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“I’m trying, RL,” Zane gritted out, fingers tapping hard and fast.
Inda moved around so she could see the screen, but all the coding meant nothing to her. Computers had never been her specialty. She much preferred her nunchucks and close combat to zeros and ones flying in from an unknown location and opponent.
She kept her voice calm, but it was hard to hide the concern and frustration when she asked, “Is it Cipher?” In her experience, battling a known opponent was always easier. And if it wasn’t Cipher, that meant they had more than one enemy to deal with as well.
“We don’t know yet.” River dropped down beside Zane and began typing out a numerical code on the number pad. The alarm stopped, but not before the rest of the team appeared.
“What the hell was that beeping?” Saint grumbled.
“We thought it was the fire alarm,” Gray said, pulling Aubrey under his arm.
“Cipher?” Braxton asked, combing both hands through his wild curls, trying to smooth them down. Inda would’ve teased him if the situation weren’t so serious.
“Unconfirmed,” Zane replied, “but who the hell else likes to sneak into my network and fuck around with my shit?”
Ryland appeared a moment later, still tugging his pajama bottoms on, and Inda didn’t expect anything less from the bronzed surfer. No doubt about it, he and Harper were still in their honeymoon phase and fucked more than bunnies. She wouldn’t be surprised if Harper wound up pregnant soon, but hoped that joyous event would hold off until they eliminated The Agency.
While Zane and River battled the hacker off, Inda exchanged a worried look with Brax. There were too many important things on Banshee’s laptop for an enemy to get a hold of. Chewing her lower lip, she watched them fight the intruder, her blood pressure rising. Over the past year, she’d grown close to every member of her team, and now their significant others. The fact that The Agency was trying to snuff them all out pissed her off to no end. Ex Nihilo was the only family Inda had, and she’d be damned before she let the bad guys snatch the people she loved away from her. She’d been alone once before, completely on her own, and she knew only too well how sad and scary it could be. No way was she letting it happen again.
Foreboding music echoed from the laptop’s speakers and it looked like Zane’s screen cracked. The broken pieces fell into a pile and, letter by letter, the phrase “Cipher was here” appeared.
“Fucker,” Zane hissed.
“God, I hate this guy,” Inda said, crossing her arms.
“Could be a woman,” River reminded them. She hit several keys and the screen went black. “Got him out.”
Zane planted a big kiss on her lips. “You’re the best, RL.”
“I am the best,” she declared, and everyone laughed. She turned serious again fast. “But, he’s a sneaky bastard. He’s found a way in, a vulnerable location, and we need to fix it now.”
So far, River had defeated Cipher twice, forcing him out of their network and overriding his commands. But the asshole kept coming back, which left them all on edge.
“Did he get anything?” Braxton asked.
“I don’t think so.” River tapped a finger against the edge of the keyboard. “This Cipher character is good, though. Really good.”
“That’s what scares me,” Braxton said. “One of these times, he’s going to get what he wants. Maybe he already has. I know it’s late, but let’s have a quick meeting.”
No one complained despite the approaching midnight hour. They gathered around, getting comfortable, and waited for Brax to continue.
“Okay, let’s run through what we know, make sure we’re not missing anything, and see if something jogs a new piece of information from our brains. Banshee and River have decrypted half of the people on the list. So let’s review, starting with number one—Lester Tillman.”
Ryland snorted. “The idiot who Carlisle tried to recruit because he had billions to burn.”
“Dead,” Gray stated. “Shot to death by the Mercier twins.”
“Number two is our boy Marcus Santiago,” Zane said.
“Which leads us to number three, Selma Santiago—who happens to be fucking my father behind her husband’s back,” Ryland stated flatly. Everyone cringed for Ryland’s sake.
“Benedict Salinger and Chadwick Carlisle, AKA Mr. Smith, are four and five,” River finished.
“They’ve gotta be bankrolling the whole thing,” Saint said.
Brax nodded. “Inda, when did you say Carlisle is leaving town?”
“Tomorrow morning, according to his assistant.” Getting friendly with the gossipy Angelica was the best thing Inda had done since she started working at C.C. Towers. “Current plan is to sneak into his office on my lunch break and take a look around.”
