Page 97 of Nothing to Fear

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Gideon glanced at the beneficiary listed on the screen. “Judas Iscariot, LLC?”

“The disciple who betrayed Jesus for thirty pieces of silver.”

The traitor had a sick sense of humor. They needed ironclad proof to clear Willow and keep her safe, and this wasn’t even in the circumstantial zone.

Willow shot him a frantic glance. “The limited liability company is probably a shell corporation, designed to hide the identity of the owner to allow movement of money without it being traced back to them.”

Gideon did a cursory sweep for anyone headed to the office. “This can’t be a dead end.”

They didn’t come all this way and kill two days for nothing.

“Maybe not. Once we leave the bank, I can dig into the LLC.”

“We’re running out of time. The account manager will be back soon to tell you that you’ll have to wait several hours to get the money in cash.” Gideon shoved the backpack into Willow’s arms. “Go to the hotel. Wait for me in the room. I’ll get copies of the files and your passport back from Walters.”

Reaching over her, he inserted the thumb drive and started closing files so he could drag the entire folder to copy.

“I can help, Gideon.”

“Please, don’t argue.” This wasn’t the time for her ballsy spunk. This was the time for her to follow orders. He guided her out of the chair and sat behind the desk.

“It’ll be easier if I help you,” she said, her voice insistent.

A bad feeling wormed in his gut. “I don’t want you here if I have to deal with security. They’re armed. I’m wearing a vest. You’re vulnerable.”

The guards were out of shape and looked slow, but he wasn’t taking any chances with Willow’s safety.

Gideon searched for the removeable media icon on the screen where he’d drop the folder, but there wasn’t one.

“I can’t copy anything. The thumb drive isn’t showing up. Why isn’t it working?”

She looked at the screen. “The USB port has probably been disabled.”

“Shit.” They didn’t need Murphy’s law today. “Is there a way to reenable it?”

“Yes. We have administrator privileges.”

“Tell me how to do it and then go.”

“You have to use the command-line interface to edit the registry key.”

His heart pounded as time grew short. “The what?”

She swatted his hands away, and her fingers danced across the keyboard in mind-blowing defiance, making his blood pressure skyrocket.

The woman was going to give him an aneurysm.

A black box popped up on the screen. She typed several lines of letters and symbols.

Whatever command she’d entered worked. Seconds later, the account started copying to the flash drive. Her expertise saved them precious minutes, but she needed to fall in line from here.

A digital bar on the screen showed only twenty percent of the files had transferred. It would take time to complete, which they didn’t have.

“I still need to get your passport. Walters will be inbound any minute. Worrying about you will distract me.” Too easy for a nervous guard to let his finger slip on an easy target like Willow. Not a risk he was willing to take.

She opened the backpack and handed him the gun. “Take it. You might need it.”