Page 35 of SEAL'S Secret Vows

“Launch a keyboard vibration attack. With portable continuous wave generators, keyboard activities on offline computers can be monitored through a keyboard vibration attack.”

“We're in!” she says, fist pumping the air. Suddenly, voices speaking in foreign languages fill the room, and we stare at each other puzzled.

“I'm picking up on a bit of Dari and Spanish. I can interpret the latter, but not the former.”

“What are they saying?” We listen for a few more minutes—the tension in the room growing thicker—a dreary sensation hanging in the air. Some English voices join the conversation, and the connection is blocked again.

“Oh, no.” Emma tries to connect again but nothing happens. “They know someone connected; we have to be careful from now on.”

“We should alert Chase and his team; he'll interpret the other language.” I pick up the phone to call his office, hesitating when I remember that I had planned to avoid him, which now seems impossible. We have to keep working together. I'll just try my best to ignore him in the hope he doesn't notice anything, but avoiding him seems like an already failed plan; we're going to be working together for a long time. Sucking air through my teeth, I discard any emotions I'm feeling and dial the number. What's the worst that could happen?

Chapter thirteen

Chase

The air is thick with anticipation as my team gathers around the table. I had Joseph and Lena join me immediately, anticipating the next line of action.

“Can we listen to the call recording?” Joseph asks, unable to hold himself back.

“In a moment, sir.” Nora replies, not taking her gaze off the screen.

“You mentioned that you picked up some background voices.”

“Yes, I did. You should listen to it.” Nora replies, her attention focused on the screen.

“They are still speaking Dari, right?” She hands me the headphones and plays the audio. I cross my arms tightly across my chest trying to absorb the info.

“Nothing useful, Nora. I did pick up an American accent too, but they didn't give anything away.”

“Can you trace the call?”

“I'm picking up on something.”

The cursor blinks on screen as she traces the location of the voices. “They're here in California, just a few hours away.”

“Can you trace the exact location?” The monitor gives incoherent sounds, and the cursor stops blinking.

“Uh oh, I think we've lost them.”

“Can you listen again? See if they said anything that we can trace them with.”

“If I do that, they'll see us.” Nora replies, hesitant to trace the location again.

“Yes, that's dangerous.” Emma interrupts. “I'll try another approach.” She starts the process all over again, and I'm praying nothing goes wrong. “Hold on, we're in.”

I listen for a few minutes, and I signal for a notepad. Joseph hands me the nearest phone, and just as I pick up, the line goes silent after hearing shallow breathing on the other end. “What's going on?” The room crackles with tension as we stare at each other wondering why they went quiet. I place the telephone back in the receiver, but it rings again and everyone's frozen for a moment before I pick it up. The caller calls me by my name, and proceeds to speak in Dari.

“Are they speaking in Dari? What are they saying?” Nora whispers.

“I'll need you to interpret all foreign languages for us. Run it through the translator and trace it.” Joseph orders.

“Sure, I'll connect to the call,” she whispers back and starts tracing the call. The caller starts to make negotiations in exchange for the hostage, and as I open my mouth to speak, another voice comes through the phone.

“You can't be negotiating with us.” The voice is gruff and straight to the point.

“We need more time.” I try to negotiate, but I get no response. The call disconnects.

The room immediately erupts. Lena starts ordering Emma while Joseph goes to get the commander.

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