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Tess tore herself away from her thoughts. “I swear on my life.” Rejoining the discussion, she was still processing multiple revelations simultaneously. The huge whiskey bottle beckoned, and she poured another glass, swallowing a hearty sip to steady herself. Everyone has secrets. Everyone. She admired Kyle’s humanitarian ambitions but resented him for deceiving her for years. Kyle had lived a double life, yet this stranger had known about his duplicity all along. Now, a year after Kyle’s death, she faced a mountain of unexpected doubts.
From the couch, Mark stretched forward and touched her on the shoulder. “Are you holding up all right?”
“I appreciate Kyle’s noble intentions, but his mission got him killed.” She remained troubled by the flurry of questions raised tonight, but despite the Raven’s hair-raising tale, she believed he spoke the truth. Kyle had abhorred violence and insisted upon integrity without exception. His seeming telepathic ability to predict hacker behavior no longer mystified her, but she fought ambivalence over how he’d honed his talents.
“Kyle made a huge sacrifice, and that’s hard to accept.” Mark reached for the whiskey bottle.
“A sacrifice I must avenge.” She stared at the Raven’s plaid carpet until it blurred into crisscrossing lines of color, then raised her head.
Wiping his hands clean, the Raven fetched a laptop from the massive desk and sat across from them. “Let’s get on with it.”
Tess rose and stepped closer to the desk. “We have less than twenty-four hours to save David’s life, so here’s the plan. We invent a catastrophic virus that unleashes, undetectable, during the download. At the ransom handoff, we pretend to hand over Kyle’s source code and make them think it’s the Rapadon key. Raven, got anything in your arsenal I can use tomorrow?”
Tapping his fingers together, he nodded. “I built a couple of options for emergencies that will destroy their network in minutes. Recovery will take them weeks to months, which gives law enforcement loads of time to find and prosecute them. Pure digital combat. No violence.”
“Perfect.” Back straightened, she focused on logistics. “Talk me through this so I can coach Declan on what he needs to do with it. Don’t leave anything out.”
“The code package I built requires updating, which I’ll do tonight. After I finish, I’ll give you a data drive with what appears to be the Rapadon sequence but weaponized. Hand it off to Crimson Hammer, and you’re done.”
The plan was great, except for one huge, gaping hole. “Wait. They’ll retaliate and fight back, and I don’t want to play whack-a-mole.” Frustration burned in her throat.
“Find out which bank they want, along with who and what generated the root key. Ask Declan to track it down. You must identify their target before you can protect it, and when you find the specific number, think hard about how you’ll use it,” the Raven cautioned.
“How long do you need?” She had hours, not days, and every minute counted.
“Overnight. I’ll meet you tomorrow morning with the updated virus. Kyle said you can trust Declan, but please don’t reveal my identity or how you acquired this. I must stay dark.”
“Agreed.” She still fretted over a nagging question. “Why didn’t Kyle trust David? I mean, he’s the one we’re risking our lives to save.”
The Raven shrugged. “No idea. He never expressed concerns about David.”
What if Kyle meant she could trust Declan, instead of implicating she shouldn’t believe anyone else? Too many details clamored for her attention now, so she made a mental note to revisit them later. “It's rather late to guess what Kyle intended, and we need to charge forward.”
“I’ll be with you the whole time.” Mark squeezed her hand.
She opened her mouth to say he couldn’t be there because he’d be flying to Bergen but opted to delay that discussion until they returned to the hotel. “All right, we’ve got a strategy. Let’s do it.” Relieved to have a plan in place, she breathed a little easier. “Whenever Kyle faced an all-nighter, he’d say it was a brilliant night to code. May the coding gods be with you tonight, Raven.” Rubbing his hands together, he grinned with the eagerness of a child entering an amusement park.
“Lucky for me, they often accompany me. I’ll drive you back now so I can begin. Mark, could you please give us a moment?”
“Sure, no worries.” Mark got to his feet and slipped on his coat. Stepping outside, he closed the door quietly behind him.
Leaning with one hand against the door frame, the Raven began. “You’re having doubts about Kyle.”
Reluctant to admit her doubts, she folded her lips together while forming a diplomatic response. “No matter how much we love someone, we’re never privy to all of a person’s secrets.”
“True, but don’t waste a single moment doubting Kyle. I swear on my clan’s grave, he loved you beyond measure.” The Raven held a hand over his heart.
Surprised by his show of emotion, Tess lowered her guard and listened.
The Raven clasped his hands. “Anything he kept hidden, he did so to protect your life. At great risk to himself, he prevented many terrorist attacks and saved countless people. Even if he couldn’t tell you everything, I hope you’ll remember him as a hero.”
She appreciated the Raven’s compassion and welled with tears as she recalled Kyle strolling on the beach years ago, filled with life, promise, and joy, as well as the indefatigable desire to protect the innocent. She grasped for a new form of calm rooted in acceptance. “A hero whose charitable deeds shall remain secret, forever.”
“But never forgotten.”
She left the cottage armed with some hard-won peace assuaging her grief, but also with an urgent compulsion to avenge Kyle’s death. Uncertain how she’d retaliate, the one thing she knew for sure was the hour of truth drew near, and she was ready to fight.
Chapter Eighteen
