Chapter 14

The tapes had been tampered with.

Tony, his best mechanic and hacker, had worked round the clock to piece back together the damaged files. Four days after Jackson had sent his little sister and the Crown Prince off to the safe house, he got a call from him.

"I think you're going to want to see this." Tony said over the line.

The room where the palace's computer technicians worked had been dubbed the "control room" for as long as he could remember. It looked exactly what he'd always pictured control rooms to look like. Dark blue painted walls covered in monitors that spat out data and relevant charts. A cork board wall that had articles and print out readings all over it. Desk upon desk lined up along the middle, giving each individual a wonderful view of the monitor wall.

He made a mental note to have Avery bring in fans for this room. The stagnant air didn't seem very...productive. Between that and the dimness of the lights, it was a wonder anyone got any work done in here.

Tony's desk sat at the end of the row, right next to the only window in the room.

Almost half a year ago, Tony had spent most of his hacking time in the basement of his mother's house. After he'd done a job for Jackson's little sister and her friend that involved setting up a firewall the likes of which he'd never seen, Jackson had been sure to recruit the man.

The first time he'd met him, Jackson had gotten a vibe from Tony that he liked. He wasn't a talkative man, and he really could use a haircut, but the amount of criminals he'd brought in because of the awkward genius astounded him.

"Tony." Jackson stepped up beside the desk and tried to ignore the silence from everyone in the room as they noticed his presence. Lucky for him, the clack-clack-clack of fingers on keyboards started right up again.

"Commander." Tony spun in his chair, his shoulder length hair tied into a low ponytail. "Right on time. I found something that might interest you."

"Any luck with those tapes?" Jackson crossed his arms over his chest and readied for information he didn't want to hear. Anything to do with this bastard of a stalker would be something he didn't want to hear--unless of course it was that the stalker had been identified and accidentally struck by a stray bullet.

"The data stream was too mangled to do a full recovery. Whoever this guy is, he knows his technology. As I am not officially a video forensic expert, I didn't get as much, but I found enough."

"What did you find?"

Tony pushed his glasses further up his nose. "First, I found out your surveillance system's compression abilities suck. The files of each recording take up so much data space--no wonder you have someone specifically hired to go through and log it. Also, the quality of the cameras is questionable. I tried to make a high quality copy of the data I could piece together, which was another task by itself--"

"Tony." Jackson clenched his jaw. "The files?"

"Yes." He spun back around and pulled up a separate screen. "Here's the pieces I put together. I had to crop the original data file to get what I could."

Tony brought up a screen that Jackson immediately recognized--it was an aerial view of the changing room off of the pool. Cubbies lined the wall, clothes shoved into random spots. Along the other wall were changing stalls--the camera angled in such a way that the viewer couldn't see inside them.

"That one." Jackson pointed out one of the lower cubbies. "That's the one Elizabeth said she put her clothes in."

Tony shook his head. "It's still weird to hear her called Elizabeth." He muttered, then louder he said, "I've got three small clips. Here's the first--a small clip right before the incident. You can see someone run past the doorway. At this point, the kids are still in the pool having fun."

He brought up another clip. "Here's clip two." The screen quickly played through. To Jackson's increasing rage, the five second clip cut off just as a taller man with broad shoulders stepped on screen. His back faced the camera.

Jackson's fist curled. That was him. "Clip three?"

Tony brought up another screen. "Clip three's my favorite."

Even though the camera was at a bit of a distance, it had been able to catch quite a nice shot of the man who, by now in this clip, had Elizabeth's clothes firmly under one arm. He had dark hair, a strong jaw, and sported a full beard. He committed the face to memory.

"Before you ask, I sent the picture to Carla to see if he matches anyone in the facial recognition system."

"And?"

Tony smile came and went. "We're lucky we added in all the workers to that database. We got a match...but that's the limit of my good fortune."

"Why?"

"Our guy here--Edward Columbine--left Sarias last night. Took the first flight out to the neighboring kingdom, Rinamda."

Edward Columbine. Finally, something he could work with. Jackson was already in motion, heading toward the door. "I'm sending a team out for retrieval. Tony, send Avery Columbine's money trail--we'll be able to track him fast."

"You got it."

***

"A safe house?" Melena, Elizabeth's PR Manager, frowned. "No wonder Lady Elizabeth hasn't been responding to my calls. Of course, it would have been better to have heard this news sooner..."

"She's safe?" Lyle, the skinny little guy who acted as Melena's assistant, rubbed his hands on his jeans.

Jackson folded his hands on his desk. If he didn't keep his fingers together, he'd tap them against the table. Since hearing the good news, his adrenaline had never stopped pumping. And it would continue until he got the call from his team that Columbine was detained and off the streets.

He'd wanted to go after the man himself--God, how he'd wanted to put the man behind bars--but he was needed here, where he could direct his military personnel at a moment's notice and control the operation from outside. He missed being out on the field on days like this--the action and exercise helped work out any frustration and agitation. After this, he'd have to go to one of the training rooms to work off the excess energy.

But first he had to get everyone on the right page.

"Why am I only hearing about this situation now?" Melena asked. Her clipboard and blackberry sat dutifully in her lap--ready for use.

Jackson's eyes met Avery's across the room. She gave him a slight nod. "It was imperative that we fully assess the situation and figure out what--or who--we are dealing with before sharing the news."

"In other words you didn't trust us."

He stared at her.

After a tense moment, Melena sighed. "I understand. I do. However, as Lady Elizabeth's public relations manager, it would have been nice to know."

"You know now." He said gruffly. "That will have to be enough. And until I physically have this man in a cell, I do not want any of you to post, share, comment, or leak any information about my sister or the Crown Prince. Is that clear?"

They all nodded.

Ethan's PR Manager, a nice young lady named Crystal, finally spoke. "How did this happen?" She tucked a strand of long, straight blonde hair behind an ear. "How does this man know Lady Elizabeth?"

Jackson's fingers tightened slightly. "Stalkers are easier to acquire than most people expect. Elizabeth might not even know this man. Avery's gone over every record on him. It seems he worked in the gardening department. The two could've simply crossed paths once, and he'd have been a goner."

"So how are we going to proceed?" Melena asked.

"I'm having Elizabeth and Ethan stay put until I know for sure." He gestured to Avery.

His assistant stepped forward and handed each individual a sleek, pre-programmed smart phone. "I've sent Elizabeth and Ethan each a phone that works on a safe and secure line."

"You want us to call them?" Lyle asked.

Jackson snorted. "No. This is for them. I'm going to tell them it's okay to call you if they need anything work wise. I'm sure the two of them will want to get back to work, maybe put out music while they wait. This is so you will still be able to advise them."

Melena's eyebrows came together as she frowned. "Commander, didn't you say you wanted us to stay quiet about this?"

"I did. But I also want to make sure the public doesn't suspect anything is different. That may tip off our suspect. Until I have him in custody, we proceed this way."

"I've already got numerous emails from the press wondering where Prince Ethan has been." Crystal said. Her fingers traced the edges of the phone. "They watch his schedule religiously. It'll be good to contact him and put out some type of statement."

"The press do love our Prince." Avery said.

"I'm confused." Lyle spoke up. The more Jackson heard his voice, the more mousy it sounded. "You want us to stay quiet, but you want us to post information like nothing's different."

"I need you to convey that everything is normal. Can you do that?" He didn't mean to come out snippy, but that was how it sounded.

Lyle swallowed once and nodded.

"Good. You are all dismissed."