– Dr. Markowitz?
– Who is asking?
Worried her actions could cost Penny’s life, Hope wondered what she’d gotten herself into as she debated how to answer that query. Her fingers hovered over the keys. Finally, she typed:
– A mother. The Romeros have taken my daughter. I need your help.
– No. I cannot help you.
– You left the port open on purpose.
– Yes.
– So you want help. So do I. Is my daughter there with you?
– No.
– You must help me.
The line remained blank, the cursor blinking like a winking eye.
– They took my grandson, Adam. If my daughter-her family-says anything, they threatened to kill him. Rescue my grandson and I will do anything.
Hope stared at the flashing cursor on her screen, her fingers suddenly frozen. His answer was so unexpected, she wasn’t sure what to do. Finally she wrote the only thing she could think to write.
– Where is my daughter?
The question sat on the screen, the cursor blinking. She waited for his line of text to come beneath hers.
– Follow the e-mail.
As she lifted her hands to the keyboard, the dialogue box suddenly disappeared. At first she thought it was a malfunction. With Miller still on the line, she said, “What just happened?”
“Terminated.” She heard the furious clicking of a keyboard. “From his end,” Miller reported. Then, just as quickly: “Oh, shit.” He blurted it out like a man unaccustomed to swearing. “They just pinged you!”
“What?”
“Shut off your machine! Lose the connection right now!”
Hope stood from the edge of the bed, the keyboard spilling from her lap and crashing to the carpet. She lunged for the television remote, left on the small circular table by the windows. She pushed buttons, but nothing happened, only to realize she had the remote aimed backwards. She turned it around, hit MENU and worked through the choices. When she hit RETURN TO LIVE TV, an episode of Seinfeld appeared.
“Dr. Miller?” she inquired, back on the phone now.
“They pinged you. Do you understand?”
“Follow the e-mail,” she said, repeating what she’d read.
“The port had to be open, you see? Unsecured, to do this.” He seemed to be talking to himself, apologizing. “By pinging you, they went straight back to whatever machine you’re using. Understand? There was nothing I could do about it.”
“What e-mail is he talking about?” she repeated.
“That ping will return a unique ID for you.”
She thought of Larson. “They’ll be under arrest before they can do anything about it.”
“We don’t know that.”
“Yes, we do, actually. Now, calm down and think,” she told him. She was close to Penny now-she could feel it. “We need to concentrate on what he told us. Follow the e-mail. Can you trace any e-mail he may have sent through your network?”
“I’ve put you in danger.”
She pulled the phone away from her face and took a deep breath, then resumed. “Doctor, I need you to concentrate.”