Page 67 of Command and Control: GHOST Operative

My coffee finishes and I doctor it up, fitting the lid into place before brewing a second cup. Vincent sat with me the entirety of the first day and half of the second. After itbecame clear this wasn't going to be a quick fix, he started leaving me for ten or fifteen minutes at a time. Then his disappearances became longer and longer, which made me feel a little less like he was worried I’d do something stupid that might give away my location, and more like he realizes that, while I might not have been included in the decision to move my life here, I’m not making any plans to leave. By force or otherwise.

As soon as his coffee’s done, I put a lid on it and slide it into a sleeve before going out to find him. He's usually pretty easy to track down, so I'm not worried. The one time he wasn't in his office, it was because he was in the training arena with Amos, going over a delivery of new equipment.

Luckily, they must not have gotten a shipment of anything today, because as I expected, Vincent is in his office, sitting behind his desk, working at his computer.

He glances up as I walk in, eyes meeting mine over the tip of his readers. He’s stopped asking me if I found anything. He drops his glasses onto the desk and leans back. "You look tired."

I snort, because I am, but I'm not going to tell him that. He'd take me home and tuck me into bed and refuse to fuck me until I got a full night’s sleep.

"I think it just takes me a little bit to reacclimate when I leave the pit." I hold out his coffee, moving close to slide my butt onto his desk as I take a sip of mine.

Vincent sets his cup down and scoots closer, running his palms up the fronts of my thighs. "I think we need to come up with another plan, Jules. If you haven't found what you're looking for by now, you aren’t going to find it."

It's pretty much the same conclusion I've come to over the past couple of hours. "I just don't understand how they were able to scrub away so much." Most people don't know how much data we create in everything we do. Every phone call. Every Google search. Every bill we pay. Every email we send. Hell, the likes and hearts we give people's posts on Facebook. Just going about normal life leaves piles and piles of data and code.

But the people I'm hunting for weren’t just going about their normal lives. They were digging into systems and penetrating firewalls. Accessing servers and collecting information. Even if they did it from behind a proxy server using a VPN, the amount of evidence they would have to scrub is astronomical, but somehow they've done it.

Which is what has me thinking.

“Do you think someone designed a program that can erase that much data?” It’s a pretty far-fetched idea since not only would it have to erase data, it would have to eraseonlythe relevant data.

Vincent studies me. “That’s not a bad theory, Jules.”

His praise makes me want to preen, but it’s unwarranted. "I don’t know. I feel like if someone had been able to create a program that could achieve this, I would have heard about it somewhere." I motion toward the pit. "Someone here would have heard something about it."

Vincent’s eyes move over my face as his jaw works the way it does when he’s considering something.

"What are you thinking?"

His eyes move to his open office door before coming back to me. He inches in a little more, dropping his voice low. "There is someone else I could ask. Someone who might have heard something."

"Then ask them.” I scoot his laptop closer. "Do it now." Vincent doesn’t like asking for help, I get that, but now’s not the time for him to be stubborn. I’m not going to let him.

Vincent closes his eyes, letting out a long breath. "It's not that easy."

I purse my lips, trying to figure out what he means. "Why not?"

Vincent's hands move up and down my legs, his touch warm and steady. "She works for Alaskan Security."

I study him for a minute as a few dots connect in my head. “Is she the one who breached the system yesterday?”

I came across the breach while Vincent was off doing his thing, but I made sure Elias was aware of it the minute I caught it. Whoever it was didn’t stay long and didn’t leave much evidence behind, but they were still there. I panicked, thinking it was the same people we’re currently looking for.

Who are also currently looking for me.

But Elias didn’t seem worried. Which I thought was strange. Almost as strange as when Vincent didn’t seem worried. Now I know why.

Vincent leans back in his chair, rubbing one hand over his face. "Technically, Heidi has access to GHOST’s systems."

My brows climb in surprise. "But she works for Alaskan Security."

"She does, but she’s good at what she does. If she wants to poke around GHOST in her free time, she can." He gives me a little smile. "Plus, she's been doing this since she was born. Her generation is a different breed when itcomes to this shit."

That has me thinking. "I might have someone I could ask." I don't necessarily want to involve my son in this, but if I can't figure out who's behind this, he will end up involved anyway. I’ll have to send Vincent to go kidnap both my boys and bring them here so I can keep them safe the same way he's keeping me safe.

Yet another reason I'm not too upset with the way he handled things. I get it.

"My son is going to school for IT, and I bet he dabbles in the same things I do." Holden’s never come out and said it, but I know my son and I know me. And he's basically just a younger, smarter, boy-version of me.

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