“Ms. Barton Ash?” the same woman who’d taken my call earlier came online after the first ring.

“Yeah. Is Brom …” I started to ask.

“He left instructions to update you on what we know. He can’t talk to you right now because events are fast-moving,” she said in a cool, professional voice.

Fast-moving?

“Alright, tell me,” I said crisply.

“Ms. Palmer was apparently taken by unknown parties …” she started again.

“W-H-A-A-A-T????” I screamed. I forgot where I was but my blood ran cold and I couldn’t think straight.

“And “Serpico’s” been initiated,” she continued. “So you know that you’re …”

“I know, I know!!” I said in a panicked voice that was below a scream, but only barely so. “Just tell me what’s going on with Aerin!”

“Her whereabouts are being tracked right now and Jack and two other cars have been able to pick up on her trail,” the woman continued in her cool, efficient voice. “She’s in a van of some kind …”

I’m not sure if she was used to dealing with people who had lost their minds or were about to, but she seemed unperturbed that I had basically screamed into her ear twice.

“What happened? How could she have been taken??!!” I asked in a half-shout.

“We don’t know specifically, but initial reports from Jack indicate he and the others were hit by a surprise attack, and in the chaos, Ms. Palmer was taken,” she said in the same cool voice, as if reading from a script.

“Is she hurt?” I asked, and my voice must have cracked.

“Umm… Ms. Barton-Ash … we really have nothing more,” she said, in a voice that was a trifle bit more compassionate. “But … if there’d been blood anywhere, Jack would have mentioned it.”

Blood?

“We’re not going to lose her, ma’am,” she continued. “Her signal is coming on strong, Jack says, and a helicopter has been deployed, so we think that those giving chase will catch up to her soon …”

She paused.

“What??? What???” I asked and was back to shouting. “Why’d you stop just then?”

“Brom wants you to stay where you are …” she started to say.

“I know! I know! He told me that already,” I interrupted her impatiently.