Page 79 of Don't Let Go

He sounded like a bit of a prick as it was, and McQuade more than confirmed Stone should be on the kill list. So if this was a trap, I was more than happy to spring it. Stone’s involvement was enough for me to agree to scratch him off the board.

Chapter

Twenty-Seven

PATCH

Instead of being able to turn Remy around quickly as I would have preferred, we had to let the gambit play out. Whoever wrote the code to keep track of Stone, had used an elegant format. Adding my own lines to it would trigger alarms if I didn’t do it exactly right.

By the time night fell fully, Remy was in the Dallas area. He’d followed Stone to a five-star hotel, where the former general had checked in and then gone straight to the bar for a drink. He’d been there for the last—I checked my watch—hour.

McQuade and Locke were running into issues at the location we’d tracked using the GPS in the program. It was a ranch property, large house, bigger barn and a few outbuildings. They were empty.

Worse, there were definite signs of equipment movement with heavy tire treads going in and out. Had they begun the evacuation that fast? Or was it already in progress when Stone confronted McQuade?

I rubbed at my tired eyes. The buzz from the earlier orgasms had long since passed due to my frustration with all of this. We needed a break. Just one—and Stone seemed to be it and yet,here we were running into a salvo of distractions, half-clues, and worst of all, dead ends.

After a brief consult, they’d all decided that McQuade and Locke inspecting the location was vital as was Remy sticking with his target. Grabbing my mostly cold coffee cup, I grimaced. It didn’t have much left in it, but I needed more caffeine and I didn’t like cold coffee unless I ordered it that way.

One more sweep of my screens and I pushed the chair back. Stiffness invaded my muscles after having sat still for so long. The earlier boneless relief brought on by McQuade’s touch and Remy’s kisses, not to mention the fact Locke had heard everything—heat rose through me just at the memory—was completely absent now.

More was the pity. Interruptions of all types had demarcated my days for years. ParticularlyafterI left my job. Building my life as an operator meant rigid controls, with checks and balances at every stage. That provided safety, but it also meant I didn’t have fail safes or coverage when I needed downtime.

Better to not need it, so I learned to adapt. I slept when I could and worked the rest of the time. It kept me alive and my mind stimulated. Maybe it hadn’t been the best existence, but it had been one. At least until…

No sooner did I try to think about what happenedbeforeI woke up after the bullet creased my forehead, than the memories slipped away, Spilling through the cracks like water sluicing away.

Irritated, I stared at the empty coffee pot. I’d made straight brew earlier. With as much work to do as I’d had, it was just easier than making a new espresso every couple of hours.

Now the pot was empty, because I’d filled my mug the last time and then shut it off. I’d meant to start a fresh pot, but then nothing.

Sighing, I stared at the pot, then at my cup. My stomach protested. Had I even eaten? The idea of food wasn’t that appealing. Fine, I’d get the coffee started, and make a sandwich. That would be enough to get by on, surely.

The cold unit didn’t offer us frozen, but the fridge was more than enough. The water tank was designed more for showering or washing. Probably not the best for drinking. We had bottled water in gallons for coffee.

It didn’t take long to get the new pot brewing. I had my headset on, and I’d hear if any of them wanted me. It didn’t take me long to build a sandwich and I’d eaten half of it by the time the pot finished brewing.

A part of me wished I’d just gone the espresso route or a flat white, but the fresh brewed coffee tickled my nose delightfully. I made myself finish the sandwich though, because after a full pot of coffee, I was just asking to strip my stomach by adding more without food.

No sooner did I finish the food and claim the coffee cup than my bladder made its protests known. Not for the first time since boarding this lovely moving office, was I grateful for the fact that they’d also installed a bathroom. It was a limited tank and they had to deal with it, but I didn’t ask any questions and they offered no details.

That worked for me.

Thatreallyworked for me. I returned to my desk, swept my gaze over the three monitors and all the camera angles. I was keeping one eye on the town, and the other on the boys. While Remy had taken our SUV, Locke had gone to lift another vehicle. It didn’t have the cameras already installed, but we’d rigged something up.

I could see the buildings they were clearing and all the signals were reading strong. No movements grabbed myattention, so I checked their links. All live and connected, just muted.

Good. Pee break time. I snagged my phone which would give me a smaller monitor if I needed it and hurried to the little privacy room they’d curtained. Eyes closed, I tried to think through the code I’d been working on amending. I needed to be more subtle than the original author.

Each call would need to be embedded in a command function they had already created. That would help to avoid setting off any traps that would quarantine the additions and let me use their own tools against them.

The fact that someone had created something quite so elegant annoyed me on a very primitive level. It was also something of a personal challenge. When I finished up, I did a quick wash of my hands using sanitizer then headed back to my desk.

A beep in my ear alerted me to the incoming call.

“Talk to me,” I said as I connected us and slid back into my chair.

“I’m starting to think being here is where I needed to be,” Remy said by way of greeting. “Connect the boys so I can brief you all at once?”

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