Page 73 of Assassin's Game
I cocked my brow, knowing she could see that side of my face. “Emotional support animal, anyone?” Her gasp had me laughing. “Seriously, Beautiful, this is all hacking. There will be plenty to do after.”
“There better be,” she grumbled. “Real work.”
Remi crowed. “Fucking burn!”
That even got a chuckle out of Levi.
“Actually…” Mikaela propped a hip against the desk right beside me. Nails clicked on the floor, and Diesel’s nose appeared beneath the lip of the desk. After meeting my eyes, the dog flopped down to lie on Mikaela’s foot this time. She leaned down to rub his head. “Before you turn that expensive toy into a useless expensive toy, I have an idea.”
My brothers pulled chairs up and sat, their intent gazes on Mikaela. I shifted closer—like dog, like owner—and wrapped my hand around her thigh, the touch settling something inside me I hadn’t even known was there. “What’s that?” I asked.
The crease between her brows deepened. “I don’t know the ins and outs of the equipment and what is possible, but is there a way to take over the drone without them realizing it? Use it for our own needs?”
“I’m not sure that would do us much good,” I pointed out. “It’s hovering right over us—we don’t really need to see ourselves.”
“Right.” Mikaela bit her bottom lip. She wasn’t looking at me, probably had no idea what the sight of her white teeth pressing into that supple flesh did to me. I squirmed a bit in my seat.
“It would have intel in its programming about where it came from, right?” Remi asked. “Can we use it to track back to X’s location?”
“We already know X’s location,” I said, rubbing my thumb along the taut muscle of Mikaela’s thigh.
“Yeah, I’m not sure I want to take Sullivan’s word as gospel on all that,” she said.
“You think he’s lying?” Levi said. His tone told me he had considered the idea as well.
“With your gun to his head?” Mikaela shook her head. “If he was, he has brass balls. But I’d still like confirmation of the information he’s given us.”
Levi grunted, a pleased light moving in his gaze. “Me too.”
“So…” She glanced to me, tilted her head. “Is it possible?”
“If it is, I’m the one who can do it, Beautiful.”
“I bet you are.” Mikaela smirked. Remi snickered.
Levi cleared his throat. “You get on that, Eli. Nix, I need to get a rundown on your team and their specialties, where and when they will plug into a mission best.”
Mikaela nodded, and I gave her leg a squeeze and let her go. I suspected she and Levi had said some things to each other after I walked away from them back at the warehouse, but whatever those words had been, they seemed to have cleared the air between them—at least as far as work went. Personally? That was a whole other story.
We’d never had to deal with women being around until Abby. I had adapted to that even faster than Levi, but I knew I would always be “the baby” around here. Levi and Remi would always feel that they needed to look after me—it was in their nature as much as it had been our life experiences, and I had accepted that and quit fighting it, for the most part, years ago. Not to mention they were sometimes nosier than teenage girls. A woman in my life was going to draw both their attention and their comments.
Good thing Mikaela and I both were capable of telling them to fuck off when needed. And enforcing it if necessary.
I grabbed some headphones, cranked up some old-time rock, and got to work. First I needed a back door to the drone currently hovering a couple of miles above our heads. Personal drones were used for a variety of amateur reasons, including aerial photography. Commercial-use machines had greater capabilities and possible uses, and then there were military-grade drones that could do everything from surveillance to delivering bombs. And because high-altitude machines were too far away for noise or even heat to give away the drone’s presents, they were often effective in their missions. But if you knew they were there…
Pulling up our jamming program, I re-opened a single line and waited for X’s drone to take the bait.
Gotcha, son of a bitch.
A single link wouldn’t be enough to give someone access to a military drone. Regular hackers risked setting off government security protocols built into the machine—and a couple of AKs in their face the next time they answered their door.
Then there was me. I could subvert anything.
Using the link, I began to work my way backwards through the machine’s code, systems, security protocols. Just observing, no interference. Learning my way around what the computer was capable of. Noting any idiosyncrasies, how the security worked—and where its gaps were. Setting a couple of programs up to begin hacking access, I moved to another computer and started coding.
I have no idea how long I was at it, but eventually a hand on my shoulder brought me back to awareness. I pulled the headphones off, the tinny sound of Rush spilling into the room. “Hey.”
Mikaela took her hand away—a fact that earned her a frown—then eased her ass onto the edge of the desk next to me. “What did you find?”
