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I gave Crimson Hammer code for Firefly 1.0, but not THE code. I added safeguards to prevent them from breaking my encryption algorithms. If they break them, they’ll access all our financial customers’ networks, and the European banking system will collapse overnight.
Crimson Hammer is new but hell-bent on hacking multinational banks. They’re well-funded and have assassins on their payroll. If I die unexpectedly, it won’t be an accident. Tell my parents I loved them, and don’t fret. I spent my last few years loving you, and if my time’s done, I was blessed to have you.
You are my one in seven billion, and I love you. Tessa, you’re strong, a survivor in every sense. If I die, please promise to find a worthy partner who loves you and can accompany you on the rest of your life’s adventure.
Love always,
Kyle
She stopped reading. Torn between grief, rage, and love, she sensed her pulse pounding. How was it possible to feel comforted but ripped apart at the same time? Holding her breath, she flipped to the letter’s second page, where a small USB drive in a transparent plastic case was attached.
CRITICAL
Do NOT open this USB drive on any computer or network. Protect it.
Take this USB drive to the Raven. No one else. You can trust him.
Call +1-555-416-1746. When the Raven finds you, he’ll ask a cryptic question. The answer is: The Druid has fallen. He’ll know what to do.
If I don’t survive and this plan fails, find Declan, but first, confirm he hasn’t been compromised and swear him to secrecy. Good luck, Tessa. I have faith in you.
Love,
Kyle
The realization hit Tess like a wrecking ball, and bile crept up her throat as a guttural wail escaped her lips. They killed him. She trailed her fingers over the smooth fibers of the paper, connecting to Kyle in whatever posthumous form he had assumed. She reread the date: November 4. His car accident happened a week later, on November 11, Remembrance Day in the UK. Kyle had been working at a feverish pace the week of the car accident, but no alarm bells rang to signal something had been awry. He often had bursts of energy and wrote code for days, even forgetting to eat or sleep while listening to Pink Floyd or Nirvana on his headphones. But no more.
The letter slipped from her hands and spiraled like dead leaves long past their season of supple green. The renewed grief crushed her, but no tears fell. The papers spilled to the floor, and she sat numb for a minute before texting Sophie.
—Please come now.—
The pieces fell into place: Kyle, Riku, the attack, and the kidnapping. Rage broke through her initial shock, and she couldn’t keep her hands from shaking uncontrollably. Overwhelmed, she swung between wanting to sob and smashing something heavy against the wall.
A knock on the door sounded, and Sophie appeared in the doorway, her eyebrows knit together. “What is it?”
“They killed him.” She handed Sophie the first page of the letter by way of explanation and sat in stony silence.
“Shit, Bennett.” Sophie scanned Kyle’s note, and her frown deepened each second. She raised her fingertips to her mouth and shook her head in a slow, broad sweep. “Oh, honey.”
Hands ice-cold and shaking, Tess considered her next steps, which sputtered out in broken fragments. “The police need to reopen Kyle’s case as a murder. I must avenge his death, whatever it takes. We have to stop Crimson Hammer, and David and Declan need to know. I’ve got to find this hacker, the Raven, now.” Tess bounded from her chair but tripped and stumbled forward.
Sophie caught her before she face-planted.
“Whoa. Hold tight, Bennett. You’re not going anywhere tonight.”
Flustered, Tess brushed Sophie’s hands away and choked back tears. She wanted to call Declan, one of Kyle’s best friends, but stopped and cursed. Don’t trust anyone at Kingsley. Still fuming at David for banishing her, she wouldn’t stoop to call Kavita, either. “Any of my colleagues could have been blackmailed, so I can’t trust anyone.”
“Tess. You honestly didn’t receive my warning about Canada?” Sophie’s mood shifted like a dark storm cloud blocking the sun.
Tess displayed her empty hands, palms up. “Nope. I got nothing. Why? What happened?”
“Sorry, I can’t say. I know things and people who know more things.”
“Fine.” Tess acquiesced without a fight, too bewildered to protest Sophie’s need for confidentiality.
“Dark web chatter last Friday flagged western Canada as an unusual but potential terrorist target, and some intel discovered in Japan checked out. You flew straight to British Columbia hours later, like a moth into a flame.”
“Damn it. I told you I didn’t get your text.” Something Riku mentioned at Cedarcliff lingered in Tess’s memory, but whatever he said, she couldn’t quite remember now.
