Page 42 of Critical Mass
She thought about it. “He was . . . anxious. Kept checking his phone more than usual. Had more late-night calls.” She lookedup at Hudson. “And that’s when he started asking more often if I was dating. Like he was suddenly worried about who I was spending time with.”
The implications settled over her like a weight.
Her father hadn’t been on vacation. He’d been in Dubai conducting business—the kind of business that required encrypted communications and offshore bank transfers.
The kind of business that terrorist organizations conducted.
Nausea churned in her gut.
“What else did he do after the Dubai trip?” she heard herself ask. “What changed?”
Colton pulled up more records, and together they began building a timeline. Her father’s behavior, his communications, his meetings—all of it viewed through this terrible new lens.
With each piece of evidence, with each pattern Natalie recognized from her professional experience, the foundation of her beliefs about her father crumbled a little more.
She’d wanted to prove Hudson and his colleagues wrong.
Instead, she was helping them build their case.
Hudson watched Natalie work through the evidence. Each discovery she made tightened the knot in his gut.
The Dubai trip. The offshore transfers. The encrypted communications.
She was good at this—too good. Her analytical mind cut through the noise and found connections his team had missed. The trip they’d dismissed as legitimate vacation travel now looked like exactly what it probably was: a weapons deal or terrorist coordination meeting.
“We need more information about Dubai.” Colton leaned back in his chair. “Specifically, what your father is planning next. If this was a preliminary meeting, there will be follow-ups.”
Natalie’s face was pale but composed. “What are you suggesting?”
“That you go back to Norfolk,” Ty said. “Resume your normal life. Go to work, see your father, act like nothing has changed. And while you’re there, gather whatever intelligence you can about his upcoming activities.”
Hudson’s jaw tightened. “That’s putting her directly in the line of fire.”
His team wanted to send her back into that world. Back to her father. Back to danger.
“It’s also our best chance of stopping whatever Sigma is planning,” Colton countered. “Natalie has access we don’t. She can ask questions that would raise red flags coming from anyone else.”
“What about the men who followed us tonight?” Natalie’s voice sounded steady, but Hudson heard the fear beneath her even tones. “The ones who shot at us. Did my father send them after me? Or after Hudson? Or were they not connected to my father at all? Maybe they were his enemies.”
The questions hung in the air.
Hudson exchanged glances with Colton and Ty.
“We don’t know for certain,” Colton admitted. “It’s possible your father was trying to kill Hudson, but his operatives got sloppy and put you in danger.”
“That doesn’t sound like something my father would authorize. Besides, if that’s true, does that mean my father knows who Hudson is?”
“We don’t believe he does,” Ty said. “But we do believe he wants to scare off anyone who gets too close to you, probably outof fear that they’ll learn too much about what’s going on at your company.”
“Either way, those men are still out there,” Ty said. “If you go back, you’ll need to be careful. Extremely careful.”
“We can provide support,” Colton said. “Hudson will maintain his Timothy Shaw cover, keep seeing you publicly. We’ll have surveillance, backup protocols. You won’t be alone.”
Natalie remained quiet, her fingers tracing the rim of her coffee mug. “And what exactly am I looking for?”
“Details about upcoming trips,” Ty said. “Conversations about Critical Mass. Any mention of timelines, locations, or personnel. Access to his calendar, his communications—anything that might tell us when and where the attack is planned.”
“You’re asking me to spy on my own father.” She sounded entirely too calm as she made that statement.
