Page 32 of Renegade

“I love you too, Miguel.”

His deep brown eyes met mine. They were flecked with gold, glittering in the late afternoon sun coming into the room. “Let’s go home.” He glanced down at his watch. “It’s almost five and it’s been a long, fucking day.”

I nodded, sliding off his lap and reaching out again. He chuckled as he took my hand, standing up and pulling me closefor another quick kiss. “Come on,” I said, tucking my shirt back into my pants, and walking over to the coat rack in the corner. I handed him his and watched him put it on as I slid into mine. We’d dressed in suits for our meeting at the Flores house but neither of us had put on ties. I have to admit, I liked wearing a suit, but I enjoyed looking at Miguel in his even more. His shoulders were already wide, but the padded suit coat made him look even broader. I loved the look on him. I was probably prejudiced, but I thought Miguel was the most handsome man in the world.

We walked out of our office, turning off the light, and headed over to Judy at her desk. She was busily typing on her computer, chewing on a pen, totally oblivious to everything around her. When our shadows fell across her desk, she looked up with a start, dropping the pen on her desk.

“Shit! You scared me.”

I chuckled. “Sorry. You seem so caught up in something.”

She nodded, smiling at me. “Look.” She motioned at her monitor and we both walked around the desk to look at her screen. She pointed at a column of numbers I recognized as coordinates.

“What are those?” Miguel asked.

“Coordinates,” she said with a gleam in her eye.

“Well, I can see that,” Miguel said. “Coordinates to what?” He bent down and looked closer. “Oh, these are coordinates in the Middle East.”

I trusted that if anyone in the room was familiar with those, it had to be Miguel. He could probably recognize them from a mile away and his eyes narrowed.

“Wait a minute.” He jabbed at a list of numbers. “You shouldn’t have these. These are coordinates to—” He stopped, glancing over at me. “Sorry. These are classified locations for U.S. bases.” He turned back to the screen, muttering to himself. “Of course, most of them are gone now that the pull out is complete.”

“Afghanistan then,” I said. It only made sense. The coordinates could be in Iraq, but it was more likely that they were in Afghanistan.

He nodded, keeping his eyes on the screen. When he straightened and crossed his arms over his chest, he looked worried. “How’d you get these, Judy?”

She frowned a little but sat back in her chair, still looking up at us. “I worked backward. After I hacked into Langley to get—”

“You did what?” Miguel bellowed.

She frowned a little. “You said you wanted me to find information about John Sutter and what his connection might be to the jewels. I just figured I’d start with who he might have been keeping company with all these years. As it turns out, your suspicions were right, itisthe CIA. The list of operatives was hidden in an easter egg buried under several layers of encryption. He was picked up by them in Afghanistan. I don’t know if he’s actually on their books as an operative since all of them use some sort of pseudonym in Langley’s system, of course. But, once I found the base where he was last posted, it was pretty easy to figure out who the known operatives on base were talking about.”

“Holy shit, Judy!” Miguel said. “You can’t do that…I mean, clearly you can, but, Christ, Judy, you shouldn’t.” He paused a second as I watched puzzlement cross his face. “Wait a minute. Howdidyou do that? You had to crack a dozen layers ofencryption to get this information. Our enemies can’t even do that.”

I swallowed hard. I knew Judy had mad computer skills, but I never suspected she would be able to hack into Langley and get a list of CIA operatives’ locations, assuming that’s what she’d done. I suddenly got scared as hell for her. Miguel and I had just watched this scenario in a movie with Robert Redford and Faye Dunaway.

“Shit!” I exclaimed. “What if they come after us like they did inThree Days of the Condor? What if they’re sending a hit squad here right now?”

Miguel stared at me open-mouthed as Judy stood up, looking white as a sheet. “Oh God! What have I done?”

“They’re not coming after Judy,” Miguel said, “and they’re not coming after us either.” He reached into his pocket to pull out his phone. “But I think we should call Mark Evans and let him know what just happened. It’s important the CIA is informed that there’s a way to get through their encryptions.” He pointed to the list of coordinates on her monitor. “I assume those coordinates point to places where lists of CIA operatives are posted?”

She nodded. “At some point, yes. I mean, they’re not current postings. There’s a whole other layer of encryption to get past to obtainthatinformation.”

Miguel held up his hands. “Judy, you need to stop right now. That’s just…no one should be able to get past Langley’s encryption. I don’t even want to know how you did it or what you could do if you actually set your mind to it.”

“Misspent youth.” She tried to look embarrassed with a small shrug but didn’t quite pull it off. “Old age and kids have slowed me down a lot.”

I smirked and turned to Miguel. “Why don’t you make that call to Mark while I look at the information Judydidfind?” When Miguel stayed rooted to the spot, I turned to her, figuring he wanted to hear the results of her search as much, if not more, than I did. “You can confirm that the CIA picked him up out there?”

She nodded, sinking back down into her chair and pointed her mouse at the screen. She scrolled for a few seconds and highlighted something. I bent over her shoulder and looked at what appeared to be a coded message.

“Sandstorm obtained. Headed to outpost. Will make first contact at 0930.”

I straightened, feeling Miguel at my side as he hovered close. “Sandstorm obtained,” he said. “What the hell does that mean?”

“I think Sandstorm must be code for John Sutter,” I said, gnawing on my lower lip as Miguel turned to me.

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