Page 16 of Cassidy

“I’m in.” His voice sounded odd to his ears, and he had to blink to bring Rhy’s and Cassidy’s faces into focus. “I need you both to try to log in now too. That will be the real test that we’re back in business.”

“Gabe, are you okay?” Cassidy’s voice held concern. “You look pale.”

He pressed the heels of his palms into his eyes. Maybe she’d been right about screen time not being good for concussions. His head hurt so badly he was tempted to crawl into one of the cots in the equipment room, pulling the covers over his head to sleep.

Wait a minute, how did he know there was a cot back there? The knowledge gave him hope his memory was returning. He lowered his hands to find Cassidy eyeing him with grave concern.

“I’m in,” Rhy said with satisfaction. He grinned, his brown eyes full of relief and gratitude. “Incredible work, Gabe. You’re amazing.”

“Except that he looks like he might throw up,” Cassidy said with a frown. “He needs rest, Rhy. He worked nonstop for two hours straight without his memory and battling a concussion.”

Two hours? Gabe hadn’t realized it had taken so long, but that explained his awful headache.

“Yes, of course.” All hint of humor faded from Rhy’s expression. “You may need to head over to the American Lodge for a while. You look like you could use some sleep.”

The American Lodge sounded familiar, but he had no intention of leaving. “I’d rather stay here, close to the team.”

Rhy frowned, glanced at Cass, and shrugged. “Okay, but you should get some rest. We’ll wake you when it’s time for lunch.”

He wasn’t hungry. Between the snacks and the headache, he felt sick to his stomach. “I’ll get some rest,” he agreed, hating to show weakness. “But there’s more work to do. I need to figure out how these guys got in to activate the virus in the first place. And rebuild the firewall to prevent another attack.” The more he considered the work ahead of him, the less he felt like sleeping. “Maybe I’ll work for a little while longer...”

“No!” Cassidy’s tone was vehement. “You need to rest first. Pushing yourself could backfire, taking you out of commission even longer.”

“I agree with Cassidy. You will go back and rest. That’s an order,” Rhy said sternly. “No argument. The alternative is to have Cassidy take you to the hospital.”

“Okay, okay.” Since Rhy’s face was growing blurry, he figured an hour with his eyes closed would be good. Now that he’d gotten their operating system up and running, the weird sense of urgency had returned. Trying not to stress about what he was supposed to be doing, he pushed himself upright. Turning, he headed toward the equipment room. Cassidy kept pace beside him, as if worried he would fall over.

The room was well lit, but when he sank down onto the edge of the cot, Cassidy hit the light switch, plunging the room into darkness. The lack of light was a welcome relief. He stretched out on the cot, pulled the blanket up to his chin, and slowly relaxed.

“Rest well, Gabe,” Cassidy whispered, before stepping back and closing the door behind her.

He found himself smiling at the image of Cassidy in his mind’s eye as he drifted off to sleep.

“I don’t like this,”Cassidy said when she joined Rhy in his office. As Gabe had contacted her, she’d gotten his case by default. “Clearly these incidents are related. It’s likely the same person assaulted Gabe, ransacked his house, and sabotaged our system. What we need to know is why. What’s the end goal?”

“I don’t know,” Rhy admitted. “Somehow, Gabe is at the center of this, so keeping him close is a good plan. Other than that, we can only pray his memory returns.”

“I have been praying for that since he contacted me last night.” She had faith that God was watching over them, but it wasn’t enough. “He’s not working on anything for you, is he?”

“Nope.” Rhy scowled. “It could be that whoever took his laptops from his place used them to send the virus through our system. Maybe they’re just as computer savvy as he is.”

She’d had the same thought. But there were points that didn’t make sense. “Gabe was nearly killed while sitting in my kitchen, which begs the question, why had they let him live in the first place? Why hit him over the head and drop his body at the side of the road without making sure he was dead?” She hated thinking about how close Gabe had come to dying. “Unless they’d assumed he’d succumb to hypothermia last night, and when he didn’t, they returned to finish the job.”

“That’s one possibility,” Rhy agreed. “Or it could be that we have two different sets of assailants.” His gaze rested on the computer atop his desk. “Makes me wonder if Gabe was using our system to do some sort of investigation of his own.”

A chill snaked down her spine. Gabe could have easily used the police system to dig into something on his own time. They weren’t the experts in that sort of thing. He was.

“We’ll have to ask him about that when he wakes up.” She hoped more of his memory would return by then too. Without that, they were searching for a faceless adversary while stumbling around in the dark.

Rhy eyed her thoughtfully. “I was hoping Gabe may have confided in you.”

“Me?” Her eyes widened in surprise, and she felt herself flush. She and Gabe were friends, but she was friendly with the rest of the tactical team too. Why did Rhy think Gabe would talk to her over anyone else? “I, uh, no. He didn’t.”

“Hmm.” Rhy frowned. “We need something to go on. I can call district five where Reed Carmichael works and see if their tech expert can get Gabe’s cell phone records.”

She knew Reed Carmichael was Rhy’s brother-in-law, married to his younger sister Alanna who was an emergency department nurse at Trinity Medical Center. “Okay. Let me know when you get the data, I’ll be happy to dig through to see who Gabe was talking to prior to his assault.” She scowled and tried to think of another avenue to explore. “I could also check local pawn shops, see if any computer equipment has shown up.”

Rhy nodded his approval as he reached for his phone. Leaving him to talk to his counterpart at the fifth district, she headed to an empty desk.

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