Page 32 of Critical Strike

“A few minutes ago, I thought maybe they’d caught me. An extra firewall went up.”

“And that’s bad?”

“Yeah, but expected. I was about to work my way around it, but then it dropped on its own.”

“Why would it do that?”

She looked at him. “I’d like to say it’s because the system doesn’t see what I’m doing as a threat. But—”

“But it’s more likely they’re trying to keep you online,” he finished for her.

She nodded. “Yes.”

“How much more time do you need?”

“An hour. Maybe two. This is the most critical time.”

“That’s too long. Can you get any info at all in a shorter amount of time?”

“Maybe. It’ll be a smash-and-grab, but it might work.” She immediately started typing again; if possible, her fingers flew faster than they had been before.

He went back to the windows.

If they wanted to keep Claire online, it was because they were trying to track her.

He’d give her twenty more minutes, tops. After that, they had to go. It would no longer be safe here.

But less than a minute went by before one of the shadows out near the parking lot caught his attention. It was different than it had been before. Three hours of watching out these windows had ingrained the specifics of these shadows into his brain.

Sure enough, a few moments later, someone darted across the edge of the parking lot, moving from shadow to shadow to the side of the library. The only gleam that gave him away was when the moonlight reflected for a split second off the gun in his hand.

They didn’t have twenty minutes.

“Claire,” he said, raising his voice, “pack it up. We’ve got to go right now.”

Chapter Ten

She didn’t look up from her screen. “I’m almost done. Maybe thirty minutes.”

They barely had thirty seconds, forget thirty minutes. “Now, Kitten.”

She still didn’t stop typing. “Really, I only need—”

Her protest morphed into a yelp as he wrapped an arm around her waist and lifted her from the seat.

“Ballard has been keeping you online to give his men time to get here. They’re outside. We’ve got to go.”

He set her down and she spun to face him. “What?”

“Ballard’s men. Outside. I think that’s what the firewall reversing was all about. They traced you here, and they’re probably going to kill you.”

He pulled open the backpack and shoved it into her hands. Khan bristled at the sight of the bag but allowed himself to be put inside. Luke zipped it almost the entire way, then loosened the straps and put it on his shoulders. He’d be able to run faster with it.

“We need to go out the employee exit.” Taking Claire’s hand, he rushed with her along the back wall.

At the door, they kept to the side as he looked out the window.

Damn it.Luke spotted two men before pulling his head back. Ballard’s men had the library surrounded and it wouldn’t be long before they breached the building.

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