Page 82 of Always Been Mine

“I’ll be at your safe house in five minutes.”

“What?”

“Travis is a few minutes behind me, and just a warning, he’s pissed.”

Shit.

Travis was a minute behind Caitlin,or maybe even less. Just when Caitlin was pulling up in her Audi, her husband’s Escalade was bearing down the driveway.

“Did she say what’s going on?” Gabe asked.

“I have no idea,” Beatrice admitted, but she was very curious. Caitlin kept Travis on his toes every single time. It was fun to watch them clash. Travis definitely met his match in his wife. If there was someone who could stand up to his arrogant ass, it was Caitlin.

Caitlin slammed out of her car and stalked up to the front of the house. Travis exited his vehicle, and was glaring at his wife’s back.

“Okay, it seems there’s trouble in the Blake household,” Beatrice quipped.

“Tell them,” Travis snapped. “Tell them what you did, Cat.”

“Uh-oh, what did you do?” Beatrice asked.

Caitlin huffed angrily, craning her neck toward her husband but not looking at him. “I’m just trying to be helpful. Shall we take this inside?”

They retreated into the house. Beatrice was a bit worried because she had not seen Travis this angry in a long time.

“Okay, what’s this all about?”

Caitlin actually looked excited. Ignoring the dark scowl on her husband’s face, she said, “You know I hang out in hacker chatrooms on the Black Plane?”

Not that she did, but Beatrice shrugged, prodding her to continue.

“There’s been chatter for some weeks now about this bioweapon about to be auctioned off. I thought it was justsomeone stirring up rumors until the admiral mentioned it last night.”

“What? There’s an auction site for bioweapons now?” Gabe scoffed.

“Not on the Black Plane. You can be anonymous there but for something like coordinating a terrorist strike or communicating in top secret, you need to delve into a more complex setup we call an IP-MESH.” Dramatic pause.

“Okay . . . spit it out, Cat.” Beatrice noted briefly that Travis was pacing impatiently behind his wife, as if wanting to throttle her but controlling himself so she could explain herself.

“One of my hacker buddies is very active in the IP-MESH. You see, to get into these clandestine cell networks you need to know someone via Internet Relay Chat. I already do, so all I had to do was set up my own peer-to-peer public key encryption network where only me and that person shares the key. But I also have a private key that would validate—”

“English, Cat,” Beatrice interrupted dryly.

Caitlin scowled, exhaling in irritation. “These networks are highly encrypted and are by invitation only. My hacker buddy managed to get me on some of them, and I think I’ve zeroed in on the Red Bridge auction for the ST-Vyl virus.”

This got Beatrice and Gabe’s attention.

“The moderator is Redrook843. There’s a short description of the virus. Its mode of delivery is in a liquid vial that breaks open and vaporizes; they call it a liquid evaporate. It also has a compilation of some test results and pictures.” Caitlin shuddered.

“But didn’t the admiral say they suspected it was in powder form?” Gabe asked.

“Redrook said this final composition of the virus is for the sample sale. For bulk orders, its mode of delivery is different.”

“It sounds like a basement sale for designer clothes,” Beatrice muttered, turning her attention to Travis. “I don’t get whyyou’re so pissed. I’m sure Cat’s smart enough to cover her sleuthing. Dad can take it over from here.”

“That’s not everything.” Travis glared at his wife.

“Um, I kinda sorta put in a bid,” Caitlin said, not looking at her husband.

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