Page 84 of No Vow Broken

“Got it,” Eugene promised. “And I’m happy to help.”

“Thanks.” My mind continued to race through additional details.

“Will any of this interfere with your wedding plans?” Candace asked.

“The wedding is on Saturday,” I said. “The pope arrives later today, and we have a private dinner with him. We also have a luncheon tomorrow with our wedding party at the hotel, so we have an incentive to be quick. Otherwise, we’re essentially on lockdown at the hotel right now. But the bottom line is that, as far as I know, there’s nothing else outside of the actual church service that can’t proceed without us. Though skipping out on the Holy Father would cost me a lot at my next confession.”

That got a round of chuckles around the table, ending the meeting on a less grim note. Everyone stood and General Norton nodded at Eugene and me. “Get it done, gentlemen. We’re counting on you.”

“I can guarantee you’ll get our best effort,” I said. “We’re going to make sure they can’t keep operating in the dark.”

The helicopter had already dropped me off and left when I woke Lexi. I could tell she’d been asleep, but she was alert as soon as she heard my voice.

“Get dressed,” I told her. “Hacker casual. Wake Elvis and Xavier and tell them there will be a helicopter arriving outside the hotel in about twenty minutes. We got our wish—there will be no more sleep tonight. We’re going shark fishing.”

FORTY-FOUR

Lexi

Friday early morning—the day before the wedding

Slash’s middle-of-the-night summons to Secret Service headquarters surprised me, but we were excited to find out what was going on and get started. We assumed the drone operators had provided valuable information about the mastermind behind the attacks. We weren’t quite sure why we were being offered the opportunity to join the hunt for the bad guys, but we were certain it was Slash’s doing. Anyway, we all agreed this waswaymore exciting than sleeping or sitting around and waiting for a wedding, even if it was mine.

All three of us must have looked the happiest we had all week as the helicopter raced over the nighttime countryside. Looking at the smiles on everyone’s face at two in the morning made it pathetically clear that wedding activities were not our thing.

It was nearly three when we arrived. We were ushered through the bowels of the mostly empty building and into a large, brightly lit conference room with the tables arranged in a large U shape. Slash was under a table connecting wires. Helping him out was a middle-aged Asian man.

“Good. You’re here.” Slash crawled out from beneath the table and brushed off his jeans. “I’d like you all to meet Eugene Choi. He’s the head of the cybersecurity division here at the Secret Service. We’ve got a lead from the drone operators and have been invited to help track down our adversary. I assume you’re all in?”

“Damn right,” Elvis said before I could respond. Clearly, the looks on our faces were the answer Slash expected.

“Well, it’s my sincere pleasure to meet all of you,” Eugene said. “I confess, your reputations precede you, and I greatly look forward to working with you.”

“Finally, something interesting to do.” Elvis grinned and linked his hands together, cracking his knuckles. “I totally need this.”

“Me, too,” Xavier agreed with feeling.

“Classified materials and networks will be accessed, so you’ll need to be read in before we can start.” Eugene stepped toward the door and motioned for us to follow. We all knew the routine. For the world to end, there would first have to be a government form that was signed and countersigned until it was approved in triplicate by someone. “So, if you’d be so kind as to come this way, I’d appreciate it.”

We filed out of the room and down the hall to another room where a woman, identified as Agent Alice Breyer, read us into the operation and had us sign specialized indoctrination and nondisclosure papers. I was practically thrumming with excitement by the time Eugene led us back to the conference room.

Slash sat in front of a laptop, typing furiously. He glanced over his shoulder, acknowledging we’d returned. “Give me a minute and I’ll catch you up.”

He typed some more commands before scooting his chair to the laptop on his right and checking on something. Finally, he pushed his chair back. Eugene began setting up a large whiteboard and some erasable markers in the corner where we could do calculations and map out a process, if needed.

It was about to get real.

“Okay, let me tell you what we know so far,” Slash said. “The drone guys were paid two hundred thousand dollars up front to attack us. The payment was made in bitcoin. But here’s the kicker. The payments also went to a Dominic Sobol, who just happens to be Amanda McCormick’s boyfriend. Sobol received three different payments from the same wallet.”

“What?” I said, stunned. Looking around the room, I saw Elvis and Xavier were equally as shocked. “Amanda, as in Amanda our wedding planner? Did I miss something?”

“It just went down. The FBI arrested Amanda’s boyfriend for passing on information about our wedding and wedding plans. That’s how the assailants found out the details of the rehearsal dinner, the debrief at the White House, and our photo-planning session yesterday afternoon. They’re interviewing Amanda now.”

“Holy cow,” I exclaimed. “Did she know? Was she involved? And more importantly, can she still be our wedding planner?”

Slash shrugged. “I don’t know the answers to any of those questions and, for now, that’s not our area of concern. We’re here now because we need to find out who is paying for all this with bitcoin.”

It wasn’t easy, but I packaged the Amanda stuff into a corner of my brain and put it away to think about later. Slash was right—we couldn’t solve everything at once. “Have you traced the account to the wallet and the wallet to the owner?”

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