I started to explain this to Rafael, but something gnawed at me. There was one piece that didn’t fit. A rental car? Too easy to trace—unless it had been boosted. Most thieves were pretty stupid—I’d heard of one extortionist who sent his ransom demands using the telecom in the office of his parole officer, not realizing that the signature and time at the end of the message were fingering him. But these two hadn’t looked stupid, which made the rental car an unlikely choice. Those vehicles had a limited speed and range, and were rigged to send out a signal that told the rental company’s computers exactly where the vehicle was at any given moment. The car’s electronic brain automatically alerted the company and shut down the electric engine if the vehicle entered any of the city’s "no go" areas like Hell’s Kitchen.