Page 180 of Lethal Legacy

I ignore that. “Just tell me.”

“Mickey’s been working on a theory about the first trojan. He thinks there’s some kind of message embedded in the code. He’s been working through it, and this afternoon, he found similar patterns in these ones. He was just starting to work on them when you made him leave.”

“I told you, today isn’t a good time for Mickey to be here. Surely your team can use his work?”

His face tightens. “To be honest, none of us are as fast as him. He just sees shit we don’t.” I have to hand it to Pavel—that must have cost him a lot to say.

And I’m not going to lie: I can’t help but feel proud of Mickey. Even if he has got some bug up his ass about me.

A bug I’d clearly better sort out sooner rather than later, if he’s going to be in the thick of this whole damn thing.

“I’ll do what I can to get him up here tomorrow. In the meantime, there’s only one question I need answering. Is there anything in what Andersson has done that will enable him to hijack Mercura?”

“No.” Pavel’s immediate answer is at least reassuring. “That would be impossible to do. He can’t take control of Mercura. Nobody outside of here can, not even Andersson.”

“So then we still don’t know what he’s actually trying to do.”

“Nope.” He looks as frustrated as I feel. “The annoying thing is that, right now, it seems that all he’s doing is actually strengthening the whole platform. I have no idea why.”

“Good enough.” I glance through the window at the operations center, which is littered with pizza boxes, soda cans, and the inert figures of several exhausted techies. “If it’s safe for now, then you all need to go and get some sleep. Leave a skeleton crew, take it in shifts. That’s enough for one day.”

Pavel looks like he’s going to argue. I glare at him. “Go.”

He nods reluctantly. “Boss.”

Dimitry waits until he leaves. “There’s something else, before you talk to Bryce.” He moves a mouse, and a radar image comes up. “The fuckingGuapais currently cruising just off the Spanish shore. Like, ten nautical miles off.”

“What?” I stare at the screen, feeling my blood pressure rising. “How did we not know it had left Miami?”

“Because technically, it didn’t. The Miami marina is still showing it moored there. Except it isn’t.”

“Khuy.” This is getting worse by the minute. “Okay. There’s fuck all I can do about that for now. I need to talk to Bryce.” I hesitate. To be honest, I don’t particularly like the idea of either Bryce or Dimitry knowing what Lucia has been up to. On the other hand, given all that’s happening, I can hardly afford to keep them in the dark.

“Come with me,” I say shortly. We go into my office, and Dimitry closes the door behind us. Bryce gives him an uneasy look.

“Whatever you have to say, Dimitry can hear.” I give them both a hard look. “Nothing said here leaves these walls. Ever.”

They nod. Bryce swallows nervously. “I got the tech boys to help me compile the footage,” he says. “I’ll talk you through it.” He lifts a remote control, and the large screen on the wall flickers into life. He hits play.

“First we see Lucia leave the villa. She clearly waited until the coast was clear to go.” I watch Lucia slip out of the gate and hurry down the street. “I followed her all the way to the marina. She met Abby there.”

Dimitry folds his arms grimly, glaring at Abby’s figure on the screen.

Bryce shoots him an uneasy look. “Abby gives her this package.” He pauses the video, pointing it out and zooming in. “Books, apparently, from an online store.”

Like hell.

“Lucia headed back up toward the main road. Which is where our friend Lance Ryder caught up with her.”

He pauses the video and I tense, every nerve in my body screaming.

“I wasn’t filming,” Bryce adds. “I was out of the car, about to take the fucker down. But Lucia got away from him by herself, and I made the decision to stay on her. Pavel managed to pull CCTV footage from a camera in the alley afterward. It’s not great quality, and it’s a bit misleading.” He hits play again.

It’s grainy, and Lucia has her back to the camera, but Ryder’s face is clear enough. He’s leaning in close to Lucia, saying something to her.

I frown at the screen. “Play it again. Can we slow it down?”

“Yep.” Bryce plays it in slow motion.

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