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Zar’s eyes narrowed on me. “You make it sound totallyharmless.”
I lifted my chin in the air. “I’m an ethicalhacker.”
“An ethical hacker?” Zar snorted, a bitter, supremely irritatingsound.
Tanner shot Zar a sharp look. “Give her a break,willyou?”
Zar threw his hands in the air. “She’s a convicted felon, forChrist’ssake.”
I didn’t like Zar much for saying it, but he wasright.
Aiden stared at me with big caramel eyes. “What federal server did youbreakinto?”
“First I broke into the Veterans Administration’s servers. Then I broke into DOD, Department of Defense, Special Operations CommandCenter.”
Aiden’s jaw dropped. “You broke intoUSSOCOM?”
I straightened on my chair. “I had good reasons to do so and I already told the judge I was sorry,” I said, even though I wasn’t really sorry. “I served my time, so don’t give me any crapaboutit.”
“Why did you break into those servers?” Zarasked.
I measured the men before me. Tanner drew a sip from his coffee, his gaze patient and serene. Aiden’s soul-seeking stare remained fixed on my face. Zar braced his elbows on the counter, steepled his fingers and tapped his indexes against his straight lips, waiting impatiently for me to answer. They were SEALs. Like Daniel. Maybe they would understand what the judge totallymissed?
“The VA was a mess,” I said. “I couldn’t get my brother the treatment he needed. I wanted Daniel to get the best medical care available and receive all of the benefits he was entitled to, even if that meant going outside the VA. But I couldn’t do that unless I was able to prove that his injuries and the conditions he developed were service-related. Since he worked mostly black ops, the information was buried in the USSOCOM’s secretfiles.”
“So you did this to help your brother?” Tannerasked.
“Him and a few of his friends.” I gnawed on my lips. “It’s not fair that you send people to war and then refuse them the care theydeserve.”
“You won’t hear any argument from us on that.” Tanner looked to Zar. “Are you gonna tell herorwhat?”
“Nina…” Zar hesitated. “I knew yourbrother.”
My gaze flew to him. “Youdid?”
“If it’s any consolation,” he said. “Daniel Leon was a SEAL through andthrough.”
“Yeah, well.” I shrugged, heart fisted, tears burning in my eyes. “My SEALisdead.”
The sad fact hung in the air like the hard truthitwas.
Tanner’s face crumpled in sympathy that swelled the tears in my eyes. “Your brother was one of us. He would’ve wanted us to help you. But we need to know. Are you currently running fromthelaw?”
I got my grief under control and lifted a non-committal shoulder. “Only if my probation officer figures out I’ve left thestate.”
Zar made a note on his pad. “We’ll need tofixthat.”
I was about to ask him what he meant when Aiden spoke. “So you left California to find this Ulyssesperson?”
My heart tripped. “How did you know aboutUlysses?”
“Yourapp.”
“You went throughmyapp?”
“It was only a quick look.” Aiden clasped his big hands and cracked his knuckles. “I’m handywithapps.”
Oh, my God. Aiden was into tech. Like me. He had to be skilled to break into my app. In fact, he had to be quite outstanding to break my encryptions. What was his background? How much didheknow?
