Page 179 of Lethal Legacy

Except that it will be Inger who Nikolai escorts into that damn ball. I feel a return of my earlier evil smile.

Inger is about to pay in spades for that goddamn insult about Lucia’s looks.

“Copy that. See you at seven.” Nikolai is clearly full of piss and vinegar after his endless party in Miami. He’s also obviously been spending too much time with Inger.

Given the paparazzi photographs taken of them both during the Miami summer, the two of them have been doing the horizontal tango for some time.

Inger’s always liked having a backup plan.

She probably sees Nikolai as an opportunity to worm her way back into the family bank accounts, and Nikolai would no doubt think all his Christmases had come at once if she gave him so much as a sideways look.

He can fuck her on every available surface for all I care, so long as they both stay the fuck out of my business.

And besides, if Inger and Nikolai are together, they’re unlikely to want the kids around. Which suits me fine.

And right now, I’ve got far more important things to worry about than who Inger is fucking.

I hit Pavel’s number. “Where are we?”

“Well, it’s not good.” He sounds exhausted. I know how he feels.

After I’d been drinking until well after two that morning, Pavel called at five a.m. Dimitry and I were at the lab before six. I spent almost the entire day cloistered in my secure office, on a series of extremely awkward phone calls to the same people who had activated their invitations the previous day, doing damage control. I think I’ve managed to pull it off, but to say it was a day of high-level tension is a definite understatement.

“So you’re saying it’s under control for now?” I try to make sense of Pavel’s fast-paced explanation. There’s also nothing more frustrating than standing by in a room full of stressed tech heads, unable to do a fucking thing to help.

“I’m saying that something is fucking off.” Pavel sounds uncharacteristically grim. “Are you bringing Mickey back up with you?”

I frown. “You’ll need to work without him today. His mother’s here, and she’s almost as much trouble as the trojans. I don’t want her asking him too many questions.”

Not to mention that there’s something up with Mickey. I caught him staring at me more than once today, with a wary look I can’t quite make head or tails of. I need to find out what the problem is, but today hasn’t allowed me time to scratch my balls, let alone have an in-depth conversation with an upset teenager.

“That’s unfortunate.” Pavel actually sounds pissed off with me. “He spent weeks turning that first trojan inside out, unraveling all the code. He’s ahead of the rest of us, and we need all the help we can get.”

“According to your own PR, Mercura had the best team in the world before Mickey ever turned up.” I’m in no mood for pissed-off tech heads. “Manage it without him. I’ll be there in fifteen.” I end the call, grinding my teeth in frustration.

This whole day has been a clusterfuck.

I haven’t even answered Lucia’s message about Inger. At first I was just busy, but after Bryce called to say Lucia had tried to give him the slip, I was too fucking angry to trust myself to send a message.

I’m still angry.

I don’t know what the fuck she’s playing at, but the fact that her disappearance coincides with the trojans fills me with unease. I haven’t had a chance yet to get Bryce’s debrief. Thank Christ he wasn’t stupid enough to take his eyes off her.

I walk into Mercura to find Pavel, Dimitry, and Bryce all waiting for me, faces longer than an airport runway. I point at Bryce. “You, in my office. I’ll be there as soon as I can.” I wait until he’s gone then point at Pavel. “You first.”

“The trojans are definitely coming from Andersson. But not from theGuapathis time. They’re coming straight from his headquarters in Sweden. He’s not even trying to hide it. In fact, there’s something weirdly obvious about the viruses. It’s like hewantsus to find them.” He takes off his glasses and pinches the bridge of his nose. His eyes are badly bloodshot. “And the weird thing is, they aren’t trying to break our system. In fact, they’re doing the fucking opposite.”

“Explain.”

“Every single one of the trojans has pointed out a hole in Mercura.”

“How the hell is that not a problem?”

“Because it’s like Andersson is doing our vulnerability testing for us. None of the trojans have actually tried to do anything other than flag the weaknesses in our own platform. And before you ask, yes, we’ve fixed the holes he’s found. And no, I don’t like the fact that he’s found things we missed. But he’s not trying to break in, boss. If I’m honest, it looks like he’s trying to make the whole system stronger. Which makes no sense.”

Unless he’s planning to steal the whole fucking thing.

“And there’s something else, which is why I wanted Mickey here.”

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