Page 103 of Don't Look Back

He turned to see a man standing in the open doorway of his office across the hall. Rand stepped deeper into the tech room, out of sight of the curious employee before answering. “Picking up the document I’m printing.”

The printer was still spitting out pages. Rand spotted a blue cat 5 cable that connected the printer to the cable modem with a row of flashing green lights. This was going to work.

“Who are you?” The man followed him into the room.

“A guest of Grigory’s. Who are you?” Rand plugged a USB drive into the front port of the multifunction device and pressed buttons on the screen to call up a file to print.

“I work here. You can’t be in here.”

“I can. I even am. Grigory is letting me use the conference room to work while he and Juliette entertain my girlfriend.” He hit the Print button on the only file on the drive, which was a large graphic. It contained a trojan that would give Freya’s tech team—the Navy approved the hacking, but wasn’t doing the dirty work—access to Grigory’s entire network and every computer on it as soon as they broke through each device’s password protection.

Freya had brought in some tech wizard who did consulting for Raptor and the military for that task.

“What are you printing?”

The printer stopped. The twenty-plus page edit letter was done. The screen flashed with a new message:Receiving print data.

He felt the same adrenaline as when he and his team breeched a building at the start of an op. Who knew technical espionage could be similarly exhilarating? This was definitely going in a book.

The print job would take a few minutes. Time stretched in the same way it did when he carried an M4 and cleared room after room, searching for the hostage.

He picked up the stack of papers, then turned and frowned at Grigory’s employee. “The end of my writing career.” He muttered the words, then spoke more clearly. “My editor decided to ruin my vacation. I need to respond, and Grigory said I could use his conference room and internet.”

“Let me see that.” The guy took a step forward and reached for the thick stack of papers.

Rand pulled them to his chest. “Do you mind? This isn’t exactly something I’m proud of. My editorhatedthe book I just spent the last six months pouring my soul into.” Then he sighed and thrust the papers toward the man. “Whatever. Enjoy my humiliation.”

The guy glanced at the papers, then nodded toward the printer. “What’s that? Why are you printing from a USB drive?”

“It’s a graphic file. My computer doesn’t have the program to edit it and crashes if I even click on the file name, so I keep it on a thumb drive.”

The guy frowned. “Mr. Laskin didn’t tell me you would be here.”

He was persistent, Rand would give him that. “I’m shocked Grigory didn’t tell you he invited me to lunch. I’m sure he keeps you apprised of all his social engagements. Perhaps later you can join us by the swimming pool?”

The man’s face reddened. “It is unusual for guests of Mr. Laskin to be in this part of the residence.”

Rand shrugged. “Grigory is eager to please Luka and Reuben Kulik and so he made accommodations for me while he visits with Luka’s daughter.”

Now the man’s eyes widened. “Daughter?”

“My girlfriend.”

The man took a step back. “Fine. But you should have asked before printing. Take your drive from the printer and leave this room. Send me your file, and I will print it.”

“I was trying not to waste anyone’s time. And I can’t send the file. It’s not on my computer.”

“Then give me the drive.”

He stepped forward, but Rand used his size to advantage and blocked the man’s path.

“It’s taking too long.” He reached around Rand, his hand aiming for the small drive.

Rand bumped his arm. “It’s a large file. Maps I made with AutoCAD. It always takes forever to print, but I need it to work out the book locations and timeline.” He cast a glare at the printer. “The whole sequence is fucked now.”

A moment later, the printer whirred to life, and Rand held back his relieved sigh. There was no telling how tech savvy this guy was. No way could he give him the USB drive.

Rand plucked the drive from the printer and shoved it in his pocket. The map printed on six pages. “You got tape?” he asked. “I need to put this together before I jump on Zoom with my agent.”

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