Chapter 95 Untitled Chapter
Chapter 95 Untitled Chapter
The mansion should have been quiet. It was nearly three in the morning. Most of the city was asleep. But sleep had become a foreign concept inside Roberto’s house.
The surveillance room glowed with screens and exhaustion. Coffee cups littered every available surface. Empty energy drink cans sat beside laptops. The air smelled like burnt caffeine and frustration.
Skyler looked like he had not blinked in hours, because he probably had not. His eyes were bloodshot. His shoulders were stiff. His fingers ached from typing. And still he kept going. Because failure was not an option.
The room remained silent except for the occasional tapping of keys. Bash stood near the wall with his arms folded across his chest. He was watching, waiting, and thinking. Roberto stood behind Skyler’s chair. He was not speaking, not moving, just staring at the monitors. It was as if he believed that if he looked hard enough, the answers would appear. They did not.
Hours passed. Nothing. Another dead end. Another encrypted wall. Another trail that dissolved into smoke.
Skyler swore under his breath, then again, then louder. His hand slammed onto the desk.
“Damn it.”
Nobody reacted. There was not enough energy left for surprises. Skyler scrubbed both hands down his face.
“I’ve got nothing.”
The words sounded broken and defeated.
“I’ve pulled apart every packet from that call. Every routing path. Every hidden layer. Every ghost signal.” He leaned back in his chair. “I’ve got absolutely nothing.”
Bash sighed. The sound felt heavy. “We’ll find something.”
“No.”
Skyler laughed. It was not a happy sound. “We won’t.”
Roberto finally spoke. “You will.”
Skyler looked up. Something in Roberto’s voice made him straighten. It was not hope. It was not confidence. It was a certainty. It was a cold and unshakable certainty.
Roberto stepped forward. His gaze never left the screen. “Victor called because he wanted something.”
Bash frowned. “He wanted to scare us.”
“Yes.”
“He wanted to taunt us.”
“Yes.”
“He wanted to prove he could get inside our systems.”
“Yes.” Roberto’s eyes narrowed. “But that’s not all.”
The room fell silent. Skyler slowly turned back toward the monitor.
“What are you seeing?”
Roberto pointed. Not at the call logs. Not at the encryption. At the timestamp.
Skyler blinked. “What about it?”
Roberto’s voice dropped. “Look closer.”
Skyler leaned forward, his brows furrowed. For several seconds he saw nothing. Then his eyes widened.
“Oh.”
Bash stepped closer. “What?”
Skyler pointed. “The timestamp.”
Bash still did not understand. “It’s a timestamp.”
“No.” Skyler swallowed. “Look at the seconds.”
Bash leaned in. The room went quiet.
Every call, every video, every transmission Victor had sent. The timestamps ended the same way.
:17
Always. No matter when the communication arrived. No matter the file. No matter the source. Every single one ended at seventeen seconds past the minute.
Bash stared. “That can’t be a coincidence.”
“It isn’t.”
Skyler’s exhaustion disappeared instantly. His fingers flew back onto the keyboard. Code flooded the screens. Data scrolled. Folders opened. Searches multiplied. The room came alive again. Hope was dangerous. But it was still hope.
Roberto watched quietly. His jaw remained tight because he knew Victor. And Victor never did anything accidentally. Which meant one of two things. Either Victor had made a mistake, or Victor wanted them to find it. Neither option made Roberto feel better.
Twenty minutes later Skyler sat up suddenly.
“Oh, you’ve got to be kidding me.”
Bash immediately moved closer. “What?”
Skyler stared at the monitor. His expression shifted from excitement to disbelief, then to anger, then back again.
“What?”
Skyler pointed at the screen. “I found it.”
The room froze. Even Roberto stopped moving.
Skyler swallowed. “It isn’t a location.”
His voice sounded strange, confused, and almost offended. “It isn’t a code either.”
Bash’s patience snapped. “Skyler.”
Skyler looked up. “He left coordinates.”
Silence hung heavy in the room.
Roberto’s eyes darkened. “Coordinates.”
“Yeah.” Skyler rubbed his forehead. “Embedded beneath the timestamps.” His laugh was hollow. “Not hidden particularly well either.”
The room instantly became colder. Because Victor was many things. Careless was not one of them.
Bash realized it first. His expression hardened. “That’s wrong.”
Skyler nodded slowly. “Exactly.”
Roberto’s voice came out low. “Show me.”
The coordinates appeared on the center screen. Everyone stared. Nobody spoke. Because it was too easy. Far too easy. Victor had practically handed it to them. It was like bait. Like a gift. Like a challenge.
Bash looked at Roberto. “We are not going.”
Skyler immediately agreed. “We definitely are not going.”
Neither man had to explain why. Because they were all thinking the same thing. A trap.
Roberto stared at the coordinates, expressionless and silent. It was a dangerously silent kind of silence. Then he asked,
“Can you verify them?”
Skyler nodded, already typing. A map appeared. Then a building. Then satellite images. Then property records. The room went still.
Bash cursed softly. “No way.”
Roberto’s gaze sharpened. “What?”
Skyler turned toward them. His face had gone pale. “The coordinates lead to one of Victor’s old warehouses.”
Silence settled for a long moment. Because that changed everything.
Victor had owned dozens. Most had been abandoned years ago. Some had burned down. Others had disappeared from official records entirely. But this one was real. It was documented. It was known. And it was empty. Completely empty, according to every record they could find.
Bash looked at Roberto. “He’s baiting us.”
“Yes.”
“And he wants us there.”
Roberto’s teeth clenched. “Yes.”
Skyler swallowed. “So what do we do?”
Nobody answered immediately. Roberto continued staring at the warehouse image, thinking, calculating, and remembering. Then something shifted in his expression. It was a tiny change, but it was enough.
Bash saw it, and immediately did not like it. “What are you thinking?”
Roberto’s gaze never left the screen. His voice was calm. Too calm.
“The same thing Victor is.”
The room became very quiet. Because everyone knew exactly what that meant. And for the first time since the kidnapping began, Roberto smiled.
It was not a pleasant smile. It was not reassuring. It was the smile of a man who had finally found something to hit back. And somewhere far away, Victor probably knew it.
Because this was not a rescue mission anymore. It was a game between two predators. And both of them had just made their first real move.