Page 62 of Duplicity

“I’m fine.” His stomach tightened.

“But you want me to nuke it? Dump the whole program, shatter it to pieces so no one can ever put it back together again?”

Peter looked at him.

Simon clenched his back teeth. Yes, he had asked her to do that without telling Peter or asking Jasper for permission. “This is my mess. I’m the one who gets to decide how it’s cleaned up.”

What was the point in telling them when he could have it completed before the conversation ever would’ve finished? He and Talia could have taken it apart somehow, right? Brute force. Using the back door he’d programmed. It was time to be done burying his head in the sand about this thing.

Wasn’t facing it what everyone wanted from him.

“Enough biding our time and waiting for some way to dismantle this organization or to get enough probable cause for a warrant.” Simon took a breath. “I’m not doing that. He’s done. This is over. We don’t need the server location anymore.”

Even without the man’s name, he’d decided to take it all down.

Topple the empire.

Not just because he couldn’t listen to the recordings and see her reaction to hearing the man’s voice. She’d looked at Simon just now with innocent surprise. It should always be that way. She shouldn’t have to ever think about how he put her in danger.

“We can keep her safe,” Peter said.

The phone speaker rustled. “I think I need to meet this girl.”

Simon asked her, “Are you going to help me dismantle it or not?”

“Kid, you know it doesn’t work like that.” Talia paused. “Even if we shatter it from the inside, he just puts it back up. Brute force doesn’t solve the problem when he has the physical server the program is hosted on. He just reboots and starts all over again.”

Simon gritted his teeth. “I have to dosomething.”

“First thing, I’ll pack up the kids and head over. Destiny set up that daycare yet? I heard she was callin’ it Tactical Butterflies.”

And risk someone else being in danger. “I don’t want you here.”

“Boy, don’t nobody tell Talia what to do but Jesus.”

And her husband, but neither he nor Peter said that. Talia and Mason were good people who had a solid relationship where respect went both ways. But they also had three kids. How could he let them put themselves in danger?

Things were bad enough already.

Talia said, “If you want my help, it happens in person.”

“If you want to come here, get a helicopter and a security detail. Nothing less.” Simon wasn’t going to budge on this.

“I’ve got a whole federal taskforce, you know?”

“Yes, ma’am.” Simon looked at his feet, his cheeks heating. “I need to get back to Cat.” Especially if Talia wasn’t going to help him do it now. Why did she need to come here? The fear that something would happen to Cat, or Talia and her family, tasted bitter on his tongue.

“I’ll text you.” The call ended.

Simon huffed out a breath. “Great, she sounded mad.”

“What did you think was going to happen, bro?”

As if Simon needed to answer that question? “I want this to be over.”

“Then let’s go figure out how we’re gonna do that.”

It wasn’t that easy. “That’s what you’ve been waiting for?”

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