The spread a highland ho.., p.15
Linked by Deception, page 15
“Can you do it?” That was the real question. This whole mission would be moot if Rabbit couldn’t create the program Zane—and by extension, Falcon—wanted.
“It’ll be tricky to pull off.”
“I hear a but in there.” I matched my steps to his, staying close so our conversation remained between us even though we were the only ones moving through the lot.
Rabbit shook his head even as he scanned our surroundings. “No but—not yet.”
Maybe not, but something was happening in that quicksilver brain. “What are you thinking?”
He glanced down at me, his face inscrutable. “I’m thinking I need to dig into the Boyau project before I decide anything.”
Since I wasn’t keen on having this conversation overheard, I slowed, bringing us both to a stop, hopefully far enough away from the car to be safe. Then I stepped in front of him and put a hand on his chest. “Share.”
His hands went to my hips, and his gaze met mine. “This isn’t exactly the best place to discuss this, cher.”
Considering that we had an avid audience in both the car and the condo, I begged to differ. “Isn’t it?” I deliberately looked around at the nearly empty lot. Despite the few remaining cars, no one else was around. “Looks like we’re about as private as we can get right now.”
“Stubborn.”
Not about to argue, I waited in silent demand.
Finally, he sighed and gave in. “Back in Vegas, we made a copy of the drive Risia requisitioned from Aether.”
“You modified it. Tweaking the encrypted information until it skewed the data so no one at the auction got a usable list.”
Rabbit had needed to sell the team on that solution because of the high degree of risk associated with using the actual classified list, which contained the identity of every covert operator and each person’s active assignment. Rawlings—Aether’s CEO—was determined to earn top dollar with his private, and highly illegal, auction of the data and the back door that granted initial access via the DOD’s systems. At that same auction, Zane had made his first appearance as Alexander Spires, and things had gone horrifically wrong for Rawlings and most of the buyers.
“We can do something similar here.”
Before he could continue, I was shaking my head. “I don’t think that’s wise. Don’t forget, Zane was there. No way would he fall for that trick twice.”
Despite the shadows cast by the sporadically placed lights, there was no missing the exasperation filling Rabbit’s face. “Give me some credit, yeah?” Since his question came out with the bite of temper, I kept my mouth shut. It took a lot to get Rabbit riled. His hands left my hips, one to rake through his hair and the other to make a fist at his side. “The type of program he wants, he’s going to want to test it. When he does, it has to work.”
That did not sound good, especially considering that Falcon dealt in drugs, weapons, and humans. “You want to give him a clear shot at whatever shipment he’s going to test it with, without interference?”
Grim resolution replaced his exasperation. “We don’t have much choice.”
“No,” I said, though I knew better. No matter how much I didn’t like it, Rabbit’s logic was sound. In the covert world, there was a level of ruthless practicality that dominated the decision-making process. In this case, there was no doubt that the higher-ups would consider the loss of an illegal shipment, and whatever casualties that involved, an acceptable exchange for dismantling a criminal syndicate like Falcon. The win would outweigh the human costs.
It wasn’t a new realization. Hell, I’d been in similar situations before—and would be again—but it never got easier to accept. Sometimes I hated our job.
I looked away, wrapping my arms around my stomach and clenching my teeth as frustration boiled. “Dammit, just… dammit.”
“Yeah, I know.” He stepped in and pulled me close.
For a few seconds, I remained stiff, but Rabbit wasn’t the one I was mad at. It was the whole messed-up situation and the bleak outcomes that made me want to scream and rail. I dropped my head against his chest, needing to think, to find some other way out of this mess. But no matter how hard I twisted the facts, I couldn’t see my way clear.
Rabbit curled one hand around the back of my neck while the other stroked my spine in silent comfort. It took a few breaths before I lifted my head and made to step back. Rabbit let me go.
I turned away to pace in front of him as I considered our options. I stopped on one of my return passes. “Can’t we embed a fail-safe of some kind?”
“We could, but when would we activate it? We still have to let at least one of whatever shipment they identify get through. Otherwise, they’ll know we screwed them.” He folded his arms as he continued to play devil’s advocate. “Trigger it before the transaction is complete, and you blow the entire op. And trigger it after…”
He left the rest unsaid, but he’d made his point. Triggering it after the fact would result in casualties on both sides. And in either scenario, we’d be the first ones blamed, which wouldn’t end well for either of us.
“We can’t let a team go in blind,” I said. “They need to know what they’re walking into.” Guilt might be a familiar companion, but I still wanted to avoid it.
“We clue in whatever agency is watching Falcon, and you and I both know it’ll turn into a total cluster.” Rabbit’s voice held nothing but cold logic. “The more individuals who know what’s happening, the higher the chance of it all going tits up.”
I shifted my gaze beyond him and stared sightlessly into the night as personal experiences played out in my mind’s eye, leaving me no way to argue his point. Those experiences had factored into my decision to leave the corps and work for Delacourt. My dark thoughts came to a skidding halt, and my gaze snapped to Rabbit. “We keep thinking we have to read in for whatever agency is watching. What if we limit the disclosure on this?”
“To…?”
“Delacourt.” Excitement made my words tumble over each other as I retook my position in front of him and pressed my palms against his chest. “We keep this part of the operation in-house.”
He frowned. “You want to set up a decoy shipment?”
I nodded. “Complete with a decoy sting team. If we stack the odds in our favor, we have a better chance of pulling this off.” Since he didn’t appear convinced, I laid it out in rough strokes. “Zane all but told us Falcon’s shipments are being monitored, which is why they’re requesting the program. So let’s use that. I’m sure Delacourt has some in with whichever agencies are currently eyeing Falcon. If she can get them to identify key targets, we can skew the program to focus on those. Then she can set up one of the other PSY-IV teams to play the part of whatever agency Zane currently has eyes on. Even if something slips through, if the shipment is tagged, we can still go in and retrieve it.”
He took his time responding. “You realize just how shaky this plan is?”
I did. It was a regular house of cards. With one slipup, the resulting blow would wipe the entire thing out. “You have a better one?”
He grimaced, confirming my guess that we had a slim chance in hell of pulling this off. “We do this, and we’ll be dancing with the devil, yeah?”
“Yeah,” I agreed, going on tiptoe to press a quick kiss to his tight jaw. “Here’s hoping our moves are enough to keep the devil begging for more.”
Shaking his head, he wrapped an arm around my waist as we headed for the car. “Wicked woman.”
This time, I kept my satisfied grin to myself.
Chapter 15
Rabbit
I wasn’t nearly as confident as Jinx about her plan, but it wasn’t like I had a better one. She was driven by the same demons who dug their nasty claws into me. Gaining a victory with the blood and lives of good men was not something either of us could stomach. The need to face decisions like this was what kept me away from the more clandestine agencies. If I had to swim in the murky waters of frayed ethics, I’d soon find myself drowning in good intentions gone bad.
Once I got Jinx into the car, she didn’t waste time kicking off her heels and drawing one leg up under her. As I rounded the hood, I tested the bug and found that it was still active. Frustrated by the situational restrictions but knowing there was jack all I could do about it, I got in and slammed the door a little harder than necessary, which earned me a raised eyebrow from Jinx.
I shook my head and glanced meaningfully at the windshield. She rolled her eyes, snapped her seat belt in place, and heaved a small sigh. We did the chitchat thing until I got out of the lot, then she turned on the radio, giving us a minor mask of white noise. Eventually, conversation petered out until the only sound was the incongruous pop chords coming from the speakers.
As I navigated through the late-night traffic, my mind worked over the problem Zane’s test presented. Creating the initial spyware program would be time-consuming but doable, but masking the double-agent aspect would be tricky. I had a few ideas, but until I could get in front of a keyboard and test them, I wouldn’t know which one would pan out.
Before long, the lack of sleep started catching up with me, and I found myself drifting. Stopping at a red light, I turned to find that Jinx had already nodded off, her head lolling against the window. Since I wasn’t keen on wrapping the two of us around a light pole, I hit the button to lower the window just as the light turned green. The window didn’t move.
“Dammit.” Not about to play around with it and piss off the drivers behind me, I hit the gas and tried the button a couple more times. Same result. I didn’t want to lower Jinx’s window, since she was using it as a pillow, so I went for the next best thing, the AC. I jacked the temperature as cold as it would go. When tepid air emerged instead of the expected frigid blast, I started trying to angle the vents one-handed. Damn rentals.
My hand fumbled against the controls as things blurred around the edges. I must have managed to hit something, because the radio blinked off, but there was no change in the AC. The jarring warning of a car horn as I drifted into the other lane brought momentary clarity. I jerked my attention back to the road, automatically overcorrecting my steering. The car rocked in its lane as I regained control, but I felt almost punch-drunk.
“Fuck, fuck, fuck.” Something was wrong—really wrong. This wasn’t normal. I forced my way through the thickening haze that seemed to cloud my brain. I needed to get out of traffic and figure out what was happening.
A turn was coming up on the right, an escape from the main road. I took it, praying I’d find a place to pull over. Spotting a shoulder, I let off the gas and flicked on my turn signal, but instead of slowing, the car picked up speed. Not only that, but I suddenly found myself fighting the wheel. The tires bounced hard over the gravel shoulder, the back wheels spinning before regaining traction and jumping back onto the asphalt.
A dull thump sounded as Jinx’s head hit the window, and she groaned. My alarm rose when that failed to rouse her.
“Jinx, dammit, wake up.” I continued to fight the wheel, but it was clear I wasn’t regaining control any time soon. The car had a mind of its own. Adrenaline began to clear out the fog, giving my brain a chance to kick in.
Sweat stung my eyes as I white knuckled the steering wheel. I used a shoulder to wipe them clear as I slapped the AC off, since it wasn’t doing a damn bit of good. “Jinx.” I didn’t dare take my eyes off the ribbon of road whipping under the wheels. The street remained clear and straight, but something told me that wasn’t going to last long. “Jinx, wake up!”
I gripped the gearshift and threw it into neutral. The engine continued to rev, the speedometer rising in tandem. I gritted my teeth as realization wiped away the last of the unnatural haze.
“What the hell?” Jinx’s slurred question meant she was finally awake.
“Someone’s hacked the car.”
“What?”
I caught her movement out of the corner of my eye. “Leave the belt on!”
She froze as headlights broke the darkness ahead and another car headed toward us.
Fear sank icy teeth in deep as I watched those lights get closer. I kept my death grip on the steering wheel, praying that whoever was behind this didn’t want us dead.
“Rabbit?” Jinx squeaked as she slapped her hands on the dash.
My mind spun, information coming in snapshots and generating various outcomes. Staring out the windshield, I realized that whoever was behind the hack had picked the perfect spot to take control.
The road disappeared into the darkness, leading away from the more populated urban sprawl. A narrow ditch lined the left side, empty darkness sprawling beyond it. Cement walls and old-growth trees delineated the neighborhood green spaces on the right, creating a lethal obstacle course. Staying straight worked for me, but I wasn’t the one in control.
As if that was the spark it was waiting for, inspiration struck. “Jinx, I need you to take the wheel.”
Fortunately, she didn’t waste time with pointless questions but instead undid her belt as I shoved my seat back in an effort to give her room. “As soon as you can, send us to the left.”
“Got it.” She all but climbed into my lap, adding her strength to mine on the wheel and her foot on top of mine on the useless brake.
Not liking the fact that she had no seat belt, I locked my arms across her chest in a human harness, praying it would be enough to keep her safe. As soon as her hands were in place, I shifted my focus, accessing the electronic world that belonged to me. Instead of finding the smooth entry I was used to, I had to fight my way through a distracting screen of anxiety before the car’s main computer system came into focus. The energy signals spread out in front of me in dizzying lines of light. Recognizing the familiar signature of the damn bug I had all but forgotten, I didn’t waste time cursing. Who the hell knows how much they picked up? The best I could do was ensure that they got nothing more. I sent a whip of electricity into its tiny brain and fried it before turning my attention back to the bigger problem.
Despite the loud ticking of my mental clock counting down, I zipped through the electronic freeways, noting the solid presence of the control units running the car’s various functions. Signals zipped along in a dizzying race as I swept my psychic eye over the construct. The steady streams of light defined the car’s brain as information flowed from system to system, circuit to circuit. That wasn’t what I needed.
A spark hit and was quickly followed by another, like firing neurons. Shifting my attention, I waited. When it happened again, it coincided with the vague echo of Jinx’s curse and the distant sense of my body swaying in my seat.
Gotcha. As I zeroed in on the hacker’s electronic trail, the urgency nipping at my ass had me choosing brute strength over finesse. Energy was the heart of my ability, and manipulation was my preferred weapon. In this case, to break the hacker’s stranglehold on the ECU’s brain, I needed to land a devastating sucker punch.
Stretching my psychic fingers out, I gathered as much energy as I could and wound it together until it all but burned through my synapses. Targeting the hacker’s last position, I hovered over the information streams. One breath… two. Hair rose on my psychic skin in warning, and I slammed the coiled energy into the stream just as the hacker’s interference sparked. The two energies collided in an eye-searing explosion of light.
The electronic freeway went dark. In that same breathless instant, my physical body was wrenched sideways with bruising force that sent pain lancing through my head and left shoulder. A savage spurt of satisfaction followed on its heels as I registered, on some distant level, that Jinx had regained control of the wheel.
But we weren’t out of trouble yet. A flicker of light, interspersed with the unique pattern of programming code, heralded the car’s electronic systems coming back online. Not about to lose my fragile control, I ignored the bruising sensations battering my body and Jinx’s constant stream of curses and began manipulating the now-scrolling curtain of code and redirecting the electronic signals. Before long, the engine control units were mine and locked from any further outside interference.
Then I turned my attention to the hacker, but he or she was long gone. No surprise there. Around me, the process flows kicked into gear as the ECUs all came back online. Since I was still breathing, I took a moment to ensure that there were no missed access points the hacker could exploit.
Confident that the car was mine and would stay that way, I pulled back from the electronic landscape, raising that protective wall that kept my ability in check. Safe in my own mind, the first thing I noted was the merciless throbbing that reverberated from the top of my skull to my toes. That ache was joined by others—along my ribs and the side of my face and radiating down my legs.
“Rabbit? Wyatt?”
Jinx’s shaky voice saying my name in a tone I’d never heard from her before had me swallowing back rising nausea and blinking my eyes open. I groaned as even that movement hurt. “I’m here.”
“Can you let me go?”
At her question, I realized I had managed to lock her tight against me. Huh. Guess the human-harness idea worked. I loosened my hold, giving her room to move. “You okay?”
She gingerly shifted her weight, trying to twist to see me.
My ribs protested. I grabbed her hips and tightened as I sucked in sharp breath. “Hold still for a second.”
She froze, and for a couple of heartbeats, only our harsh breaths could be heard.
I did a mental check of my body, and when only muttered complaints came back, I said, “I think I’m good.” I let her go.
Her weight lightened, and then hands cupped my face. “Open your eyes.”
I hadn’t realized I’d closed them. I followed her orders and found that she had shifted toward the center console. My eyes met hers, and I was stunned by the depth of concern I saw. “Hey, I’m okay.”
“No, you’re not.” She studied me with a frown.
