The Short Drop
Matthew FitzSimmons
Language: English
Pages: 397
ISBN: 1503950255
Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub
The bestseller with over half a million readers that People magazine called a “live-wire debut.”
A decade ago, fourteen-year-old Suzanne Lombard, the daughter of Benjamin Lombard—then a senator, now a powerful vice president running for the presidency—disappeared in the most sensational missing-person case in the nation’s history. Still unsolved, the mystery remains a national obsession.
For legendary hacker and marine Gibson Vaughn, the case is personal—Suzanne Lombard had been like a sister to him. On the tenth anniversary of her disappearance, the former head of Benjamin Lombard’s security asks for Gibson’s help in a covert investigation of the case, with new evidence in hand.
Haunted by tragic memories, he jumps at the chance to uncover what happened all those years ago. Using his military and technical prowess, he soon discovers multiple conspiracies surrounding the Lombard family—and he encounters powerful, ruthless political players who will do anything to silence him and his team. With new information surfacing that could threaten Lombard’s bid for the presidency, Gibson must stay one step ahead as he navigates a dangerous web to get to the truth.
as anyone on the team, but this was not his area of expertise. Not his fault, though overselling his ability had been. That was why Vaughn was here. If it wasn’t already too late. Ordinarily, this was their main conference room, but it had been converted into a makeshift war room. Photographs, diagrams, maps, and notes were pinned neatly to a series of wheeled bulletin boards arranged along one wall. A photograph of Suzanne Lombard sat at the top of the center bulletin board, her immediate
of academic. He’s going to blend in unless we have a way to pick him out. Which brings us to . . .” She trailed off. “My program,” Gibson said. “Does it work?” she asked. “I think so. But I won’t know for sure until I get it out in the field.” “Can’t you test it first?” Hendricks asked. “I have, to an extent, and it works as a simulation without crashing, but unless you want to wait while I build a dummy of the library’s network, then there’s no way to know for sure without
his motel room, reviewing the surveillance footage for clear face shots, compiling them as stills and matching them, when relevant, with the compiled personal information from the computers logged in to the Wi-Fi. Every hour, he forwarded all-new photos and personal data to ACG—but not directly. Out of fear that WR8TH had compromised ACG’s corporate servers, Gibson and Mike Rilling had set up independent servers to receive all case-related communications and data. Rilling was running the
time That rocked Gibson. Bear talking about him to her captor. That he’d been on her mind even then. He felt a great sweeping sadness. Sadness mixed with a returning anger. GVaughn: Oh, yeah? She talk about the good old days growing up on the shore while you were torturing her, or whatever sick shit you did? WR8TH: KISS MY ASS!!! i LOVED her. she did actually and she talked about u a lot. how u called her Bear and read to her GVaughn: I don’t want to hear it from you. WR8TH: wat u
intervening years had caused him to reconsider. Cold Harbor was a midsize private military contractor based east of Mechanicsville, Virginia. It was named for a particularly nasty one-sided battle of the Civil War that had inflicted terrible casualties on Ulysses S. Grant’s forces. Never able to compete with the big boys for the major contracts, Cold Harbor did well for itself by fostering a reputation as an outfit that got the job—any job—done. Sometimes ruthlessness trumped size.