Page 32 of Dan

Finley stared at the men, then looked around the room. Nothing here was important to her. Nothing. If they burned it all, her parents would be angry, but they would just build again. Staring at the keypad next to the file room door, she smiled to herself.

“I think I have an idea.”

CHAPTER NINETEEN

“Fin, that was fucking brilliant, baby,” said Dan, kissing her sweetly. “When your folks try to do anything in that place, they’re going to be seriously pissed off.”

“It will take them weeks to figure out the new codes. If they get someone in to reset them, I’ve placed a rolling tumbler on the coding. Every time someone tries to reset it, it will reset itself again.”

“I love it,” laughed Antoine. “Perfect!”

“You’re going to be fun to work with at G.R.I.P.,” smiled Paige. Finley stared at the woman, then back at Dan.

“You mean, you want me to work with you?” she asked.

“Definitely. You’re brilliant, Finley. You’re going to be able to help us with issues we never even knew we had. I know for a fact that Matthew wants you to begin immediately on the flood system you spoke to us about,” said Ryan.

“Really? I can’t wait! I’ve been wanting to try something like this for as long as I can remember. It could change how we manage tropical storms in the future.” Finley rattled on about structural integrity, engineering, formulations, and calculations, making Dan’s head spin. Turning to the others, they smiled, shaking their heads.

“Brother, that woman is fifty times smarter than you are,” smirked Tanner.

“I know,” nodded Dan. “And I’m okay with that. She’s going to make us better than we already are. What we need to know is what her parents were doing with the old files from Faser.”

“It’s going to take us a while to figure that out,” said Hiro. “I’ve never seen so many cases of companies using old-school paper files instead of encrypted files on computers. We’ve had a run of them lately.”

“Maybe people know that we can hack into anything they have,” said Luke.

“Yeah, maybe,” nodded Tanner. “Or maybe the bad guys just know they need to do shit differently. Either way, we’ll figure it out.”

“Anybody have any guesses why they might be using the ideas from Faser?” asked Nine.

“Maybe they’re trying to develop a new microchip to be placed in soldiers again,” said Code.

“Are the leaders of our country so stupid as to make that mistake again?” asked Antoine. “I mean, for fuck’s sake, they were killing soldiers testing that shit.”

“Technology has come a long way, Antoine,” said Tanner. “I hate to say this, but it’s possible that they figured out something that could work without anyone even knowing it was implanted into the soldier.”

“This all makes me very nervous,” said Trak with a stone-faced expression. “No one should be able to track a man through a microchip. It should be done the old-fashioned way.” Nine raised his brows at his old friend, shaking his head.

“Well, whatever way they’re trying to do it, they might have been getting close. We’re going to look at a few of the things they were working on in the manufacturing floor. Trak was able to grab a couple of things without even being seen. It looks like they work twelve-hour shifts, twenty-four-seven down there. Someone is definitely pushing for this shit to get done fast,” said Dan.

They all turned, hearing a phone ring.

“It’s Sophia Ann,” said Paige.

“Put her on speaker,” said Ryan.

“Where are they?” asked Yancy, staring impatiently out the window of the office building’s lobby.

“I don’t know. We were told to wait, so we’ll wait. Maybe they know something,” said Zach.

“Maybe. But how?”

“Mr. and Mrs. Xavier, the team will see you now,” said a young man. They followed him down a long corridor, passing multiple doors as they walked. The building was quiet, set off the road on a side street in downtown Portland. Although the signs had been removed, the entire first four floors were for sale or lease. The VG team rented it for two days.

When the door was opened, the Xaviers walked inside to see Sophia Ann, Eric, Gator, and Chief. They recognized the man and woman but not the two large men beside them.

“Oh, different people,” smiled Yancy. “Hopefully, this is a good sign, and you’ve realized we should do business together.”

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