Page 74 of Misdirection

“I’m sure it’s on my paperwork somewhere. I had him sign a contract.”

“We should go pay him a visit.”

Jason tilted his head as he studied Olive. “I was thinking the same thing, but I didn’t want to drag you into this.”

“So you were just waiting for me to leave so you could take off? I want to go with you.”

He quickly—and adamantly—shook his head. “That’s a terrible idea.”

She stood and popped a hip out, giving him the stare down. “Look, I know you think I’m simply a computer-surfing corporate investigator. But I can handle this. I promise you I can.”

Jason stared at her another moment as if trying to figure out if he believed her. Then he nodded curtly. “Fine. But I’m bringing Loki with me too. If that’s a problem then?—”

“It’s not a problem.”

“Good.” He rose and clicked his tongue for Loki to rise also. “Then we should get going.”

“I’m ready when you are.”

A few minutes later, they stepped outside. Darkness had fully fallen around them.

It seemed especially deep right now, almost as if the night sky were closing in on them.

She shoved the thought aside as she climbed into Jason’s Range Rover. He started the vehicle and plugged the address into his GPS.

Once they were on the road, Olive asked another question she’d been wanting to voice aloud. “Why would someone want you to come home? Or maybe I should say, why did someone want to get you away from the office?”

Jason’s jaw visibly tightened. “I’ve been trying to figure that out also, and I’m not sure. I have a very competent team at Conglomerate. They can handle things when I’m not there. They do every day, but today I just happened to leave two hours early.”

“But why today? Was there some kind of event happening I’m not aware of?”

“No, it’s just a normal day. There are no special meetings or guests scheduled.”

Olive thought about it a moment. “Did anything happen in the two hours you’ve been gone? Any incidents you’ve been made aware of?”

“No. If something had happened, I would have heard about it by now. I haven’t gotten any alerts of any kind.”

Olive leaned back and crossed her arms. “The whole thing is strange. There’s obviously a reason someone did this. You don’t think your camera somehow missed Damon coming and that Loki really did have a seizure, do you?”

He glanced back at his dog as the canine panted happily in the back seat. “I checked Loki out, and he appears fine. My security system is top of the line. I’m nearly certain Damon wasn’t there all day. Besides, I would have gotten a notice on my smart lock as well.”

This was one of those instances where technology could be a friend instead of a foe. Sometimes, Olive wasn’t sure where it fell. The ambiguity was too unsettling—like in the case of this smart dust.

Her thoughts continued to race as they headed down the road.

“What are you thinking?” Jason stole a glance at her as he gripped the steering wheel.

“I keep thinking about this smart dust. If it really is as dangerous as Bennett said, and if there truly is concern about itgetting into the wrong hands, then why not lock the specs away so it’s not able to be accessed? So no one can get their hands on it?”

“That’s why the company stored it in the SCI corridor.”

“But the information is still able to be accessed there. All the executives can get into that corridor whenever they want. So can Alex. Maybe even you.” Her throat burned as she added that last part.

However, she knew her words were the truth. She wanted to see Jason’s reaction.

But he hardly reacted at all. In fact, he appeared unaffected by the statement. “That’s all true. But in order to get on the computer network in that area to see any of those specific plans, you need a special code.”

“Execs have one code . . .” Olive said.

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