Page 33 of Hidden Attraction

“What exactly are we looking for?” he asked Dante.

“I’m searching for a file that was opened the day of the chopper crash.”

Long seconds ticked by. Though there was no sound other than the electronic hum of the computers, Chase swore he could hear the minutes counting down.

The second terminal? Also a dead end.

“Goddamn it,” Chase muttered, running a hand over his jaw. They didn’t have time to waste on wild goose chases.

“Third one’s our last shot,” Dante warned.

He didn’t want to think about what would happen if they came up emptyhanded. He would need to form a new plan, but he was certain the answers were here at this base.

There was no indication on the screen that Dante was going through the system.

The monitor flickered…and then blurred with activity.

“Bingo,” Dante whispered. “This one’s loaded.”

Chase watched streams of data scroll by. Lines of code, logs, system diagnostics. He barely understood half of it.

“What are we looking at?”

“There were two other times this portal was opened.” Dante’s words were tight. “The first was a small test—minimal access, just enough to verify the connection.”

“And the second?”

“Day of the crash.” His tone was grim. “Right when Echo team’s chopper went dark.”

“Jesus Christ.”

“I’m looking at the timestamps. There was a code that scrambled the bird’s flight system. That’s what caused the failure.”

His fists curled on the desk. His knuckles went white.

“You’re saying... a fucking computer…took down the chopper?”

“That’s what I’m saying, man. Somebody was definitely behind it,” Dante said.

Rage twisted in Julian’s gut. He closed his eyes, jaw tight. He wasn’t there, but countless times, he had imagined the sound of screeching metal, fire licking up the tail, the smell of fuel.

Goddammit, he lived with it every fucking day since.

“Everyone blamed the pilot,” he growled. “I knew better. I flew with Sanchez on several missions. He was one of the best. And Echo wasn’t involved in an air fight. No external pressure. That bird just dropped out of the sky like a goddamn rock.”

His eyes were pinched shut tight, and his hands clamped into fists. Slowly, he opened his eyes and unfurled his fingers.

“You were right, Cobra. This was sabotage.”

Rage blazed along the grief that had been pooling inside him for years since that terrible day when he lost his team.

He breathed hard through his nose. “Can we trace it?”

“I’m searching.”

Too many painful seconds ticked by. If someone discovered him in this room, he couldn’t be accountable for his actions. He would do anything to complete this search and gain that evidence he needed to prove he was right.

Had alwaysbeenright.

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