway through the route, and then transferred to a nondescript delivery truck just two blocks from the docks.
Hidden inside the truck's cargo hold, Vane was quietly loaded onto a freighter.
And he wasn't the only one onboard. Claire had been brought onto the ship as well.
The sedative they pumped into her didn't actually do any real damage.
With her encyclopedic medical background, she practically had an immunity to standard toxins.
Even setting aside the preemptive countermeasures she took before walking into the hotel, the drug itself was too weak to pose a threat
She had simply played along and taken a nice little nap.
It wasn't until she heard muffled voices outside that she lazily opened her eyes.
Listening to the distant wail of a foghorn, she realized they were already on the water.
"Is she awake yet?"
Melanie's voice drifted through the heavy door, asking the guard outside.
The guard replied that he hadn't heard a peep, but Melanie unlocked the cabin door anyway.
The sedative was only supposed to keep Claire out for an hour or two.
Now that she was securely onboard, Melanie wanted to check on her prize.
"Claire, you're awake, aren't you?"
Claire didn't bother pretending. pretending. She
sat up, looking at her captor with
of this?"
what the hell is the meaning