Silencing Eve by Iris Johansen Page B

off-road vehicle with those special tires at the Wyoming border on the day of the explosion. It was a tan Toyota 4-Runner. He didn’t want to call you until he had something concrete to offer you. He was afraid that you were targeting him because Joe Quinn had found out that he’d done work for you.”
    “Thanks to you,” Zander said dryly. “I don’t appreciate your lack of discretion in giving away my contacts. I don’t tolerate that lack of loyalty. Perhaps you should be the one afraid, Stang.”
    “Probably. But I’m done with that.” He smiled. “You’ve been intimidating me so long that you’ve dulled the edge.” He put the telephone number down on the desk in front of Zander. “Do you really think that Weiner can zero in on Doane?”
    “It’s possible he can help.” Zander leaned back in his chair. “He’s as close to an electronics genius as they come, and he thinks outside the box. He has the sophisticated equipment to make it happen. It depends on his motivation.” His smile was tiger bright as he said softly, “And I don’t wish to brag, but I’m quite good at providing motivation.”
    Stang was aware that Zander could persuade anyone to do anything if he chose. His physical presence was very powerful, and his reputation was chilling. Who should know better than Stang? He had worked for him for a number of years as his accountant and personal assistant, and most of that time, he’d been on the edge of fear. Zander was a brilliant assassin whose fees were in the millions, but he kept most compartments of his life strictly private. That was fine with Stang, he had no desire to know too much about Zander’s dealings. It could prove dangerous, if not fatal. It was only lately that Zander had let Stang into his confidence. He had seemed to want him to know about the kidnapping of Eve Duncan by Doane. “What kind of electronics voodoo do you want Weiner to perform?”
    “Something a little less than voodoo. Cameras are much more pedestrian.”
    “Cameras?”
    “In the past, I’ve had Weiner track targets for me using public and private cameras. I give him an area, and he creates a huge wall-mounted map and uses a highlighter pen to track a designated vehicle.”
    “How?”
    “Municipal traffic cams posted at major intersections. Most cities keep at least a few weeks’ worth on their servers’ hard drives. Live highway cameras feeds are available to anyone on the Internet these days, but Weiner takes it a step further by tapping into the Department of Transportation servers to review history. Then there are private-business security cameras. ATM cameras facing the roads. Toll-gate cameras…” He waved his hand. “It goes on and on.”
    “So much for privacy on the road.”
    “A few years ago, this kind of tracking would have been impossible. The camera feeds would have been recorded on videocassettes and stored at each place. Now the images are recorded on hard drives, usually networked, and thus vulnerable to remote hacking and snooping.” His lips twisted. “And Weiner’s network connections are truly impressive. Once he knows which road or direction Doane is traveling, he’ll be able to follow his path using Google Street View, looking left and right at businesses, banks, etcetera, to see security cameras he can hack.”
    “Why tell him to focus on Colorado and Wyoming? For that matter, why are we holed up in this modernistic Taj Mahal instead of going back to Vancouver?”
    “A hunch. That jump down into the cavern and the trip downstream was pretty rough. I’d think Doane would want to hole up and recuperate a little before he took to the road. First, he’d want to see if his little scam had worked; and then he’d start pulling a new plan out of his hat.” He nodded at the memorial service broadcasting on the TV set across the room. “This should reassure him that he’s safe to move.” He smiled. “And it will also be the signal for Quinn to go after me and try to